The Tom Warne Report, 16 January 2012
Lawmakers in Indiana used the first week of the legislation session to focus on funding for local roads and bridges. One bill package would route two-thirds of 1 percent of the state sales tax to localities based on the share of local road and street mileage, which funding currently goes to the general fund. The transfer would amount to about $94 million for local road projects over the next two years. A separate bill would create a highway loan fund to provide financing to counties and municipalities for construction projects. The Indiana Department of Transportation would be responsible for distributing the $1.5 million appropriation for the fund. A third bill would give counties the flexibility to use property tax funds and other revenue in the local general fund to help pay for maintaining county roads.