Indiana's government continues to fail hoosiers

I grew up near the intersection of U.S. Routes 30 and 41 in Schererville, Ind. These two roads are two of the “Crossroads of America” that give our state its motto.
Northwest Indiana is a strange place, culturally and economically tied to Chicago but governed by Indiana.

Moving from Schererville north toward Lake Michigan, we come across one of the best examples of this contradiction. It is Cline Avenue, a major local thoroughfare through northern Lake County toward lakeshore industrial plants and toward Chicago.

The Cline Avenue Bridge, crossing the Indiana Harbor and Ship Canal, was closed in 2009 and since torn down.

In addition to closing industrial plants and depopulation, communities like East Chicago and Whiting have now had to deal with this closure.

Roads are one of the quintessential examples of a public good — taught to all beginning level economics students as one of the things the government, and not the market, should provide for its citizens.

Yet, our state has time and time again refused to help East Chicago construct the Cline Avenue Bridge. After years of wrangling and missed deadlines, the city has finally made a deal with a private company to begin construction on a new bridge in 2014.  

The private owners of the bridge will charge a toll to cross, putting additional burdens on communities that have enough economic troubles — and residents already have to pay high tolls on the nearby privatized Indiana Toll Road. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., is absolutely right when he calls the situation a “disgrace.”

All of this could have been avoided if the state had simply agreed to help with construction of a new bridge.

In the same interview, Sen. Donnelly pointed out that the state refused to set aside any money from the $3.8 billion sale of the toll road to reconstruct the bridge, which he said would cost about $133 million.

Instead, East Chicago now must deal with a private company charging its own residents $6 to drive to and from work each day.

The state has also refused to help Northwest Indiana expand the South Shore Line, a public transport system that links the region to downtown Chicago, despite bipartisan
support for the proposal.

Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, said it best — “Nobody in Indianapolis gives a ...
about us at all.”

Gov. Mike Pence, like Mitch Daniels before him, continues to keep Indiana in stasis. Troubled urban communities across the state continue to decay while the GOP-dominated legislature pushes forward with redundant, discriminatory constitutional ban on same-sex marriage against the wishes of Hoosiers.

Instead of legislating social mores that are rapidly becoming obsolete across the country, Gov. Pence should try working on Indiana’s crumbling infrastructure.
Public goods and infrastructure build community, unlike divisive, regressive social issues.  

For our state to be the great place we know it can be, Indiana needs to start giving a damn about the well-being of its citizens.

­— estahr@indiana.edu