INDIANAPOLIS | The Indiana House voted 96-3 on Thursday to
replace the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority with a new
commission led by Lake County mayors.

“The RBA has done a pretty good job of bringing folks together,
they got a lot of bus companies to volunteer, got some efficiencies
of scale, but have not been able to bring fiscal stability to
organization,” said state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, sponsor of
House Bill 1366.

That legislation eliminates the RBA in favor of a new Northwest
Indiana Bus Commission, which Soliday expects would be better
organized and capable of devising a financial plan to support
public transportation in the region, without which bus service
could end in 18 months, he said.

The new commission would be made up of mayors of Lake County
cities and towns with more than 19,000 residents and a Lake County
commissioner. Under the legislation, the bus commission must
present a financial plan to the Lake County Council by Oct. 1.

“What needs to happen and needs to happen very quickly is for
Lake County to answer three basic questions: Do we need a bus
system? Do we want a bus system? And how do we pay for it?” Soliday
said.

State Reps. Chet Dobis, D-Merrillville, and Earl Harris, D-East
Chicago, co-sponsored the legislation, which now moves to the
Senate. Dobis said the RBA simply isn’t up to the task of finding
the funding to keep bus service going.

“It’s too big, totally unprofessional and oftentimes has a
difficult time getting a quorum,” Dobis said. “We’ve got people who
are recipients of the funds we’re talking about that sit there and
vote for each other on the distribution. That’s wrong.”

Dobis said the Lake County Council could enact a food and
beverage sales tax or a local option income tax to support public
transportation.

All region representatives voted in favor of the measure except
state Rep. Chuck Moseley, D-Portage. Moseley said he wants

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