9/27/05-A highway plan unveiled Monday, Sept. 26, by Gov. Mitch Daniels could lead to tolls being used to extend Interstate 69 from Indianapolis to Evansville.
The plan also calls for increasing fees on the Indiana Toll Road by 72 percent for cars and 113 percent for large trucks.
As part of his 10-year, $10.6 billion statewide highway construction plan, Daniels floated the possibility of leasing the Toll Road and an extended I-69 to a private group, which would receive the tolls and operate and maintain the roadways.
Any leasing plans would require approval from the General Assembly.
The administration plans to increase Toll Road fees on its own beginning next spring. The revenue would be used to maintain the road and fund other highway work.
Daniels said toll rates have not increased since 1985 and could no longer meet maintenance needs.
Under the governor’s plan, dubbed “Major Moves,” increases on the Toll Road would vary by distance driven. The toll for passenger vehicles traveling the entire 157-mile route would rise from $4.65 to $8. Tractor-trailer rates for driving the same distance would increase from $14.55 to $32.
The toll increases would generate an estimated $770 million in 10 years.
“Very little of this will happen on a business-as-usual basis,” Daniels said in a written statement. “Without new approaches that stretch dollars and access new funding sources, only a fraction of these projects will happen within the next decade. Some will never happen.”
The governor is seeking higher tolls in part because he said he would not support a hike in the state’s 16-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline and diesel fuel to pay for roadwork.
Daniels cited high fuel costs.

9/8/05-Facing a $2 billion funding shortfall for highway projects, Gov. Mitch Daniels said more tolling may be the answer.
The governor said late last month it’s likely he will propose tolls for new highway work and modernization of the existing Indiana Toll Road.
The state’s only toll road carries Interstates 80 and 90 across northern Indiana.
Transportation Department officials in the state are working to re-prioritize Indiana’s 10-year road construction list, The Associated Press reported. INDOT has said previously the list would have gone $2.1 billion over budget.
Daniels says his office could get more projects on the list finished if it had more funding.
“We’re going to be proposing some changes and looking at additional funding to go much deeper into that list,” Daniels told the news agency. “Tolling may be playing an ever-larger role, and it is very likely we will propose tolls for some new projects and modernization of existing tolls in the state.”