Airports, Railways To Be Part Of General Budget Discussion

INDIANAPOLIS -- Conexus Indiana is a private industry-led effort to improve advanced manufacturing and logistics. In a presentation to the state’s infrastructure task force, Conexus Vice President David Holt said the same solutions being discussed for roads and bridges should apply to Indiana’s airports, railways and ports.

“You have dedicated funds for each of these. They’re moved to a user-based fee system,” Holt says.

But task force co-chair Sen. Luke Kenley says there’s lots of federal entanglement involved with airports, railways and ports.

“I don’t want that to slow down the rest of this discussion,” Kenley says.

And task force member Rep. Ed Soliday says the group is already being inundated with a lot of data on roads and bridges even before getting to other transportation areas.

“To load them up with that is almost a distraction,” Soliday says.

Both Kenley and Soliday say airports, railways and ports will be part of the general budget discussion when the legislative session begins in January. However, they both agree that the task force should remain solely focused on roads and bridges.