Illiana Expressway

Indiana’s governor defends Merrillville Rep. Chet Dobis’ Illiana Expressway vote that cost Dobis his number two position with the House Democrats.

The Post-Tribune reports Gov. Mitch Daniels said the supporters of an Illiana Expressway bill that would have required local municipalities to approve the highway proposed to connect I-65 in Lake County with I-57 in Illinois were “anti-growth, they’re anti-jobs.”

Said Mitch Daniels:

” … I noticed that it led to this strange situation involving Rep. Dobis, who was simply trying to create jobs and progress in his own district.”  …

“Chet Dobis was right twice,” Daniels said. “One, he’s better equipped to judge what’s best for his area, not somebody from 100-some miles away. Secondly, he was on the side of having more options and more possibilities for getting a very expensive project done.

“You put those conditions on, and it means there will be no project.”

An Indiana Senate Illiana Expressway bill might go to the Indiana House for approval, reports the newspaper. The Senate bill authored by Valparaiso’s Ed Charbonneau is the Senate version of Dobis’ Illiana Expressway legislation.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 10:03 am and is filed under Illiana Expressway. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.