Co. Hwy. Unlikely To See Relief From MVH Constraints In 2021
March 26, 2021 at 10:50 p.m.
Co. Hwy. Unlikely To See Relief From MVH Constraints In 2021
By David [email protected]
Despite attempts to address the MVH rules at the state level, Kosciusko County won’t see any relief any time soon.
Under Section 63 of Indiana Code 8-14-1-4 of the MVH Restricted Fund, 50% of MVH revenues must be deposited into the MVH restricted fund and the remainder must be deposited into the MVH unrestricted fund. Historically, highway departments have spent 30% of the revenue for restricted uses and 70% for unrestricted uses.
In an April 2020 letter from the county commissioners to state legislators, the commissioners stated, “The current restrictions have created an excess of cash in our restricted fund and a shortfall of cash in our unrestricted fund. The current legislation has created a shortfall for payroll in the amount of $1.6 million, requiring an additional appropriation to be approved by the Council to meet the needs of the highway department. This has placed a financial hardship on the county that cannot be sustained in the coming budget years.”
The letter requested the state consider removing the 50/50 restrictions in the MVH funding.
During Friday’s Third House Legislative Review Session with state legislators, hosted by the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce, State Sen. Blake Doriot said, “I was working on a MVH funding, given Kosciusko County brought it to me.” He said it provided a little more latitude on how the Highway Department spends its highway funds. “(State Sen.) Ryan (Mishler) and I worked hard on that. And, well, guess what? (House Ways and Means Committee Chair) Doc (Tim) Brown doesn’t like it over in the House, so he’s killing that one for us.”
During the question-and-answer session of Friday’s Review Session, a person asked for an update of the MVH bill.
“I worked really hard with your highway engineering. I worked really hard with Commissioner (Brad) Jackson, trying to get this through. The County Commissioners Association really went to bat. But, we started out doing a 40-60 from 50-50 in spending and putting snowplowing in there, and it was looking very good. But, we just can’t get it to move in Doc Brown’s Appropriations Committee,” Doriot said. “We bargained with him. We went down to 50-50 and just adding the snowplowing. He would not budge, and, unfortunately, that’s the power that the chairmen have. And sometimes we think it’s bad, but there’s other times I’ve seen Ryan have to make the right decision that was not quite popular. I think Doc is wrong, but that’s really where we’re at. I don’t think we’re going to get it done this year.”
In some potential good news for the area, Doriot, who sits on the Transportation Committee, reported, “Glad to say that finally (U.S.) 30 is showing some signs of life. They’re putting out RFPs for the environmental work, from the Ohio line all the way to State Road 49. So, hopefully, it’s going to be quite a few years, but we’re going to see some relief on 30 as it comes through Warsaw and Kosciusko County.”
In February, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced it would begin a study to improve the U.S. 30 corridor from Valparaiso to the Ohio state line.
In this study, known as a Planning and Environment Linkages study, INDOT will examine various options to improve the safety, traffic flow, freight movement and economic development potential of the corridor, including the construction of a freeway, according to a news release then from the U.S. 30 Coalition. INDOT has agreed that the study will recognize the importance of U.S. 30 remaining a consistent type of roadway and not a mixture of improvements and it will not be designed to merely examine the quickest or least expensive solution.
Doriot was asked about Senate Bill 389, also referred to as the wetlands bill. The question posed was, “Given that 80% of the remaining wetlands in the state do not fall under federal protection, how will this bill impact those areas, and ultimately the quality of water, in our beautiful and valuable lakes?”
He began his response by stating there’s a lot of misinformation out there about the bill.
“We came from a position of strength. I was the second on the bill with Sen. (Chris) Garten, and we knew there would be some movement as to what we’re going to do on there. And we are not touching any wetland that is connected with a stream, to a lake, anything. Anything that you see around Lake Wawasee or Barbee Chain or any of that. That’s all false,” Doriot said.
He said they were looking at the isolated wetlands that a person may see in a farm field “where a tile hasn’t been connected, have broken down and you go to repair it, and (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) will come in and say you have to mitigate that and when you mitigate it’s up to a four-times rate, and a new wetland costs approximately $40,000 to build and plant. So at a 4-to-1, you’d be looking at roughly $160,000 to mitigate one acre of damage and replacing it with four.”
He said he thought the bill will settle in the House at the Class 1s. “So you are not going to see the wetland damage that I have people telling me about,” Doriot said, noting he had a long talk with national representatives of Ducks Unlimited. “When we discussed it, they realize it, they don’t want to lose any wetlands, but they understand that people have property rights and need to farm and do developments as they can.”
Despite attempts to address the MVH rules at the state level, Kosciusko County won’t see any relief any time soon.
Under Section 63 of Indiana Code 8-14-1-4 of the MVH Restricted Fund, 50% of MVH revenues must be deposited into the MVH restricted fund and the remainder must be deposited into the MVH unrestricted fund. Historically, highway departments have spent 30% of the revenue for restricted uses and 70% for unrestricted uses.
In an April 2020 letter from the county commissioners to state legislators, the commissioners stated, “The current restrictions have created an excess of cash in our restricted fund and a shortfall of cash in our unrestricted fund. The current legislation has created a shortfall for payroll in the amount of $1.6 million, requiring an additional appropriation to be approved by the Council to meet the needs of the highway department. This has placed a financial hardship on the county that cannot be sustained in the coming budget years.”
The letter requested the state consider removing the 50/50 restrictions in the MVH funding.
During Friday’s Third House Legislative Review Session with state legislators, hosted by the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce, State Sen. Blake Doriot said, “I was working on a MVH funding, given Kosciusko County brought it to me.” He said it provided a little more latitude on how the Highway Department spends its highway funds. “(State Sen.) Ryan (Mishler) and I worked hard on that. And, well, guess what? (House Ways and Means Committee Chair) Doc (Tim) Brown doesn’t like it over in the House, so he’s killing that one for us.”
During the question-and-answer session of Friday’s Review Session, a person asked for an update of the MVH bill.
“I worked really hard with your highway engineering. I worked really hard with Commissioner (Brad) Jackson, trying to get this through. The County Commissioners Association really went to bat. But, we started out doing a 40-60 from 50-50 in spending and putting snowplowing in there, and it was looking very good. But, we just can’t get it to move in Doc Brown’s Appropriations Committee,” Doriot said. “We bargained with him. We went down to 50-50 and just adding the snowplowing. He would not budge, and, unfortunately, that’s the power that the chairmen have. And sometimes we think it’s bad, but there’s other times I’ve seen Ryan have to make the right decision that was not quite popular. I think Doc is wrong, but that’s really where we’re at. I don’t think we’re going to get it done this year.”
In some potential good news for the area, Doriot, who sits on the Transportation Committee, reported, “Glad to say that finally (U.S.) 30 is showing some signs of life. They’re putting out RFPs for the environmental work, from the Ohio line all the way to State Road 49. So, hopefully, it’s going to be quite a few years, but we’re going to see some relief on 30 as it comes through Warsaw and Kosciusko County.”
In February, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced it would begin a study to improve the U.S. 30 corridor from Valparaiso to the Ohio state line.
In this study, known as a Planning and Environment Linkages study, INDOT will examine various options to improve the safety, traffic flow, freight movement and economic development potential of the corridor, including the construction of a freeway, according to a news release then from the U.S. 30 Coalition. INDOT has agreed that the study will recognize the importance of U.S. 30 remaining a consistent type of roadway and not a mixture of improvements and it will not be designed to merely examine the quickest or least expensive solution.
Doriot was asked about Senate Bill 389, also referred to as the wetlands bill. The question posed was, “Given that 80% of the remaining wetlands in the state do not fall under federal protection, how will this bill impact those areas, and ultimately the quality of water, in our beautiful and valuable lakes?”
He began his response by stating there’s a lot of misinformation out there about the bill.
“We came from a position of strength. I was the second on the bill with Sen. (Chris) Garten, and we knew there would be some movement as to what we’re going to do on there. And we are not touching any wetland that is connected with a stream, to a lake, anything. Anything that you see around Lake Wawasee or Barbee Chain or any of that. That’s all false,” Doriot said.
He said they were looking at the isolated wetlands that a person may see in a farm field “where a tile hasn’t been connected, have broken down and you go to repair it, and (Indiana Department of Environmental Management) will come in and say you have to mitigate that and when you mitigate it’s up to a four-times rate, and a new wetland costs approximately $40,000 to build and plant. So at a 4-to-1, you’d be looking at roughly $160,000 to mitigate one acre of damage and replacing it with four.”
He said he thought the bill will settle in the House at the Class 1s. “So you are not going to see the wetland damage that I have people telling me about,” Doriot said, noting he had a long talk with national representatives of Ducks Unlimited. “When we discussed it, they realize it, they don’t want to lose any wetlands, but they understand that people have property rights and need to farm and do developments as they can.”
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