If Indiana could make a few dollars every time a student from Ball State went home to southern Indiana, the state would be millions of dollars richer in a short period of time. Add to that the number of students from other colleges who head home on the weekends, the number of students who travel between schools for social activities and the number of faculty members who commute to work.
If Gov. Mitch Daniels' toll road plan goes through, somebody will be making a great deal of money off the college students of Indiana.
Unfortunately, under Daniels' plan, that money will go straight to the bank accounts of a foreign business - instead toward the state budget, where it might be able to decrease tuition costs or increase maintenance funding.
Daniels has proposed a provision to offer the southern extension to I-69, which would connect Indianapolis and Bloomington, for a 75-year lease to an Australian-Spanish consortium at a cost of $3.85 billion. In return, the state would allow the consortium to collect all the revenue from tolls it places along the road.
Yes, tolls. Anyone who has traveled around Chicago or across other toll roads in Michigan, Ohio or other states knows the hassle and extensive cost of stopping to toss a few coins into the machine. Many toll road operators then put that revenue back in to the roads through regular maintenance, and others use the money to offset residents' other taxes.
Under Daniels' plan, though, the money would go directly out of the state - and country.
So, Indiana would receive the benefit of an extended I-69 - a "benefit" under much contention as it is - but would not receive any future financial compensation in return.
And students would be among those paying the tolls most often.
Ball State, like other Indiana universities, has a predominantly in-state student body - full of people who like to go home ... often. Not only would the increased cost of traveling on this portion of highway mean more college students would be even poorer than they already are, it would also mean some students simply couldn't afford to go home when they most need to or won't be able to afford to attend a college as far away as Ball State is for some, leading them to choose a closer college for economic purposes.
Adding this increased cost to gas prices that don't appear to be plunging anytime soon would be adding insult to injury.
This toll road contract would not only hit students heavily in their pocketbooks, it would also take that money straight from Indiana's young population to the pockets of some overseas consortium - not exactly an ideal situation for in-state growth and development.
The toll road plan might seem like a matter of small change right now, but it'll add up to big changes for students and faculty later.
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