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Monday, May 15, 2006

Ind. Courts - Toll Road testimony resumes today

"Toll Road testimony resumes today" is the headline to a story by Patrick Guinane in the Munster (NW Indiana) Times. Some quotes:

Opponents are expected to take the stand today in the court battle over leasing the Indiana Toll Road.

Initial testimony Thursday proved rather painstaking, with attorneys at one point engaging in an extend debate over the placement of a semicolon in state statute. * * *

Lease challengers, led by West Lafayette farmer and activist Steve Bonney, plan to call a retired Notre Dame economist in an effort to show that the lease isn't as a big a financial boon as Gov. Mitch Daniels and other supporters contend.

Bonney also is on the witness list, along with a handful of other Hoosiers who launched the lawsuit last month. Testimony also could come from yet unnamed officials representing local governments owed money by the state.

Lease challengers contend that the deal is unconstitutional because the proceeds won't be used to clear state debt, including money owed to local governments, and a $8 billion shortfall in a pension fund for teachers hired before 1996.

State officials on Thursday testified that such debt has nothing to do with the Toll Road.

First and foremost, South Bend Superior Judge Michael Scopelitis must decide whether to declare the case a public nuisance lawsuit, which could require plaintiffs to post a bond of up to $3.8 billion.

I highlighted the word "nuisance" because that word appears nowhere in the statute, IC 34-13-5: Public Lawsuits for Testing Public Improvements of Municipal Corporations. Its use in the story may be inadvertent, or it may be editorializing.

Earlier reports on the St. Joe lawsuit may be found in these ILB entries from May 11th and May 12th, 2006.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 15, 2006 10:10 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts