It’s hard to find anyone who supports Tuesday’s ballot initiative in St. Joseph County over a proposed Regional Transportation District: hard, but not impossible.

“In our final analysis, we anticipate that it would be better to have it than not,” said Bill Hanna of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

While Hanna’s words of support were lukewarm, they were eagerly awaited by open-minded members in the audience of a pre-election forum at IUSB on Monday.

The ballot initiative has been so controversial that two of the four counties ordered to hold special elections refused to do so.

Until now, citizens who were anxious to learn more about the special election were largely left to wonder for themselves what it was all about.

At the IUSB forum, Bill Hanna was the epitome of positive thinking. “I think regardless of the results, as long as we’re talking about the value of public transportation and actual needs, and what we need to invest to have a better future, then we’re in a better position going forward.”

The ballot initiative has been dubbed the “South Shore Tax,” in a billboard campaign urging that the public question on Tuesday’s ballot be defeated.

Hanna feels that taking a multi county approach toward planning and funding improvements along the South Shore line is the right thing to do, even if the specific proposal placed before voters is—admittedly--flawed.

“We’re encouraging people to tell our elected leaders that we want to start solving these problems. Start here and we’ll fix it as we move forward,” said Hanna.

Moving forward could mean a $16 million tax hike for residents of St. Joseph County.

The Regional Transportation District would have the authority to levy an income tax of 0.25 percent. If that happened, only one county (Lake) would end up contributing more to the cause than residents of St. Joseph County. (Lake County residents would contribute $23 million, Porter County residents would contribute $13.2 million, while LaPorte County residents would contribute $5.3 million.

“I think little to no benefit for St. Joe County to join this,” said R.T.D. opponent Ron Cenkush, “Your perspective may be different if you’re from another county, but as far as I’m concerned for St. Joe, not a good deal at all.”

In the past, possible South Shore improvements that have been discussed include adding two new rail spurs in Porter and Lake County to the tune of some $700 million dollars.

“They’re looking for some funding for this, it seems to me, those counties ought to decide for themselves if they want to pay for those projects,” said Ind. Sen. Joseph Zakas, (R) Granger.

“The concern that you have is all this money will get pooled and the high level expensive projects are going to be something we’re paying for but not getting any benefit from,” Zakas concluded.

Senator Zakas said he’ll be voting no in Tuesday’s special election.

Bill Hanna, meantime, will be voting yes. “I think it’s about economic development. It’s about access to jobs. It’s about a total functioning of the economy. Look at other areas that are competitive that tape into economic resources that are nearby that recover a lot faster than we do from recessions.”