STATEHOUSE (March 3, 2020) — “This legislation is a matter of accountability. When the people of Marion County voted in favor of building mass transit lines, part of that legislation required IndyGo to pay for 10% of its funding independently – not from fares, grants or taxes. The law required IndyGo to meet this goal, but had no repercussions for falling short. House Bill 1279 now addresses that need.
"Since raising income taxes in 2017, hard-working Marion County taxpayers have already paid $170 million to support mass transit. They have no choice but to obey the law and pay these higher taxes. Meanwhile, IndyGo has failed to follow the law and work to raise the private funds required, and only recently established the not-for-profit entity required to raise such funds. It is incredibly unfair to ask Marion County taxpayers to continue footing the bill for this project when IndyGo is blatantly disregarding its requirement.
“The legislation passed today will assure IndyGo follows the law and isn’t continually pushing its finances onto the taxpayer. With this bill, IndyGo will now be required to raise these funds before any new lines can be constructed and much needed accountability is created for the private, unelected and unaccountable board in charge of IndyGo."
