Braun Proposes Massive Toll Tax for I-70

So the big news came out yesterday and look, it is time to just say it very directly. The Indiana Republican Party are a bunch of financial predators and it's time for Chris Hansen to tell Mike Braun and the General Assembly to have a seat because we want to know what they came here to do. We have talked about this for years. Taxes are bad enough, but in the case of the Republicans that run the state of Indiana, they have deliberately targeted taxes, one, that people can't opt out of, and two, that hurt us the most. And what I'm talking about, if you look at the taxes that have hurt people in the state the most and have gone up the most over the past decade, it's property taxes and fuel taxes. And yesterday, in terms of being able to drive your car on a prominent interstate across the state of Indiana, Mike Braun announced another blow that is coming to us in the state of Indiana with his announcement that he plans to toll or is asking the federal government to toll the entire stretch, the entire stretch of I-70 across the entire state of Indiana. Not just part of it, the entire state, 156 miles. Now, we're going to use the information from the Indiana Capitol Chronicle. Whole bunch of other news media outlets have covered this now if you want to read the details for yourself. Here's what we know right now. First of all, before we do that, let's go back in the time machine. Last year, you guys may recall that the Indiana General Assembly ceded all authority on tolling. All authority on tolling to the governor. They gave away their ability to have any voice in tolling. Does that make any sense? The answer is, of course not. The only reason you would do that is if you didn't want the heat for the decision. Gee, where have we seen that before? If you're thinking to yourself, 2020 and COVID, you're absolutely right. Why did the General Assembly never take on Eric Holcomb? Why did the General Assembly never speak up as businesses were being shut down, people were being put out of work, people were being forced to wear masks? The answer is because the General Assembly didn't want the heat that came with that decision. They didn't understand COVID. They didn't want to deal with it. And so they just said, well, it's fine to let Holcomb do it. He can take all the backlash. He can take all the ramifications. He can take all the anger. If Holcomb wants to put on his power pants, we're going to let him. And you're seeing the same thing going on with the General Assembly now with tolling, where they have given away their authority to have any pushback whatsoever, to have any say whatsoever, because they don't understand road funding. They don't understand how to fix it. They don't understand how to make it work. And they are fine to let the governor of the state of Indiana take all the heat on this because they don't want to deal with it. So in 2025, the General Assembly gave away their right to have any say on tolling, a total abdication of responsibility to you as a taxpayer. That is the purpose of the General Assembly, to make laws and provide oversight to the executive branch. Not cower in the corner, not run away when something gets hard. And time and time again, we have seen the General Assembly when it's something tough, something they don't want to deal with, when it involves making hard choices, just give authority away to the governor and let him put the power pants on and take all the heat. At the time when the General Assembly gave away their authority to have oversight on tolling, they promised us, "Oh, this is years in the making. There's no immediate plans for tolling increases. We're just doing this for in the future. It'll eliminate the red tape when that decision needs to be made." I remember, and I know many of you did at the time, said, "That's bull. You guys wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't a plan to do it. If you didn't know in the immediate future this was going to happen, you wouldn't be giving away your authority to do it because you knew it was coming. You knew the plan to toll was coming and you guys didn't want the heat on it." And they said, "No, no, no, no, no. You guys don't understand. There's no plan. There's no plan." Once again, the Indiana General Assembly, the people who run our state, looked us in the eye and lied to us. They lied about everything. And almost as soon as they gave Braun that authority, he came out and said, "We're going to come for tolling." Within a week or two, I think it was like the Munster Chamber Lunch, I think was where it was. I can't remember exactly the event, but he said in the event, he said, "Yeah, we're coming for tolling." After the General Assembly had just said there were no plans for tolling. So here's what we know about Braun's submission to the federal government. By the way, the only backstop on this now, the only check and balance is the federal government has to approve the plan. If the federal government says no, they can't do it. Here's what we know about the state's request from the Braun administration to the federal government. Tolling would be for the entire stretch of I-70, 156 miles. It would be 10 cents per mile for cars and SUVs. And there's no indication in their request from the federal government that a state resident would get any sort of discount. There's nothing that I saw in the documentation that said that. When they started talking about tolling initially, the General Assembly sold it to us as, "Well, when it does happen, we're going to target areas for people coming into our state." You know, these truck drivers from out of state, these people coming across the border. This plan is the entire state. So if you live in central Indiana and you depend on I-70 to get yourself to work, like if you work in Indianapolis, or you live in Indianapolis and you work out in the suburbs, you're going to get hit with this tax increase. Again, in complete contrast to what many were led to believe was the purpose of tolling I-70 if it happened. So 10 cents per mile, all day, every day, apparently, on I-70, any stretch of I-70, if you're in a car or an SUV. If you're in a semi-truck, it gets worse. Semi-trailer gets worse. 54 cents per mile. 54 cents per mile. So if you're in a car and you wanted to drive across I-70, it'd be $15.60 every time you do that, car or an SUV. If you're in a semi-trailer, it'd be a whopping $84.24 every time you drive across the state of Indiana. Now, the state of Indiana says they're doing this because the gas tax revenue isn't keeping up with the construction costs. Interesting statement, given that, just recently, legislation that has been signed into law by Governor Braun as part of the Bears Stadium bill, would allow Indiana to take money from an existing toll road, 65, and use it for infrastructure for the Bares Stadium. So on one hand, we're told that there's enough money to take money from an existing toll road and use it for a stadium for a football team. But then we're told there's no money to do repairs to other roads to the point that we have to raise taxes by a whopping $6.5 billion. Let's call this I-70 plan what it is. It's a plan to raise taxes in the state of Indiana by $6.5 billion. The Republican governor of Indiana is going to raise taxes if the federal government signs off on it by $6.5 billion, and the Republican super majorities in the Indiana House and the Indiana Senate have completely signed off on it by giving him the authority to do it, which they knew he was going to do immediately when they gave him the authority, and they lied to all of us about it. Now, what's going to happen as a result of this? Let's come back to what we talked about, the Republicans being predators. They are financial predators. The governor, the General Assembly, financial predators. If you drive into work downtown Indianapolis and you use 70 like I did for many years, you're getting hit with the tax increase for working. You're getting hit with the tax increase for having the audacity to go to work. This is what the Republicans did nine years ago when they raised the gas tax. And by the way, we'll get to the gas tax here in a second because there's total hypocrisy going on here with Braun because he's talking about suspending the gas tax. On one hand, no money for roads. We got to raise taxes by $6.5 billion on I-70, but then he's talking about suspending the gas tax. We'll talk about that here in a second. But almost 10 years ago, nine years ago now, the Republicans raised taxes on gas by 10 cents per gallon and made it go up by one penny without debate or discussion every single year, which it has. And we'll give you the totals here on how much that has hurt you coming up in just a second. Why did they do that? The same reason they allow property taxes to skyrocket every year. You can't get out of it. You have to live somewhere. And if you have to live somewhere, you have to pay the tax on your home or your rental property. And by the way, my favorite argument is always, well, renters don't pay property taxes. No, renters pay a lot more in property taxes. Because those taxes on rental properties are capped at 2 percent as opposed to homes, which are capped at one. And landlords not running a soup kitchen, they're passing that tax increase on to you in the form of your rent. So what was the primary tax they target? Property taxes. What's the second one? Fuel taxes, wheel taxes, tolling on roads now. Because if you want to eat, if you want to live, if you want to be a decent member and contribute to society, you have to go to work. It's not an accident that these are the taxes that have skyrocketed over the past 10 years. It has been deliberate and it has been done by design. Now, let's talk about the ramifications of tolling all of I-70. People are going to just find other means of travel, other means of getting to their destination. Think about what that is going to do to 40. If you're someone going to Terre Haute and you can be charged zero dollars to be on 40, or you can be charged 10 cents a mile if you're in a car or 54 cents a mile if you're in a semi-trailer. Which one are you choosing? That's a long trip. It would be what, 120-ish miles round trip? 12 bucks every time you do it. A 40 gets you to Terre Haute the same way 70 does. The people are going to find alternate routes of travel and that will be true all over our state. Which means damage to new roads that will then need to be fixed and will have to raise taxes some way else. Local communities going to see their roads, places like Brazil, totally destroyed. How are they going to pay for that? Who's going to help them with that? The heart of their city, the heart of their towns, totally destroyed. People are going to find a way around this. They're not just going to pay the tax. And then we are all going to end up paying for this. And the communities that are going to get damaged are going to pay for this. And the state will just raise taxes somewhere else. Oh, and by the way, there's nothing I see in this proposal that says this has to be used for I-70. Now maybe there will be. Maybe I've just missed it. But certainly we've seen how quickly things can change. Look at how the legislature just proposed, "Oh, let's take that 65 tolling money and let's use it for the Bears Stadium." Could we potentially see I-70 tolling go for stuff other than I-70? Like, you know, the Mid-States Corridor down there in Southwest Indiana? How is it possible? How is it possible that there's no money for I-70 without raising taxes by $6.5 billion? But the state believes it can come up with upwards of $4 billion for a brand new road. A brand new road. Oh, and who would that road benefit, by the way? That plan to connect 64 to 69? Oh, the trucking and distribution industry. Who's in the trucking and distribution industry? Who made his money in the trucking and distribution industry? Mike Braun. $6.5 billion needed to properly fix I-70. No money for that. But the Mid States--or they were. They were until Rob Kendall got a hold of it and producer Jason. They were chugging right along with that plan on the Mid-States Corridor. Billions of dollars for that? All good. No money for I-70. All of these taxes are a colossal scam. All of these taxes are designed to punish you and they benefit someone else. Who's going to get rich off this? The construction companies. Who gives to the politicians? The construction companies. It is never going to stop. These people, the Republicans--because there's no one else to blame--the Republicans are the ones in charge. They voted to give the governor unlimited tolling capacity. The Republican governor is the one who sprinted to the federal government to try to get it. You can blame the Democrats for a lot of things. But this, just like every other tax in this state right now, the property taxes, the wheel taxes, all of it, the sales tax, it all rests on the Republicans. They are in charge. This will never stop. Unfortunately, until the Democrats get their act together and start running normal people talking about mainstream issues as their tippy-top things, like this, instead of on-demand abortion or trans rights for kids, the Republicans are going to keep winning. Until the Democrats are willing to, as a party, in one voice, make kitchen table economics, kitchen table issues, pocketbooks of the people of Indiana, their front and, quite frankly, only issue, with viable plans on how to fix it, to fix the Republicans' mess, the Republicans will keep winning. And as long as the Republicans don't fear the Democrats, they will keep doing stuff like this.