FOLLOW UP: "Although it didn't come from INDOT, we (Indianapolis Channel 8 WISH-TV)  were able to find out the latest on the agency's former commissioner. Back in February we showed you J. Bryan Nicol switching last-minute recommendations to give design contracts to large democratic donors. He ordered the change in the days after the November election, but dated the document as if it happened shortly before the Democrats lost that election. The new INDOT administration switched back to the original recommendations. "

Evansville Indiana's I-69 proponents are and will be lobbying public opinion and Indiana's next Governor, Republican or Democratic, to retain the Democratic appointee J. Brian Nicol as INDOT commissioner.  We think some geographical perspective would better serve the Taxpayers of Indiana.


COUNT US! Opinions of INDOT commissioner J. Brian Nicol

 

Brian Nicol thinks of INDOT as a department of state economic growth.

 

Indiana is # 4 in rural interstate density after Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.  Indianapolis has more interstate highway connections than any other city in the USA.
If more highways will make us rich, why aren't we there yet?

 

A study of the I-69 project by State Senate Budget Director Dr. Lawrence Borst begins:

 

> "INDOT has led the public to believe the issue is not whether or not the road will be built, but which route should be chosen. INDOT has created an illusion that when the final alignment is chose, the project can be funded and built in a reasonable time frame."

 

Remove the name INDOT and install 'Brian Nicol' and you get the picture:

 

Brian Nicol has led the public to believe the issue is not whether or not the road will be built, but which route should be chosen. Brian Nicol has created an illusion that when the final alignment is chose, the project can be funded and built in a reasonable time frame.

 

---

 

Perhaps another INDOT commissioner would have done the same at this time, but Brian Nicol was made for the job.

 

He is a graduate of Political Science from Evansville's University of Southern Indiana.  While still in college, Nicol was rushed up through the government hierarchy.   He was granted a 'Senior Fellowship' giving him a year's tour of the inside workings of Indiana Government.  Though now a Democrat, his first government job commission was granted by Evansville Republican Robert Orr.    J. Brian Nicol got his law degree while working in INDOT and the State's Attorney Generals office.  He spent a short period in south-western Indiana's Governor Frank O'Bannon's staff, before quickly being appointed INDOT commissioner by Governor O'Bannon.

 

Nicol is seen as part of the state funded Evansville group that has elevated what started out as a simple idea for a highway from Evansville to Bloomington to the NAFTA International Free Trade Interstate-69, though now they prefer to spin it as "The education highway".

 

INDOT has given the Evansville Consulting firm Bernardin Lochmueller and Associates (BLA) 12 million dollars to objectively study I-69.  Many opponents of new terrain I-69 think the geographical connection to Evansville of BLA and Brian Nicol is no coincidence and our state would have been spared a huge boondoggle and expense, had others not so connected to the drive for I-69 administered the research.

 

Brian Nicol uses his political science as a tool to manipulate Hoosiers.  Those hurt by his actions deserve honesty.  Like Bill Clinton, he is a slick politician, using timing and words as gamesmanship.

 

In an open letter to Governor Kernan in January of 2004 from COUNT US!, our group representing families with homes along the route, publicly accused Nicol of political intimidation and demoralization.  Under Nicol's leadership, the DEIS and then the FEIS was declared complete days before Christmas in both 2002 and 2003.  The stress on families during the holidays has been unconscionable.  The group received no response from Governor Kernan despite media coverage of our released letter.

 

COUNT US! took the action of calling for Nicol's removal partially in hope that including criticism of the Commissioner might allow a letter to the Governor, critical of I-69, to pass the usual diversion to Brian Nicol.  Experience shows letters regarding I-69 from Hoosiers to the Governor's office receive comment from Nicol rather than the Governor.

 

COUNT US! Director, John Smith, comments, 'We have no idea where our letter calling for the removal of Nicol ended up.  Our Governor is totally shielded from comments critical of I-69 except those that get published or reported publicly.  Reporters and publishers often give Brian Nicol the final 'spin' in presented news stories.'

 

I-69 would be one of the biggest eminent domain projects in the history of the state of Indiana.  Up to 1500 Hoosiers would lose their homes permanently.  Each of them would leave 10 neighbors behind who would often loose half the equity in their homes and most of the reason that they chose to live where they do.  The mammoth tornado that traveled this route from Evansville to Indianapolis in October of 2002 is healing.  I-69 would never heal, the noise wouldn't stop, the closed roads wouldn't reopen, and the pavement would divide and cover the land.  Governor Frank O'Bannon expressed sorrow that nature damaged about the same number of homes that I-69 has marked for destruction.

 

A more mature leader than Brian Nicol would realize that his distortions of truth now will live with him forever.  Today this seems like a game of chess to be won by Mr. Nicol.  A caring person would find it necessary to be more factual and let the decision on I-69 be determined by facts and democratic decision.  A better person would more understand human attachment to nature, home, neighbors and family.

 

Residents of this section of proposed I-69, known as 3C between I-64 twelve miles north of Evansville to a point in S.W. Marion county at the intersection of US-37 and I-465 are insulted that each time decisions are announced regarding their homes that Brian Nicol rushes down to Evansville to make the announcement.  They point out that Evansville has their own I-69 study.  We wonder if he will travel to Bloomington to tell us when the Kentucky to I-64/ Evansville study is complete?

 

 

Some have suggested under Nicol 'DOT' stands for Department of Taxation.

 

 

Studies have shown that the reason that highway projects are always over budget is deceit and selling.  Our DOT commissioners, so much want to build projects, that they shade the way things are presented and understate the negatives.  For the definitive study as a PDF, click here.  Brian Nicol carries on this tradition. 

 

 

Nicol doesn't care that I-69 will cost $3.28 Billion dollars in Hoosier's gas tax that could be put to better use by looking for transportation problems in the State of Indiana and fixing those real needs.  He sees his job as making I-69 look possible and get it started.  He won't be around when the big bills start rolling in.

 

He could do it better.  By finding the most dangerous sections of roads in Indiana and fixing those, we would more greatly reduce death and injuries.  New Terrain I-69 is an "inducement highway" that it is hoped to make traffic where none exist.

 

Nicol talks about the benefits broadly and the costs in narrow terms.  He likes to talk about 'the completion of I-69' from Fort Wayne to Kentucky, but then only talks about the cost in the hotly contested section that goes trough Bloomington from north of Evansville to South of Indianapolis.  Instead of $3 Billion (which is 3000 millions) he uses the number $1.78 billion.  He has never once publicly added the cost of building from Kentucky to I-64 and from US-37 to existing I-69, to the contested I-64 to US-37 at I-465. INDOT and Congressional studies average the cost at $3.28 billion dollars, not including frontage roads, additional environmental mitigation costs or future maintenance.  Just his use of estimated amounts to the decimal point is designed to promote a confidence in his accuracy.

 

The upgrade of existing I-69 will add cost too.

Congress has requested that INDOT also generate a cost study for upgrading existing I-69. That includes the most congested section of road in Indiana.  No costs studies have begun on this yet, but the MPO of N.E. Marion County has said that it can't be fixed with asphalt. They have requested commuter rail.  INDOT under Nicol will undoubtedly chose I-69 asphalt.  No one knows how much this will cost Hoosiers or if it will increase or reduce congestion.  This final cost would also taken from Hoosier taxpayers with the $3.28 billion formally studied already.

 

 

Nicol likes to say:

 

"I-69 will serve as an economic development engine for Southwest Indiana and generate $3.5 billion in additional personal income growth and 4,600 additional permanent jobs by 2025".

 

 Who would guess what he is saying is:

 

On average every Hoosier in the state will have less money per year if I-69 is built than if it is not.

 

The table that he quotes facts from (Table 5.5 in the EIS) lists "Change in Real Disposable Income Per Capita" as $0 for every build alternative for I-69.   The actual return per person per $1 invested is a return per person of 8 ten-thousandths of 1¢ / per year.  It's pretty simple math, $3.5 billion to build, $3.5 billion back over 25 years equals $0 personal income growth.  Our documentation is at http://www.i69tour.org/PIG.html

 


Brian Nicol also likes to say, 'I-69 will be built with 80% federal money.'

This is simply a trick statement.  It implies that we are getting one over on the rest of the nation.  That is not true and he will admit it if asked.  The fact is this 80% is federal gas tax from Indiana gas pumps, returned to us at 90.5¢ per dollar collected from Hoosier motorists.  This money will be returned to our state, I-69 or no I-69.

 

If we build I-69 we are taking that money to build all four sections of I-69 in Indiana from INDOT's budget.   Virtually 100% of this money is our states transportation budget that could be spent wisely. The question is, if it is our money and will come to us without I-69, then why even mention that 80% is federal and 20% is Indiana gas tax?  The answer is Nicol's spin and manipulation of public opinion.

 

Will our roads fall apart if we build I-69, maybe, but Brian Nicol is running around the state and the nation spouting half-truths, trying to trap a million here a million there.  Borrow money through bonding and strategically blow some money quickly to dig us in and make I-69 look affordable and appear to be a done deal.

 

Late in the spring session 2004, Nicol/ INDOT forwarded a state highway bond bill in the state legislature.  He refused to identify what the borrowed money would be spent on.... I-69.... probably.  If it would have passed, that would have reduced our future federal gas tax allocations by $1 Billion dollars, or looked at another way, raised the knowable cost of I-69 to Hoosier taxpayers to $4+ billion.

 

He/ INDOT also forwarded requests for state gas tax increases the last two years in the legislature.  This year they tried unsuccessfully to pass an increase in gas taxes with future automatic increases.

 

Lately, he has been in Washington DC telling anyone who will listen that we are a "donor state".  He doesn't tell us it is because he is a bad administrator who does not apply for the money that is being held there for us now.  The federal law requires that each state get back 90.5% of what they pay in.   INDOT is a leader in not applying for the money available.  Indiana is forgoing millions, perhaps billions of our own dollars return to our state as Nicol fights for State's rights in determining projects.  Our INDOT leadership is what needs to be fixed if we are ever to get our due.

 

There is a nationally recognize loophole in the way our county bridges are funded.  As Brian Nicol ignores our counties bridge funds hoping to build I-69 bridges in the future, 80% of our county bridges are listed as substandard.

 

Another example of Brian Nicol at work was the purchase of the IPL land.  With INDOT's checkbook open, he used current transportation dollars to buy The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) a park in the name of I-69.  He did this before the first half of the required study was completed, before the two Federal approvals were granted, and 12 years before I-69 would be open to traffic, all in order to make our transportation dollars look plentiful and to make I-69 look like a done deal.   He called it mitigation of wetlands and forests for I-69.

 

Our state is bankrupted.  We owe our teacher's retirement fund $6.1 billion dollars, the teachers fund can no longer aford to be used to bail us out  in 2005.  Meanwhile every branch of our state government is being asked to return surpluses and cut back while Brian Nicol is rushing about trying to figure out more ways to get more money for an INDOT that "feels no pain' and just wants more and more money.

 

  Getting rid of Brian Nicol and looking for a new commissioner to address transportation needs rather than wants and one who will write the grants for available federal funding, is what is needed.

 

COUNT US!