Indiana Toll Road Could Get New Owner

As the foreign operator of the Indiana Toll Road ponders bankruptcy less than eight years into its 75-year lease with the State, a report in the Wall Street Journal suggests Ferrovial and Macquarie Group might sell its lease to someone else. When state lawmakers approved the controversial lease in 2006, it was always suggested that the state would get the toll road back in the event its operator went bankrupt.

State Sen. Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne) tells the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette "it doesn't mean anything." "The worst scenario is it would be turned over to us and we'd get it back." Is he joking? If it's turned back over to the state, all of the toll revenues would belong to the state, not the private operator, and the State wouldn't have to return any of the billions it got up front for the lease.

The Swiss bank, UBS, has reportedly been retained by the Toll Road's operator to market the lease. If UBS is unable to find a buyer, the Wall Street Journal report says the toll road will be turned over to the hedge funds that are owed about $6 billion in debt by the operator. The operator paid the State $3.8 billion for the 75-year lease, which has pretty much been spent. The lease's operator has 90 days to remedy any breach of its lease. If it fails, the two sides have 60 days to resolve differences before the state can resume its management of the toll road.

Former State Rep. Win Moses (D-Fort Wayne), who voted for against the lease, said there was "a certainty that something will go wrong." "It just happened sooner than we expected." Moses worries that some costs will be put off to future generations, particularly if it winds up in a court battle over control. "I'd be very worried that they will try to reduce the maintenance, Moses said. "We do have some minimum maintenance standards, but we could be fighting over those as the new group comes in."