Your eyes and email system are not deceiving you: a Legislative Update has landed in your inbox after Sine Die.

Welcome to this debut of our monthly Legislative Update newsletter, which we’ll send on the last weekend of the month, outside of session. Expect to find the same policy-rich content you enjoy in our weekly updates, with more space for reflection, forecasting, and, of course, puns.  

We’re kicking off the series with a timely topic: tolling on I-70. 

🚘  Roll your windows down and cruise. The topics of infrastructure and transportation play a driving force in our economy and could fuel key parts of the state and local agenda in the coming months.  

Today’s Roadmap:  

• Policy Updates: Exploring Tolling 
• What We’re Thinking
• ICYMI: News and Opinion 

Exploring Tolling

✅ Catch up Quickly: Last fall, Indiana applied to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) for permission to toll all 156 miles of Interstate 70 – at a rate of 10 cents per mile for passenger vehicles and 54 cents per mile for semi-trailers. That would make an end-to-end trip across the state on the interstate cost $15.60 for a car or SUV and $84.24 for a semi-trailer. The Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) application followed legislation passed in 2025 (SEA 1461) authorizing INDOT to seek a federal waiver to toll interstate lanes, along with statutory authority to issue bonds for reconstruction.  

This application became even more important when Governor Braun announced a pause to the state’s collection of gas taxes in response to the sharp price increases in recent weeks, due to the Strait of Hormuz standoff. While the pause provides some relief at the pump, it sets up an even more drastic decrease in gas tax revenues, the primary source of road maintenance funding. That makes the introduction of tolling and other potential revenue streams even more critical.  

📃 What’s in the Application: Indiana comes by its “Crossroads of America” fame honestly, and it’s a title state transportation leaders want to keep. INDOT argues that tolling on I-70 is a financial necessity if Indiana is going to invest in critical road updates that will support the logistics and manufacturing heavy Hoosier economy. Specifically, the total capital need is $6.5 billion to rehabilitate, repave, and widen the 63-year-old I-70 from four to six lanes. Those upgrades – which INDOT officials also say are key to protecting Hoosiers’ safety and averting bottlenecks – can’t be financed without additional funding sources. As gas tax revenues drop off and current federal and state sources support only routine maintenance, new dollars are necessary. The state also proposes open-road tolling – meaning no booths or stopping, but roadside equipment to assess vehicles and collect payment.  

📅 The Timeline: If tolling gets the green light, it will begin in 2029, with construction projects to start in 2028 and last for eight to ten years. The state expects to collect up in the low-$400 millions in revenue in 2029, a sum that could increase to the mid-$500 millions annually by 2049. But depending on the structure of the toll deal, even more revenue up front could be paid to the state from a toll operator — as we’ve seen in other states.  

📢 Unsolicited Thought: Have you driven from Ohio to Indiana on I-70 lately? The contrast in road quality feels as stark as switching the channel from a Disney classic to a slasher film. A simple drive across those state lines makes the case that I-70 needs a facelift.  

🤔 There are Lots of Considerations, though. Earlier this month, Axios Indianapolis highlighted a key point: when tolls go up, so does diversion of traffic from interstates to city streets. Since 16 miles of I-70 are located within Indianapolis’ I-465 loop, that could send traffic to Indy’s streets, which, shall we say, could use their own rehabilitation. A 2018 planning document produced by the state estimated the diversion rate just below 9%, which would mean in the low thousands of extra cars on city streets, based on I-70 traffic patterns. This should not be a dealbreaker for tolling, but, rather, another impetus to think about all roads – whether state or locally managed — as one connected system driving the economy. 

💬 Speaking of Indianapolis: We’re encouraged and grateful that the INDOT application treats funding for the sections of I-70 improvements in Indianapolis separately, acknowledging that those key interchanges may look different than simply a widened highway. The Indy Chamber, City of Indianapolis, and Rethink Coalition have been collaborating with INDOT to explore alternatives to interstate reconstruction in the areas near Downtown Indianapolis, based on a federal planning grant and with extensive community and stakeholder input. We look forward to continuing to work with INDOT leaders and deeply appreciate their collaboration. 

💲 In other tolling-related news: Earlier this month, the State Budget Committee approved amendments to the lease of the Indiana Toll Road in northwest Indiana, enabling twice-annual rate increases of at least 1.5% along I-80/I-90. Those increases will generate $700 million in revenue over the next three years to fund infrastructure in Hammond if the Chicago Bears move their stadium to that community. If the Bears do not move, the additional revenue will fund infrastructure updates in the seven counties along the Indiana Toll Road.

Here’s What We’re Thinking

The views below are expressed in the voices of our advocacy team members, but they align with the Chamber’s broad position on each topic.

Taylor’s Take: Tolling is Necessary to Build the Roads of the Future

That is true of child care, roads, and schools alike. We all depend on them, and strong communities are built on whether they do their jobs well. They are not side issues; they are foundational systems that shape whether families can thrive, businesses can grow, and communities can function.

As we contemplate I-70 tolling, it’s worth looking back to when I-70 was originally created in the 1960s, at the tail end of the original buildout of the U.S. Interstate Highway System. President Dwight D. Eisenhower led the creation of a new U.S. highway system based on lessons from two world wars, through which he saw that investing in a better-connected America was a deposit into our future. The 1956 law that paved the way (pun intended!) for America’s highways also created the Highway Trust Fund to pay for this massive infrastructure investment primarily through user taxes on gasoline, diesel, and highway-use items.

Today, Indiana faces a transportation inflection point. To be competitive for jobs and talent, we need to create the infrastructure that fuels mobility, and we need a funding source beyond the gasoline taxes on which we’ve long relied – but which are declining in an age of new car and SUV technology. Tolling offers a way to grow much-needed revenue outside of the Highway Trust Fund.

We should not downplay the importance of institutions. We should care for them, strengthen them, and expect them to deliver excellent results for the people who rely on them every day.

ICYMI: News and Opinion

Indianapolis Business Journal: Indiana and its employers have a unique opportunity to make further investments in one critical piece of our human talent infrastructure: childcare, writes Indy Chamber’s chief strategy officer and chief of staff Taylor Hughes, with United Way of Central Indiana’s Sam Snideman. 

WFYI: Indy Chamber, Rethink Coalition, and the City of Indianapolis released a new study proposing a recessed interchange for I-65 and I-70 near Virginia Street. If implemented, it will bring major changes to Indy’s approach to interstate construction.

Thanks for reading!

Follow the Indy Chamber’s advocacy efforts, now year-round and beyond the legislative session with our monthly Legislative Updates. We’ll share timely insights, policy progress and advocacy priorities.