Midwest Continental Divide Commission Gets Backing in State Budget
4/15/2025
INDIANAPOLIS (WNDU) - Indiana state lawmakers appear willing to support a local initiative that involves recreation and tourism.
The latest version of the state budget would put as much as $70 million within reach of the Midwest Continental Divide Commission to help the commission to carry out its mission.
That mission calls for building a system of trails that would link local attractions.
The idea of connecting Potato Creek State Park with the Indiana Dinosaur Museum has been mentioned in the past.
To that end, the latest version of the state budget includes an appropriation to the Continental Divide Commission of $2 million per year for the next 20 years.
The money would come from the compact between the Pokagon Band and the state.
It would apparently be enough to get the commission running on a firm financial footing.
“That’s actually, there’s going to be very, very, little administrative costs. It is much more for actually doing the job, of acquiring land, building trails,” Sen. David Niezgodski (D-South Bend) told WNDU 16 News Now in a telephone interview.
Meantime another bill pending in the legislature would expand the possible uses of a $30 million appropriation granted in the last budget cycle to spur economic growth in St. Joseph County. The money was never spent by the Northern Indiana Development Authority.
Some or all of it could be spent in support of the Continental Divide Commission upon request.
“So the $30 million has not been spent and it was a special allocation and I believe the legislation shared that it should go towards large scale economic development projects that are tied to the IEC (Indiana Enterprise Center) western St. Joseph County of $1 billion or more projected,” explained Bethany Hartley with the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership. “And so should this legislation pass, it would imply there would be an expansion of what potentially it could go towards.”
Sen. Niezgodski says the bill creating the commission was passed unanimously four times through two committee votes and two floor votes.
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