Instead of demanding a fair share of state funding for road and highway repair from Indianapolis, local officials are supporting a local option income tax, or "wheel tax" for the city of La Porte. This LOIT of around $25 per vehicle would help fund the $17 million in road repairs deemed necessary at this point in time. While I agree something needs to be done, the wheel tax sends a message of capitulation to the state government, that people in northwest Indiana will "make due" in the face of questionable bureaucratic negligence. I realize La Porte officials are in between a rock and a hard place; and that the longer the situation drags on, the more contentious funding requests from Indianapolis will be. Nevertheless, the wheel tax sets a really bad precedent.