'Major Moves' Money Multiplies Minute By Minute

INDIANAPOLIS -- State Treasurer Tim Berry said Friday that Hoosier taxpayers have already earned more than $1.2 million from Gov. Mitch Daniels' Major Moves program.

On Wednesday, more than $3 billion from the consortium that is leasing the Indiana Toll Road shifted to Berry, who immediately invested it.

Berry said that he had received better interest rates than anticipated for those accounts, so the state is earning more money, 6News' Norman Cox reported.

In telethon-like fashion, Berry had an assistant come in every few minutes to paste on a new number showing how much the state had earned since Berry began talking.

The numbers are also being posted on a state Web site, so Hoosiers can keep track of the earned interest on a minute-by-minute basis.

"We're earning approximately $6 a second, $360 a minute, nearly $22,000 an hour for Hoosiers," Berry said.

The money is in short-term accounts now, but Berry said he hopes to invest it in long-term accounts by August to lock in high interest rates.