Australia's Macquarie Infrastructure Group for 75 years in exchange for a one time payment of $3.85 billion and the promise to make $4.4 billion worth of upgrades to the road. The measure was opposed by most Democrats, who began an advertising campaign accusing Daniels of selling the road to foreign nations. The income from the lease was used to finance a backlog of public transportation projects and create a $500 million trust fund to generate revenue for the maintenance of the highway system. Local governments also received a significant windfall from the deal, including $150 million that went to Indiana's 92 counties for local roads, $240 million to seven counties for infrastructure and economic development projects, and $120 million for the Northwest Regional Development Authority for local economic development. Daniels and an independent accounting firm believed the road was worth $2 billion at most and were surprised by the offer of nearly $4 billion in cash, plus that much in contracted improvements. Daniels called it the best deal since "Manhattan was sold for beads—except this time, the natives won." Daniels's support for such controversial legislation led to a rapid drop in his approval rating; in May 2005, a poll showed an 18-point drop in support and that only 42% of Hoosiers approved of the way he was doing his job. In the following months, many of his reforms appeared to have a positive effect and his approval ratings rebounded. Critics characterized the deal as the "most expensive loan in Indiana history... fundamentally changing the relationship between infrastructure and taxpayers" saying "the road intended to serve the people of Indiana now is serving the profit needs of a multinational corporation". Among the justifications for the lease was that due to a historical lack of political will to raise tolls, the road was not earning the state money. Daniels told a congressional committee, "…instead of making money for the state, the road had operated at a loss for 5 of the previous 7 years…Political timidity had kept tolls locked at the same price since 1985…Even if we raised the tolls, there was little reason to believe that the governors who would come after me would have the inclination or the political ability to do the same. I once asked how much it cost to collect that 15-cent toll on the road and the answer came back at 34 cents. I joked that