LawReader : OUR MAIN - LAW DIGEST INDEX : STEVE HORNER COLUMN - GOVERNMENT ISSUES IN KY. : JUDGE HORNER’S ROUNDUP FOR WEEK OF JAN. 12, 2008

House District-63 (northern suburban Kenton): A Jan. 8 special election was won by Republican Alecia Webb-Edgington to fill the seat of the retiring Jon Draud, an Edgewood Republican, who was appointed state Education Commissioner in November. Webb-Edgington defeated Democrat Dan Wolff by a margin of 2,632 to 2,333, according to a Jan. 8 story by The Herald-Leader’s Ryan Alessi at polwatchers.typepad.com. Webb-Edgington, of Fort Wright, was the Homeland Security Director in former Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration. Wolff is a Fort Mitchell lawyer and a former city council member in that city. Turn-out in the balmy, near record-breaking winter warmth was a high 17% for a special election, according to a story by The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Patrick Crowley that was posted on Jan. 9 at the newspaper’s nky.com. Republican Will Terwort has already filed in the May 20 GOP primary for a new two-year term. Webb-Edgington is expected to run then also, and Wolff told Crowley that he will decide in a few days whether to run in the Democratic primary. The filing deadline is Jan. 29.

House District-72 (Bath, Bourbon, Nicholas, and extreme northern Fayette): A Jan. 8 special election was won by Democrat Sannie Overly to fill the seat of the retiring Carolyn Belcher, an Owingsville Democrat, who was elected Bath County Judge on Nov. 6. Overly carried all four counties by defeating Republican Bryan Beauman 3,235 to 2,504, according to Alessi’s story. Turn-out in this district was even higher at 18% than in the Kenton County district. Both candidates are lawyers and from Paris, but Beauman practices in Lexington. Overly has not yet filed for a full term, and Beauman told Alessi for his Jan. 9 story in the newspaper’s print edition that he had not yet decided whether to run in the GOP primary. Overly will face primary opposition with the likes of former state Rep. Jim Lovell (D-Paris) and Roy Baber who have both filed in the May 20 Democratic primary, according to Alessi’s story.

(Alessi reported that the wins of Webb-Edgington and Overly increase the total of females in the 138-member General Assembly from 16 to 18.)

House District-6 (Lyon, Marshall, and extreme eastern McCracken): A Feb. 5 special election is pending between Republican Marvin Wilson and Democrat Will Coursey to fill the seat of the retiring J. R. Gray, a Benton Democrat, who Gov. Steve Beshear appointed as his state Labor Commissioner.

House District-95 (Floyd): Feb. 5 special election is pending. Democrats have nominated out-going state Atty.-Gen. Greg Stumbo by a wide margin over former state Rep. Chuck Meade (D-Prestonsburg) who represented the district for three years after Stumbo was elected as the state’s top lawyer in 2003, according to a Jan. 5 story by Alessi at polwatchers. Stumbo had served 24 years in the House seat, including 19 years as Majority Leader, before Meade took over the seat. The seat was vacated in December by the retiring Brandon Spencer, a Prestonsburg Democrat, who unseated Meade in the 2006 Democratic primary. Meade has pledged to file in the May 20 Democratic primary for a new two-year term. Republicans have struggled to nominate a candidate, and as of yet, have not done so.

Senate District-30 (Bell, Harlan, Leslie, and Perry): A Feb. 5 special election is pending between state Rep. Brandon Smith (R-Hazard) and former state Rep. Scott Alexander (D-Hazard) to fill the seat of Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo who was elected on Beshear’s slate on Nov. 6. Alexander defeated former state Rep. Roger Noe (D-Harlan) for the Democratic nomination to run in the special election. Smith has defeated Alexander in two prior elections – 2000 and 2006. In 2000 Smith unseated Alexander 6,674-5,585. After defeating a different Democrat in 2002, Smith ran unopposed in 2004. Alexander made an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Smith in 2006 but lost by only 40 votes with the final result in Smith’s favor 6,979-6,939.

The wins by Webb-Edgington and Overly bring the Dem-Rep split in the House to 61-37 with its two special elections pending on Feb. 5. Republicans control the Senate 21-15 with one independent voting with Republicans for organizational purposes. There will be the special election on Feb. 5 for the 38^th Senate seat.

Beshear Mulling K-12 Ed. 7% Cut, 12% Elsewhere Except Medicaid

The state revenue/budget looks worse than ever, and Beshear has ordered every state government agency to prepare a 12% budget cut plan for Fiscal Year End (“FYE”) June 30, 2009, sparing only K-12 public education with a 7% cut and Medicaid with no cut. This comes on top of Beshear’s recent order that all agencies immediately reduce spending by 3% currently in FYE 2008, except for K-12 and Medicaid which will be cut-free for the remainder of this fiscal year. K-12’s possible 7% reduction in FYE 2009 came as a surprise and was symbolic of how deep the financial crunch has become as Beshear is committed to reduce spending by about $525 million to balance the FYE 2009 budget, according to a Jan. 7 story by The Herald-Leader’s Art Jester.

Beshear said that his final budget proposal will likely institute cuts between 6% and 12%. “Certainly, a very deep cut is a possibility, and we’re looking at worst-case scenarios, and probably that’s somewhere in the worst-case scenario,” Beshear said, according to a story by The Associated Press’ Joe Biesk that was posted on Jan. 8 at nky.com.

State universities, community colleges, and technical schools must all be ready for 12% cuts in FYE 2009 – a move that would trigger ever-higher tuition rates on an unprecedented scale. The average tuition for a full-time student on a Kentucky public campus has increased from $3,217 in 1999 to $5,596 in 2006, a 74 percent increase, using the most recent figures from the Council for Postsecondary Education, according to Jester’s story. The overall US consumer inflation rate during that period has been less than 30% making tuition costs far out of step with the cost of living. But the tuition rates now being considered for the next fiscal year because of state budget cuts would make prior tuition increases look tame by comparison.

Beshear Inaugural Committee Brings in $766,662

A total of 165 donors – including 53 who each gave $10,000 – gave $766,662 to the Beshear Inaugural Committee for Dec. 11 inauguration expenses, according to Alessi’s Jan. 9 story. The committee spent over $352,000 on the event leaving about $414,000 in the bank. By comparison, Fletcher raised about $875,000 from about 700 donors for his 2003 inaugural events costing about $1 million.

An analysis of the donors by The Courier-Journal’s Tom Loftus found that most of the contributions came from persons with equine or casino interests, highway contractors, or other people who do business with the state or own businesses regulated by the state.

Beshear spokeswoman Vicki Glass told Loftus that these contributions bought no access with Beshear for the givers. “I don’t even know who contributed to that inaugural fund,” said Larry Hayes, the Secretary of Beshear’s Executive Cabinet. “I don’t have the slightest idea. But no contribution buys anything into how we do business.”

Racetracks Agree to Share Casinos with Other Locations

The biggest point of contention within the pro-casino “community” has apparently been resolved, according to a Jan. 6 story by The Herald-Leader’s Janet Patton. The split was over where casinos would be located: exclusively at racetracks, or there and at other locations. “We’re resolved to the fact that it’s not going to be just racetracks,” said David Switzer, executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, in probably the first press statement by a key member of the racing industry that it will accept other locations. This is the same position of Beshear who was heavily supported by the industry in his landslide bid on Nov. 6 to unseat Fletcher.

After Patton’s story ran, the executives of the state’s largest racetracks – Churchill, Keeneland, Turfway, and Ellis – testified on Jan. 9 at a legislative committee hearing. Keeneland’s Nick Nicholson said that his organization did not even want a casino located next to Keeneland because it would interfere with Keeneland’s pristine physical character. Nicholson said that he wanted Lexington leaders involved with where a casino would best be located in their city. “I just want to make sure it is in Lexington,” Nicholson said, according to Alessi’s Jan. 10 story. Churchill’s Steve Sexton left open the possibility of not having a casino next to Churchill. “It could be Churchill Downs-based. It could be downtown-based,” Sexton said. Ellis’s Ron Geary has previously said that a casino in Owensboro might be better than at Henderson where his track is located. Only Turfway’s Bob Elliston insisted that a casino be built next to his facility because it has the “real estate” for it.

Nicholson said that the racetracks have hired a national consulting firm, The Innovation Group based in New Orleans, to advise them of where casinos could be located in the state to draw the most patrons and produce the most income for the state. Racetracks contend that they need casinos to produce revenue to increase purses paid to horse owners and to lessen the incentive for these horse owners to race in other states where purses have been increased because of those states’ casino revenues, according to a Jan. 6 story by The Courier-Journal’s Gregory A. Hall. Casino opponents say that casinos could actually be detrimental to racing if gamblers shifted their money from horses to slot machines and other casino games.

Hall reported that Say No to Casinos chairman John-Mark Hack said of the racetrack executives’ committee presentation, “What we heard today was a presentation … by four very wealthy individuals who stand to get much wealthier by introducing a predatory business that specializes in addictive products.”

Patton reported that Beshear’s bill – to permit a constitutional amendment voter referendum on whether to allow casinos – will have a “local option” clause. “Whether it would be the people or a city council, that’s still being worked out,” Glass told Patton. The bill’s passage would require a 60% majority in each legislative chamber (60 representatives and 23 senators) and, if passed, would be placed on the up-coming Nov. 4 general election state-wide ballot where a simple majority – if voting in favor – of the total votes cast would then authorize casinos. Many lawmakers have made public statements in which they have conditioned their support of an amendment on whether it had a “local option” component.

Patton’s story also dealt with some minor issues that have divided pro-casino forces or non-equine industry interest groups – that may potentially put their weight behind the movement – which Beshear is working on behind the scenes. In the past, opposition groups consisting largely of religious conservatives just sat back, “haven’t really needed to lift a finger” (Patton), and watched the casino advocates self-destruct time and again without getting out of the proverbial batter’s box. However, that has obviously all changed now with a Governor leading the pro-casino charge. “…this Governor is going to put his muscle and will into it, and it means a lot when the Governor is pushing any initiative,” said House Speaker Pro-Tem Larry Clark (D-Louisville), according to a Jan. 6 story by Loftus.

“One of the biggest obstacles to gambling proponents getting an amendment passed is that the people supporting casinos in Kentucky are a greedy bunch of folks who are going to have a hard time dividing all those spoils,” said Hack, according to Patton’s story. But Hack said his group is poised to do battle this time. “We are organized. We are ready. Between now and the end of the General Assembly session, we will be strategically employing every available asset to us.”

The largely Protestant Kentucky Council of Churches, the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, and the conservative “pro-life” Family Foundation – along with the specific Say No to Casinos organization – are all taking active roles to block a constitutional amendment going to the voters. These groups mostly complain about what they feel would be the “social costs” of casino gambling. They argue that increased rates of divorce, domestic and child abuse, suicide, and bankruptcies would follow the introduction of casinos into the state.

Despite the religious groups’ objections, public opinion polls last year during the Beshear-Fletcher race showed that a consistent 80% of Kentuckians are tired of the almost decade-long debate and want to vote on the issue once and for all. This 80% is the same among those respondents both favoring casinos and opposing casinos.

Fletcher Files Criminal Defense Fund Report

Fletcher raised a total of $91,750 from 13 people last year for a fund to pay off his legal expenses stemming from a 16-month criminal probe launched by Stumbo on May 13, 2005 into political interference with state merit system processes by Fletcher and his administration’s officials. Fletcher was eventually indicted by a special Franklin County Grand Jury, but his charges were finally dismissed pursuant to an agreement with Stumbo. Fletcher refused to disclose the donors to his fund during his failed re-election bid last year, and his refusal kept adding fuel to the ethics fire that his GOP primary opponents and Beshear kept pointing to. Fletcher kept saying that he wasn’t required to file the report with the Executive Branch Ethics Commission until this month, and that he wasn’t going to do anything beyond what the law required him to do. Former running-mate Robbie Rudolph and his wife, Lisa, each donated $12,000 to the fund, according to a Jan. 8 story by Alessi at polwatchers. Rudolph, a multi-millionaire Murray tire wholesaler, contributed very little to Fletcher’s re-election campaign.

Interstate Bridges Update

Louisville Metro Councilwoman Tina Ward-Pugh will press on in holding hearings in opposition to the plan to build two new interstate bridges across the Ohio River at Louisville despite support of the $4.1 billion project by KY and IN transportation officials in 2003. Construction has not begun because a financing plan for the Ohio Rivers Bridges Project was only just approved by US officials, according to a Jan. 4 story by The Courier-Journal’s Marcus Green. Ward-Pugh’s comments came during the first hearing she held on Nov. 19 to study the controversial “8664” alternative proposed several years ago by Louisville businessman Tyler Allen. Instead of a new downtown bridge with a “redo” of Spaghetti Junction and a new east end bridge – the approved plan – Allen’s plan would delete the new downtown bridge, close and dismantle I-64 in the immediate downtown Louisville district, build the east end bridge, and direct I-64 over it into IN and across I-265 to a hook-up with the existing I-64 roadway west of New Albany. This alternative I-64 path might add 20 (?) miles to the current trip between Lexington and St. Louis.

Allen produced a traffic engineer, Walter Kulash, claiming to have been a consultant to several state transportation departments, who told Ward-Pugh’s committee: “If the alternative meets the purpose and need and sits within the environmental footprint, it may be only a matter of months and not years” to get federal and state approval for a change, according to a Nov. 20 story by The Courier-Journal’s Dan Klepal. However, Klepal reported that IN and KY transportation cabinet managers of the two-bridges project told him that the time had passed for an alternative, which they said might compound existing traffic problems.

“We’ve been through years of debate and millions of dollars have been spent” on studies, said Kay Stewart, executive director of Build the Bridges Coalition, a group of chambers of commerce on both sides of the river. “We believe we’re very close to making this a reality. We should focus on what’s realistic and practical,” Stewart added, according to Klepal’s story.

Councilman Tom Owen said that the committee needed more than “opinions” of 8664 from Kulash – and instead needed a “study” of the proposal. Ward-Pugh said that she would try to get state officials to appear before her committee with traffic studies and computer models performed on all the proposals which may or may not have included 8664. Ward-Pugh said that she doesn’t know how many more hearings that she will have – they may last up to a year, she said.

“This is the beginning of a conversation this community is due,” Ward-Pugh said. She said that she wants the community to decide via open hearings whether to support the current two-bridges project “or the community itself will give (8664) the legs it needs to take the next step.”

A feasibility study on the 8664 proposal was presented before about 260 people by Kulash on Nov. 28 at the Kentucky Center for the Arts’ Bomhard Theater, according to a Nov. 29 story by Green. Kulash estimated that the 8664 proposal would cost about $2.2 billion. Kulash acknowledged during his remarks that he used the traffic studies done for the approved – and much larger – project, and tried to extrapolate from that certain conclusions. Allen and other supporters have not paid for an actual traffic study of the 8664 proposal. Ward-Pugh said that she would ask the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency (“KIPDA”) to perform a traffic analysis of the 8664 plan.

Ohio River Bridges Project spokeswoman Kristen Jordan Leggett told Green for his Nov. 29 story that US and state officials with the project do not intend to comment on the 8664 plan. But Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson’s office did comment by saying that he does not support Ward-Pugh’s attempt to persuade KIPDA to do a traffic study on 8664. “There’s no reason that we see to focus on what’s in the rearview mirror,” said Abramson spokesman Chad Carlton, according to Green’s Dec. 4 story. “We’re focused on what’s in the windshield ahead of us.” Carlton’s comments came after Ward-Pugh’s five-member committee unanimously voted on Dec. 3 to support the request to KIPDA. There are a total of 26 members on the council.

Meanwhile, delays and a likely cost over-run on one portion of the bridges project was revealed in Green’s Jan. 1 story. State transportation officials recently rejected two bids to build a 1,800-foot exploratory tunnel on the Kentucky side of the proposed east end bridge because the bids greatly exceeded the $14 million target cost that the officials had estimated. Thus, the tunnel construction could not begin in 2007. The tunnel is necessary to analyze the strength of underground rock before a full-scale interstate tunnel is built as an approach to the east end bridge.

Still, transportation officials say that everything else is moving along because the exploratory tunnel piece of the project is “pre-construction.” Leslie Barras, executive of River Fields, a river conservation group opposed to the east end bridge was not impressed. “Probably our biggest concern is that you would think with the types of complications that have arisen with this exploratory tunnel process and bidding that the state would pause and re-think the rest of the schedule,” Barras told Green for his Jan. 1 story.

Green’s Jan. 4 story, as noted above, reported that US officials, finally, have approved the entire Ohio River Bridges Project and that now available federal funds will be released only for the first minor phase of the project – to re-build I-65 interchanges between Broadway and Liberty Street in downtown Louisville. The approval does not mean that there are US or KY funds there to pay for KY’s $2.9 billion share of the $4.1 billion project. This column previously has reported many times that US Transportation Sec. Mary Peters says there will be no federal highway trust funds for new interstate construction beginning next year – 2009. This means that KY and IN will have to finance their shares of the entire project on their own.

Green reported that IN plans to use money from leasing a toll road in the northern part of the state to help cover its share of the cost of the Ohio River Bridges Project. KY has a “pay-as-you-go” plan that requires appropriations in every biennial budget to cover the costs for that period of time. KY lawmakers from both parties have questioned the state’s ability to appropriate about 18.5% of its highway construction money to this one project for at least 16 years. State House A & R Budget Review Subcommittee on Transportation chairman Don Pasley (D-Winchester) said, “I think that this session a lot of decisions will be made on how we deal with ‘megaprojects’ as a whole in the state.”

The level of Beshear’s support for the Louisville project may be critical to its survival. “We’re anxious to see where he ranks the project among his priorities,” said Rep. Scott Brinkman (R-Louisville), a House budget committee member, according to Green’s Jan. 6 story. “Let’s face it. If (Beshear is) lukewarm for it, it’s going to be more problematic.”

Newly appointed state Transportation Cabinet Sec. Joe Prather has serious doubts about the project. “Funding just from the Transportation Cabinet without some other method contributing to the cost of that – as I sit here today – I do not think is possible. It’s going to take something more than that if we are to go forward,” Prather told Green in a December interview.

The construction plan calls for the east end bridge to be finished in 2014, the downtown bridge in 2020, and the new Spaghetti Junction in 2024. “This is great news because the east end bridge is scheduled to begin first and should be completed within the next five years,” Allen said. “During that time, we hope our alternative, which would save $1.9 billion and reconnect our city to the Ohio River, will be adopted.” Barras, however, commented, “The General Assembly has not approved this plan. Kentucky leaders in both parties have repeatedly said that Kentucky cannot pay for it.”

Separately, US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told a Nov. 30 meeting of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in Covington that Kentucky would have to think “creatively” to finance a replacement of the aging I-71/75 Brent Spence bridge between Cincinnati and Covington – a project estimated to cost about $3 billion. “Washington alone ... is never going to earmark that kind of money,” McConnell said, according to a story by Crowley posted on Dec. 1 at nky.com. “It’ll come down to the states; they’ll make the decisions ... and those solutions will be developed at the state and local level, not at the federal level.”

McConnell said that he had recently spoken with a Wall Street investment banker who told him that there is private money for state infrastructure projects. “You’ve got to think outside the box,” McConnell said. “Probably the solution to these massive bridge projects we have is somewhere in this area (of privatization). I’m optimistic something can be done.” Although McConnell did not specifically endorse this bill, he mentioned a bill pre-filed by state Senate Pres. David Williams (R-Burkesville) that would enable local governmental jurisdictions, either individually or collectively, to establish special-purpose funding authorities that could borrow money for road projects like the Brent Spence replacement. The bill would also permit these authorities to construct and lease these projects to private interests that could collect tolls to pay for the construction indebtedness.

Williams’ bill has – in concept at least – the support of state Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley (D-Richmond). “When you can turn decisions back to the local government, it’s better,” Worley said, according to a Jan. 1 story by The Herald-Leader’s Jack Brammer. “As someone who represents a rural area, you get concerned when money in the state’s six-year road plan can be consumed by bridges in Louisville. I want to meet with our Jefferson County delegation to discuss this, but I think it’s an excellent starting point.”

How to pay for a Brent Spence replacement became the central issue in the special state House election in Kenton County won by Webb-Edgington (see special election segment above). Webb-Edgington said that she does not favor bridge tolls or new taxes but does support a “public/private partnership to explore all the options,” according to a story by Crowley posted on Dec. 31 at nky.com.

Webb-Edgington’s comment drew heavy criticism from Wolff who essentially called it, and Sen. Williams’ bill, a subterfuge for tolls. “No tolls. No taxes. No sleight-of-hand tricks like selling the bridge to a private company that will then charge a toll,” Wolff said. “The bridge is an interstate bridge and its funding is a federal responsibility.” Wolff blamed McConnell for bragging about the pork that he brought back to Kentucky but allowed the federal government to run out of money for major highway projects. Wolff’s campaign literature featured a slogan saying, “Say ‘no’ to tolls and go to the polls.”

Williams’ bill that would allow local consortiums to pay for bridges with tolls is drawing heavy fire from the conservative Kentucky Club for Growth which is against more governmental projects. The US Club for Growth spent millions of dollars in an unsuccessful attempt to derail former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s GOP first place presidential drive in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses. The club claimed that Huckabee promoted and oversaw a sixfold increase in Arkansas’ budget while he was Governor there, according to Crowley’s Jan. 6 column. It is unclear what the club spent in New Hampshire, but Huckabee finished a very poor third there on Jan. 8 behind US Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), the leader, and former MA Gov. Mitt Romney, the runner-up.

The Courier-Journal published a series of stories on Dec. 16-17 by R. G. Dunlop about a proposed, new interstate highway through the state that is the pet project of US Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY5) – a project that could siphon away funds critical to the $4.1 billion Ohio River Bridges Project and the $2.9 billion proposal to replace the aging I-71/75 Brent Spence bridge between Covington and Cincinnati. Rogers’ proposed 420- mile I-66 would run from West Virginia through Pikeville, Hazard, London, Somerset, Bowling Green, and Paducah. It would use existing state multi-lane parkway right-of-way for most of its path, but would require two new sections totaling about 61 miles that are estimated at $3.5 billion in the state’s Six-Year Highway Plan.

(Comment: Readers should note that this state Six-Year Highway Plan is not etched in stone, that spending commitments to projects only last through the state’s current biennial budget, and that some projects have been in the plan for 20 or 30 years and have never been built.)

Dunlop reported that, despite the fact that the I-66 route would run from Virginia to California, no other state is backing the new highway. A 1994 national study ultimately concluded that it was not worth the cost.

Rogers, of Somerset, said, “I didn’t hear these arguments when we were talking about building I-75 through the Bluegrass, the charming, beautiful part of our state… But when we start building … a highway through the most impoverished part of the state … we hear all of this noise about, ‘Oh, it’s not needed.’ Well, we could have made that same argument in all of these highways that we’ve built over the years.”

Rogers and his road have many detractors. “Why is Kentucky the only state to find the road worthy of pursuit? Because Hal loves it so much. He’s a guy who brings roads to his district,” said Hillary Lambert, a longtime critic of the project and former UK professor. Rogers has “been dead set in getting this highway built through his part of Kentucky since 1994,” said geologist Lee Florea, a former Pulaski County resident. “It’s been deemed unfeasible in most of the rest of the country. Why it’s feasible in Southern Kentucky kind of escapes me.”

Kentucky is moving ahead with the project because Rogers has managed to include in the US budget from $1.8 million to $24 million each year since 1998 for planning, engineering, and design work. The omnibus spending bill passed by Congress on Dec. 19 is believed to contain $1 million for additional I-66 planning, although that fact is not yet confirmed. Since the GOP assumed control of the US House in 1994 on then-Minority Leader (and later Speaker) Newt Gingrich’s call for a “Contract with America,” Rogers has been a senior member of the Appropriations Committee and at one time chaired its Transportation Sub-committee. Although Democrats re-asserted control (now 233-202) after the 2006 election, Rogers still remains a highly influential member of the committee.

US Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY3), of Louisville who is “carrying the water” for the Ohio River Bridges Project, said, “From every piece of information I get, there’s no chance there’s going to be additional federal funding for any of them … We’re going to have to find ways to finance them other than tax revenues.” Beshear and most leading state lawmakers have ruled out a state gasoline tax increase for these “mega-projects.” That might leave only the toll option which is a part of Williams’ bill (see above).

Dunlop reported that traffic counts in the vicinity of the proposed path of I-66 across the state are so low that it would be impossible to pay off its construction with tolls. UK economics professor Dr. William Hoyt said that it is also unrealistic to expect that lightly traveled rural roads will yield economic benefits. “We should be pretty skeptical about this generating a significant number of new jobs,” said Hoyt. “If there is little traffic demand, then building another road just provides a bunch of construction jobs for a few years and an empty highway for decades,” said Dr. Paul Coombs, a UofL economics professor.

The path of the project would cross a particular area between London and Somerset that includes some of the state’s most pervasive and delicate karst terrain. Karst is known for its sinkholes and is vulnerable to collapse because of the relatively shallow depth of the ground above the caves just beneath it, according to Dunlop’s Dec. 17 story.

The area “harbors one of the most highly diverse cave fauna in the world,” said Dr. Thomas Barr, a retired UK biological sciences professor. “I can’t imagine how an interstate highway can slice through it and not cause incalculable damage.” David Waldner with state Transportation Cabinet’s Division of Environmental Analysis acknowledged that the project “has its challenges.” But Waldner told Dunlop, “…it’s flawed to … conclude that construction of highways in karst areas is something that should never be done. There are thousands of miles (of roadway) in that area that have never had difficulties. I have no concerns driving along Ky. 80 today, or driving along a future I-66. I think I’d have to be more fearful of being struck by lightning.

(Comment: It appears that all the millions of dollars that have been/will be spent for the I-66 project have been/will be poured down a rathole.)

Political Analysts’ Comments

Jan. 6 – Patrick Crowley at The Cincinnati Enquirer’s nky.com: “Who are the fiscal conservatives now”

“I pity the fiscal conservatives. Their beliefs are under siege.

“And many of the attacks are coming from the Republican side of the aisle.

“Tolls to pay for bridges; debt to fix the state’s pension crisis; and the GOP winner of the Iowa caucuses with a record on spending that would make a Democrat blush…

“In Frankfort, it is Republicans leading the charge to spend billions and billions of new dollars. Certainly some Democrats will go along, but it is the Senate Republicans who want to borrow nearly $1 billion to shore up the state's pension system.

“ ‘Borrowing your way out the pension system is the most ridiculous thing in the world,’ said Brian Richmond, executive director of the Kentucky Club For Growth. ‘If you can’t pay your mortgage and car payments, do you take a loan to pay them?’

“ ‘Politicians who have mismanaged the pension system for decades are now asking our children and grandchildren to pay for it,’ he said.

“Richmond has similar concerns about the bill filed by Senate President David Williams, a Burkesville Republican. It attempts to address the replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge over the Ohio River.

“Williams’ bill, which has plenty of Northern Kentucky lawmakers squeamish, would allow local governments to form finance authorities that could raise money for big infrastructure projects, like the Brent Spence Bridge…

“This shell game is really nothing new. Ronald Reagan used to talk about his conservative fiscal philosophies than ran up some of the biggest deficits in history. The current resident of the White House, George W. Bush, has enacted tax cuts. But he’s also pushed through a prescription drug benefit that is one of the biggest entitlement programs in history and has spent a couple of trillion on the war in Iraq, a situation that will continue to take lots of tax dollars…

“If gambling to raise revenue, tolls for bridges and borrowing to save the pension systems are the only solutions, so be it. But come election time spare the voters the ‘we’re the party of fiscal conservatism’ rap. For lots of candidates on both sides of the aisle, it simply isn’t true.”

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