FROM STAFF AND LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH COMMISSION REPORTS
The Kentucky House of Representatives voted yesterday to approve a two-year state road plan and nearly $5 billion to fund the plans projects and Kentucky Transportation Cabinet operations and needs over the next two years. Noticeably absent, however, is any funding for the relocation of U.S. 641 in Crittenen, Caldwell and Lyon counties.
The House voted 52-43 to approve House Bill 236, the funding bill that would pay for the $4.5 billion 2014-16 Road Plan found in HB 237, which was amended and passed by the House by a 51-43 vote. HB 236 would also fund administrative and capital project needs of the Cabinet over the biennium.
Rep. Lynn Bechler (R-Marion), a supporter of continued funding for the relocation U.S. 641 from Marion to Lyon County near Eddyville, voted against both measures.
However, funding in the two-year road plan did include $402,000 for each fiscal years 2015 and 2016 for Kentucky's portion of operational funding for the Cave In Rock Ferry. Illinois funds an equal portion to keep the ferry across the Ohio River operating.
Additionally, the House voted to pass House Joint Resolution 62 which includes the last four years of the state’s six-year road plan, or 2016 through 2020. That legislation passed the House on a 51-44 vote.
In that plan, called the "out years" of the six-year road plan which are projections and not backed with actual budged finances, the ferry will continue to see annual funding of $402,000, but $12 million in surfacing and grade and drain work for U.S. 641 from Marion to Fredonia has been moved to Fiscal Year 2019.
However, $29 million has been allotted in those four years for design work, right-of-way purchase, utility relocation and construction of the U.S. 641 relocation project in Caldwell County. Design work in Fiscal Year 2017 has a projected $1.5 million allocation; right-of-way purchase in 2018 shows $5 million; utility relocation reflects $2.5 million in 2019; and, finally, construction funding of $20 million is projected for 2020.
Bechler also opposed HJR 62.
All three pieces of legislation are sponsored by House Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chairman Rep. Rick Rand (D-Bedford).
Of the road projects in the two-year road plan found in HB 237, Rand said $1.86 billion are state-funded and $2.7 billion are federal projects. Around $182 million of the projects in the road plan are projects backed by previously-authorized state bonds, Rand said.
House Transportation Budget Review Subcommittee Chair Rep. Leslie Combs (D-Pikeville) said the Road Plan includes several major projects, notably the Louisville bridges project, work on Interstate 65 and the western Kentucky bridges projects, work on the Mountain Parkway, and work on the I-69 corridor.
There is no new debt in the road plan, Combs said. “It is all authorized in previous bienniums.”
House Minority Leader Rep. Jeff Hoover (R-Jamestown) expressed concerns over the planned allocation of transportation projects and said that the Road Plan had been brought up for a vote before all members had a chance to properly review it.
Hoover said the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee “had less than 15 minutes to look at a 200-and-20 some page bill, and take a vote. And now, a couple of hours later, we’re being asked on this floor to vote on this same bill that was amended by committee substitute.”
Hoover ultimately made a motion that HB 237 be “laid on the Clerk’s Desk,” which would have postponed a vote on the bill. That motion was defeated on a 46-51 vote.
Both HB 236 and 237 now go to the Senate, as does HJR 62.
