2015 Interim LEGISLATIVE Volume 28, No. 7 October 2015 * Read online at www.lrc.ky.gov/legislation.htm RECORD Transportation officials give update on tolls by Jim Hannah LRC Public Information SPARTA – A panel of state legislators debated the feasibility of tolling after a transportation official briefed them recently on plans to toll a $2.3 billion roads project that included digging a tunnel and erecting two Louisville-area bridges across the Ohio River. The bridges to be tolled are the existing John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge in downtown Louisville, a new bridge being constructed next to it for Interstate 65 traffic and the so-called East End Bridge, David Talley of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet said during a meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Transportation. The meeting was held on Oct. 6 at the Kentucky Speedway. The amount of tolls will be based on the type of vehicle, the method of payment and the frequency the motorist uses the toll bridges, said Talley. Frequent users of the toll bridges who place a Band-Aid-size sticker containing a tran- sponder on the front windshield will be tolled $1 for each crossing. When Rep. Diane St. Onge, R-Lakeside Park, asked how transportation officials will determine who qualifies as a frequent user, Talley said they had not adopted what constitutes a frequent user. Non-frequent users with transponders will be charged $2, Talley said. Passenger vehicles without a transponder will be charged $3 if they have a prepaid toll account and $4 if they don’t have a prepaid account. Trucks will be tolled at rates ranging from $5 to $12 per crossing. The three toll bridges will use an all-electronic tolling system being installed by the Austrian-based Kapsch Group. Talley said there are less than a dozen all-electronic tolling systems in the nation. “I continue to say all-electronic toll system because it is important to note that you will not have the ability to pay cash at the … toll zone when you cross,” Talley said. “There is no stopping. There is no slowing down. There is no waiting in line. You just go through at interstate speed. That is all there is to it.” Motorists without transponders will have their license plates pictured as they pass under toll gantries. The toll will automatically be deducted from prepaid accounts. Officials will use state license-plate databases to identify motorists without prepaid accounts and bill them. Motorists who fail to pay the tolls will not be able to renew their license plates. Kentucky officials plan to enforce this with out-of-state motorists through a series of interstate compacts currently being negotiated. Rep. John Short, D- Mallie, asked how motorists with temporary tags will be billed. Continued on page 2 Policy decisions required for unappropriated tobacco funds by Rebecca Hanchett Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy (GOAP) thereabouts of unallocated funds,” Thomas told the LRC Public Information Director Roger Thomas described it—that the state Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight received as part of a 2014 settlement with tobacco Committee. He stressed that he was sharing the fig- Kentucky currently has around $7 million in companies stemming from the 1998 Master Settle- ures from memory: “The $16 million I mentioned unallocated tobacco funds left over from a 2014 ment Agreement. (The agreement has brought more is only if the 2016 MSA payment is that amount settlement and may have about $16 million in addi- than $446 million in agriculture investment to the above what was budgeted.” tional unallocated funds coming in the next budget state since 2001.) The estimated $16 million would The testimony came after Sen. Carroll Gib- cycle, a legislative oversight committee heard in be over and above the state’s anticipated 2016 tobac- son, R-Leitchfield, asked Thomas about allocation early October. co settlement payment dollars, Thomas said. of additional unbudgeted money the state received The estimated $7 million is part of the “ad- “Depending on what the 2016 payment is, it’s ditional money that had not been budgeted”—as possible that there’s an additional $20 million or Continued on page 2 THE KENTUCKY GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1 Transportation, Tobacco, from page 1 from page 1 “With respect to temporary tags, we will have as part of the 2014 settlement, which brought Ken- to work with dealers to make sure we come to an tucky more than $57 million in extra unbudgeted equitable solution to figure out how those should be tobacco funds over three years. tolled,” Talley said. Thomas said distribution of the additional Committee co-chair Sen. Ernie Harris, R-Pros- money has thus far adhered to the statutory formu- pect, asked what happens if a motorist is in a rental la for allocation of Kentucky’s Master Settlement Agreement payments: 50 percent for agriculture, 25 car. Talley said motorists are usually billed for the percent for health initiatives, and 25 percent for ear- toll on the credit card used to reserve the rental car ly childhood programs. Part of the money—around in addition to a “hefty” fee tacked on by rental car $42.5 million, according to the Governor’s Office agencies. in 2014—has been used by Governor Steve Beshear Another option is for motorists to temporarily to beef up already-authorized programs that would transfer an existing prepaid account to the rental car. have otherwise been underfunded. Sen. C.B. Embry Jr, R-Morgantown, asked if “That was, I think, pretty well received by leg- there was an estimate on the percent of tolls that will islators and certainly by the folks that benefit from go uncollected despite the use of modern technology the Master Settlement Agreement funds—not just and interstate compacts. the ag side of it, but others as well,” said Thomas. Talley said as much as 2.5 percent of all tolls A bit more of “extra money,” said Thomas, was due will not be collected, according to estimates used to prop up the state’s 2016 tobacco payments from a traffic and revenue study conducted as part with last session’s passage of House Bill 510, of a bond sale to finance what is one of the biggest sponsored by Rep. Rick Rand, D-Bedford, which public works projects currently under construction Thomas explained has benefited environmental ef- in North America. forts. That legislation has enabled the state to amass Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, whose $6 million in state environmental cost-share funds in district is seeking funding to replace an aging Inter- Rep. Tom McKee, D-Cynthiana, listens to testimony at the fiscal year 2016 that would have otherwise not been state 71/75 bridge in Northern Kentucky, asked if October meeting of the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund available, he said. Oversight Committee. the tolls could be raised. Another $5 million of the extra money was Talley said the tolls automatically increase an- added by the General Assembly to the state Agricul- nually by the rate of inflation, or a minimum of 2.5 LRC Publications Price List tural Finance Corporation, a loan pool administered percent, to make sure that the tolls being collected by the GOAP. That has allowed the program “to are sufficient to pay for the ongoing operating and Daily Record Pickup: $165 reach a level that I hope that you all are proud of— maintenance costs of the project. Daily Record Mailed: $165 (plus postage) about $54-55 million of that loan pool in Ag Finance Talley said any increase greater than that would Friday Record Mailed: $38.50 (plus postage) now is a result of your actions,” said Thomas. Individual Record Pickup: $2.75 Gibson asked Thomas if new programs could have to be approved by a tolling authority made up Individual Record Mailed: $2.75 (plus postage) of two Kentuckians and two Indiana appointees. He be funded with the $7 million in existing unallocated said the initial toll rates were adopted by the tolling Bills funds, and if the state has to follow the 50-25-25 statutory formula in spending the money—adding he body in 2013. Complete Set of Bills and Resolutions (Pick-up): $630.00 has no problem with the formula. “At this time, to my knowledge, there is not a Individual Bills Per Page: $.05 “That’s a policy issue,” said Thomas. “Hereto- need to revisit those rates,” Talley said in response Amendments Per Page: $.05 Roll Call Votes: $.05 Per Page fore that formula has pretty much been followed. It’s to Simpson’s question. your (the General Assembly’s) role to set policy, and Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Warren, asked if the tolls Publications if you wanted to change that formula you could.” would be removed when the two new bridges in 1-10 copies: Free (plus postage, if mailed) Thomas explained that the next two-year state Copies over 10: ($1.00 per copy, plus postage if mailed) Louisville are paid off. budget will be presented by the next governor and “We have agreed with Indiana that we will Administrative Regulations finalized by the 2016 General Assembly. Funding continue to keep tolls in place until all the financial Bound Volumes: $170.00 issues, including those regarding tobacco settlement obligations of the project are satisfied,” Talley said. Administrative Register: $96.00 dollars, will “be part of that process.” “On the Kentucky side we sold bonds that Volumes and Register: $250.00 Committee Co-Chair Rep. Wilson Stone, last through the year 2053, so we have agreed to D-Scottsville, said he was glad Kentucky had the keep tolls in place through then … to use for debt Acts of the General Assembly additional funds from the 2014 settlement and that services.” (on CD...$10) Regular Sessions: Priced after printing “we were all pleased that the Governor didn’t want Talley said it will be up to policymakers in Special Sessions: Priced after printing to take us in any other direction.” 2053 whether to keep the tolls.