Officials with the state transportation cabinet are laying out their 6 year, $6 billion road plan to Kentucky legislators. The plan focuses on safety and highway congestion issues. Members of the House Budget Review Subcommittee heard a report Tuesday. Louisville Representative Dennis Keene said he is concerned about long term financial planning. “There’s got to be some way of increasing revenues," Keene said. "Every good business runs on a model. Sometimes you have to raise your prices. You just can’t keep doing what you are doing and expecting something that’s not there."
Keene said he's also concerned about growth in electric vehicles cutting into gas tax revenues.
Transportation Secretary Mike Hancock says every state faces that challenge. “The key with us is investing wisely," Hancock said. "Making sure that the investments we do make are the most important ones to make and that will carry us as far as it will."
Hancock said this winter’s ice and snow impact on Interstate 75 in Rockcastle County signifies the need to expand to six lanes along a stretch of that highway. “That is an area that has its own issues with steep upgrades and so forth,” explained Hancock. “So, the reconstruction of that section of I-75 is something that we see as an important investment.”
Passage of the transportation budget will likely come near the end of the current session of the Kentucky General Assembly along with consideration of the executive budget for the rest of state government.
