No agreement yet on new road plan

By RONNIE ELLIS

FRANKFORT — The two top legislative leaders said Friday they’re a long way from an agreed upon road plan but they think lawmakers should lock in 4 cents of the fuel tax, which might otherwise fall with declining wholesale prices.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, also defended proposed legislation to create an investigatory arm of the General Assembly. At times, both bristled about criticism of the bill from editorial writers and media.

“We have no agreement at this particular juncture,” Williams said of a road plan. The House sent its plan to the Senate this week and Williams said he hoped the Senate could schedule time over the weekend for the two chambers to negotiate further.

“It’s a very complex situation with multiple funding sources. And it’s been a real job, I can tell you. We’re far away from having any kind of document ready,” Williams said.

Williams said it’s hard to predict what each chamber will do on locking in the 4 cents portion of the fuel tax, which could be eliminated with falling fuel prices without legislative action. Stumbo said the rank and file members are unlikely to commit to keeping the tax until they see what’s in the road plan.

Stumbo said without those 4 cents, “we won’t be able to go forward with any plan we are able to agree upon.” The road fund is short of money because motorists are driving less and buying less fuel. And Williams said there has been “a precipitous drop” in the road fund’s other source of revenue – taxes on vehicles – as fewer cars are sold in a tightening economy.

Each penny generates roughly $32 million, so allowing the tax to fall by 4 cents would cost the road fund around $128 million. Williams said federal projects might continue with federal money and money from the economic stimulus, but state funds – some of which go to county governments for local roads and maintenance – won’t be available for state road projects.

“I think we’re going to have to take some step to freeze those pennies,” Williams said. “Or it’s going to be catastrophic for the state highway plan. These four pennies are desperately needed.”

Stumbo said consumers are unlikely to realize the 4-cent savings even if the state allows the tax to fall by that amount because fuel companies and retailers are likely to add it to their prices because consumers have grown accustomed to it.

Much of the rest of the press conference was spent on a bill the two have proposed to create the General Assembly Accountability and Review Division or GAARD to investigate how state agencies spend money appropriated by the legislature. The bill’s language appears to make the GAARD exempt from open records laws and court subpoenas. Critics say it gives the legislature too much power without enough oversight.

But Williams and Stumbo said the bill provides no additional power but puts into law the legislature’s right to investigate how the executive branch spends tax dollars. Stumbo said he’s working on changes to address critics’ concerns, but he thinks the criticism a “mischaracterization of what the bill does.”

Williams criticized media coverage and got into a testy exchange with a couple of reporters.

“Certain people are trying to make something evil or surreptitious about something that we felt like was a good government sort of thing,” Williams said.

Stumbo said lawmakers have complained for years that agencies of the executive branch have been less than forthcoming in providing information to the legislature.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.

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