Scott Wartman

swartman@nky.com

If private money pays for any government projects in Kentucky, it won't be through tolls on the Brent Spence Bridge, according to a version of a bill that passed the Kentucky House on Monday.

The House voted 82-7 to pass a bill allowing private financing of public projects – but prohibiting tolls on any federal interstate between Ohio and Kentucky.

That prohibition came from an amendment added by State Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, to prevent the Brent Spence Bridge from being tolled to pay for the $3.5 billion replacement and renovation project.

Many in the business community, including the Northern Kentucky Chamber, have pushed for public-private partnerships, also known as P3's, and have favored tolls as the only feasible option to build a new bridge.

But tolls remain unpopular among Northern Kentucky lawmakers, who did not support the P3 bill unless in had a clause to ensure the Brent Spence couldn't be tolled.

The state should first see how tolls will work in Louisville, where they are being implemented on the $2.3 billion bridge project that will be opened in 2016, Simpson told the Enquirer last week. The bill doesn't preclude tolls for any other project in other regions of the state,

"If they want tolls, let them have it," Simpson said. "In my case, the people who I represent in my district, and I believe in large measure in Northern Kentucky, we still have difficulties with it, and we want to see what happens in Louisville. Their bridges will be online in '16. Let's see how it works and what impacts it has on the community."

The P3 bill's sponsor, State Rep. Leslie Combs, D-Pikeville didn't object to excluding tolls on the Brent Spence and said her bill was to help projects throughout the state.

Some in the Northern Kentucky business community, however, reacted with frustration at Simpson's amendment.

Taking tolls out of the equation for the Brent Spence Bridge would delay the project at least two years, maybe much longer, said Brent Cooper, interim president of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. The cost to businesses and commuters caused by traffic delays along Intestate 75 will only mount as the years go on, Cooper said. The chamber has tried to lobby for years for an alternative to tolls before last month coming to the conclusion tolls would be the only option to get it built, Cooper said.

"I don't know how long you have to try," Cooper said. "Until it takes an hour and a half to get to the airport? It's going to have to get so god-awful bad no one will put up with it anymore. It's a shame we can't be more proactive as a region."

Others in the business community applauded the change in the bill. Developer Matth Toebben, along with many tea party leaders, have led opposition on tolls and believe the cost to Northern Kentuckians would damage the region's economy. Toebben advocates extending I-71 across the southern portions of Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties to divert truck traffic off the Brent Spence. That would spur development in the southern portions of the county, he said.

"It would open up a great amount of land for future development," Toebben said. "There's a tremendous growth possibility in Northern Kentucky. That's where we should spend the money."

Where the tolls on the interstate would go, how diverted traffic through Covington would be handled and how much the tolls would cost need to be answered before the legislature passes any legislation that could allow tolls, Simpson said.

"We need these answers before we can move forward on this," Simpson said. "We think these are reasonable questions."

The bill now awaits approval in the Senate.