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Follow TURFKY: Tolls a four letter word
Tolls a four-letter word at NKY Chamber meeting
By Scott Wartman
Cincinnati.com
July 12, 2013
FORT MITCHELL — Tolls became taboo at a meeting Friday morning at the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. More than 50 business and political leaders discussed the possibility of private financing for the $2.5 billion Brent Spence Bridge replacement and other public projects.
The chamber attempted to distance the idea of tolling from private financing by bringing in experts to explain the variety of private financing of public projects elsewhere in Kentucky.
The fear that private financing will lead to tolling on the Brent Spence Bridge, however, kept many skeptical of allowing private money into the bridge construction.
The Northern Kentucky Chamber has supported proposed legislation to allow for a public-private partnership, known as P3, of the bridge but has not taken a position on tolling, said Chamber President Steve Stevens.
“P3 isn’t automatically leading to tolls,” Stevens said.
“It is potentially a way to get it done faster and cheaper. The chamber still doesn’t have a position on tolls, and that’s one of the reasons for having a session like the one we’ve had today, because we’re trying to take in all the information possible.”
Many see private financing as synonymous with tolling when it comes to bridges. The chamber brought in experts with the financial firm Commonwealth Economics, who have worked on public-private partnerships around the state.
They cited as an example the $500 million dorm project at the University of Kentucky; the university entered into an agreement with Memphis-based EdR Collegiate Housing Trust to build and run the dorms. UK Healthcare, the state and the City of Lexington pooled resources to build the Eastern State Hospital.
Without private financing, many public projects wouldn’t move forward or would be delayed, said John Farris, president of Commonwealth Economics. The Louisville bridges project completion date moved up seven years, from 2022 to 2016 with the injection of private money, he said. The two bridges being built between Louisville and Indiana will use tolls and a mix of public and private financing.
“Resources are scarce,” Farris said.“We know that through federal sequestration, state budget cuts, competing needs, especially in the health care space.”
A bridge in Charleston, S. C., was built with a sales tax hike and a state-run infrastructure bank that loans money for infrastructure projects, said Brent Cooper, a former chamber chairman and president of Covington tech firm C-Forward.
“We don’t have those options in Kentucky,” Cooper said. “That’s an example of P3 that people look at and say that was a pretty successful P3 with non-tolls.”
But tolling is one option in a public-private partnership, and tolls took up a majority of the conversation, with many speaking out against them. Several noted that Northern Kentuckians, who use the bridge more than Ohioans in their daily commutes, will bear a disproportionate burden.
Northern Kentucky developer Matth Toebben said he believes the bridge planning process has been run by Cincinnati companies.
“They’re pushing the idea of getting tolls for one reason, to benefit Ohio,” Toebben said.
Toebben and others advocated for increasing the state sales tax by 1 percent to pay for these types of infrastructure projects. Toebben believes the gas tax, which funds projects, is outdated and should be eliminated.
“We need to fix the system,” Toebben said. “Politically, I know it’s not expedient, but why should we pay a tax in Northern Kentucky for everybody else to spend that money in Frankfort?”
Covington Mayor Sherry Carran supports giving municipalities the option of a sales tax to fund public projects and was happy to see that brought up.
“I don’t think it is going to be enough to cover everything,” Carran said. “I think you’ll still need something else, but at least we’ve got discussion going on the local option sales tax.”