House concurs with Senate on transportation operating and road plans, approving operating budget and road projects

The Kentucky House agreed to the Senate’s committee substitutes on transportation funding, adopting the transportation operating budget and related road plans and joint resolutions.

House Bill 501 (transportation operating budget) and House Bill 502 (transportation road projects and emergency declaration) were taken up with Senate committee substitutes. Representative Petri and the sponsor in the House explained the Senate changes, including insertion of $230 million in general-fund dollars to support the road plan. Members asked detailed questions about project programming, overprogramming percentages and whether the governor has discretion for projects when the program is overprogrammed.

What passed: The House concurred with Senate Committee Substitute One to HB501 and adopted the committee substitute; final passage was recorded on the roll as 80–11 for HB501. For HB502 the House concurred with Senate committee substitute one and recorded final passage 89–3.

Context and debate: Questions centered on ‘‘overprogramming’’ of the two-year and six-year road fund and whether that leaves discretion to the governor; sponsors said the overprogramming was modest (the SP dollars were described as 101% programmed, a $5.3 million overprogramming on a $449 million program) and that forecasting had become more reliable. One member noted that two years ago the SP dollars were programmed at 156% and represented approximately $200 million of overprogramming.

Outcome and next steps: Both bills passed the House and will go to the governor after enrollment. Sponsors asked members to follow up with staff about district-specific projects and noted conference committee appointments for items where the chambers disagreed.