March 3, 2005

Public input on trucking bill unlikely

Hearing canceled: E. Kentuckians go unheard

By John Cheves
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

FRANKFORT - Ignoring requests from a crowd that came to speak, a Senate committee yesterday abruptly called off a widely anticipated public hearing on a bill that would put more overweight trucks on Kentucky roads.

Instead of setting a new date for testimony, the Senate Transportation Committee will meet and vote on the controversial bill on short notice during a break in Senate floor activity sometime during the next few days, its chairman said.

House Bill 8 could be put to a vote by the full Senate within minutes if it is approved in that impromptu meeting, said Sen. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green.

The House passed the bill after fierce debate last week.

Guthrie said he is talking to Transportation Cabinet officials about possible changes, such as limiting where overweight trucks could travel, so he was not ready for a vote yesterday.

"It's just late in the process," Guth-rie told reporters after the meeting, which dealt with several unrelated measures. "We're running out of time."

The bill, which would expand the number of 60-ton trucks on the road, faces rising opposition from people who say that the massive rigs threaten motorists and pedestrians and cost taxpayers millions of dollars a year in repairs to damaged pavement.

Currently, only coal trucks are allowed to run at 60 tons, 50 percent above the usual limit. The bill would authorize trucks hauling other types of "natural resources," such as gravel and sand, to do the same.

In a hallway outside the hearing room, Wayne Fleming of Letcher County said he came to tell the committee about his 29-year-old son, who died last year in a crash with an illegally overweight gravel truck.

As Guthrie passed Fleming, the senator told him: "I hate that you folks had to drive all the way up here and weren't able to speak."

Opponents of the bill, many of whom left Eastern Kentucky at 6 a.m. and drove through snow to attend, said they were disappointed.

But they also expected it, they said. The bill is backed by Leonard Lawson, a road builder reliant on gravel. Lawson's family has given $76,000 during recent years to state legislative campaigns, plus $96,000 combined to the state Democratic and Republican parties.

"The wheels seem pretty well greased. Even if you could get your hands on this bill, it would probably squirt right out, like a fish," said Letcher County Judge-Executive Carroll Smith.

Lawson did not return a call to his Lexington office.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Howard Cornett, R-Whitesburg, denied any suggestion that Lawson pushed him to file it.

Cornett accepted at least $10,000 from Lawson's family and associates for his 2004 election campaign. He described the road builder as a longtime friend and valued employer in his district. However, Lawson is not pulling his strings, he said.

"This is a Howard Cornett bill. I had it filed, I've been working my butt off to get it passed," Cornett said. He added: "Now, there are other people who have interests in it. I appreciate that."

Cornett's bill would expand a 1986 law that allows trucks to haul coal at 60 tons on designated state roads. His bill is meant to satisfy critics in the gravel industry who complain that coal now enjoys preferential treatment.

Fleming, whose son died in the gravel truck collision, said the bill would aggravate an already dangerous situation for people who share the roads with big trucks.

"House Bill 8 will turn the rest of this state into what Eastern Kentucky is now ... a killing field," Fleming said.

Guthrie said most of the public reaction he's heard has been negative.

Just before yesterday's meeting, he said, city officials from Lexington and elsewhere protested that the measure would put overweight trucks onto their streets, far from the isolated rural areas where big coal trucks usually run.

Guthrie said he is trying to figure out how to keep the rigs out of cities, though he admitted that could discriminate against gravel plants, based on their locations.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher also has concerns about the bill's effect on roads and traffic safety in areas unprepared for 60-ton trucks, said his spokesman, Doug Hogan. The governor would want to study the bill if it reached his desk, Hogan said.

The bill could reappear with amendments in the Senate Transportation Committee at any time, Guthrie said.

During the final days of a legislative session, it's not uncommon for committees to gather on a few minutes notice to act on bills that otherwise would be lost.

Guthrie said he will try to offer as much advance notice as possible and hold his meeting in a room that can accommodate the public.

Whenever the committee finally decides to meet, the bill is likely to win swift approval, said Sen. David Boswell, D-Owensboro, who sits on the panel.

Boswell, who said he opposes the bill, predicted it would face stiffer resistance in the full Senate. Among the senators pledging to fight the bill on the Senate floor is Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort, a former governor.

"This just seems like bad public policy to some of us," Boswell said. "We're freezing the extra penny on the gas tax to help pay for road maintenance. Now we're going to pass a bill that will tear up the roads?"