“I’ve had several people comment to me about how the roads are really torn up. They are. That’s Suzie’s fault,” Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers jokingly said Thursday about Corbin Mayor Suzie Razmus.
“Hey, I wouldn’t have gotten the money if it wasn’t for you,” she quipped back laughingly.
All joking aside, both actually deserve some degree of the credit for getting our local road projects done.
Stivers told the Corbin Rotary Club during its regular monthly meeting Thursday that most road projects are a combination of efforts from several people including local and state officials.
“The reason I say it’s Suzie’s fault – it’s really not – it’s the process. Local people come up with the ideas. It is basic seventh grade civics. It kind of goes up through the line. It goes to the governor’s office. The governor makes recommendations. Here comes the legislature with the power of the purse and budgets,” Stivers said adding that today’s road construction was the result of a lot of work by a lot of people often over the course of a few years.
“All the things going on in this area are a combination of a lot of people working together,” Stivers explained.
Stivers was the keynote speaker during Thursday’s Rotary luncheon and touched on a number of topics during his speech, including discussions about infrastructure across the state and nation.
Another reason why local road construction projects are taking place now indirectly has to do with replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge in Northern Kentucky, which is used by about 10 percent of all semitruck traffic commerce in the United States.
Stivers noted that it was significant when Senator Mitch McConnell and others cut a deal with President Joe Biden to secure the full $3 billion to replace the Brent Spence Bridge. This kept the state from having to bond $1.5 billion to have to pay for what would have been their portion of the project.
The state not having to fund the Brent Spence Bridge construction left funding available to help pay for road construction projects, like the ones taking place off Exit 29 in North Corbin and Exit 25 in South Corbin, he explained.
Stivers noted that decisions, such as improving infrastructure through road improvements, are being made in order help bring businesses and prosperity to the state.
Kentucky has cut the state income tax to 6 percent over the last few years to 3.5 percent effective this January in another effort to bring businesses and improve the prosperity of the state, Stivers said.
Stivers added that Moody’s bond rating agency has improved the state’s bond rating, which means that the state can borrow money at cheaper interest rates, which can really add up on large projects.
One thing, which improved the bond rating, was more fully funding the state public pension systems, which went from being about 9 percent funded in 2016 to being about 40 percent funded now with more improvements being made each year.
Stivers also briefly touched on the possibility of the age for getting a driver’s permit being lowered to 15.5 years of age. The idea would be that students would be able to get their driver’s permit at a younger age, but would have to log more time behind the wheel before being able to get their driver’s license.
