As the Kentucky legislature is set to return March 26 from a weeklong pause amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the House will take up a potentially controversial bill that would raise the state’s fuel taxes on cars and trucks, and increase registration fees for conventional and electric-powered vehicles.
The proposal comes after the Kentucky’s House of Representatives passed a two-year, $4.7-billion statewide transportation spending measure, which now awaits action in the state Senate. In addition to funding hundreds of projects in a separately passed state Road Plan, the bill allocates $80 million a year to bridge repair and replacement and $8 million to installation of guard rails. Budgets for aviation, railroad crossings and riverport projects would also see increases.