Congress won’t ride to rescue on Brent Spence Bridge

• The governors of both Ohio and Kentucky envision a new bridge built with toll revenue.
• Northern Kentucky residents and politicians envision a new bridge built with federal funding.
• Here’s why there’s not likely to be a bridge unless tolls pay for part of it.
• Weigh in using the Enquirer’s ‘talk to your government’ tool

WASHINGTON – As Kentucky leaders continue to tussle over how to pay the $2.6 billion price tag for replacing the outdated Brent Spence Bridge, some clearly hope Congress will come to the rescue.

In arguing for a ban on tolls as a way to pay for the bridge, Kentucky state legislative leaders said earlier this month that the Brent Spence Bridge was the federal government’s “responsibility,” so Washington should come up with a way to pay for a much-needed new Ohio River crossing.

But there’s almost no chance lawmakers in Washington will cut a big check to help cover the cost of building a new bridge, supporters of the project say.

Here are four reasons it won’t happen – and one way it might:

‘Window’s closed’ on federal earmarks

The only big chunk of federal money designated for the bridge so far came nearly a decade ago in the form of a $50 million “earmark,” the term for special appropriations inserted into bills by members of Congress to channel federal money to home-state projects. That money, secured by then-Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., and other lawmakers in 2005, passed as part of a broader highway bill.

Five or 10 years ago, lawmakers could easily add such earmarks to big spending bills. But such provisions are now banned, after an earmark-related corruption scandal sent a former lawmaker and lobbyist to prison.

“We got the last tranche of money for the bridge through a federal earmark,” said ex-Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Ky., who helped snag the funding. Now “that window’s closed.”

The Highway Trust Fund is running on fumes

Congress pays for highway maintenance and other surface transportation programs with money from the Highway Trust Fund, which gets its revenue primarily from the 18.4 cent-per-gallon federal tax on gasoline and a 24.4 cent-per-gallon tax on diesel fuel.

But those taxes don’t raise enough money to cover the cost of current federal transportation obligations – let alone any big new projects. Congress has repeatedly raided general revenue to keep the fund solvent, and this year won’t be any different.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has said the fund is “on track to bounce checks” as early as August. To prevent that, Congress will either have to transfer general revenues again or cut transportation spending.

Or lawmakers could raise the gas tax. But that’s a political nonstarter – opposed by both President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, among others.

“The Highway Trust Fund is going bankrupt,” said Brent Cooper, interim president of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. “And we have not seen yet a solution that appears is going anywhere.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, agreed.

“It’s a hot potato,” he said. “The political climate is such that I doubt you will see any new revenue measures this year for the Highway Trust Fund.”

Congress isn’t in a spending mood now

Even if the trust fund were flush, there is simply no appetite for plumped-up spending bills in this Congress. Lawmakers – especially in the GOP-controlled House – are all about reducing the deficit and shrinking government.

A case in point: When Congress reauthorized federal highway programs, Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Westwood, and others successfully pushed to include a provision authorizing the Department of Transportation to devote $500 million to “projects of regional and national significance.”

That would clearly apply to the Brent Spence Bridge, a major interstate artery that carries I-75 and I-71 traffic through the Cincinnati region and beyond. Kentucky officials were eager to apply for a grant through the new program.

But Congress never funded that provision; when lawmakers approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill for fiscal year 2014, not one penny was included for major regional and national projects.

Chabot and others said they will try to secure funding for mega projects in the next transportation spending bill, for fiscal year 2015. But it’s not clear how much – if any – money they will be able to get.

“There may be potential funding, although it’s always challenging because we have a $17 trillion debt hanging over our heads,” Chabot said.

During a lobbying trip to Washington organized by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce, local business leaders said they heard commiseration about the challenges in finding money for the bridge, but not much else.

“I’ve not heard anything concrete,” Jill P. Meyer, an attorney with Frost Brown Todd who attended the delegation meetings. “I think they’re scratching their heads about it, too.”

Supporters of building a new Brent Spence Bridge note that even if Congress appropriates the full $500 million for major projects, the bridge would still have to compete with dozens of others around the country for a slice of that pie.

“In addition to the Brent Spence, no fewer than 36 transportation ‘mega projects’ – defined as costing $1 billion or more – currently are in the works around the United States,” Kentucky Transportation Secretary Michael Hancock wrote in a recent op-ed on Brent Spence funding. “Several are larger than the Brent Spence.”

It’s unrealistic to think Congress and the Federal Highway Administration will fund the bridge if “Kentucky and Ohio simply take and hold a hard line (against) tolling,” wrote Hancock, a supporter of tolls.

Alternative funding proposals don’t have any political legs

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has pushed the idea of redirecting U.S. foreign aid into a new transportation infrastructure fund. But when he actually got a vote in the Senate on the idea last summer – as an amendment that would have channeled $1.5 billion in U.S. aid to Egypt into bridge replacement – it was soundly defeated by a vote of 86-13.

Massie also supports that concept, and he said it’s wildly popular among his constituents. But not in Congress. Even Paul has conceded his proposal has little chance of passing.

Obama, meanwhile, has called on Congress to pass a four-year, $300 billion infrastructure spending bill – to be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes. So far, Obama’s idea has gone nowhere.

How about getting a loan from Washington?

The one way for the Brent Spence Bridge project to get federal money: by securing a low-cost federal loan through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA). Created in 1998 to lend money to local entities for projects of “regional and national significance,” Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and others say it’s ideal for the Brent Spence Bridge.

“TIFIA alone won’t provide all the funding, but it can help a lot,” Portman said.

Local supporters of the project are counting on it, according to a December 2013 financing plan for replacing the bridge drafted by Ohio and Kentucky transportation officials. That document says officials are assuming “the project will be able to obtain TIFIA credit assistance” and noted that other projects – such as Louisville’s Downtown Crossing – have received significant money through the program.

There is a catch: TIFIA loans must be repaid with a dedicated revenue stream – such as tolls or other user fees.

Portman said he’s already talked to Transportation Secretary Foxx about getting TIFIA money for the bridge, if and when local officials coalesce around a local financing plan.

“We have teed that issue up, so we’re ready to go,” he said.

There’s other good news. Of the initial $50 million obtained through the earmark, about $23 million remains for local officials to devote to the bridge.

Plus, some area lawmakers note that Ohio and Kentucky already get millions of federal transportation dollars – $640 million from the federal highway kitty for Kentucky and nearly $1.3 billion for Ohio – which state officials could devote to a new bridge.

“We collect the gas tax and we send it down to the states on a formula basis,” Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told The Enquirer. “They decide how to spend it. That’s the way it works.”

Asked about the contention by some in Frankfort that the bridge is a federal responsibility, McConnell said flatly: “But it isn’t.” ⬛