Building a bridge to Washington, D.C.

Our Jan. 31 editorial about how Kentucky is wrestling with funding options for a Brent Spence Bridge replacement touched on the federal government’s involvement – rather, its lack of involvement – in this project. The bridge and the Interstate highway that crosses it are vital parts of the national infrastructure – and vital to national security, you can argue. The solution for funding the new bridge clearly should be national in scope. Yet federal officials essentially have told the states they’re on their own. Even if Kentucky lawmakers pass Senate President David Williams’ bill to let local governments establish authorities to raise and borrow money, they’ll need Washington’s buy-in as well. “We’ve got to get the federal government more involved than they want to be,” Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear told the Enquirer editorial board recently.

Washington says the money isn’t there in its Highway Trust Fund, but that situation might change. A congressional commission recommended last month that federal gasoline taxes be increased by up to 40 cents a gallon over the next five years to pay for infrastructure such as bridges. If Beshear is serious about tweaking the feds on these projects, he should be waving that study in their faces. And he should enlist the aid of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and the two states’ congressional delegations to emphasize the point.

There’s a moral justification here: Both Ohio and Kentucky have been shortchanged by that highway fund for literally decades, getting less back in federal transportation funding than they contribute in gas taxes (a little over 90 cents to the dollar, up from about 64 cents a decade ago). They’re paying for the infrastructure of recipient states such as West Virginia, which has gotten about $1.69 for each dollar it put into the kitty, thanks largely to the influence of Sen. Robert Byrd, D-Pork.

May that’s the argument Kentucky should be making: After all these years, you owe us one.