10 responses so far ↓

• 1 E // Mar 5, 2012 at 12:02 pm

  Those interested in being the “third-party vendor” can send their campaign donations to…

• 2 Phil // Mar 5, 2012 at 12:22 pm

  That $10 for tractors is going to trickle down to teh consumers and end up costing $25 or more by the time it’s all done.

• 3 Jason Puckett // Mar 5, 2012 at 12:25 pm

  Probably a good thing the Sherman Minton got fixed/reinforced as it looks like it will be handling a lot more traffic when these tolls go into effect.

• 4 Sam // Mar 5, 2012 at 1:27 pm

  As long as it’s easy/cheap for those of us who go back and forth frequently, and it results in a constant stream of traffic without interruption, I’m willing to pay a small fee.

• 5 Len // Mar 5, 2012 at 1:38 pm

  Even though the Kennedy bridge is bought and paid for by tax payer dollars, we now get to buy it again. What a wonderful dictatorship we have here, just like the force arena that we voted down.

• 6 Nova China // Mar 5, 2012 at 1:47 pm

  You forgot to add that the tolls will never stop. Ever. Even when everything gets paid for 10 times over.

• 7 E // Mar 5, 2012 at 1:58 pm

  For longer haul trucks, the toll$ can be factored in with nominal impact.
  For a local business, that may have factored in fuel and wages…at maybe $10 to $15 per delivery…this represents a significant percentage increase per delivery.
  I count myself amongst those making local deliveries.

• 8 Bill // Mar 5, 2012 at 4:56 pm

  Politicians again showing they have no concept of economics except when it enriches them and their cronies. Get ready for the brain drain to start again from the Louisville/Southern Indiana area because of the lousy schools, government waste, and terrible economic policies that suck the life out of the middle class and educated. Not to mention the poor. These clowns absolutely don’t get it. So I guess those 10 dollar an hour employees are going to get to pay and extra tax of 1 dollar per crossing to get to their low wage jobs. Even people making less than 10. This regressive tax hurts the poor and does little to improve the bridges situation. Maybe if the Commonwealth didn’t flush hundreds of millions in revenue down the drain in crap like busing kids all over Louisville and discouraging businesses to come here through silly tax schemes we would have a lot nicer things. I’m not talking about legitimate expenditures of government like roads, schools, social services for people that can’t help themselves. I’m talking about paying out huge corrupt sums to local politicians and the good old boys. The Metro Government type corruption, the MSD Corruption, the LWC Corruption, and more. That’s why they don’t have money to contribute towards construction. Look at all the debt MSD racked up over the last 15 years about 2 billion bucks. Some of it was for good use like stormwater diversion and sewer improvements but a lot of it went into the hands of contractors, Bud Schardein, and the rest of the crooks.

  After all, the local economy for most people isn’t turning up roses at this point anyway and when push comes to shove, people will end up having to relocate to where they can find paying jobs even it means moving 100 or 200 miles away or even more. The so called leaders of Louisville simply don’t get that.

  I know quite a few college educated people in their 20s and 30s who have expressed to me that when they get the money saved up and some decent job elsewhere, they are going..l…going…. gone. I believe that they are quite sincere so when I hear people like Vaughan Scott and his puppet Benny Breeze I think they are clueless. Building two new bridges with recycled tolls on existing bridges and the new ones won’t fix the problem. It certainly won’t help the local economy outside of some construction jobs and it won’t bring a big job boon to this area. If anything, more hassles lead to people saying forget about it and looking for greener pastures. That’s why cities like Chicago are losing population both because of crime, wasteful taxation, and other issues. Detroit fell apart the same way and it wasn’t because of unionism. It was because there was no accountability in the mayors office, police force, government in general. Then as a result the big automotive suppliers and companies pulled out too which left a core problem of having hundreds of thousands of people with no jobs and few other skills or transferrable skills. Meanwhile, there was no attempt at putting other industries together as well. This is where Louisville is going wrong in that it needs more business and growth that would shore up the tax base both for Louisville and Kentucky. Greg Fischer, Jerry Abramson, Beshear, David Williams, Stumbo, and the rest of these people in government just don’t get it. They are just as clueless as Jimbo Ramsey and Shirley about how to create a productive society.

• 9 markp // Mar 5, 2012 at 7:21 pm

  You can thank River Fields, the Browns/Fraziers and the rest of the east end ilk that have held up an east end bridge for decades. We need a new downtown bridge like a hole in the head. Build the east end bridge, force trucks to go around Louisville unless they have business downtown, and then extend 265 in Indiana into Harrison County and build another bridge connecting that area to the South end of Louisville to Gene Snyder. It’s logical but this is a community that takes years to paint a bridge.

• 10 Bill // Mar 5, 2012 at 9:00 pm

  Very good points MarkP. I’ve felt for at least a decade that they should put a bridge linking Indiana to SW Louisville. It could probably be done in an economical and rapid manner to tie in the west bank of the Ohio River to the Riverport and Cane Run area. Considering that much of the current infrastructure is in place on Greenbelt that it could be routed along Greenbelt for a while and then cross the river into Indiana to extend to I 64 maybe near Georgetown or perhaps closer to I 265. They need to build the East End bridge first and get it completed. This idea of us continually paying tolls for a Kennedy Bridge is bullcrap because if the Commonwealth had the money we wouldn’t need tolls. They’ve spent generations flushing money down the toilet. Look at the streets in Louisville in different places and how bad they have become. On Dixie Hwy, my car feels like its going to fall apart at any time just because of the streets. At Crums Lane and Dixie, its so rough you have to drive about 5 mph at a certain place in that intersection because the streets are falling apart. Its not just a Dixie Hwy phenomenon either. Its all over the city that streets are falling apart or have been so poorly maintained that they cause unnecessary damage to others cars and have to be repaired. Nothing is getting fixed in most areas. I’ve been on a few side streets in the Hikes Lane and McMahan areas that are falling apart. There is no maintenance on these streets. Greenbelt is the same way because every once in a while a motorcyclist is getting killed after hitting a pothole and wrecking. Instead of giving payouts and backroom deals with Cordish and others, this city ought to fix its infrastructure or there won’t be much of a reason to do much of anything. Oh and by the way, does anyone out there remember when Jerry Abramson signed a butt kissing deal with the KY Transportation Cabinet and Beshear to take over all road maintenance on state highways in Jefferson County. Last I checked, there hasn’t been much improvements in many areas of town since that colossal crook took over the maintenance agreement. In fact, the streets got worse and worse in his tenure. Yet, he ends up being the Lt. Governor. So I guess he will get his greasy hands into shaking down the rest of the state just like he did with Louisville.

Leave a Comment