Who will be the 1st Republican State Senator to oppose tolls?

On January 31, 2012, Louisville State Senators Perry Clark and Denise Harper Angel, both Democrats, reintroduced a bill from last year in the Kentucky Senate called the Keeping Kentucky's Freeways Free Act of 2012. (SB128) Here's the summary:

Activists protesting tolls in Louisville (2010)

     "AN ACT relating to the imposition of tolls or fees on federal interstate highways.
     Create a new section of KRS Chapter 177 to prohibit the imposition of tolls or user fees on any portion of the interstate highway system currently in existence; name the Act the "Keeping Kentucky's Freeways Free Act of 2012."

Let's face it. Tolls are tax, and they aren't simply a "use tax" as Wall Street likes to call them. They're a disproportionate tax on the working families in our community. With tolls, those who have no choice but to use the infrastructure to get back and forth will bear the full burden of the costs of the infrastructure. While the rich and those benefiting from a regional economy infrastructure creates, get off scott free.


What this bill needs now, desperately, is Republican co-sponsors, and this is why we need 10 minutes of your time. If you are opposed to tolls on the Kennedy Bridge, this is one of the few shots you have left to prevent them.

There are 22 Republicans in the Senate, and I've listed them below with a link to their contact information and the counties they represent.

Contact as many as you can, but ideally the ones you have a regional connection with first, like if you have family or business in their district, for example. You don't have to live in a Senator's district, or even Kentucky, to contact them and give them your opinion. And you don't have to write them some long letter, copy/paste this and email it if you like:

Please support the Keeping Kentucky's Freeways Free Act of 2012 (SB 128). Tolls on existing roads and bridges will cause an unacceptable hardship to my family and my community.

Obviously, Senators within a rock's throw of Louisville best understand how important a toll-free Kennedy bridge is to our region's vitality, so I listed them below first. But don't think tolls won't pop up all over Kentucky if citizen's don't lobby their legislators to stop it, while we still can!
Louisville area:
Senator Julie Denton Jefferson
Senator Dan Seum Jefferson (part)
Senator Paul Hornback Boone (part), Carroll, Gallatin, Henry, Jefferson (part), Shelby, Spencer
Senator Ernie Harris Jefferson (part), Oldham, Trimble 
Senator Vernie McGaha Bullitt, Nelson


The rest of Kentucky:
Senator Joe Bowen Daviess, Ohio 
Senator Tom Buford Boyle, Fayette (part), Garrard, Jessamine
Senator Jared Carpenter  Estill, Madison, Rockcastle 
Senator Carroll Gibson Breckinridge Butler Grayson Hancock Hart Meade*
Senator David Givens Adair, Barren, Edmonson, Green, Larue, Metcalfe, Monroe
Senator Jimmy Higdon  Casey, Lincoln, Marion, Mercer, Taylor, Washington 
Senator Tom Jensen Laurel, McCreary, Whitley 
Senator Alice Forgy Kerr Fayette (part)
Senator John Schickel Boone (part)** 
Senator Brandon Smith Bell, Breathitt, Johnson, Leslie, Magoffin, Perry 
Senator Katie Stine Bracken, Campbell, Pendleton 
Senator Robert Stivers Clay, Jackson, Knox, Lee, Menifee, Owsley, Rowan, Wolfe 
Senator Damon Thayer*** Grant, Kenton (part), Scott
Senator Jack Westwood Erlanger**
Senator David Williams  Clinton, Cumberland, Pulaski, Russell, Wayne 
Senator Mike Wilson Warren (part) 
Senator Ken Winters Calloway, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Livingston, Lyon, Trigg

*Many Meade County residents use two Ohio River Bridges to get to work daily. They'll cross over the Matthew E. Welsh Bridge from Brandenburg to Mauckport en route to I-64, then they'll cross back into Kentucky on the Sherman Minton when they get to Louisville. Obviously if tolls were allowed to be placed on either of those bridges, a double hardship would be felt for some of Senator Gibson's constituents. 
**Governor Beshear and the Governor of Ohio, whoever that is, have already got a little commission working on how to create more cross-river connections between Florence/Union/Covington/Newport and Cincinnati. It's only a couple years in the future that tolls on existing bridges will be proposed to burden Senator Schickel's and Senator Westwood's constituents.
***Might be a good one to ask because he has no problem standing up to his party's leadership.

A special thanks to Say No to Bridge Tolls co-founder Shawn Reilly for his lobbying on behalf of  SB128, as well as to Senator Clark and Senator Harper Angel for sponsoring the bill.