Will T. Scott has been running a long time, but last weekend, the former Kentucky Supreme Court justice came to Covington to walk.
He’s still running, though. This time, Scott is one of four candidates on the Republican side of the 2015 Kentucky gubernatorial race. He left the state Supreme Court bench in December to pursue the state’s highest office, one that he said could generate more money for the Commonwealth if it had expanded gambling.
In fact, some of the money generated by Scott’s ideal gaming situation could help fund massive infrastructure projects like the estimated $2.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge corridor, one that currently appears to be headed for tolling if legislation moves forward in Frankfort this month.
“The Brent Spence Bridge is fifty years old. It’s handling two interstates. It has to be built,” Scott said during a chat with The River City News in the historic law offices of Bob Sanders on Russell Street. He discounted some newly released opinions on alternate possibilities for dealing with the congested corridor that connects Covington and Northern Kentucky to Cincinnati along the conjoined Interstates 71 and 75, including a proposal floated by his opponent, Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, whose campaign suggested a reset on the Brent Spence project in favor of the exploration of a possible span over the Ohio River between the areas of Ft. Thomas and Newtown, Ohio.
“It cannot be moved from that corridor,” Scott said. “It’s lined up with existing interstates. These engineers know what they’re doing it. You’d have to rebuild 75 and 71 to get over there. Look what you’d be doing to your community, not only on the Kentucky side, but Ohio has to do it.”
As for tolls, Scott is firmly opposed. “You can’t put tolls on an interstate bridge unless you want five miles or ten miles of back-up. We have got a problem in this district between (Senator Mitch) McConnell, (House Speaker John) Boehner, (Congressman) Hal Rogers, and (Congressman) Thomas Massie. Why aren’t you bringing any federal money? The people here are going to have to wake up. If you’re attacking McConnell, Boehner, and Hal Rogers, don’t expect to see any money.”
Scott referenced the large block of concrete that recently fell from an approach to the bridge and landed on a car below as evidence that the corridor needs to be addressed. “I’ll do everything I can but I need someone to help me at the federal level,” he said.Â
The candidate was in Covington to visit with Sanders a group known as the Hiking Lawyers, an organization founded by Lexington attorney Helen Gulgun Bukulmez who thought that taking attorneys from the courtrooms to the wilderness would help ease any troubles with stress associated with the profession. Thirteen people showed up for the first hike but now the group has swelled to a network of 800 members, Bukulmez said. Scott was an early supporter. “He came to me and said, ‘I really like your idea’, and invited me to hike with him,” she said. “Our support for him is bipartisan because he supports hiking, because he supports the mountains.”
Scott lives on a mountain in Pike County in a home that he built to be sustainable “off the grid”. All the power sources are generated naturally. He is someone familiar with seeking alternative ways to do things, which is why, he says, he can find alternative approaches to problems like funding solutions to traffic congestion on major interstate corridors. He explained his position just before the Hiking Lawyers went on their first “urban hike” across the bridges of Covington into Cincinnati, and then into Newport, and back.
But, like he said, he’ll need the help of the people. “They have to help me plug the bottom of the money bucket in Frankfort,” Scott said. He pointed to the tens of millions in unfunded pension liabilities Kentucky faces. “Kentucky could pay for it with a large increase in the sales tax. Will T. Scott will never be for that.They could take three to six billion now and borrow it on a 20-year plan to pay a debt they can’t pay, and roll the dice in the stock market. That’s gambling. It makes no economic sense to gamble with that money.”
Instead, Scott wants four casinos: one at Churchill Downs in Louisville, one at Keeneland in Lexington, one at Ellis Park in Henderson, and one here in Northern Kentucky at Turfway Park in Florence. He said that idea would take the money being spent by Kentuckians at casinos on Indiana riverboats and in downtown Cincinnati and bring it back to the Commonwealth. He said with those four casino licenses, he could generate a quarter of a billion dollars for the state. “All I want to do is move it eleven-hundred yards and take Kentucky’s share back from helping Ohio and Indiana pay their bills,” he said. “Then we’re going to have some oxygen back in government because they bucket’s not leaking.”
Scott last campaigned in Northern Kentucky when he took a small boat along the state’s waterways during his unsuccessful pursuit of the Republican nomination for governor in 1995, a race he would eventually lose to Larry Forgy. He made stops in river towns all over Commonwealth. He was twice the GOP nominee for Congress in Kentucky’s old 7th District, and also served as a circuit judge before being elected to the Supreme Court from eastern Kentucky in 2004.Â
This time around, Scott faces a tough race against the popular Comer, whose running mate is Kenton County State Senator Chris McDaniel. The field also includes Louisville businessman and former councilman Hal Heiner and his running mate, former Lexington City Council member K.C. Crosbie, as well as Louisville businessman Matt Bevin who lost the GOP nomination to the incumbent McConnell in last year’s US Senate race. Bevin is running with Jenean Hampton who would become the state’s first black lieutenant governor if elected.
Scott is joined on the ballot by Menifee County Sheriff Rodney Coffey.
If elected, he would want to see the expanded gambling issue put to a vote by the people of Kentucky. He said that is the best answer to the leaky bucket containing government funds. “$6.8 billion in payroll. $30 billion-plus for pensions. It’s like we’re paying time and a half on every dollar, every day,” he said. “That’s where our money goes.” The gaming money could also be used to fund $10 to $12 million annually for elderly heating assistance, he said.Â
Once the financial house is in order, the economy will grow, Scott predicted. “Businesses will say, ‘We’ll go to Kentucky now. They can pay their bills’.”
Gambling is the way to go, he said. “It’s already here in Kentucky,” Scott said. “I’m just wanting to move it eleven-hundred yards to feed our people and build our bridges. I’m the only one talking solutions rather than platitudes.”
Story & photo by Michael Monks, editor & publisher of The River City News