KRS 177.480: Tolls for use of turnpike -- Contracts for utility and service facilities --

Disposition of toll revenues -- Maintenance of turnpike by Department of

Highways.

(1) The department is hereby authorized to fix, revise, charge, and collect tolls for the

use of each turnpike project and the different parts or sections thereof, and to

contract with any person, partnership, association, or corporation desiring the use of

any part thereof, including the right-of-way adjoining the paved portion, for placing

thereon telephone, telegraph, electric light or power lines, service stations, garages,

stores, hotels, and restaurants, or for any other purpose except for tracks for railroad

or railway use, and to fix the terms, conditions, rents, and rates of charges for such

use. A sufficient number of service stations shall be authorized to be established in

each service area along any such turnpike to permit reasonable competition by

private business in the public interest.

(2) Tolls shall be so fixed and adjusted in re spect of the aggregate of tolls from the

turnpike project or projects in connection with which the bonds of any issue shall

have been issued under the provisions of KRS 177.390 to 177.570 as to provide

funds sufficient, with any other available funds, to p ay (a) the cost of maintaining,

repairing, operating, regulating, and policing such turnpike project or projects,

unless such cost or any part thereof has been assumed by the department as

provided in this section, and (b) the principal of and the interest on such bonds as

the same shall become due and payable, and to create reserves for such purposes.

Such tolls shall not be subject to supervision or regulation by any other department,

commission, board, bureau, or agency of the Commonwealth. The tolls and all other

revenues derived from the turnpike project or projects in connection with which the

bonds of any issue shall have been issued, except such part thereof as may be

necessary to pay such cost of maintenance, repair, operation, regulation, and

policing, and to provide such reserves therefor as may be provided for in the

proceedings authorizing the issuance of such bonds or in the trust agreement

securing the same, shall be set aside in a sinking fund or funds which are hereby

pledged to, and charged with, the payment of the principal of and the interest on

such bonds as the same shall become due and the redemption price or the purchase

price of bonds retired by call or purchase as therein provided. Such pledge shall be

valid and binding from the time when the pledge is made; the tolls or other revenues

or other moneys so pledged and thereafter received by the department shall

immediately be subject to the lien of such pledge without any physical delivery

thereof or further act; and the lien of any such pledge shall be valid and binding as

against all parties having claims of any kind in tort, contract or otherwise against the

department, irrespective of whether such parties have notice thereof. Neither the

proceedings nor any trust agreement by which a pledge is created need be filed or

recorded except in the records of the department. The use and disposition of moneys

to the credit of any such sinking fund shall be subject to the provisions of the

proceedings authorizing the issuance of such bonds or of such trust agreement.

Except as may otherwise be provided in such proceedings or in such trust

agreement, any such sinking fund shall be a fund for all bonds provided to be

payable therefrom without distinction or priority of one over another.

(3) Notwithstanding any of the foregoing provisions of this section, the department

may, in the proceedings authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds or revenue

refunding bonds under the provisions of KRS 177.390 to 177.570 or in the trust

agreement securing such bon ds, covenant to pay all or any part of the cost of

maintaining, repairing, operating, regulating, and policing any project constructed

under the provisions of KRS 177.390 to 177.570, and the department may, in such

proceedings or trust agreement, covenant to make up all or any part of any

deficiency in the fund or funds pledged to and charged with the payment of the

principal of and the interest on such bonds from any funds or tax revenues available

for general purposes of the department and not required by law to be devoted to

some other purpose, and, inasmuch as such project will at all times belong to the

Commonwealth, any such covenant will have the force of contract between the

Commonwealth and the holders of such revenue bonds or revenue refunding bonds.

(4) Notwithstanding any of the foregoing provisions of this section, the department

may, in the proceedings authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds or revenue

refunding bonds under the provisions of KRS 177.390 to 177.570 or in the trust

agreement securing such bonds, pledge to the payment of such bonds all motor fuel

taxes and surtaxes collected by the Commonwealth on gasoline and other motor

fuels consumed on any project financed under the provisions of KRS 177.390 to

177.570, except the two -sevenths (2/7) of said motor fuel taxes provided by KRS

138.220 to be set aside for the construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of

rural and secondary roads, and covenant to deposit such motor fuel taxes and

surtaxes from time to time in the sinking fund or funds pledged to the payment of

such bonds. In determining the amount of motor fuel consumed on any turnpike

project the department shall divide the total miles traveled on such project by

passenger automobiles, single unit trucks, and semitrailer trucks a nd buses as

determined by the department by the average number of miles per gallon of motor

fuel consumed by each of those classes of motor vehicles on the following basis:

Passenger automobiles 15 miles per gallon

Single unit trucks 10 miles per gallon

Semitrailer trucks and buses 5 miles per gallon