Request By:
C. Leslie Dawson, Secretary
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
State Office Building
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: David L. Armstrong, Attorney General; Gerard R. Gerhard, Assistant Attorney General
You have asked whether the Transportation Cabinet has the authority to raise the speed limit on designated interstate highways based upon the delegation found in KRS 189.391(4) or whether this is a function of the General Assembly. Your question arises in the context of recent Congressional action which raised the national maximum highway speed limit for certain portions of highways on the Interstate System (H.R. 2, § 174; Pub. L. No. 100-17, April 2, 1987).
Our opinion is that, pursuant to KRS 189.391(4), and in view of recent Congressional action, you, as Secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, are currently under statutory direction to alter the maximum speed limits on designated portions of highways on the Interstate System in this state to sixty-five miles per hour. We believe the General Assembly, by enactment of KRS 189.391(4), has already acted on this question.
DISCUSSION
On January 2, 1974, Congress passed H.R. 11372, the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act (Pub. L. No. 93-239, 87 Stat. 1046). That enactment provided, in part, for a temporary national maximum highway speed limit of fifty-five miles per hour. It also prohibited the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation from approving federal-aid highway projects for any state having a maximum highway speed limit on any highway within its jurisdiction, in excess of fifty-five miles per hour. The temporary national maximum fifty-five mile per hour highway speed limit in H.R. 11372, was made permanent in S. 3934 (Pub. L. No. 93-463, 88 Stat. 2281), which became law on January 4, 1975, and was codified as Title 23, § 154 of the United States Code.
Specifically citing passage of H.R. 11372 (supra), the Kentucky General Assembly passed H.B. 184 (Enact. Acts 1974, ch. 9), which was signed by the Governor on February 6, 1974, and codified as KRS 189.391. H.B. 184 provided for maximum speed limits of fifty-five miles per hour on the various types of highways in this state. It also provided that:
In the event that the Congress of the United States should raise or lower the speed limits as set out in subsections (1), (2) and (3), [of KRS 189.391] the secretary of the transportation cabinet shall be empowered to [Emphasis added] alter the speed limits on the public highways of the Commonwealthd of Kentucky to comply speed limits on the public highways of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to comply therewith. Enact. Acts 1974, ch. 9, § 1, Subsection (1)(d).
In 1982, the General Assembly amended the language above, deleting the words "be empowered to" (Enact. Acts 1982, ch. 313, § 1). This change removed the discretion of the Secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to act in the event of certain Congressional action. It established instead a requirement that, in the event of specified Congressional action, the Secretary would take action to comply therewith.
On April 2, 1987, Congress passed, over presidential veto, the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Act of 1987, H.R. 2, Pub. L. No. 100-17. Part of H.R. 2 (§ 174) amended Title 23, Subsection 154(a) of the United States Code, to allow a sixty-five mile per hour maximum speed limit for certain portions of highways on the Interstate System, and retained the fifty-five mile per hour maximum limit for other highways.
The question then is: Did Congress, by enactment of H.R. 2, supra, raise or lower the speed limits mandated by KRS 189.391, and if it did, how does the Secretary of Transportation "comply therewith."
The maximum speed limits set by the General Assembly in KRS 189.391, were established to match the limits codified at Title 23, § 154 of the United States Code. Thus, "speed limits," as used in KRS 189.391, means those maximum limits set by federal law in Title 23 United States Code § 154. When Congress raised the maximum speed limit for certain highways (H.R. 2 § 174, supra), it "raised the speed limits" within the meaning of KRS 189.391.
The Secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet would "comply therewith" by implementing an increase, matching that allowed by federal law, in the maximum speed limit on certain portions of highways on the Interstate System (H.R. 2, supra).
Any other interpretation of KRS 189.391(4), we believe, would frustrate the clear intent of the Kentucky General Assembly that, in the event Congress raised or lowered the national maximum highway speed limit, a corresponding matching change would be affected upon the highways of this state. KRS 446.080(1).
It follows that as Secretary of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, you are currently under direction of KRS 189.391(4), in view of H.R. 2, supra, to alter to sixty-five miles per hour, the maximum speed limits on certain portions of highways on the Interstate System in this state, consistent with Title 23, § 154 United States Code, as amended (H.R. 2, § 174; Pub. L. No. 100-17, April 2, 1987).