Sitting on Capitol Hill
(updated 3.1.19 4:02 pm)
As of this writing, HB517 is “sitting on capitol hill”. KBT is waiting optimistically as the legislative process continues and will report to you directly on any updates and action items.
However, over the past week there has still been much going on Kentucky’s Capitol Hill.
The highlight of the week, in KBT’s opinion, was yesterday.
Yesterday, the Kentucky Aerospace Industry Consortium (KAIC) and Kentucky Aviation Association (KAA) held Kentucky’s 3rd Annual Aerospace Day at our state’s Capitol.
Throughout the day, visitors had the opportunity to meet with over 30 exhibitors who represented tier-one aerospace companies, colleges, KDA, and Kentucky airports. It was great to see companies like GE Aviation, from Erlanger, KY to first time exhibitor, Ishitoshi Machining Inc. all the way from Japan.
Aerospace products are the number one Kentucky export and Kentucky is ranked the number two aerospace export sate. There are over 600 companies in the Kentucky aerospace and defense cluster providing employment go over 17,000 people.
Why Kentucky? One major factor is that Kentucky logistics just makes more sense as KAIC quotes ” Kentucky Logistics Makes It Easy”.
- Kentucky is within one day’s drive to two-thirds of the United States population.
- Kentucky has 3 intermodal shipping hubs.
- Kentucky has 20 interstates and major highways.
- Kentucky has 3200 km of waterways with access to 9 public riverports.
- Kentucky has 6 commercial airports.
- Kentucky has 3700 km of class I rail lines.
KBT shouldn’t have to state the obvious but will.
Without the funding now to sustain our transportation network, the phrase “Kentucky Logistics Makes it Easy” may soon change to “Kentucky’s Logistics Makes it Cumbersome”. Let’s continue to work to ensure this does not happen!