In their response to our latest ad the Lunsford campaign tried to say that Bruce Lunsford shouldn’t be held accountable for the automatic gas tax railroaded to passage in 1980 by the Brown administration.

It was Bruce Lunsford who made this an issue.  He has touted this as one of his signature achievements in a 30-year career working in and around state government and politics.  Watch Lunsford discuss the accomplishment.  On his website Bruce Lunsford said he was so proud of the achievement that he called his father to tell him about the victory and the sense of responsibility that he felt.

Bruce Lunsford wasn’t a junior level staffer watching from the sidelines. According to press accounts from 1980, Lunsford served as Governor John Y. Brown’s “chief legislative liaison,” and “[directed] Brown’s legislative operation.” (Courier-Journal, March 1980)

The gas tax plan pushed by Lunsford generated strong opposition in the state legislature, and it was Lunsford who directed the lobbying effort that forced the reluctant legislature into passing the bill.

According to a 1980 Courier-Journal account, “the governor acknowledged that with two weeks left in the [legislative] session that he [did] not have the votes to enact the gasoline-tax increase.”  The same Courier-Journal report said that “more than 60 of the 100 House members reportedly would vote against the proposal.” (Courier-Journal, March 14, 1980)

Governor Brown was “incensed” by this opposition to the tax increase (Lexington Herald, March 17, 1980), and Lunsford embarked on a lobbying campaign using “hard-sell techniques” to push the bill (Courier-Journal, March 21, 1980). The AP reported that Brown planned to “ramrod his legislation” to passage (Lexington Herald, March 17, 1980), and with Bruce Lunsford’s help, he did just that.

Some of the legislators targeted by the Lunsford-directed lobbying campaign reported that the administration “had resorted to a hard-sell technique, coupled with implicit promises of support for projects in legislator’s districts” (Courier-Journal, March 21, 1980). One state senator who opposed the bill reported that he had been “intimidated” (Lexington Herald, March 29, 1980). The administration even threatened to call the legislature into a perpetual special session until it passed the gas tax hike (Courier-Journal, March 15, 1980).

One thing is for sure— if it were not for Lunsford’s aggressive lobbying to increase the gas tax, Kentuckians would be paying less at the pump.