FRANKFORT — You know you live in Kentucky when the state legislature confronts a $1.2 billion shortfall but lawmakers spend time defending cockfighting.

The U.S. Humane Society played video in the capitol rotunda this week showing a packed cockfighting pit in Manchester, a video which included a uniformed Kentucky State Trooper watching the festivities and footage of two children playing with fighting birds. KSP believes existing statutes are “ambiguous” and they are reluctant to levy charges unless they find gambling or illegal alcohol on the premises.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, told reporters he doesn’t think cockfighting is such a bad crime and he said if a poll were taken in his native Floyd County 98 percent would approve of the practice. Dog fighting on the other hand, he said, is cruel and criminal. The difference? Well, said Stumbo, you don’t find dogs on the menu at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The cockfighting pit pictured in the video is in Clay County where a well-publicized vote fraud trial is underway. (There are other investigations of alleged voting irregularities reportedly underway in Kentucky so it’s not unique to Clay County.) Clay County, of course, was subject of an unflattering CNN report on apathetic voters and poverty during the 2008 election.

Some folks came to town Thursday complaining the coal industry controls the General Assembly and intimidates those speaking out against the industry’s environmental record. Those who support coal often characterize the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth as left-wing malcontents – “outsiders” – out to destroy coal. (Interestingly, most of the companies who are targets of KFTC’s criticism have corporate headquarters in other states.) But most of the folks speaking out Thursday looked a lot like everyday Kentuckians: a preacher; a retired teacher; a housewife (admittedly Patty Wallace has been called the “housewife from hell” and she doesn’t shrink from the label); and a retired policeman.

Truman Hurt, the pastor of the Kodak Church of the True and Living God in Perry County, said it’s wrong to accuse him and others of trying to destroy coal. He’s a former miner. But it’s not too much to ask, Hurt said, that laws on the books to regulate surface mining be enforced, something he thinks rarely happens in southeastern Kentucky. Rick Handshoe, the retired policeman and a constituent of Stumbo’s, said the creek near his Floyd County house “ran orange this morning” from the runoff from a mine site.

Stumbo, Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, and the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, Jim Gooch, D-Providence, say it’s their “responsibility” to represent the interests of an industry which provides good wages and benefits to workers in eastern Kentucky and low energy rates for the state. As for complaints about intimidation of coal critics, Stumbo said the complaints “sound like sour grapes to me.”

Meanwhile, as of Friday, the House continued to struggle with that budget. Stumbo has assured us, however, there won’t be any tax increases, the budget will balance, and this is a very good time to take on more debt for capital projects. Interest rates are down, he said, material costs are low, and construction companies and workers are hungry for work so bids are coming in below estimates.

At times, it sounded a bit like those mortgage company commercials of a couple of years ago, the ones which urged homeowners to re-finance or buy new homes. That turned out to be a great idea, didn’t it?

We live in interesting times in a colorful state.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis(at)cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.