‘I thought we were broke’

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March 14, 2009

By RONNIE ELLIS The Glasgow Daily Times Sat Mar 14, 2009, 02:31 PM CDT

FRANKFORT — When the House last week passed a “technical budget clean up” bill, Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Burlington, had the best line:

“I thought we were broke,” Wuchner said during the floor debate.

If Wuchner was confused (who wouldn’t be?) she must be forgiven. After all, the budget bill the House was “cleaning up” was a combination of cigarette and alcohol tax increases and spending cuts to cover a projected $456 million budget shortfall.

During that debate, sponsors and leadership warned lawmakers they might face an even larger shortfall in the next fiscal year which begins July 1. Some of them were already talking about a special session this summer and a push by backers of electronic slots at race tracks to pass that legislation to produce more state money without still more new taxes.

But here was the House, passing a bill which authorized new school construction – of indisputably dilapidated elementary schools, but some of which are very small and which the Kentucky Department of Education thinks should be consolidated into larger, more cost-effective schools.

Some are located in counties which exert the minimum required local tax effort. House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, pointed out that all are elementary schools rated in the worst condition in the state. They had been slated for replacement six years ago, and the children in those schools deserved safe, modern facilities, he said. But in one instance – Metcalfe County – Rep. Jamie Comer, R-Tompkinsville who represents the county, openly proclaimed he hoped to see the bill amended in the Senate to allow that district to use the money to build, not an elementary school, but a middle school.

The bill contained money for a worthy mobile clinic in eastern Kentucky. But Jimmie Lee, D-Elizabethtown, noted that there were at least 200 such worthy but unfunded needs, so why was this one included in a “clean up” bill? And several disgruntled lawmakers noted that project and all the schools were generally in the eastern part of the state, from where three of the House leadership hail.

It contained an appropriation that was difficult to oppose – funding for public defenders who have warned the courts they will run out of money before the end of the fiscal year and won’t be able to provide legal counsel to some indigent defendants. But Rep. Brad Montell, R-Shelbyville, took to the floor to argue the case of put upon prosecutors and demand equal funding for them. Prosecutors, county and commonwealth attorneys, have seen their budgets cut. Some are furloughing staff. But they’re not out of money. The public defenders will soon be tapped out, their budgets down to zero.

During the debate, several critics of the spending complained projects were slipped in “behind closed doors,” after leadership had said there were to be no new projects in the face of the dire fiscal crisis confronting the state. And a couple noted that new leadership had promised a “broader, more open process” when they sought to replace the previous regime. (To be fair, others had a point when they pointed out they’d been locked out of such deliberations under the leadership team of previous Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green.)

In the end, the bill passed easily. But it wasn’t hard to understand Wuchner’s confusion. “I thought we were broke.”

So did I.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort, Ky. He may be contacted by email at rellis@cnhi.com.

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