FRANKFORT — Greenup County was a winner in the House version of a $17.5 billion two-year budget laden with debt and bonded capital projects. Whitely County wasn’t. Neither was Metcalfe County.
There are three school projects in the budget for the district represented by Rep. Tanya Pullin, D-South Shore, and nine water and sewer projects totaling $2,382,000. Whitley and Metcalfe counties got nothing.
The difference? Republican representatives Charlie Siler who represents Whitley County and Jamie Comer who represents Metcalfe County voted against a bill last week to raise $371 million through a suspension of a business tax write-off and accelerating collections of some sales taxes.
“The people who stood up on this floor last week and committed to vote for them got priority,” was the explanation House budget chairman Rick Rand, D-Bedford, gave during floor debate on the budget bill Wednesday. He and House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said Republicans can’t have it both ways – oppose measures to pay for the projects and still get a new school in their districts.
“It was not a quid pro quo vote,” said Pullin. “That’s not how I operate. But I will say we need jobs and I thought long and hard about the vote, but we need jobs.”
Stumbo called the construction projects a “jobs creation bill.” That’s fine, said Siler, but Whitley County needs jobs, too. Siler voted against the tax measures but he’s frequently crossed party lines in the past to vote for Democratic measures like increases in cigarette and alcohol taxes when he thought they were justified.
“There’s no institutional memory around here,” said the soft-spoken Siler. “You can do things for years and then the first time you don’t, they forget about you.”
Siler said he couldn’t vote for this budget because of the level of debt it contains – 7.43 percent of revenues will be devoted to paying debt, well above the typical 6 percent target lawmakers have set in the past.
Still, Siler said the folks back home shouldn’t despair just yet – “The game isn’t over,” he said, noting his district lies inside the district of Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville.
Pullin, smiling, agreed: “Charlie always seems to come out alright in the end.”
Many expect the budget to undergo significant alterations in the Republican controlled Senate and Williams – while not outright rejecting them – has questioned the business tax changes and borrowing contained in the House budget. Williams’ Senate district also includes Comer’s home county of Monroe – and that might mean Comer’s district will be included in any projects the Senate approves.
Comer is unhappy the budget funded 65 school construction projects, ostensibly the ones in worst disrepair. But there were school projects in the budget which don’t fit that description while some which do were left out.
“There are three category five schools in Metcalfe County,” Comer said after the House vote, “and not one of them is funded.”
House Republican Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, said of 14 category five schools, only seven were funded – all in Democratic districts. The other seven, in Republican districts, were ignored.
“It’s not really about the e kids and the horrible conditions of schools,” Hoover said during a floor speech Wednesday. “If that was the case, we would’ve funded all the schools in Republican and Democratic districts. They’re all Kentucky kids.”
RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.
State News
How they voted made a difference in the House
Supporters of House plan rewarded with projects
- State News
-
-
It’s back to the drawing board for legislators
Confusion reigns in the wake of a judge’s ruling that state redistricting maps passed by the General Assembly are unconstitutional. That ruling said until the legislature offers a plan that meets constitutional muster, 2012 candidates for the legislature must run in the districts drawn 10 years ago.
-
Pending redistricting ruling overshadows legislative business
It has been hurry up and wait this week in Frankfort. With everyone waiting to learn if a Franklin Circuit Judge will throw out the legislature’s plan to re-draw legislative districts and a hold on the filing deadline for fall elections, lawmakers are watching the calendar and court docket more closely than that day’s orders.
-
ELLIS UPDATE: Lawmakers closer on new district mapping
Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo said Thursday that lawmakers in the Republican Senate and Democratic House are close to an agreement on re-drawing the congressional district map.
-
UK, UL leaders: Cuts are hurting higher ed
The presidents of the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville told a legislative panel that they will keep working to achieve the goals of higher education reform passed in 1997 in spite of on-going budget cuts. But they made it clear it won’t be easy.
-
Lawmakers closer on new district mapping
Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo said Thursday that lawmakers in the Republican Senate and Democratic House are close to an agreement on re-drawing the congressional district map.
-
Stumbo files anti-pill mill bill
Under provisions of a bill filed Thursday in the General Assembly, pain clinics would have to be owned by licensed health care practitioners and any health care professional who prescribes controlled substances would have to register with and utilize the state’s electronic tracking system.
-
Jill York files to run against Rocky Adkins
The new legislative district maps prompted some tough decisions by some key lawmakers – even before the new map and Tuesday’s filing deadline were cast into doubt by a Franklin Circuit Court restraining order.
-
Filing deadline extended for congressional races
While attorneys argued before a judge about the constitutionality of the state legislative redistricting plan, the General Assembly has extended the filing deadline for congressional races — because lawmakers can’t agree on a map for congressional districts.
-
GOP files suit over new state districts
Three Republican lawmakers and two private citizens filed suit Thursday in Franklin Circuit Court to have the House legislative redistricting plan declared unconstitutional.
-
Committee reviews pill mill bill
Just one day after state and federal law enforcement officials raided a Paintsville pain clinic for the second time in a year, a Senate committee Thursday began reviewing a bill to regulate such clinics.
- More State News Headlines
-
It’s back to the drawing board for legislators
Nordic Festival Puts North Korea in Spotlight
'Rumor Has It' Adele's Rolling in the Grammys
Grohl, Grammy Nominees Cut Up on the Red Carpet
Greece Passes New Austerity Deal Amid Rioting
Coroner: Houston Autopsy Results Weeks Away
Raw Video: Greek Rioting Ahead of Austerity Vote
Raw Video: Child Rescued After Kosovo Avalanche
Pop Music Superstar Whitney Houston Dies at 48
Whitney Houston's Church Mourns Her Passing
Reaction to Houston's Death at Clive Davis Party
79 Turtles Seized at Shanghai Airport
Severe Cold Wreaks Havoc in China
Fuel Removal Under Way on Capsized Italian Ship
Police: Houston Found Dead in Her Hotel Room
Paul Suffers Narrow Loss to Romney in Maine
Palin Brings Anti-Washington Message to CPAC
Obama Scraps Birth Control Mandate
Navy Names Ship for Gabrielle Giffords
Uzbek Man Pleads Guilty in Plot to Kill Obama
Marines: No Punishment for Nazi-like Flag
