How they voted made a difference in the House

State News

Discussion

March 11, 2010

Supporters of House plan rewarded with projects

By RONNIE ELLIS The Glasgow Daily Times Thu Mar 11, 2010, 01:49 PM CST

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.

Text Only

State News

EVENING UPDATE: Supreme Court: Lawmakers to run in old districts
Legislative candidates will have to run in decade-old districts in this year’s elections, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Friday afternoon.

February 24, 2012
Stivers withdraws pseudoephedrine bill
In a move that surprised both supporters and opponents, the sponsor of a bill to require prescriptions for medications containing pseudoephedrine withdrew the bill in the state Senate Thursday.

February 23, 2012
Gambling talk, cold medicine dominates week
First it was redistricting which dominated every conversation in the 2012 General Assembly. Lawmakers couldn’t resolve that issue and it’s now before the state Court of Appeals which is expected to seek to transfer the case to the state Supreme Court.

February 17, 2012
Drug bill clears committee
It took some blunt testimony and visual evidence and the vote was close, but the Senate Judiciary Committee passed out a bill Thursday to require prescriptions for the purchase of products containing pseudoephedrine.

February 16, 2012
Senate committee looks at constables
A state Senate committee revised a proposed constitutional amendment which would have eliminated the office of constable Wednesday, choosing instead to offer a statute to allow local governments to define constables’ duties through ordinance.

February 16, 2012
Medicaid managed care groups reassure committee
Medicaid managed care organizations went before a restive Senate committee whose members have been bombarded with complaints from providers about late payments for Medicaid services.

February 16, 2012
Gambling amendment introduced
Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican Sen. Damon Thayer on Tuesday announced the much anticipated gambling amendment they hope to push through the legislature, an amendment that would allow up to seven casinos, five at existing horse racing tracks.

February 15, 2012
Activists gather to protest mountaintop removal
Their message was clear, though not everyone agrees with it.

February 15, 2012
Kentucky pharmacists unhappy with rates
A roomful of Kentucky pharmacists Monday made clear their dissatisfaction with some of their reimbursement rates under the newly implemented Medicaid managed care system before a legislative committee.

February 14, 2012
LRC appeals to Supreme Court
A lawyer for the governing arm of the state legislature has filed an appeal asking the state Supreme Court to dissolve a Franklin Circuit Court temporary injunction that 2012 candidates for the legislature run under 2002 district lines and set aside its ruling that the new district lines passed this year are unconstitutional.

February 14, 2012
More State News Headlines

State News

Search Results

Discussion

How they voted made a difference in the House

Supporters of House plan rewarded with projects

Site Map