By RONNIE ELLIS
FRANKFORT — After weeks of hand-wringing, floating trial balloons and rhetoric, the House this week passed and sent to the Senate a $17.5 billion two year budget filled with bonded projects and containing two controversial changes to some business taxes – and Kentucky opened play in the SEC Basketball Tournament.
So lawmakers met briefly on Friday and scurried out to catch the game or head home.
The budget contains $2.2 billion in construction projects – almost exclusively in districts represented by Democrats in the Democratic controlled House. Republicans said placement of those projects were political retribution for their votes against the two tax measures – suspending a net operating loss write-off for two years (covering three tax years) and accelerating collection of sales taxes. The budget cuts nearly ever area of state government except the public school funding formula and Medicaid.
It maintains Medicaid by relying on $256 million in expected federal aid to pay more of the Medicaid bill. And it cuts higher education and removes two days from the public school calendar. It now goes to the Senate where it is certain to undergo major revision. A House-Senate conference committee will then likely convene to hammer out differences.
The budget drew criticism from county officials for a provision to save $30 million in corrections, mostly by maintaining the present level of inmates and paroling non-violent, non-sexual offenders. Most of those are housed in county jails which receive a daily payment from the state for each state prisoner. Denny Nunnelley, Executive Director of the Kentucky Association of Counties, said the provision might cost county jails as much as $20 million a year and endanger public safety.
The House also passed a $3.4 billion road plan, and the minority party again complained there are few projects in their Republican districts.
In non-budget matters, a bill to change the way school principals are selected died in the House Education Committee on Tuesday. The bill originally passed out of the committee but met resistance from the Kentucky Education Association and was referred back to committee but the amended version failed to gather enough votes to pass the second time. The bill would have given superintendents more influence in hiring school principals; opponents said it would undermine the authority of site based decision making councils.
The Senate Education Committee passed out a resolution which would allow school districts to use a different calculation to determine state funding based on average daily attendance. The measure, sponsored by Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, would allow districts which missed school because of the flu and harsh winter weather to calculate attendance based on previous years. It includes a provision, however, to off-set how so-called “growth districts” calculate their extra funding for significant enrollment increases.
The Senate Judiciary Committee amended House Bill 1 – popularly known as “Amanda’s Bill” – dealing with domestic violence, but the bill’s sponsor, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, had no immediate objections.
The bill originally would have allowed judges to require those accused – but not convicted – of domestic violence and who were assessed to show a likelihood of more violence against their accusers to wear electronic monitoring devices. Critics contended the law would be costly to counties, face constitutional challenge, and might be difficult to administer uniformly across jurisdictions.
The amended version requires criminal proceedings before the device can be ordered – either through a violation of a previous domestic violence order or through pre-trial release after an accuser files formal assault charges against the alleged perpetrator.
The bill was named for Amanda Ross who died after allegedly being shot by her one-time fiancé, former lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate Steve Nunn who has been charged with murder. Ross previously had obtained a domestic violence order against Nunn.
Both chambers are also considering different versions of “instant racing” bills which would allow pari-mutuel betting on pre-recorded horse races. Proceeds would benefit the horse industry. The House bill would also allow some games of skill. But Stumbo said Friday he did not sense any support for the measures in the House.
Friday marked the 46th day of the 60-day legislative session leaving lawmakers two weeks to wrap up business, including any days set aside to consider potential vetoes by Gov. Steve Beshear.
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.
