This Week in Frankfort

Jan 22nd, 2010

LRC Public Information

It was a brief step forward then a giant leap back in the General Assembly this week, as Gov. Steve Beshear unveiled his proposed state budget to a joint session of a perplexed Legislature that swiftly rejected it out of hand and made ready to write its own spending plan from scratch.

The Budget Address – which lawmakers hoped would clarify the state's current fiscal difficulty and serve as the basic framework for moving the budget process forward -- ran aground on the issue of racetrack slots, revenue from which Beshear included in his proposal.

Leaders of both chambers had warned the governor not to include that money – roughly $780 million, to help close a revenue gap he says is $1.5 billion – because lack of support for his slots proposal made passage hugely unlikely, if not impossible.

The response to Beshear's insistence on including the money anyway was immediate. Within 24 hours, the Senate shuffled Beshear's slots bill off to an unfriendly committee, presumably to die, and the House majority caucused and could find no support for the overall package in that chamber. House leadership directed its Appropriations and Revenue Committee to start drafting its own budget from the ground up.

Leaders of both Chambers acknowledged that discarding the governor's budget placed additional time pressure on the Legislature to gather information and write a balanced budget in the session's remaining days. They pledged early chamber-to-chamber cooperation to get that done.

Drafting a balanced budget is always a daunting task, but especially so this year. While there's disagreement on exact figures, most officials acknowledge there's a significant shortfall facing Kentucky. The seemingly worst-case numbers cited by Beshear say the Commonwealth would face $850 million in budget cuts during the next two years without slots revenues, compared to only $78 million with them.

This comes on the heels of multiple rounds of spending cuts to state agencies and services in recent years, and in the midst of a stubborn recession that sees state unemployment hovering at more than 10 percent. Those are folks who aren't working and paying taxes but who are drawing benefits and services from the state because of their joblessness – the recessionary down-spiral it's so hard for a poor state to pull out of.

Amid all this, there's been a growing sentiment that the time has come to seriously look at restructuring Kentucky's tax code, to better reflect the nature of its 21st-Century economy, deal with a chronic structural imbalance in its budget, and restore both fairness and natural growth to its revenues, rooted in economic expansion.

That's a tall order, and whether it could be managed this winter without considerable consensus-building and preparation (and with a fourth of this year's 60-day session gone) remains a question to be answered as this landmark session unfolds. But leaders said serious discussions would at least begin.

The General Assembly is committed to both public access and public participation in its work. This session, the Legislature unveiled yet another way to expand citizen access, by making its website iPhone-friendly.

To gain access to the new site, go to www.lrc.ky.gov/isite/index.html, click on the “+” at the bottom of the iPhone and then click “Add to home screen.” This will add an LRC app to the iPhone that makes the website easier to navigate.

The Kentucky Legislature Home Page, www.lrc.ky.gov, provides information on each of Kentucky’s senators and representatives, including phone numbers, addresses, and committee assignments. The page also has summaries and full texts of bills under consideration, as well as information on the daily progress each bill has made through the legislative process.

By going to the LRC eNews page, www.lrc.ky.gov/pubinfo/listserv.htm, citizens can subscribe to frequent e-mail updates on what's happening at the Capitol. In addition, the General Assembly provides frequent online news updates, called Capitol Notes, www.lrc.ky.gov/pubinfo/capitol_notes.htm

Kentuckians can also keep abreast of General Assembly action in the following ways:

· A taped message containing legislative committee meeting schedules is updated daily at 1-800-633-9650.

· To leave a message for any legislator, call the General Assembly’s toll-free Message Line at 1-800-372-7181.

· People with hearing difficulties may leave messages for lawmakers by calling the TTY Message Line at (808) 896-0305.

· To check the status of any bill, call 1-866-840-2835.

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