Giving The Governor A Year To Write Budget

One House bill and one Senate bill would enable a newly-elected Governor to take a year to put up his first budget proposal.

They are both constitutional amendments which would make odd-numbered year General Assembly sessions the ones in which we pass biennial budgets. Both bills strive to limit spending and revenue increasing bills, but the House bill does a much better job.

The Senate bill requires a three-fifths vote in both chambers to raise revenue or appropriate funds in non-budget years. The General Assembly almost always passes all these bills by very comfortable margins, often unanimously. So really, SB 105 goes to the trouble of changing the Constitution only to give a new Governor a full year before he has to present a budget proposal and to give that new Governor expanded powers to set the legislative agenda.

The House bill is much better. It cuts the 60-day sessions down to thirty days and prohibits appropriation and revenue bills from being passed in the even-numbered years.

House Dem Leadership Must Be Crazy

This is proof Jody Richards and friends learned nothing from the insurance debacle they created in 1994 in Kentucky.

Scorsone Drives In The Wrong Lane

Sen. Ernesto Scorsone has filed another bill to give drivers licenses to illegal aliens.

West Virginia Zooms Ahead Of Us

While Kentucky is figuring out how to promise education-related goodies we can't afford, West Virginia is setting itself up to kick our butts by simply raising math standards.

West Virginia will require some students who are already in high school -- and everyone, hereafter -- to earn four math credits in four years of high school.

This compares very favorably to Kentucky, where starting next year students will be required to take four math classes in four years but they only have to pass three of them.

Our shocking tolerance for failure here will be of little comfort when even West Virginia is eating our lunch.

Let Me Guess, She Wants More Money For Big Ed

Newly-elected Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington reaped a benefit this morning of donating $1000 to Steve Beshear when she was appointed to a vice-chair position on the House Education Committee.

She faces Republican Will Terwort in the May primary.

Immigration Showdown At High Noon

There will be fireworks today in the House Judiciary Committee as they take up a discussion of bill that would prohibit sanctuary cities in Kentucky and shut down some employers who hire illegal aliens.

Ron Paul Supporter Takes On Mitch McConnell

Daniel Essek can beat his brains out from here to May and he will lose to Sen. Mitch McConnell in the primary election. Mitch won't break a sweat, but that isn't the point.

The battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party rages on. Mr. Essek clearly isn't ready for prime time, but for a return to fiscal responsibility on the federal level to ever happen it will have to start someplace.

Thanks to tv blogger Mark Hebert for the heads-up.

End The Legislators' Strike

I can't find anyone with a good argument against Sen. David Williams' bill to move the filing deadline to after the end of the General Assembly.

In fact, here is one very active opponent of Republicans in general who is on board. Where are the rest of you?

My only question is will Speaker Jody Richards run this bill through the Labor & Industry Committee since it involves making the lawmakers work for their money an extra month every other year?

Bad Day For The Bald Guy

I'm trying to find a silver lining in the withdrawal of Fred Thompson from the presidential race, but not having much luck.

Any help?

2008: Year Of The Discharge Petition

Committee chairmen can kill bills by not bringing them up for discussion, but sponsors of the University Gun Bill and the Welfare for Drug Abusers Bill easily have the 25 supporters required to call a vote on a discharge petition in the House. If 51 members vote for overriding the committee action, the bill in question goes to the House floor for a vote.

While we are at it, the Ernie Fletcher Revenue Neutral Tax Increase Bill needs a discharge petition as well. And given Harry Moberly's affinity for government secrecy, we might as well go ahead and file one for the Government Transparency Bill.

Associated Press Botches Drug Bill Debate

UPDATE: Here is a little help on this issue from the Bluegrass Institute.

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The Associated Press picked up the bipartisan House effort to encourage drug abusers on welfare to stop using drugs or risk losing their welfare benefits.

The dismissive tone of the article is a little over-the-top, starting with the headline: "Welfare proposal has few fans."

The article fails to mention there are actually two bills (here and here) and only gets around to interviewing one of the sponsors. Napier's version has 27 co-sponsors.

I think what the Associated Press reporter meant was that he and Tom Burch don't like the bill.

Rep. Tom Burch should be the focus of this story for killing a commonsense measure to get people off drugs.

Instead, we get more of the mentality that hasn't worked for decades in fighting poverty or drug abuse:

The measure, House Bill 190, is languishing in the House Health and Welfare Committee. Committee Chairman Tom Burch, D-Louisville, said he doesn't intend to call it up for consideration.

"I don't think it's a good bill, and I don't think the intention behind it is good," Burch said. "Let's get treatment for the person rather than penalize the whole family."

House Republicans should easily be able to peel off enough Democrats for a discharge petition to work on this one. For the record, Napier co-sponsored Henley's bill. Let the Democrat's bill go through and get this done.

Steve Beshear Is No Scab

It is as if the legislators in Frankfort are on strike and Steve Beshear is no scab.

The Lexington Herald Leader reports:

Beshear says his aides are still trying to nail down details of the casino plan and the retirement system reform and that his time is consumed by crafting a budget proposal.

The delay in the unveiling of those policies is practical -- not a political stalling tactic to make it past the candidate filing deadline, Beshear insists.

"It's not geared to the filing deadline, it's simply geared to the fact that right now we're in the middle of putting this budget together," he said. "That's our top priority, obviously, because I've got to do that by the 29th and we're working on these other things at the same time. It's just a product of the time that we've got."

That's bunk. Everyone on Team Beshear has had a pretty good idea details of the casino plan and problems with the retirement plan and crafting a budget proposal were going to be issues for them to work on since last May.

The Governor Steve Beshear-as-slacker routine has everything to do with the January 29 filing deadline.

Giuliani Panders In Florida

As if one Republican presidential candidate with a bad insurance plan weren't enough, Rudy weighs in.

Sing, Sing A Song, Sing Out Loud, Sing Out Strong

Former Lexington Mayor Teresa Isaac will be deposed regarding her role in the Fayette County Detention Center scandal on Friday, January 25 at 9:30 am.

Mayor Jim Newberry is up Tuesday, February 8.

Fayette Jail Scandal Hits The Radio On Monday

Busy Monday morning coming up for me. I will be on the Jack Pattie Show on 590 AM WVLK in Lexington at 9:00 talking about the legislature and Leland Conway's show on 630 AM at 11 AM talking about the scandal at the Fayette County Detention Center.

Anyone with a story to tell about the problems at the jail should email me at kyprogress@yahoo.com.

City of Lexington Buying Bogus Diplomas

I'm doing some research into the "consulting" business Ray Sabbatine and Donald Leach are running out of the Fayette County Detention Center and the taxpayer money they are using to line their own pockets.

Accidentally came across one little goody: Lexington taxpayers paid for Leach's fake doctoral degree.

Big House Democrat Tax Increase Bill

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce send out an email yesterday afternoon claiming Rep. Harry Moberly's HB 302 would increase taxes by up to $200 million a year.

That may be a good guess, but if you look at the bill it isn't hard to imagine it's impact might be much more severe. The bill punishes companies who do business in other states for doing business in Kentucky. Nice plan, Chairman Moberly.

Harry Moberly is one great big reason I won't be sending any of my kids to Eastern Kentucky University.

You Can't Block This

The city of Lexington has ended their feeble attempt to block this blog on city computers.

It is starting to dawn on the folks at 200 East Main Street that the Justice Department investigation and the class action and civil lawsuits aren't just going to go away.

Can't imagine why anyone in the Mayor's office would think they could finesse all this stuff as easily as they can scam the Lexington Herald Leader.

Just ask Ron Bishop, Don Leach, and the boys and girls at the Fayette County Detention Center. They are a little further along the learning curve.

Stroke Of Genius Meets Good Public Policy

Senate President David Williams has filed a bill to move the candidate filing deadline forward to April. This eliminates the problem of legislators sitting on their hands during the first month of the General Assembly and forces legislators to get off the fence about casino gambling before campaign opponents have to file to run against them.

Smoke-Filled Media Bias At Herald Leader

Amazing how the Lexington Herald Leader can watch a parade of House and Senate Democrats chase their tails on the puffery of just one little old cigarette tax increase and see a gathering storm of support in "Cigarette tax hike gains traction."

This story could more accurately be headlined "House Dems fiddle while Frankfort burns."

The newspaper story didn't even mention the one group of cooler heads who have already decided this issue. The Senate Republicans said no tax increase. Well, maybe just one.

Revenues keep going up in Frankfort. Spending keeps going up faster. Raising taxes, it should stand to reason, isn't the answer here. If we really want to take a step in the right direction, we will start talking about transparency in our state government.