Focus on the big money

Now that our loan sharks are safe and schoolyard bullies are running for cover, we'd better get serious about our $26 billion monster.

Helen Mountjoy doesn't want you to read this

... but she probably wants your fourth grade teacher to "coach" you for a few months on the essay you will have to write about it.

Helen Mountjoy is the state Education Secretary and a big supporter of the status quo in Kentucky primary and secondary education.

Bad Kentucky test scores are bad news for her. Of course, the stranglehold the teachers union has on the system is bad news for the rest of us. But raising awareness helps matters over time. Go ahead and read this.

And then take a look at the KDE spin you will read in tomorrow's MSM.

Let's call them Austere Bonds

The word of the day in Frankfort has been "austere." That refers, of course, to the adjective most commonly used to describe the $19 billion dollar state spending plan passed last night. Just curious, I've looked all day for mention of the level of bonded indebtedness in this bill.

Haven't seen it in the media anywhere.

Bonded indebtedness is the amount that we expect to overshoot the mark of incoming revenues, but plan to go ahead and spend the money we don't have anyway, our constitutional prohibition of such activity "notwithstanding," as they say in the biz.

Got that?

Anyway, the bonded indebtedness we just agreed to heap on ourselves over the next two years is $1.2 billion. Thank your kids.

6:48 Update: Read Section 49 and 50 of the Kentucky Constitution for more on borrowing.

Making budget sausage in Frankfort

The Senate has put some of the previously removed infrastructure projects for the 2009-10 biennium into HB 410.

House Budget Chair Harry Moberly is on the floor now explaining why he is going to vote against the budget. He spoke feverishly, claiming the Senate was buying the House members off with projects.

The budget passed.

Live-blogging Mitch McConnell

Senator Mitch McConnell will speak to the Madison County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner gathering this Friday night. Dinner starts at 6pm at the Russell Action Folk Center, 212 W. Jefferson Street in Berea. Tickets are $25 and you can reserve yours by calling Chris Cooper at 859.200.7711.

See you there!

Courting the rapist and murderer vote

One interesting thing about the internet is so many people feel emboldened now to say what they really think.

Take, for instance, this from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth:

House Bill 70 to Restore Voting Rights to Former Felons who have served their debt to society has finally been called up for a vote on the House Floor today and passed with an overwhelming 80 "yes" votes to 14 "no" votes!

We're not at all happy that the House took took so very long to act on this bill, giving very little chance for it to get through the Senate, but we're very pleased that the bill did pass by such a wide margin.

The six floor amendments to the bill that KFTC opposed were all defeated, but Rep. Sal Santoro of Boone County, attached an amendment that exempted former felons convicted of manslaughter from the automatic restoration. KFTC opposes this change because we want all former felons to have the same chance to get their rights back.

HB 70 would automatically restore voting rights to convicted felons except for those convicted of sex crimes, murder, and manslaughter.

Some people -- like child molesters -- tear up their humanity cards. Forget about their voter registration cards. The bill has no chance in the Senate -- and having the KFTC folks screaming at David Williams is an interesting image. It seems to me we already set the bar for civic participation plenty low enough.

I thought Harry Moberly was the budget expert

Rep. Greg Stumbo made his way down to Senate President David Williams' office Tuesday and they agreed to scuttle the budget deal Harry Moberly and Speaker Jody Richards had negotiated.

In the super-secret closed-door negotiations, Moberly seemed more interested in not giving in to Williams than in arranging the budget properly so as to collect matching federal funds to build Kentucky roads.

Moberly and Richards were trying to work out the road spending so that Governor Steve Beshear could spend all the money in Democratic districts. They couldn't work that out and receive the matching funds, so they insisted on going without.

The bottom line is that Moberly and Richards let partisanship get in the way of common sense. This will cost them dearly. The new deal will result in more road and water projects across the state without spending more money.

How could Moberly and Richards have screwed that up so badly?

You mean maybe it WASN'T our fault?

Didn't the House and Senate leaders tell us the public had to get out of the conference committee room so they could work their magic and get a budget worked out?

Polwatchers suggests the House now doesn't have the votes to pass the secret spending plan.

Whether they pass the budget bill or not, the very idea that their lack of progress last week was the public's fault is worthy of the harshest scorn.

Bowling for sissies

Can we have a leader of the free world who bowls like this?

We are passing a tax increase

It looks increasingly likely that little or nothing will be done to address the public employee benefits shortfall we have known about for a long time.

Save the congratulations for the closed-door conferees until we see strong action taken on this front. Years after we started calling tax increases "fee increases," the ticking time bomb health and pension payments we are obligated to make, but don't have the money for represent an unprecedented tax increase on Kentuckians.

I wish this were an April Fools' joke. But at $26 billion and counting, it is no laughing matter.

Rescuing Kathy Stein

Would you believe Rep. Kathy Stein (D-Lexington) has requested "extra police patrols" around her house after she stuffed Kentucky's illegal immigration bill?

That's what she told Governing Magazine.

Senate President David Williams might need extra police patrols around his house for facing the wrath of the teachers union and House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover might need extra police patrols around his house for tweaking the labor unions.

The union thugs are at least twice as scary as normal citizens who just want the government to follow the law.

Shuckin' and jivin' the budget

Mark Hebert says reporters never really wanted budget negotiations in the open. And Ernie Fletcher's former spokesman says government secrecy is good for you.

Can't wait to see what happens behind closed doors when President David Williams agrees with Speaker Jody Richards.

A more efficient lottery would pay for this

One likely casualty of this year's budget malfunction is the Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University. This is an illegal charter school with students who come from all over the state.

If lawmakers would just get over their ideological opposition to school choice, we could make charter schools legal, spread them all over the state, and it wouldn't be such a tragedy when a strong new program like this goes down. The House Dems' rigid opposition to making the Kentucky Lottery operate more efficiently is to blame for this. Who are they protecting and why?

Looks like no budget

A source in the room where the Budget Conference Committee is being held said Rep. Larry Clark just stood up and said "It's over."

And all the House Democrats left.

If this is it on the budget, the next most important thing for the legislature to do is get serious about cutting public employee benefits to keep from bankrupting the state. That would be the conference committee on HB 600.

Midnight update: Jack Brammer of the Lexington Herald Leader says Speaker Jody Richards told him they will meet at 4 pm Saturday to try again on the budget.

Tuesday is last chance to "throw the bums out"

Libertarian Party of Kentucky sources claim to have a candidate ready to file against tax-raising House Budget Chairman Harry Moberly. The deadline for candidates who are running as "independents" to file a Statement of Candidacy is Tuesday, April 1 at 4 pm.

Webb tangles lottery advertising facts

Pushing for the status quo in Kentucky Lottery waste tonight, Rep. Robin Webb claimed implausibly that the lottery gets up to $15 in return for every dollar it spends on advertising.

I'll call B.S. on that one.

It's probably a lot more like how Senate Budget Chairman Charlie Borders described it here on Monday: a complete waste.

Indeed, how much less would we have to spend on correctional facilities if we stopped advertising the lottery and just did a few PSAs telling people that if they really want to get rich they probably are going to have to work for it?

Covering Budget Crunch Time

The Budget Conference Committee was supposed to go into session at 3pm, according to KET Annex staff. That didn't happen. Now they are supposed to be going in at 4pm. Keep checking back here for updates.

KET will have video of the open meetings this weekend and I will be covering as much as possible.

Update: There is a little breaking news here.

Missing the boat on Kentucky education reform

There are two bills in the legislature that would improve our school assessment program, CATS. They are SB 1 and HB 15.

In the following videos, Bluegrass Institute education analyst Richard Innes clearly explains what is wrong with CATS.

Obstruction of justice is a crime

Phone records at the Fayette county jail indicate conspirators Jim Kammer and Dr. Don Leach have received several calls in recent weeks from the FBI. Additionally, Leach had an interesting cell phone call in his office about the ongoing FBI investigation Mayor Jim Newberry keeps trying to downplay.

Can't get anyone to talk about the meetings Kammer and Leach had with the FBI. The grand jury investigating crimes by jail officials at the facility meets again Friday, April 4.

Toothpicks holding their eyes open

No one is blinking in the General Assembly stand-off over the budget. The main sticking point is whether or not to raise taxes on Kentuckians. House Budget Chairman Harry Moberly was reduced to on-camera profanity in last night's late night negotiations.

I can't imagine the House and Senate will reconcile their positions any time soon.

I will be on the Leland Conway radio show in Lexington (www.wlap.com) this morning at 9:30 talking about the budget.