"State Budget Director J. Pari Sabety told legislators yesterday that the budget needs another $344 million ($122 million in state funds) to cover increased Medicaid costs because 66,000 more people than expected are using the state-federal health-insurance program for the poor and elderly."
"As a legislator representing a Republican district, should I be replaced
this fall by Mike Farmer, I can assure you he be (sic) as ineffective as I
feel I have been this session."
"I can only assume that this email was written out of frustration and in haste without appropriate attention to accuracy," Richards said.
"I hope our members think long and hard about re-election (sic) some members of this leadership group," Wilkey wrote.
"The fracas started after Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D., Texas), said lawmakers needed to move aggressively to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. “We’re not in a recession,” she said on the House floor. “We’re moving toward a 1929 Depression.”
Rep. Pete Sessions (R., Texas) took umbrage at her characterization of the economy: “My Gosh! Let’s at least tell the American public the truth… Let’s not make things worse than they already are. Let’s not lie to the American public.”
Lee, who was sitting down at that point, rushed back to the podium.
“Are you calling me a liar?” she yelled. Shouting erupted in the room.
“It is not a true statement,” Sessions yelled back."
But while I appreciate the attention to the issue, I am disappointed that neither I nor my office was contacted to respond to false allegations contained in the article.
It quotes Jessamine County Attorney Brian Goettl, the owner and operator of a conservative blog, who implies that the reduction in prosecutors' budgets was due, in part, to my lack of attention to this matter with legislators.
In response to AG Conway’s recent guest opinion in the April 28th, 2008 Lexington Herald-Leader, let me provide your readers with some facts regarding the budget process, and why I vocalized my criticism of General Conway. On March 11th, Assistant Attorney General Janet Graham sent out the following e-mail:
Hi folks, we have representatives from the County Attorneys Association and the Commonwealth's Attorneys Association up here in Frankfort today advocating on your behalf for your budget. We have been meeting with members of the Senate to stress our budget concerns. The uniform message that is coming back to us is that we need to get a meeting with Senator Williams and Senator Stivers. If any of you believe that you can assist us in getting these meetings, please give me a call at (502) 696-5641.
The e-mail was entitled “Help with the budget please”. After receiving the e-mail, I arranged for a meeting with Senator Stivers and Senator Borders through my association with Becky Harrelson, chief of staff to Senate President David Williams. Ms. Graham acknowledged as much with the following e-mail:
Thank everyone for all of your help on this - we now have a meeting with Senator Stivers regarding the budget, so all of your calls and emails certainly helped. Much praise should be directed to Jessamine County Attorney Brian Goettl for his efforts to get us this meeting. If you see him, give him a big pat on the back.
General Conway did not attend that meeting. I, along with Mke Foster, Janet Graham, Chirs Cohron and members of the PAC budget staff did attend. In a subsequent PAC meeting, General Conway implied that he did not have much sway with Senate Republicans.
I suggested that a public relations campaign be conducted in much the same manner as the Department of Public Advocacy had done concering their budget. The prosecutors present at that meeting were in unanimous agreement with my suggestion.
As a result, General Conway did say that he would assign his deputy press secretary to that task, but asked Commonwealth Attorney Chris Cohron to work with the deputy press secretary, instead of himself. My opinion is that there would have been a better press response if General Conway had held a press conference and spoken directly to the press about the budget situation.
Considering that prosecutors did not receive any media coverage about the budget short fall following that PAC meeting, until after the budget had been set, I feel that I was right.
There is no doubt that General Conway did a great job with the budget when dealing with House Democrats. As well, his PAC budget people and Assistant Attorney General Janet Graham did an outstanding job throughout the entire process.
And, the reality is, General Conway may not have had much sway with Senate Republicans. But, he failed to take advantage of the few opportunities he did have with the Senate. I criticized him for that failure. His implications otherwise are false.
Sincerely,
Brian T. Goettl
Jessamine County Attorney
"It really comes down to how much the states want it and how much they're willing to pay," Peterson said, referring to potential tax incentives. "The risk of unionization is very low in Tennessee and Alabama, and Volkswagen doesn't want to work with unions if it can avoid it."
“I would also consider a gas tax holiday, if we could make up the lost revenues from the Highway Trust Fund,” she said, without specifying how to make up those lost revenues.
"To keep the state’s landmark universal health coverage plan afloat, Massachusetts lawmakers are looking to tap an increasingly popular source of financing for health-related initiatives: tobacco taxes.
If the state raises its tax by as much as $1 a pack, it will join New York — and possibly a number of other states — in enacting significant increases this year. The speaker of the Massachusetts House, Salvatore F. DiMasi, a Democrat, pushed the increase, to $2.51, through the chamber this month, and the State Senate president, Therese Murray, and Gov. Deval Patrick, also Democrats, have signaled support.
The $175 million in projected revenue would be used to shore up the state’s year-old mandatory health insurance plan. State officials say the plan, which is the first to require that individuals have coverage, is over budget because enrollment has been higher than expected for state-subsidized insurance policies offered to low- and middle-income workers.
The state subsidies were budgeted at $472 million for the first year but actually cost $625 million. Only months ago, Mr. Patrick proposed spending $869 million for the coming year, but his aides already acknowledge that will not be enough. The state recently agreed to increase its payments to insurers by 9.4 percent. More costs are being passed along to policyholders in the form of higher premiums and co-payments."
The proposed tax increase "is not something we dreamed up to try to balance the budget," Deutch told lawmakers. "It is something we introduced to try to save lives."
If approved, the bill's success would be marked by a drop in tax revenue, the result of fewer people smoking, Deutch said.
"That's what we want to happen," Deutch said. "We won't have an ongoing stream of revenue. We will see it shrink every year."
"In fact, he argued, if the court rules that the use of a car is considered income (though it's not taxed as such), it would open the door to future retirees claiming pension increases based on their use of computers, or even for health benefits."
