Archive for February, 2011

House passes interstate racing compact, Pikeville expo bill

By Beth Musgrave – bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The House approved a bill Monday that would allow Kentucky to join an interstate racing compact to oversee rules regarding racing and wagering across state lines.

House Bill 465 is similar to a bill that passed the Senate earlier this month. The measure would allow Gov. Steve Beshear to join an interstate racing compact that could issue regulations in horse racing states. The compact would not go into effect until at least six states join it.

The interstate compact would help develop uniform rules for the fragmented industry, backers of the proposal say.

HB 465 also includes language that ensures the legislature’s administrative regulation committee is aware of possible changes to Kentucky’s racing laws that the interstate compact is working on.

The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Susan Westrom of Lexington, said she is hopeful the Senate will approve the House version of the interstate racing compact. Senate Bill 24, which passed the Senate earlier this month, has not been voted on in the House.

Bill that legalizes detonating fireworks approved by state House

By Beth Musgrave – bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bill that would allow people to legally detonate fireworks in Kentucky cleared the state House on Monday.

Currently, some retailers are selling fireworks that contain a mortar or shoot from a tube in Kentucky by getting people to sign a waiver that says they will not ignite the fireworks on Kentucky soil. But that prohibition is rarely followed or enforced, particularly around the Fourth of July or New Years Eve.

House Bill 333 would clarify that it is legal to purchase and detonate such fireworks in Kentucky.

Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow, said the measure would help Kentucky recoup some of the money that is spent in Tennessee and surrounding states on fireworks that contain mortars or shoot from a tube. One estimate showed a net gain of more than $1 million in sales, Bell said.

But more importantly, the bill also adds teeth to existing fire codes regarding the sale and storage of fireworks, said Bell, the bill’s sponsor.

Beshear says he will sign into law sweeping prison bill

By Jack Brammer – jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The General Assembly gave final approval Monday to a broad overhaul of Kentucky’s criminal code in an attempt to cut prison costs by diverting more drug addicts away from prison and toward treatment programs.

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear said he would sign the bill into law, calling it “an historic piece of legislation” which will serve as a model for other states.

The bill would cut prison and jail populations, saving an estimated $42 million a year, in part by shifting many non-violent drug offenders into addiction treatment programs and community supervision.

Republican Senate President David Williams of Burkesville, who would like to replace Beshear as governor, stressed that the bill, which several lawmakers called historic, was an initiative of the legislature.

Bill to elect utility regulators again becomes a study of the issue

By Beth Musgrave – bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A House panel passed a bill Monday that would study whether it was appropriate to elect the state’s utility regulators, who set rates for most utility companies.

The House Tourism Development and Energy Committee voted unanimously Monday to pass Senate Bill 151 after it was changed to propose a study of energy rates in states that have elected public service commissioners verses those that have appointed public service commissioners.

The bill, as originally written and approved by the Senate, called for the election of public service commissioners. In Kentucky, the governor appoints and the Senate confirms the three members of the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

The vote came after testimony from Pike County Judge Executive Wayne Rutherford and others from Pike County who said they have suffered from repeated rate increases over the past four years. The rate increases mean that many elderly and disabled people can not afford to pay for their heat, Rutherford said.

Paul names 2 state staffers

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul announced Monday that Louisville attorney Jim Milliman will be his state director and Tomkinsville native Whitney Meaddows will be his agricultural liaison and 3rd Congressional District field representative.

“I’m enthusiastic about the additions of Jim and Whitney to our state team. Their knowledge and devotion to issues in the Commonwealth is an invaluable asset to our in-state outreach,” Paul, R-Bowling Green, said in a statement.

Milliman is a commercial litigation attorney. Meadows is a former Kentucky agritourism director and field representative for former U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning.

–Jack Brammer

Frankfort rally supports Wisconsin public workers

By John Cheves — jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Several hundred people rallied on the state Capitol steps Saturday in support of Wisconsin public workers, who are battling that state’s governor to defend their right to organize in unions and collectively bargain for compensation.

The crowd — including Kentucky school teachers, social workers, postal workers and firefighters — also criticized this state’s elected leaders for what they see as the scapegoating of public workers during the recession.

As Gov. Steve Beshear has ordered unpaid furloughs for Kentucky state employees and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, has tried to end state pensions for new hires, there has been a lot of political rhetoric about the drain that public workers impose on taxpayers, said several speakers at the rally.

Many politicians seem to forget the contributions that public workers make, often at modest pay, they said.

“We are the people who teach, we are the people who protect children, we fight the fires, we provide all the services that are needed by the public, and we are not going to stand by and let them ruin us,” said Melissa Jan Williamson, vice president of the Kentucky Association of State Employees.

Bill allows secret reprimands of nursing home heads

By Valarie Honeycutt Spears – vhoneycutt@herald-leader.com

The state board that oversees nursing home administrators revokes and suspends licenses, levies fines and assigns periods of probation to administrators who violate regulations. All of those board actions are public.

But House Bill 414, sponsored by State Rep. Tom Burch, adds a new twist to the board’s oversight. It allows the board to give out private reprimands that “shall not be subject to disclosure and shall not be considered a disciplinary action against the licensee.”

Documents obtained through the Kentucky Open Records Act and board minutes show that the Kentucky Board of Licensure for Nursing Home Administrators last year reviewed a range of serious offenses allegedly committed by nursing home administrators.

Twenty-nine complaints were referred to in the February 2010 board minutes. One was from 2006 and the rest were from 2007 through 2010. Among the cases was a nursing home administrator who did not contact authorities when aides abused a resident, an administrator criminally charged with stealing prescription drugs and an administrator sentenced to 10 years in prison for theft and exploiting an adult.

State spent $1 million to move road at coal company’s request, report says

By John Cheves — jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The state Transportation Cabinet spent more than $1 million from 2006 to 2008 to close and move a two-mile section of Ky. 699 in Perry County at the request of a coal company that wanted to strip-mine the land where the highway was located, according to state records.

The cabinet’s inspector general concluded in a Dec. 8 report that cabinet officials were not authorized to execute the subsequent land swap with subsidiaries of James River Coal Co. of Richmond, Va., giving up the highway site in exchange for nearby land owned by the coal company. Only the state Finance and Administration Cabinet, with the governor’s permission, can give away state assets, Inspector General David Ray wrote.

State Auditor Crit Luallen issued an audit of state government Feb. 17 that mentioned the land deal in passing, with few details, also concluding that the Transportation Cabinet could not legally give away state land.

Records show that then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s transportation secretary, Bill Nighbert, authorized the project in 2006. Joe Prather, Nighbert’s successor under Gov. Steve Beshear, approved its completion in 2008. That section of road, near the Leatherwood community, was not in the cabinet’s six-year plan of priority projects.

Bill aimed at bullying of gay students threatened by amendments

By Beth Musgrave – bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bill that aims to better protect children from being bullied because of their sexual orientation, race or religion may not get another vote despite near unanimous approval from a House committee earlier this week.

Two Republican lawmakers have added three floor amendments to the bill, one of which would allow those with concealed weapons permits to carry guns at the state’s public universities and trade schools and keep those guns in their cars. Two other amendments would make clear that students who are stating their religious beliefs about gays and lesbians would not be punished for bullying.

“I’m favorably inclined toward the bill, but the amendments may cause it not to be considered,” said House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg.

House Bill 370 passed the House Education Committee by a 21-1 vote on Tuesday after three students told the committee about harassment and bullying they had suffered because they were gay.

Rand Paul writes fund-raising letter for Bowling Green think tank

By Jack Brammer – jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, has written a nine-page fund-raising letter on behalf of a non-profit, free-market think tank in his hometown.

Jim Waters, vice president of policy and communications for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, said Paul was one of the earliest supporters of the group founded in 2003.

Waters said the group is non-partisan but asked Paul for help because “we have a natural alignment with him on being fiscally conservative.”