Archive for March, 2011

McConnell leads charge against Obama environmental rules

By Halimah Abdullah and Renee Schoof — habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON — In Kentucky, where coal mining has been the lifeblood of many rural communities, miners and the lawmakers who represent them say the Obama administration’s push for regulations that cap greenhouse gases and toughen mine permitting requirements feels like an assault.

In response, lawmakers from Kentucky and other mining states have battled the administration’s efforts through legislation designed to weaken the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory authority and by attacking agency director Lisa Jackson.

This week alone, there are three measures up for debate in the Senate that would revise critical parts of the Clean Air Act. The proposals, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, Senate finance committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., are vital to helping shore up the economy, say supporters.

“Americans are tired of the White House paying lip service to their struggles while quietly promoting effort after effort, either through legislation or through some back-door regulation, that make it harder, not easier, for businesses to create new jobs,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Tuesday.

Beshear, Chandler are bettin’ on the Cats over Connecticut

FRANKFORT — The fate of Gov. Steve Beshear’s and U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler’s appetites is hanging in the balance on bets with their Connecticut Democratic colleagues on this weekend’s Final Four game between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the University of Connecticut Huskies.

Beshear has placed a friendly wager with Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy on the game’s outcome, Beshear spokeswoman Kerri Richardson said Wednesday.

Chandler, meanwhile, has a bet on the game with Connecticut Congressman Joe Courntey.

All the bets involve food.

Jill Midkiff will be new spokeswoman for state health cabinet

FRANKFORT — Jill Midkiff, deputy communications director for Gov. Steve Beshear, will be the new director of communications for the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Health and Family Services Secretary Janie Miller announced the appointment Tuesday in an email to cabinet employees.

Midkiff will replace Vikki Franklin, who left last month to take a job at the University of Kentucky.

Before working for Beshear, Midkiff was director of communications for the Finance and Administration Cabinet for more than six years. She also has held various other communication positions during her 14 years in state government.

Midkiff is to start at the cabinet April 16.

Beshear spokeswoman Kerri Richardson said no replacement has been named for Midkiff in the governor’s office.

–Jack Brammer

Friday is deadline for independents to file candidacy form

FRANKFORT — People seeking public office this year as an independent or political group candidate in a partisan race must file their candidacy form with the secretary of state’s office in the Capitol by 4 p.m. Friday.

There is no fee for filing a statement-of-candidacy form.

Failure of candidates required to file the form will mean rejection of any nominating petition submitted by the Aug. 9 deadline for being on the ballot in the Nov. 8 general election.

Offices up for election this year that require the forms are governor and lieutenant governor (slate required), secretary of state, attorney general, state auditor, treasurer and agriculture commissioner.

Citizens interested in running for an office that files with the secretary of state are able to obtain the proper filing papers online at www.sos.ky.gov/elections/.

Legislative pay in limbo for special session that lacks lawmakers

UPDATED AT 3:47 P.M.

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Although lawmakers left the Capitol last week, the special legislative session on Medicaid continues and it remains unclear if lawmakers will be paid each day until it ends — most likely on April 6.

Robert Sherman, director of the Legislative Research Commission, said Monday that his agency will wait until the special session is officially over before it determines whether lawmakers will be paid for days not spent in the Capitol.

“The session goes on until both chambers adjourn. Only one chamber has adjourned. That means we still are in session,” Sherman said. “After the session is over, we will want to see what the law is in front of us about legislative pay.”

The state House voted on Thursday night to adjourn sine die — a parliamentary move to officially end its participation in the special session that began March 14 at a daily cost to taxpayers of about $63,500, including weekends.

However, the Senate had already adjourned earlier in the evening until April 6 to consider overriding any vetoes by the governor. It takes both the House and the Senate to override a veto. If the House does not meet again, any action by the Senate on April 6 would be moot.

House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, said Monday that House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, should bring members of the House back to the Capitol on April 6 to override several items vetoed by Beshear in the Medicaid bill, House Bill 1.

Rand Paul grabs headlines, but his impact on national debt unclear

By Halimah Abdullah – habdullah@mcclatchydc.com

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul took the podium at a Rotary Club of Louisville meeting Thursday and started his speech with a joke about whether his boyish curls were real.

Then Kentucky’s junior senator — arguably the most high-profile face of the Tea Party movement — chided congressional predecessors on both sides of the aisle for not doing enough to curb the ballooning national debt and managed to slip in a few plugs for his new book, The Tea Party Goes to Washington, for good measure.

And, as he did all week, Paul played coy when asked about his 2012 presidential ambitions. He vowed not to run against his father, Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, but added that “if he does not run I have not ruled it out.”

“Our debt is a serious problem,” Paul said. “That platform needs to be represented in 2012 and I want to influence who that candidate will be.”

With that, the newly-minted senator made national news — again.

In his first months in office, Paul has released a book, made the rounds on the national media circuit espousing his philosophy on debt reduction and authored a budget plan that calls for $4 trillion in cuts that he says will generate a $19 billion surplus in five years.

Although it’s too soon to discern exactly how much impact the Tea Party’s rising star will have on the congressional debate over reducing the debt, it’s clear that he has a knack for grabbing headlines.

Gubernatorial candidate’s backers face drug charges

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

Phil Moffett, a Republican candidate for governor, is calling on Kentucky to “nullify” the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration while he accepts campaign support from the owners of a Lexington store that police say sold illegal drugs.

Campaign manager David Adams said Friday that Moffett has specific concerns about the DEA’s interference in state sovereignty, but he does not back drug legalization or condone drug crimes. The campaign stands by its supporters because it believes they did nothing wrong, Adams said.

Lexington police on Feb. 10 raided The Botany Bay at 932 Winchester Road and seized a variety of illegal drugs, drug paraphernalia, several thousand dollars in cash and two loaded guns, according to court records. Police arrested six people in connection with the raid, including store employees, who face pending felony and misdemeanor drug charges.

Police later charged store owners Ginny and Scott Saville, who were not present, with misdemeanor counts of trafficking in synthetic marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. They have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to appear next month in Fayette District Court.

Ginny Saville helped organize a Dec. 7 fund-raiser for Moffett and, with her husband, donated $2,000 to him. A large Moffett campaign poster hung in the store’s window Friday. When the raid happened, she and her husband were with the Moffett campaign at the Conservative Action Political Conference in Washington, D.C., according to Adams.

Beshear vetoes spending cuts contained in Medicaid budget fix

UPDATED at 8 p.m.

By Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear on Friday line-item vetoed all spending cuts to state government and all reporting requirements contained in a Medicaid budget fix passed by the legislature Thursday night.

The move means Beshear can implement his original plan to fix a hole in the Medicaid budget. He will transfer $166 million from next fiscal year to the current fiscal year, then plans to make up the difference in the second year of the budget through a series of cost-saving initiatives, including managed care plans.

Beshear, speaking at a Capitol news conference, said it won’t be necessary to cut payments to Medicaid providers by 35 percent from April 1 to June 30, as he had warned would happen if lawmakers failed to approve a budget fix.

He said the line-item vetoes of House Bill 1 will both preserve essential services in state government and allow him greater flexibility to manage the state’s still fragile finances.

“The Senate’s draconian cuts to basic priorities are neither necessary nor advisable,” Beshear said.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, blasted Beshear for making the vetoes, particularly ones that erased restrictions aimed at monitoring Beshear’s efforts to save money.

‘Comment’ will discuss special legislative session

The Kentucky General Assembly’s special session will be discussed on this weekend’s “Comment on Kentucky,” a public-affairs show of the Kentucky Educational Television network.

Joining substitute host Bill Bryant to discuss this week’s news in Kentucky will be three reporters — Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader, Deborah Yetter of The Courier-Journal and Phil Pendleton of Lexington’s WKYT-TV.

The 30-minute show airs live Friday at 8 p.m. EDT on KET1. It also will be broadcast at 6:30 a.m. Saturday on KET KY, 7:30 a.m. Sunday on KET KY, 12:30 p.m. Sunday on KET 1, 8 a.m. Monday on KET KY and 7:30 p.m. Monday on KET KY.

–Jack Brammer

House passes Senate budget fix after Beshear promises to veto spending cuts

By Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The fate of a fix for the state’s ailing Medicaid budget lies with Gov. Steve Beshear after the General Assembly approved a proposal Thursday that includes spending cuts Beshear is expected to veto.

The Kentucky House voted 86-2 Thursday evening to agree with a Senate plan that plugs a $139 million hole in this year’s Medicaid budget, but only after Beshear assured Democrats he will veto much of the $101 million in cuts to other parts of state government included in the bill.

“Once the bill has reached my desk, I will begin scrutinizing it and will take appropriate action to reflect the priorities I share with the vast majority of legislators,” Beshear said in a statement.

If Beshear vetoes the spending cuts, his administration will need to save $166 million in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, in order to balance the budget of the health care program for the poor and disabled.

After 10 p.m. Thursday, the Democratic-led House voted to end their participation in the special legislative session, which makes it impossible for the legislature to override Beshear’s line-item vetoes.