Author Archive for Beth Musgrave

State government’s revenue up 8.6 percent in January

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — State revenues continued to climb in January.

General Fund receipts for January rose 8.6 percent compared to January 2011, an increase of $63.8 million.

Total revenues were $808.2 million, compared to $744.4 million in January 2011, according to the Office of State Budget Director.

State Budget Director Mary Lassiter said the financial results are in line with the official revenue estimate if 2.8 percent growth for this fiscal year, which ends June 30. Revenues need to grow about 1.4 percent for the last five months of year to meet that estimate.

Receipts for the Road Fund, which is used for transportation projects, rose 10 percent in January compared to the previous year. Overall, the Road Fund has grown 7.8 percent from the previous year.

Japan gives Kentucky 20 cherry blossom trees

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Ambassador of Japan Ichiro Fujisaki announced Friday the donation of 20 cherry blossom trees to Kentucky.

Fujisaki, in a Capitol news conference on Friday, said the trees were meant as an expression of friendship and gratitude to the people of Kentucky, who were generous to Japan after the tsunami and earthquake last year.

The gift also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the gift of 3,000 cherry blossom trees from Japan to the United States in 1912. The trees dot Washington D.C.’s River Basin and are frequently photographed in the Spring.

Meanwhile, the Japan/American Society of Kentucky announced it will have its first Cherry Blossom Festival in downtown Lexington in May 2012, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

Beshear names 22 to tax reform commission

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear named 22 people, including former University of Kentucky President Lee Todd and Fayette County School superintendent Stu Silberman, to a commission that will draft a proposal to overhaul Kentucky’s tax code.

The commission must have its recommendations finished by Nov. 15, giving lawmakers time to review them before the 2013 General Assembly begins in January.

Beshear, speaking at a press Capitol conference on Thursday, said commission members come from diverse geographic areas and backgrounds. Lt. Gov Jerry Abramson will chair the commission.

The state has slashed more than $1 billion in planned spending over the past four years and Beshear’s proposed budget for the next two fiscal years would cut an additional $286 million. Some of those cuts have impacted core services, such as education.

For-profit college bill passes House, heads to Senate

By Beth Musgrave

bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bill that would create a new board to oversee for-profit colleges and universities passed the House 91-5.

Many who voted against House Bill 308 said the bill did not go far enough to protect students from what many say are predatory practices of some for-profit colleges. House Bill 308 abolishes the current Kentucky Board of Proprietary Education, which licenses for-profit schools that offer associate degrees and certificates in career programs. HB 308 would create a new agency, the Kentucky Commission on Proprietary Education. The industry would only hold four of 11 seats instead of the six it currently occupies on the 11-member board. The chairman can never be a member of the for-profit industry. The commission would also hire a staff person paid for by fees and dues from the for-profit industry.

A much tougher bill that would impose even more restrictions and more oversight on for-profit colleges passed the House last year but failed in the Senate after of aggressive lobbying by the for-profit industry. Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, one of the sponsors of the bill, told House members Tuesday that the bill was a good start and brings more oversight to the industry. Although many wanted more teeth in the bill, the bill will likely pass both chambers, Rollins said.

But Rep. Reginald Meeks, D-Louisville, said that that the legislature needed to do more to protect students and that the bill makes the industry as transparent as a “Fort Knox safe.” Meeks has pushed for more oversight of the industry in past years in light of a state audit that showed that the current board was an inattentive watchdog that fails to protect the interest of students. Meanwhile, lawsuits and investigations in Kentucky and elsewhere have raised questions about deceptive marketing and the quality of educations sold by the schools.

No compromise on congressional redistricting; issue probably headed to court

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — State lawmakers failed to redraw the boundaries of Kentucky’s six congressional districts before Tuesday’s candidate filing deadline, which means the issue probably will end up in court.

House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, told House members about 20 minutes after the 4 p.m. filing deadline that a compromise agreement between the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate could not be reached.

The House and Senate had delayed the original deadline from Jan. 31 to Feb. 7 to give the two sides more time to reach an agreement.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, had worked with members of congress on a possible compromise that late last week looked promising, House leaders said. But Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers said Tuesday afternoon that the two sides appeared to “agree to disagree.”

Stumbo said congressional candidates will run in the state’s existing districts. That means someone — either a candidate or a national political party — will probably challenge the constitutionality of Kentucky’s districts.

House panel approves bills to cut cost of special elections, require electronic filing

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A measure that would allow county clerks to open limited precincts in uncontested special elections passed a House committee Tuesday and is now headed to the full House for a vote.

Also on Tuesday, the House Committee on Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs passed a bill that would require candidates for statewide elected office to file campaign finance reports electronically.

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes told the committee Tuesday that a recent special election in Whitley and Laurel Counties for former Rep. Dewayne Bunch’s seat cost a total of $47,000. Voter turnout in the uncontested special election was less than 2 percent in Whitley County and 1 percent in Laurel County.

Regina Bunch, Dewayne Bunch’s wife, ran unopposed in the election. After reimbursement from the state, the special election cost Whitley County $33,000. It cost Laurel County $6,000, Grimes said.

Medicaid asks for additional funding for substance abuse treatment

By Beth Musgrave

bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — If approved by the legislature, almost 6,000 additional people could be treated for substance abuse under the state-federal program for the poor and disabled.

Kentucky is one of seven states that does not offer substance abuse treatment in its Medicaid program.

With the number of Kentuckians with substance abuse on the rise, treating more people with addiction will not only improve health outcomes but will improve the state’s bottom line, said Stephen Hall, the commissioner of the Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities.

The average cost of intensive outpatient drug addiction services is about $2,500. Adults who are not treated costs the taxpayers more than $23,000, some of those costs would include the cost of incarceration as well as other public benefits such as food stamps.

Moreover, studies of Kentucky drug treatment programs show dramatic increases in the level of employment of people who successfully complete drug treatment, Hall said.

Hall testified Monday before a House budget subcommittee on health and human services. The expansion of the state’s drug addiction services in the Medicaid program is one of several new spending items Gov. Steve Beshear has proposed in his two-year budget. Beshear has said that expanding drug treatment is key to tackling the state’s drug epidemic.

Legal fight over child abuse death records continues

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A Franklin Circuit judge expects to rule by Tuesday whether a battle over child abuse death records should stay in his court.

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd said he hoped to have a decision by Tuesday, when the state Court of Appeals is expected to hear motions in the case involving the state’s two largest newspapers and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which oversees child protection.

Shepherd has ruled previously that child protection records are open to the public when a child dies or nearly dies from abuse or neglect. Shepherd said only limited information in those files could be kept secret — such as social security numbers and the names of children who are injured but don’t die.

The state appealed Shepherd’s order to the state Court of Appeals, arguing that more information in those documents should be kept secret under exemptions in the state’s Open Records Act. At the same time, the cabinet has released case files of eight children who were killed or nearly killed as a result of abuse and neglect, but with more redactions than allowed under Shepherd’s previous ruling.

Budget cuts will delay implementation of new core education standards

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The state’s top education leaders told a legislative panel Wednesday that proposed budget cuts to the Department of Education will delay implementation of new standards called for in a 2009 overhaul of Kentucky’s education system.

Terry Holliday, commissioner of the Department of Education, told a House budget subcommittee that cuts proposed under Gov. Steve Besehar’s two-year budget will also mean less money for teacher professional development and less money for technology assistance for local school districts. There also will be no new state money to help some schools that have been deemed low-performing schools.

Beshear’s proposed budget does not include cuts to the main funding formula for Kentucky schools, commonly called SEEK, or Support Educational Excellence in Kentucky. However, other parts of the education budget would be cut, including an 8.4 percent cut to administration and technology and a 4.5 percent cut to instruction, assessment and curriculum programs and to the Kentucky School for the Blind and the Kentucky School for the Deaf.

Prosecutors warn of layoffs, furloughs if budgets are cut again

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The state’s prosecutors warned lawmakers Tuesday that they will have to layoff or furlough workers under Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposed two-year state budget.

“We’ve got two options — layoffs or furloughs,” said Chris Cohron, the Commonwealth Attorney for Warren County and legislative chair for the state’s commonwealth attorney association.

Beshear has proposed a cut of 2.2 percent to the state’s commonwealth and county attorneys. That’s less than the 8.4 percent cut he has proposed for most state agencies for the first year of the two-year budget. Under Beshear’s proposal, the agencies would generally receive the same amount in the second year of the budget.

Cohron and John Estill, the Mason County attorney, told a House budget review subcommittee on Tuesday that more than 95 percent of their budgets are spent on workers. Any cuts will mean a reduction in hours for current employees through furloughs or layoffs.