All Entries in the "KY General Assembly" Category

All Lexington lawmakers will seek re-election in 2012

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — All incumbent state lawmakers from Fayette County hope to return to office next year but a few will have opponents in this year’s elections.

The third filing deadline for state legislative candidates came and went at 4 p.m. Friday, but because of court battles it still is uncertain from what districts legislative candidates will run. And it’s possible the Kentucky Supreme Court could order another filing deadline.

What is known now is that 54 people have filed for the 19 state Senate districts up for grabs this year — those in odd-numbered districts — and 223 people have filed for the 100 House seats being contested this year.

It gets complicated after that because some of those filings are for districts drawn this year by the state legislature and some are for districts that were drawn in 2002.

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.

Beshear signs into law new boundaries for Kentucky’s congressional districts

UPDATED AT 5:12 P.M.

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear signed into law Friday a compromise plan to redraw the boundaries of Kentucky’s six congressional districts after the plan rocketed through the General Assembly on Friday.

The new map in House Bill 302 moves part of Jessamine County, including Wilmore, and all of Garrard, Mercer and Boyle counties from Central Kentucky’s 6th District to the 2nd District, which extends west to Owensboro. Lincoln County was moved to Eastern Kentucky’s 5th District.

The 6th District gained the remaining portion of Scott County, a southern strip of Harrison County, and all of Robertson, Nicholas, Fleming, Bath, Menifee and Wolfe counties.

Those changes are expected to make it tougher for Republican Andy Barr to successfully challenge U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles.

Legislators may finally be ready to approve congressional redistricting

By Jack Brammer and Janet Patton
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — After weeks of contentious negotiations, the state legislature is expected to produce a map Friday that redraws boundaries of Kentucky’s six congressional districts.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said late Thursday there will be a vote Friday on a congressional redistricting map.

Stivers declined to say what the map will look like, “but we believe it will be a plan that will pass both chambers.”

He said the Senate has made no changes yet in a map the House sent it earlier this week, but “there’s always the possibility. Because of the sensitivity of the issue in discussions that will continue tonight and tomorrow, it probably will be premature to comment on what we have discussed with leaders of both houses.”

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said earlier this week that the latest map proposal basically protects incumbents.

House panel calls for registration of agents who lobby state pension systems

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Middlemen known as “placement agents” who do business with the Kentucky Retirement Systems would have to register as lobbyists and follow state ethics laws under a bill a House panel unanimously approved Thursday.

House Bill 300, sponsored by Rep. Mike Cherry, D-Princeton, also would limit trustees of the KRS to three four-year terms, place the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System board under the state ethics code, and require the state auditor to audit the Judicial Form Retirement System for judges and legislators at least once every five years.

Cherry said the bill is designed to address concerns raised in an audit of the state pension system last year by former state Auditor Crit Luallen.

Luallen told the committee last year that she identified no misuse of KRS money related to placement agents, who help private investment companies sell their products. But Luallen said one agent in particular, Glen Sergeon of New York, enjoyed close access to KRS and made nearly $6 million in fees through his relationship with Adam Tosh, then chief investment officer for KRS.

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.

Sen. Damon Thayer releases his client list

UPDATED AT 5:40 P.M.

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A Kentucky lawmaker who is expected to sponsor a constitutional amendment to allow casinos at horse racetracks has identified the clients of his private consulting firm, two of which have benefitted from his legislative work.

State Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, on Thursday said he provides marketing and public relations services to Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Millennium Farms in Lexington, Wintergreen Stallion Station in Midway and Whispering Oaks Farm in Carencro, La.

Kentucky Speedway received a $20.5 million state tax break for which Thayer was a vocal advocate in the legislature’s 2009 special session. Six months after lawmakers voted for the tax break, Kentucky Speedway put Thayer on retainer, although Thayer and Speedway officials say the job was not related.

“No. Absolutely not,” Thayer said in a short interview Wednesday outside the Senate chamber..

Health care providers say Medicaid managed care riddled with problems

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The baby was coming, no matter what a managed care company had to say.

A pregnant woman came to one of Appalachian Regional Healthcare’s eight Kentucky hospitals already in labor before Christmas. But the hospital was told by one of three managed care companies that now run Medicaid in much of Kentucky that it must get pre-authorization to deliver the baby in order to get paid.

Fourteen days after the woman and baby went home, the hospital was still waiting for approval to deliver the baby, said Joe Grossman, vice president and chief financial officer of Appalachian Regional Healthcare.

Grossman was just one of several people to testify Wednesday before a Senate panel about problems with private companies that are now managing Medicaid care in Kentucky.

House Democrats will appeal ruling that tossed redrawn legislative districts

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

FRANKFORT — House Democrats plan to appeal a judge’s ruling that declared Kentucky’s newly-drawn General Assembly districts unconstitutional.

After House Democrats met behind closed doors Wednesday evening, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, emerged to say the group decided to take the issue to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled earlier this week that the district boundaries lawmakers approved this year in House Bill 1 were unconstitutional because too many counties were needlessly split into different districts and the population of some districts varied too much.

The judge ordered election officials to use previous district lines in this year’s state legislative elections and extended the filing deadline for legislative candidates to 4 p.m. Friday.

House panel reverses itself, approves ‘Cooper’s Law’

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A House committee reversed itself on Wednesday and approved “Cooper’s Law,” which would nullify deed restrictions on small outdoor structures deemed medically necessary for children 12 and younger.

“We have a long journey ahead of us, but it was a positive move forward for special-needs children,” said the bill’s tearful sponsor, Rep. Richard Henderson, D-Jeffersonville.

House Bill 160, which proceeds to the full House, is named for a young Lexington boy whose parents are feuding with the Andover Forest homeowners association. Cooper Veloudis uses an outdoor playhouse to help with his cerebral palsy. Neighbors say the playhouse violates a deed restriction on the family’s home.

The House Local Government Committee rejected the bill on Feb. 1, with lawmakers arguing against state involvement in a local property dispute that likely will play out in court.