All Entries in the "David Williams" Category

Lawmakers wrangle over debt in state budget

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT – Senate President David Williams and House Democratic leaders wrangled over how much debt there should be in the state budget Wednesday in a third day of negotiations over the two-year, $19 billion spending plan.

Leading lawmakers are trying to produce a budget by 3 a.m. Thursday, which would allow the chambers to vote Friday on a budget bill. If they don’t meet that deadline, lawmakers still could rearrange the legislative calendar so that Saturday or Monday becomes the 59th day of the 60-workday legislative session. Wednesday was the 57th day of the session, which must end by April 15.

Lawmakers hope to preserve the final day of the session to override any vetoes Gov. Steve Beshear might issue during a 10-day window in early April.

In little more than an hour of negotiations Wednesday morning, lawmakers argued over whether to include in the budget a $100 million bond for school construction and a $20 million bond for high-tech economic development construction projects.

Kentucky Senate approves two-year budget; next, negotiations with House

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

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky Senate approved an $18.5 billion, two-year budget Thursday night that includes little money for capital projects, eliminating $3.5 million each for the Kentucky Horse Park and a downtown Lexington redesign project that includes Rupp Arena.

The Senate voted 32-4 to approve House Bill 465. The Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee passed the measure an hour before it was sent to the full Senate.

Now the House, controlled by Democrats, and the Republican-controlled Senate will appoint a committee to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said he was told late Thursday that the House would begin negotiations Monday. Williams said he would not speculate why the House wanted to wait until after the weekend. The University of Kentucky plays in the NCAA tournament on Friday in Atlanta.

Brian Wilkerson, a spokesman for House Speaker Greg Stumbo, a Democrat, said the House was going to work Friday but did not want to go into budget negotiations without knowing what the Senate had changed. The Senate passed the budget after the House had adjourned for the day.

“We want an opportunity to look at it first,” Wilkerson said.

Senate hopes to pass budget on Thursday

By Beth Musgrave
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Senate President David Williams said Wednesday the Senate is hoping to vote on its version of the upcoming two-year budget on Thursday.

Williams said even if the Senate does not pass the bill until earlier on Friday, budget negotiations between the House and Senate should begin later that day. Williams did not give any details Wednesday on how the Senate’s two-year budget will vary from the House version, passed earlier this month.

State Senate struggles to find enough members for Friday session

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT – The state Senate had a difficult time rounding up enough members Friday morning to conduct business on the same day the University of Kentucky basketball team played a tournament game in New Orleans.

At about 9 a.m., Senate President Pro Tem Katie Stine, R-Southgate, started to lead the chamber in the absence of Senate President David Williams.

Williams, R-Burkesville, had left the state Thursday to attend Friday’s Southeastern Conference tournament game in New Orleans between UK and Louisiana State University.

When Stine asked the clerk to call the roll, only 19 of the Senate’s 38 members were in the chamber. Senate rules say at least 20 members have to be present to conduct business.

David Williams skipping Senate session to attend SEC tournament

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Senate President David Williams defended the hours he works as a state legislator Thursday after saying he will be in New Orleans Friday to attend the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament.

Williams said the Senate initially wanted to skip meeting on Friday to “save a day” in the legislative calendar to work on the state budget, but leaders eventually decided to meet Friday.

Thursday was the 43rd day of the 60-day legislative session, which must end by midnight April 15. The Senate met at 9 a.m. Thursday instead of its normal 2 p.m. meeting time.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said the SEC basketball schedule had no influence on the legislature’s schedule.

Kentucky Senate defeats casino gambling bill

By Janet Patton
jpatton1@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — A bid to allow casino gambling in Kentucky fell short of passage Thursday when the state Senate voted 21-16 against it. One senator was absent.

Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposed constitutional amendment, introduced by Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, would have let voters decide in November whether to allow up to seven casinos.

“I want to congratulate Senate President Williams,” Thayer said after the vote. “He has orchestrated the defeat of this amendment and he deserves credit for doing that.”

Thayer and Senate Minority Leader R.J. Palmer, D-Winchester, pressed to have the vote delayed because Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, was out of town. Without that pro-gambling vote, Palmer had conceded before the Senate came into session that the bill could not garner the necessary 23 votes to pass a constitutional amendment.

But Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said the vote would not be held off until Friday. Earlier in the day, Williams said that if the vote could get to 22 in favor, he would reopen the vote, but it fell well shy of that.

Full Senate expected to vote Thursday on casino gambling bill

By Janet Patton
jpatton1@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Decades of debate about allowing casino gambling in Kentucky may come to a crescendo Thursday in the state Senate, where Republican leaders say they will vote on a constitutional amendment to allow up to seven casinos.

The move comes after the Senate State and Local Government Committee approved a revised version of the bill backed by Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear on a 7-to-4 vote Wednesday afternoon. It was the first time a Senate committee has approved a constitutional amendment to expand gambling.

“The governor is going to get his vote on the Senate floor tomorrow and we’ll see if it wins on the Senate floor tomorrow,” Senate President David Williams said late Wednesday.

Republican Sen. Damon Thayer, as sponsor of the bill, said he will ask leaders to delay a vote on the bill because some members will be absent on Thursday.

“I think a fair vote would be one with all members present,” Thayer said.

Religious leaders pray for ‘timely death’ of casino bill

By Janet Patton
jpatton1@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Opponents of expanded gambling prayed on Tuesday for the “timely death” of Gov. Steve Beshear’s casino gambling amendment, which will get its first legislative hearing on Wednesday.

Led by Rev. Hershael York of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort, more than 100 people gathered in the Capital Rotunda to sing and pray for the legislation’s defeat.

The bill, introduced Feb. 14 by Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, is scheduled to be heard in the Senate State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday.

Thayer said Tuesday that he would introduce a new version of the bill for a vote. He declined to discuss the changes.

Beshear accuses Williams of trying to intimidate pro-casino senators

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear on Tuesday accused Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, of trying to intimidate Republican senators who support his casino gambling proposal.

“He is using intimidations and threats against fellow senators, including some in his own party,” Beshear said.

Williams later denied Beshear’s claim. He told reporters that he opposes the expansion of gambling in Kentucky, but he is not punishing senators who support it. Nobody is losing their committee chairmanships or other choice assignments because they disagree with him, Williams said.

“The governor has been untruthful about this issue for four years, and he continues to be untruthful,” Williams said.

Specifically, Beshear tied Williams to a story Tuesday in the Lexington Herald-Leader that raised questions about $208,835 in horse industry consulting fees collected by Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, during 2010 and part of 2011.

Ethics watchdog Richard Beliles has few friends in Kentucky Capitol

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Richard Beliles sat in Gov. Steve Beshear’s office foyer on a recent morning, staging his weekly protest of mountaintop-removal coal mining, when Senate President David Williams walked by and suggested that he kill himself.

“He said, ‘Are you occupying the office?’ I said yes. He said, ‘Well, why don’t you set yourself on fire? Why don’t you immolate yourself?’ And then he left,” said Beliles, who is recovering from cancer treatment. “It was a strange thing for David to say. It sort of shook me up.”

Through a spokeswoman, Williams later said he clearly was joking by suggesting the protest would be more effective with Beliles ablaze.

Beliles, who turns 78 on Tuesday, is a soft-spoken, genial man — and one of the more deeply resented figures at the Capitol.