http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com Covering Kentucky politics and government Tue, 22 May 2012 21:44:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/20/senate-approves-road-budget-bill-with-restoration-of-some-vetoed-road-projects/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/20/senate-approves-road-budget-bill-with-restoration-of-some-vetoed-road-projects/#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:03:46 +0000 Jack Brammer http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21618 UPDATED AT 7:20 P.M. By Jack Brammer and Beth Musgrave jbrammer@herald-leader.com FRANKFORT — A five-day special legislative session that cost taxpayers more than $300,000 ended late Friday afternoon after Kentucky lawmakers approved a transportation budget and a bill aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse. The contentious session wrapped up quickly after leaders in the Republican-led Senate and Democratic-led House begrudgingly accepted compromises on both bills, which they had failed to approve in the final hours of the regular legislative session on April 12. The Senate backed off a proposal to restore about $50 million worth of road projects in and near Senate President David Williams’ Southern Kentucky district that Gov. Steve Beshear had vetoed earlier this week. Meanwhile, the House accepted an anti-drug abuse bill that keeps the state’s electronic prescription monitoring system in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services — and out of the hands of law enforcement agencies eager to investigate doctors who over-prescribe addictive medications.]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/20/senate-approves-road-budget-bill-with-restoration-of-some-vetoed-road-projects/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/18/money-for-roads-in-williams-district-pales-in-comparison-to-house-leaders/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/18/money-for-roads-in-williams-district-pales-in-comparison-to-house-leaders/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:04:37 +0000 Accountability Editor http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21601 By John Cheves jcheves@herald-leader.com Gov. Steve Beshear blamed Senate President David Williams' "greed" last week after Williams added tens of millions of dollars in spending for his district to the state's two-year road plan. Meanwhile, Williams criticized Beshear for not signing the plan into law hours after legislative leaders hammered out a compromise version and delivered it to the governor. A week after the regular legislative session ended in failure because of this impasse, the facts don't entirely support either man. Though Williams, R-Burkesville, did try to fatten short-term road spending in his district, which includes six rural counties along the Tennessee state line, what he awarded himself pales in comparison to the asphalt anticipated by House Democratic leaders, who get first crack at the governor's road plan and share the governor's party affiliation. From 2012 through 2014, the road plan the legislature approved last Thursday would have spent $115 million in Williams' district, or $1,017 per person. Floyd County, home of House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, would get $95 million, or $2,411 per person. Elliott County, home of House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, would get $41 million, or $5,259 per person.]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/18/money-for-roads-in-williams-district-pales-in-comparison-to-house-leaders/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/18/law-enforcement-officials-rally-for-prescription-drug-bill/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/18/law-enforcement-officials-rally-for-prescription-drug-bill/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:05:17 +0000 Jack Brammer http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21582 Patricia Jones of Laurel County pleaded with legislators in a Capitol Rotunda rally “to do something” to stop the prescription drug abuse that took the life of her son, Westley Brewer. “There’s a void in our life that will never be filled,” she said. She later said in an interview that her son got the drugs “from friends who went doctor-shopping to get them.” HB 1, which now goes to the Senate for its consideration, would move control of the state’s prescription monitoring system to Attorney General Jack Conway’s office and require physicians to use the system. Currently, only 25 percent of Kentucky physicians do so.]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/18/law-enforcement-officials-rally-for-prescription-drug-bill/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/18/house-passes-road-bill-pill-mill-bills/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/18/house-passes-road-bill-pill-mill-bills/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:56:21 +0000 Beth Musgrave http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21579 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/18/house-passes-road-bill-pill-mill-bills/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/16/house-starts-special-legislative-session/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/16/house-starts-special-legislative-session/#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:03:49 +0000 Jack Brammer http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21543 By Jack Brammer and Beth Musgrave bmusgrave@herald-leader.com jbrammer@herald-leader.com FRANKFORT -- The state House gaveled into a special session shortly after noon Monday that will cost taxpayers about $60,000 a day. The House on Monday introduced bills to provide a transportation budget and curb prescription drug abuse, the two tasks Gov. Steve Beshear put on the agenda of the special legislative session. Committees will act on the bills on Tuesday, and the full House will vote on them and send them to the Senate by noon Wednesday, said House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. Stumbo said he did not know what will happen in the special session after that. The Senate is set to convene at 4 p.m. Monday.]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/16/house-starts-special-legislative-session/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/13/beshear-plans-to-call-a-special-legislative-session/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/13/beshear-plans-to-call-a-special-legislative-session/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 06:49:51 +0000 Jack Brammer http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21502 David Williams was responsible for the Senate’s failure to approve a road plan budget bill on the final day of the 60-day regular session. “Without the transportation budget bill, you can’t fund any of the projects in the transportation plan that has been passed,” said the Democratic governor who won re-election last November in a contentious campaign against Williams, R-Burkesville. Beshear also charged that Williams was responsible for the Senate’s inaction Thursday on a bill that would more closely regulate pain management clinics and put the state’s electronic prescription reporting system in the attorney general’s office instead of in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. “We need that bill. We need the transportation budget bill. So I’ll be issuing a call for a special session of the General Assembly,” Beshear said. “They should have and could have been passed by the Senate today.”]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/13/beshear-plans-to-call-a-special-legislative-session/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/12/stumbo-predicts-road-planpill-mill-and-scholarship-bills-will-pass/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/12/stumbo-predicts-road-planpill-mill-and-scholarship-bills-will-pass/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:38:28 +0000 Beth Musgrave http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21487 By Beth Musgrave bmusgrave@herald-leader.com FRANKFORT -- House and Senate negotiators struck a deal on the state's road-building plan early Thursday morning, said House Speaker Greg Stumbo. Stumbo also predicted that the General Assembly will approve on Thursday a bill to crack down on abuse of prescription pain pills and a measure that would start a new scholarship program for kids in coal-producing counties. Stumbo's comments came on the 60th and final day of the legislative session. The agreement on the state's road plan was inked shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday morning, he said. Negotiators were trying to hammer out an agreement in time for a vote on Thursday. Stumbo said he could not say if the House would override any of Gov. Steve Beshear's vetoes in the General Fund budget. Beshear will meet with House Democrats at 2 p.m. to explain the 45 line-item vetoes he made Wednesday night in the two-year, $19 billion budget bill.]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/12/stumbo-predicts-road-planpill-mill-and-scholarship-bills-will-pass/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/06/beshear-and-conway-join-key-lawmakers-in-pushing-for-anti-drug-bill/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/06/beshear-and-conway-join-key-lawmakers-in-pushing-for-anti-drug-bill/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:36:32 +0000 Jack Brammer http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21458 Steve Beshear, Attorney General Jack Conway and several key lawmakers are urging the legislature next week to approve a bill to regulate pain clinics. Beshear and Conway joined House Speaker Greg Stumbo, Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, Sen. Jimmy Higdon and Rep. John Tilley in issuing a joint statement Friday, calling on lawmakers to pass House Bill 4 when they return to Frankfort April 12 for the final day of the 2012 General Assembly. The bill ran into trouble March 30 before lawmakers left the Capitol for 10 days to give Beshear time to consider any vetoes. The Kentucky Medical Association has questioned parts of it. ]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/06/beshear-and-conway-join-key-lawmakers-in-pushing-for-anti-drug-bill/feed/ 1 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/03/29/house-and-senate-leaders-ink-deal-on-19-billion-budget/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/03/29/house-and-senate-leaders-ink-deal-on-19-billion-budget/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:32:52 +0000 Beth Musgrave http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21380 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/03/29/house-and-senate-leaders-ink-deal-on-19-billion-budget/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/03/28/house-mulls-senate-proposal-on-budget/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/03/28/house-mulls-senate-proposal-on-budget/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:14:50 +0000 Beth Musgrave http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21368 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/03/28/house-mulls-senate-proposal-on-budget/feed/ 0