All Entries in the "Jeff Hoover" Category

Kentucky House approves bill to fix Medicaid budget

UPDATED AT 6:18 P.M.

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

FRANKFORT — The Kentucky House overwhelmingly approved a bill to plug a $139 million shortfall in the state Medicaid budget Monday evening and sent it to the Republican-led Senate, where its fate remains unclear.

The plan transfers $166 million from next year’s Medicaid budget to this year’s and provides for “triggered cuts” if Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear cannot realize savings from privately-run managed care programs for Medicaid patients, said House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown. Most education programs, including public universities and the main funding formula for K-12 education, would be exempt from spending cuts, he said.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, noted the proposal’s speedy flight through the House. The-94 to-4 vote in the House came less than an hour after the House budget committee unanimously approved the plan, which House Democratic and Republican leaders presented to their party caucuses for the first time Monday afternoon.

“It got passed quicker than Sherman went through Georgia,” Stivers said. “As to the substance of the compromise, we have not seen it.”

Gov. Steve Beshear said in a statement that he still thinks his proposal to fix the Medicaid budget is better, but he is “glad to see that they (House members) agree with me that we should not balance the Medicaid budget on the backs of our schoolchildren and college students.”

Beshear calls House talks on Medicaid options ‘constructive’

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

FRANKFORT – The state House and Senate passed bills on Wednesday but still have no firm agreement on a fix to the state’s Medicaid budget.

House Democrats and Republicans said they will continue discussions on a possible budget compromise Thursday. Wednesday was the third day of the special legislative session.

Meanwhile, the Senate released a “road map” of possible solutions to the impasse between the House and Senate.

The Senate passed Senate Bill 1, which includes moving money in the higher education budget, and said it was a vehicle for the House and Senate to develop a compromise over a hole in this year’s Medicaid budget.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said he and House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, met Wednesday and will continue to talk about a variety of possible solutions to the Medicaid budget fix on Thursday.

Some new faces in legislative leadership

By Jack Brammer and John Cheves — jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Senate Democrats decided Tuesday to go with a self-described “mild-mannered” lawmaker as their new leader instead of one who has been a strong critic of Senate President David Williams.

Sen. Julian Carroll of Frankfort, who was governor in the 1970s, described his loss to Sen. R.J. Palmer of Winchester in the race for the Senate Democrats’ floor leader as tantamount to a victory for Williams, a Burkesville Republican who is running for governor this year.

The race to replace Democrat Ed Worley, who retired from the Senate last year, as the chamber’s minority leader was one of a few changes in legislative leadership on the first day of this year’s General Assembly.

Besides electing leaders who determine the flow of legislation, the first day of the law-making session produced a tense atmosphere in the Senate over Republican leaders’ removal of Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, from the Senate Education Committee and the official unveiling of GOP-backed bills in the Senate dealing with topics ranging from taxes to immigration that the Senate is expected to approve this week.

House GOP caucus outlines agenda for 2011 session

FRANKFORT –State House Republicans are proposing legislation to require lawmakers to give up their pay during a special session if they are unable to pass a budget during the regular session of the General Assembly.

The House GOP also wants any bill that raises taxes or spends tax dollars to be made available to the public at least 48 hours prior to a vote on it.

About 20 House Republicans and about 20 others who are vying in the Nov. 2 general election to become House Republicans held a news conference Tuesday in the Capitol Rotunda to outline their agenda for the 2011 General Assembly that begins in January.

“By making this commitment to the Commonwealth, it’s time that we in the House Republican caucus take back control and make government more accountable to the people who elect us,” said House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown.

Speakers confirmed for Fancy Farm political picnic

Gov. Steve Beshear and the two candidates for U.S. Senate — Democratic Jack Conway and Republican Rand Paul – will headline the speakers at the Aug. 7 Fancy Farm political picnic in Graves County.

Mark Wilson, political chairman for the picnic that traditionally starts the fall election campaigns, has released a list of confirmed speakers. The event, on the grounds of St. Jerome Catholic Church in Fancy Farm, is free to the public.

Legislative leaders claim more than half of new borrowing for roads

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

FRANKFORT — On the final night of last week’s special legislative session, Sen. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, complained about voting on a 245-page bill outlining $6.7 billion worth of road projects without even seeing it.

“This is an absolute outrage,” she said after casting one of two votes against the measure in the Senate. “Who knows what’s in it?”

The answer: A lot.

A review of the massive bill passed after 10 p.m. last Saturday shows that the districts represented by legislative leaders fared well. The bill included more than $400 million in borrowing, more than half of which is going to projects in 12 legislative leaders’ districts.

In some cases they snagged money for new road projects that were not included in any of the road-building proposals considered by the House and Senate earlier this year.

For example, the plan calls for spending $3 million of borrowed money on a “scoping” study to determine the feasibility of building a new bridge over Lake Cumberland near Wolf Creek Dam, in the districts of House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville.

“The money always seems to go to leadership. They are the ones who hold the fiscal pencil,” said Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, who also voted against the road plan.

Republicans claim ‘political retribution’ on road plan

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The House voted largely along party lines Tuesday for a two-year, $3.4 billion road plan.

The House voted 67-32 to pass House Bill 292. Republican lawmakers complained during a debate that many road and bridge projects in their districts were yanked from the plan, particularly those involving federal stimulus funds, as punishment for their voting against the Democratic leadership’s $371 million revenue-raising measure.

Democrats are giving “a lesson in political retribution,” said House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown. Rep. Danny Ford, R-Mount Vernon, listed the transportation projects that disappeared from his district, including a replacement for a bridge used by school buses in Lincoln County that engineers have rated as “structurally deficient.”

“Folks, when we play games with things that affect people’s lives, it’s wrong,” Ford said.

House approves revenue bill; Stumbo promises ‘aggressive’ construction plan

By Jack Brammer – jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The House voted largely along party lines Thursday to approve a bill that would raise more than $300 million to help balance the next two-year state budget.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo indicated soon after the 64-36 vote on House Bill 530 that those who supported the revenue measure will be rewarded with job-producing building projects in their districts.

“We believe this is a fairly good indicator of members who have concerns about jobs in their communities,” said Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. “Those members who indicated that is a priority for them stepped up today and voted for the measure, and we certainly want to respond and try to create as many jobs as we possibly can across the Commonwealth.”

Stumbo said House Democratic leadership hopes to release an “aggressive” jobs-creation package focusing on schools, roads and infrastructure either Friday or Monday as part of a nearly $18 billion spending plan for the state over the next two years, beginning July 1.

All Democrats in the House except Reps. Jim Wayne of Louisville and Will Coursey of Benton voted for the revenue-producing bill. The only House Republican who voted for it was Rep. Jim Stewart III of Flat Lick.

House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, said the bill was designed to raise a surplus of about $100 million “for pet projects.”