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/2012/05/10/ky-state-recipets-down-for-april-but-on-pace-to-meet-estimates/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/05/10/ky-state-recipets-down-for-april-but-on-pace-to-meet-estimates/#comments Thu, 10 May 2012 17:45:17 +0000 Beth Musgrave http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21690 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/05/10/ky-state-recipets-down-for-april-but-on-pace-to-meet-estimates/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/05/03/comment-will-discuss-farmer-audit-judicial-budget-cuts/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/05/03/comment-will-discuss-farmer-audit-judicial-budget-cuts/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 21:12:09 +0000 Jack Brammer http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21665 Richie Farmer's administration and cuts in the state judicial budget will be topics on this weekend's "Comment on Kentucky." The public affairs show on the Kentucky Educational Television network will air live Friday at 8 p.m. ET. ]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/05/03/comment-will-discuss-farmer-audit-judicial-budget-cuts/feed/ 0 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/05/02/chief-justice-announces-furloughs-other-cost-saving-measures-for-judicial-branch/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/05/02/chief-justice-announces-furloughs-other-cost-saving-measures-for-judicial-branch/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 16:00:10 +0000 Jack Brammer http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21654 By Jack Brammer jbrammer@herald-leader.com FRANKFORT – Kentucky court workers will be furloughed three days this year, closing courthouses statewide on Aug. 6, Sept. 4 and Oct. 15, Chief Justice John D. Minton said Wednesday. The cost-cutting move is the result of cuts the Kentucky General Assembly made to the court system’s budget, Minton said. This is the first time since Kentucky’s modern court system was formed in 1976 that the judicial branch must close courthouse doors to balance its budget, he added. Court spokeswoman Leigh Anne Hiatt said the furloughs will affect all judicial branch employees except elected officials. The state court system has about 3,300 employees and 404 elected justices, judges and circuit court clerks, she said. Furloughs are one of several measures included in the judicial branch’s budget reduction plan for fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1.]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/05/02/chief-justice-announces-furloughs-other-cost-saving-measures-for-judicial-branch/feed/ 4 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/19/senate-committee-adds-williams-projects-back-into-road-budget/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/19/senate-committee-adds-williams-projects-back-into-road-budget/#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 18:05:05 +0000 Beth Musgrave http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21606 By Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer bmusgrave@herald-leader.com FRANKFORT — The $50 million in road projects that Gov. Steve Beshear vetoed in or near the Southern Kentucky district of Senate President David Williams are back — for now. In a surprise move Thursday, the fourth day of a special legislative session, the Senate budget committee added the projects to a bill containing the Transportation Cabinet’s operating budget. The panel adopted by voice vote an amendment offered by committee Chairman Bob Leeper, I-Paducah, that restored the projects. The committee then approved the amended House Bill 2 on a 14-0 vote and sent it to the Senate, which is expected to consider it Friday. If the changes become law, which seems unlikely, they would reverse Beshear’s decision on Wednesday to veto the road projects from the state’s two-year road plan. That bill was approved on April 12, the last day of the regular legislative session. Leeper said he introduced the amendment “as a matter of principle” because it was not fair for the governor to direct his vetoes at one legislator.]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/19/senate-committee-adds-williams-projects-back-into-road-budget/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/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/2012/04/17/house-poised-for-vote-wednesday-on-road-budget-pill-mill-bills/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/17/house-poised-for-vote-wednesday-on-road-budget-pill-mill-bills/#comments Tue, 17 Apr 2012 18:13:38 +0000 Beth Musgrave http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21567 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/17/house-poised-for-vote-wednesday-on-road-budget-pill-mill-bills/feed/ 1 http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/13/beshear-says-special-session-is-a-result-of-williams-greed/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/13/beshear-says-special-session-is-a-result-of-williams-greed/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:04:47 +0000 Beth Musgrave http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21517 By Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer bmusgrave@herald-leader.com PDF: Read Beshear's call for a special session FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear has ordered the Kentucky General Assembly to convene a special law-making session at noon Monday to consider a transportation budget and a bill aimed at battling prescription drug abuse. Beshear’s call for a special legislative session came about 12 hours after lawmakers ended their regular 60-day session just before midnight Thursday without approving the Transportation Cabinet’s operating budget, which funds everything from road building to snow removal. A special session costs taxpayers $60,456.50 a day. It will probably last at least five days — the minimum amount of time needed to move a bill through the legislative process — but could go on for weeks.]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/13/beshear-says-special-session-is-a-result-of-williams-greed/feed/ 3 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/2012/04/11/governor-signs-unemployment-insurance-fix-urges-agreement-on-road-plan/ http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/11/governor-signs-unemployment-insurance-fix-urges-agreement-on-road-plan/#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:20:32 +0000 Beth Musgrave http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/?p=21473 By Beth Musgrave bmusgrave@herald-leader.com FRANKFORT — Uncertainty reigned in the Capitol Wednesday night as lawmakers and Gov. Steve Beshear struggled to prepare themselves for what is expected to be the final day of the 2012 legislative session on Thursday. Beshear waited until 7:20 p.m. Wednesday to veto more than three dozen line-items in the $19 billion, two-year state budget, even as leading lawmakers continued trying to hammer out an agreement on a road-building plan for the next biennium. If an agreement on the transportation budget is not reached in time for a Thursday vote, the legislature could still move the 60th and final day of the legislative session to Friday or Saturday, although House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate President David Williams cast doubt on that scenario Wednesday evening. The Kentucky Constitution requires the General Assembly to adjourn by the end of April 15, which is Sunday. A super majority of legislators — 23 of 37 senators and 60 of 100 representatives — is needed to override Beshear’s vetoes in the budget bill, which both chambers approved on March 30.]]> http://bluegrasspolitics.bloginky.com/2012/04/11/governor-signs-unemployment-insurance-fix-urges-agreement-on-road-plan/feed/ 2