FRANKFORT – After nearly two months of work, and in the face of a $1.2 billion deficit, the Kentucky House of Representatives voted this past week for a two-year budget that streamlines state government while investing in the Commonwealth.
Legislators have known for months that the budget would be difficult to write, given the nation’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
But the House budget is in many ways a strong spending plan because it re-dedicates the state to its core missions in education, health services for our most vulnerable citizens, public safety and infrastructure. It does not call for the drastic actions some other states are considering, which range from mass layoffs to closing schools and many of their state parks.
The highlight is the “Kentucky Jobs for Kentucky Families” program that, if adopted, would provide hundreds of much-needed projects and in turn create or retain as many as 25,000 jobs by building or renovating schools in disrepair; by bringing better water and sewer service to thousands of families and businesses; and by building new roads and bridges.
With unemployment high and the cost of construction low, this is an ideal time to put people back to work while getting the most value out of each tax dollar.
Given the size of the deficit, there are understandably some difficult decisions in the House budget. It calls for the number of political appointees and the funding for state-financed contracts to return to 2007 levels, for example, and there are no raises for anyone or increases in virtually any department.
It protects per-pupil funding in our classrooms from cuts but trims the two days added to the school calendar in 2006. It cuts back higher education slightly, and it has businesses temporarily suspend the practice of using prior-year losses to reduce what they owe to the state during the two-year budget cycle.
The House also relies on the Parole Board’s plan to speed up hearings for low-level, non-violent felons, a continuation of an ongoing effort to slow what was the nation’s fastest-growing prison population in 2007.
There are also more than $700 million in efficiencies in Medicaid, which receives 80 percent of its funding from the federal government. The House is counting on a six-month extension of additional federal funding for this program as well, an assumption also made by President Obama and several other states in their respective budgets.
The budget continues our commitment to the federal Base Realignment and Closure program that is bringing thousands of soldiers, civilian personnel and their families to Kentucky. If this process continues running smoothly, we could see even more military investment in the future as Congress looks to consolidate further.
The House budget creates 400 additional slots for the Support for Community Living program, which provides care close to home for those Kentuckians with development or intellectual disabilities; and it proposes $11 million more to help smokers enrolled in Medicaid to quit.
We support Meals on Wheels and other needed programs to help our oldest citizens remain at home, and there is enough money to fund what is known as the Boni Bill, which was enacted in 2007 to provide needed protection for social workers who often find themselves in dangerous situations.
In education matters, my colleagues and I added $2.2 million more than the governor had proposed in January for KET, which has been especially hard-hit in recent budget cutbacks, affecting the programs they provide in our schools; and we felt there should be $2.2 million more for our schools’ family resource and youth services centers.
In other changes, the House budget also ensures $780,000 for services used by the blind and deaf; $400,000 for the Farms to Food Banks program, which brings together farmers and those families in need of fresh, locally grown produce; and $100,000 for veterans organizations that will use the money to train volunteers to help veterans obtain the benefits they deserve.
These are just some of the main highlights in what is a $17.5 billion budget and $3.4 billion road plan. It is now up to the Senate to make any changes in the days ahead. At the end of the month, leaders from both chambers will work on a final compromise that, when enacted, will guide the state for the next two years, beginning in July.
If you would like to contact me in the two-plus weeks we have remaining in the legislative session, you can write to me at Room 329E, Capitol Annex, 702 Capitol Avenue, Frankfort, KY 40601.
You can also leave a message for me or for any legislator at 800-372-7181. For those with a hearing impairment, the number is 800-896-0305, and the Spanish line is 866-840-6574. If you would like to know the status of a particular bill, that number is 866-840-2835. All of these are toll-free.
I hope to hear from you soon.
