Date: 03-21-2016
State senators question House budget
State senators from the Owensboro area say there were heartening and concerning aspects of the budget that the House of Representatives approved and sent to the Senate last week.
The House approved its version of the budget on Wednesday. The budget rolled back some of Gov. Matt Bevin’s proposed funding cuts, particularly for K-12 and postsecondary education, while maintaining Bevin’s primary goal of placing money in the cash-strapped state worker and teacher retirement systems.
“The House did make a full commitment to the (teachers retirement system) and that’s good,” Sen. Joe Bowen, an Owensboro Republican, said Friday. “I’m very pleased that everybody is recognizing the need, finally, to address that issue.
“There’s a commitment from pretty much everybody” on the pensions, Bowen said. “That is (an issue) I have been very attentive to.”
Senators complained previously that the House was going to be late passing its budget. In a statement Friday, Senate President Robert Stivers II, a Manchester Republican, said, “My main issue with the House budget is the fact that they sent it to us so late. We have a limited number of days remaining to work through this and turn around our version as soon as we can.
“… We hope to have our version of the budget voted on by the middle of next week so that we can enter into conference committee and see what negotiations and compromises can be made,” Stivers said.
“We received it Wednesday evening, with eight days left to deal with it,” Bowen said. “That puts us in intense time constraints. We’re going to have to work through the weekend … We’re going to have to work all the off days to make up for the lack of time we’ve had it.”
The House budget funds certain programs, such as a Family Court judge for Daviess County, using revenue projections from the Consensus Forecast Group that were more optimistic than the projections Bevin used when preparing his budget, and by drawing on reserve funds in other areas.
“I think the House got the message from the people of Kentucky, who are fed up with basically mortgaging our children’s future by bonding bills of dollars in debt,” Bowen said. “But I think the House version continues the bad habit of spending one-time funds for recurring expenditures.
“They are spending tomorrow’s dollars today,” Bowen said.
Bevin’s plan called for most parts of state government, including colleges and universities, to take a 4.5 percent cut during the current fiscal year, which ends in July, and 9 percent cuts during each year of the 2016-18 state budget. The proposal to cut postsecondary funding was vehemently protested by the universities, with University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto calling the reductions “draconian.”
Bowen said Bevin is not the first governor to suggest reducing spending on postsecondary education. Rep. Tommy Thompson, a Philpot Democrat, said previously that colleges and universities sustained $200 million in budget cuts since 2008.
“(Former) Gov. (Steve) Beshear, every budget he had a hand in, there were cuts all across the board,” Bowen said. “No one ever called them ‘draconian,’ … and in the process of making all those cuts, he never found any money to appropriate to the pension issue.
“There didn’t seem to be the outcry with the previous governor made cuts,” Bowen said.
Sen. C.B. Embry Jr., a Morgantown Republican whose district includes Ohio and Muhlenberg counties, said he was concerned about the cuts in the House budget to the Administrative Office of the Courts. The House plan exempted the courts from the 4.5 percent cut but left the 9 percent cuts for fiscal years 2016-18 in place.
State chief judge John Minton Jr. said previously the cuts would difficult for the courts to absorb, as 87 percent of the court’s budget is in personnel costs. Although other ways to reduce spending would be examined, court officials would have to consider laying off court workers, Minton said Wednesday.
“I don’t like how they treated the judicial system,” Embry said Friday. “They (the courts) are in really bad shape.”
Minton said previously the courts have seen their budgets cut by 49 percent since 2008.
“Chief Justice Minton says if (the cuts) persist, the courts will have to shut down for as much as three weeks,” Embry said.
On the House plan to eliminate the cuts to postsecondary education, Embry said, “I would love for all the cuts to be restored,” but the state’s priority “is to fund the pension system.”
At this point, the House budget is just a proposal and will be altered when the House and Senate leaders meet near the end of the session for a negotiating conference committee, Embry said.
“I don’t get too excited until the conference committee presents us” with a negotiated budget, Embry said. “That’s the budget that really means something.”
By James Mayse
Messenger Inquirer