Could More Special Sessions Be In Kentucky's Future After Monday? Don't Be Surprised.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — The General Assembly will begin a special session Monday with little hope that the House and Senate are anywhere near agreeing on their chief assignment: patching a $139 million hole in the state's Medicaid budget.
There have been no meetings between leaders of the two chambers since this year's regular session adjourned Wednesday in acrimony and without an agreement.
And no meetings are scheduled.
“I think next week's going to be a disaster,” Democratic political consultant Danny Briscoe said. “What's going to happen? They're going to come in and the House is going to pass a bill and then the Senate is going to vote against it. What happens next?”
Gov. Steve Beshear and the Democratic-controlled House propose to shift $166 million from next year's Medicaid budget to this year's, with the shortage next year to be made up by efficiencies within the program.
Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, has insisted that the administration can't save that much money and has proposed making up the shortfall through cuts across state government. To delay cutting will only make matters more difficult, he has argued.
Emphasizing the importance of reaching an agreement, the Beshear administration on Friday detailed 35 percent cuts in reimbursements for Medicaid providers that would take effect April 1 — cuts that undoubtedly would cause some providers to leave the program, it argues.
Rising tensions
But, if anything, the working relationship between legislative Republicans and Democrats has deteriorated considerably in recent days.
Williams angered House leaders Tuesday when, just an hour after saying the Senate wouldn't take any unilateral action, he announced that senators would meet Wednesday, using the session's final day, which had been reserved for dealing with vetoes later in the month.
He has argued that it was a way to save $800,000 in taxpayer money by not extending the session.
Then on Wednesday, Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, railed against Beshear in a Senate floor speech during which he referred to the governor by name and not his title at least 10 times.
Many Democrats, including Sen. Tim Shaughnessy of Louisville, took that as a breach of decorum and a sign of disrespect to Beshear.
After Shaughnessy rose to complain and to blame the slight on Thayer's “Yankee perspective,” a red-faced Thayer (a Saginaw, Mich., native) marched down the aisle to confront Shaughnessy, pointing at him and angrily telling him not to insult his heritage.
When Beshear issued the call for a special session later that day, he took the unusual step of singling out Williams in his proclamation, saying that the Senate president, a candidate for governor, had “refused” to allow administration-backed legislation to raise the school dropout age to reach the floor.
On Thursday, Beshear went on WHAS radio and lambasted Senate Republicans, appearing to call them “fat guys.” Beshear denied using the term, but Williams accused the governor of lobbing sophomoric taunts at his colleagues.
WHAS personality Terry Meiners said on his show later that day that he believed Beshear was trying to call the Senate Republicans “fat cats” and simply misspoke.
Whatever the explanation, the anger and acrimony between the two parties appears higher than it has been since the Democratic House walked out on a special session called by Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, in 2007.
Monday's special session will be the ninth since annual sessions began in 2001, after being authorized by a constitutional amendment. It also will be the seventh in the past six years, a seeming repudiation of amendment supporters who had argued that annual sessions would greatly reduce the need for special sessions.
According to the Legislative Research Commission, a special session costs an estimated $68,000 per day.
The legislature could pass legislation in as few as five days if it can reach an agreement — but for now that agreement appears out of reach.
Election politics
The question now is how to get around the anger and rhetoric to solve Kentucky's Medicaid problem.
The situation is complicated by the fact that it is taking place against the backdrop of the this year's gubernatorial election, in which Williams is fighting for the GOP nomination to challenge Beshear in November.
Partisans on each side complain that the other is tainting the necessary work of government with the ugly, partisan politics of a gubernatorial election.
Gatewood Galbraith, a Lexington lawyer running for governor as an independent, said Beshear and Williams are both allowing politics rather than policy to guide them.
“This governor's race is the prime consideration for everybody at this point in time,” he said. “Everything they do is an extension of the political competition. Every move they make is based on them and their party. They can't escape it.”
That said, Galbraith said Beshear should be given a chance to solve the Medicaid problem without cutting programs that he said already have been cut too deeply, including education.
Beshear has begun traveling the state to talk about the Medicaid issue and to criticize Senate Republicans. On Thursday, in addition to appearing on WHAS radio, he made stops in Hardin and McLean counties, where he talked about Medicaid and the special session.
“We balanced our budget already, and before all is said and done I will get it balanced again,” he told the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce. “I don't know how many sessions I'll have to have, but we will get it done.”
Williams, likewise, was trying to get his message out. He, too, appeared on WHAS radio, questioning Beshear's leadership.
“He's doing this for political theater,” Williams said of the governor's call for the special session.
Briscoe said Beshear is obviously hoping to use the controversy to portray Williams as someone who is willing to cut programs such as education for political reasons.
Williams, he said, is trying to capitalize on the belief that government is too big and to burnish his reputation as a budget-cutter at a time of concern about runaway spending.
But he said both are at risk politically if nothing gets done in the special session.
“People tend to think that the governor or the president or the mayor ought to straighten things out,” Briscoe said. “Williams' exposure is that he's going to be blamed (by Beshear) for doing what he's doing and he doesn't have the bully pulpit that Beshear does.”
Also on the special session agenda is one of the Beshear administration's priorities for this year's regular session — a bill raising the dropout age in Kentucky from 16 to 18.
Beshear and his wife, first lady Jane Beshear, have championed the issue for the past two years. The bill passed the House but died in the Senate.
Editor's note: Here's the link to the story.
There have been no meetings between leaders of the two chambers since this year's regular session adjourned Wednesday in acrimony and without an agreement.
And no meetings are scheduled.
“I think next week's going to be a disaster,” Democratic political consultant Danny Briscoe said. “What's going to happen? They're going to come in and the House is going to pass a bill and then the Senate is going to vote against it. What happens next?”
Gov. Steve Beshear and the Democratic-controlled House propose to shift $166 million from next year's Medicaid budget to this year's, with the shortage next year to be made up by efficiencies within the program.
Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, has insisted that the administration can't save that much money and has proposed making up the shortfall through cuts across state government. To delay cutting will only make matters more difficult, he has argued.
Emphasizing the importance of reaching an agreement, the Beshear administration on Friday detailed 35 percent cuts in reimbursements for Medicaid providers that would take effect April 1 — cuts that undoubtedly would cause some providers to leave the program, it argues.
Rising tensions
But, if anything, the working relationship between legislative Republicans and Democrats has deteriorated considerably in recent days.
Williams angered House leaders Tuesday when, just an hour after saying the Senate wouldn't take any unilateral action, he announced that senators would meet Wednesday, using the session's final day, which had been reserved for dealing with vetoes later in the month.
He has argued that it was a way to save $800,000 in taxpayer money by not extending the session.
Then on Wednesday, Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, railed against Beshear in a Senate floor speech during which he referred to the governor by name and not his title at least 10 times.
Many Democrats, including Sen. Tim Shaughnessy of Louisville, took that as a breach of decorum and a sign of disrespect to Beshear.
After Shaughnessy rose to complain and to blame the slight on Thayer's “Yankee perspective,” a red-faced Thayer (a Saginaw, Mich., native) marched down the aisle to confront Shaughnessy, pointing at him and angrily telling him not to insult his heritage.
When Beshear issued the call for a special session later that day, he took the unusual step of singling out Williams in his proclamation, saying that the Senate president, a candidate for governor, had “refused” to allow administration-backed legislation to raise the school dropout age to reach the floor.
On Thursday, Beshear went on WHAS radio and lambasted Senate Republicans, appearing to call them “fat guys.” Beshear denied using the term, but Williams accused the governor of lobbing sophomoric taunts at his colleagues.
WHAS personality Terry Meiners said on his show later that day that he believed Beshear was trying to call the Senate Republicans “fat cats” and simply misspoke.
Whatever the explanation, the anger and acrimony between the two parties appears higher than it has been since the Democratic House walked out on a special session called by Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, in 2007.
Monday's special session will be the ninth since annual sessions began in 2001, after being authorized by a constitutional amendment. It also will be the seventh in the past six years, a seeming repudiation of amendment supporters who had argued that annual sessions would greatly reduce the need for special sessions.
According to the Legislative Research Commission, a special session costs an estimated $68,000 per day.
The legislature could pass legislation in as few as five days if it can reach an agreement — but for now that agreement appears out of reach.
Election politics
The question now is how to get around the anger and rhetoric to solve Kentucky's Medicaid problem.
The situation is complicated by the fact that it is taking place against the backdrop of the this year's gubernatorial election, in which Williams is fighting for the GOP nomination to challenge Beshear in November.
Partisans on each side complain that the other is tainting the necessary work of government with the ugly, partisan politics of a gubernatorial election.
Gatewood Galbraith, a Lexington lawyer running for governor as an independent, said Beshear and Williams are both allowing politics rather than policy to guide them.
“This governor's race is the prime consideration for everybody at this point in time,” he said. “Everything they do is an extension of the political competition. Every move they make is based on them and their party. They can't escape it.”
That said, Galbraith said Beshear should be given a chance to solve the Medicaid problem without cutting programs that he said already have been cut too deeply, including education.
Beshear has begun traveling the state to talk about the Medicaid issue and to criticize Senate Republicans. On Thursday, in addition to appearing on WHAS radio, he made stops in Hardin and McLean counties, where he talked about Medicaid and the special session.
“We balanced our budget already, and before all is said and done I will get it balanced again,” he told the Hardin County Chamber of Commerce. “I don't know how many sessions I'll have to have, but we will get it done.”
Williams, likewise, was trying to get his message out. He, too, appeared on WHAS radio, questioning Beshear's leadership.
“He's doing this for political theater,” Williams said of the governor's call for the special session.
Briscoe said Beshear is obviously hoping to use the controversy to portray Williams as someone who is willing to cut programs such as education for political reasons.
Williams, he said, is trying to capitalize on the belief that government is too big and to burnish his reputation as a budget-cutter at a time of concern about runaway spending.
But he said both are at risk politically if nothing gets done in the special session.
“People tend to think that the governor or the president or the mayor ought to straighten things out,” Briscoe said. “Williams' exposure is that he's going to be blamed (by Beshear) for doing what he's doing and he doesn't have the bully pulpit that Beshear does.”
Also on the special session agenda is one of the Beshear administration's priorities for this year's regular session — a bill raising the dropout age in Kentucky from 16 to 18.
Beshear and his wife, first lady Jane Beshear, have championed the issue for the past two years. The bill passed the House but died in the Senate.
Editor's note: Here's the link to the story.
Labels: Democratism, Kentucky politics, Republicanism
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 7:51 PM
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