Kentucky Governor, Steve Beshear, Follows Annual Tradition And Calls "Special Session" For August 19. So Why Did I Ever Support Annual Legislative Sessions?

Gov. Steve Beshear on Thursday called the Kentucky General Assembly into special session on Aug. 19 to address legislative and judicial redistricting.“I am confident that both the House and Senate will have their plans drawn and any remaining issues resolved by Aug. 19 so the special session will last only five days and therefore minimize the expense to taxpayers,” – Governor Steve Beshear said in a prepared statement.

Kentucky General Assembly Avoids Certain Annual "Special" Session, Passes Pension, Hemp, And Other Bills, Overrides Governor's Veto.

Pension, hemp bills are OK'd

Legislators came to agreements on several contentious issues Tuesday night in the final hours of the General Assembly session.
The House of Representatives and the Senate passed a compromise of two bills addressing the state’s ailing pension system, which currently has a $33 billion unfunded liability, approved legislation to set up a framework for growing industrial hemp in the state and voted to override the governor’s veto of a bill dealing with religious freedom.

Pension reform legislation would provide nearly $100 million annually to go toward the state’s actuarial required contribution to pension systems through changes to the state tax code and other sources. It also sets up a 401(k)-like retirement plan for new employees.

Dealing with the pension issue now puts the legislature “two steps ahead,” when going into the 2014 legislative session, where they will have to approve a new biennial budget, according to Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg.

The legislation will be a benefit for people within the system and have a lasting impact on state, county and municipal budgets, he said.

The pension deal was the most significant legislation passed during the session, said Givens, who added its passage caps a successful legislative session that indicates things are headed in the right direction.

“A lot of that credit goes to our new leadership and the work they’ve done on building relationships,” he said.

Republican senators were kept well informed of negotiations over funding of the actuarial required contribution to the pension systems, said Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green.

“Fully funding the ARC is the main thing to continue to move forward insustaining the current pension system,” he said.

The plan will help secure state pension plans at a time when public and private plans are struggling, said Rep. Jim DeCesare, R-Bowling Green.

The plan set up for new employees would guarantee 4 percent growth of money put into the system, he said.

“They’re getting a pretty good deal,” DeCesare said.

Rep. Wilson Stone, D- Scottsville, said he would have preferred a defined-benefit system like retirees have now for future employees, but that setting up the new 401(k)-like system was a compromise so all retirees know their pension plans are secure.

“That was the compromise it took to get the pension reform pieces put in place,” he said.

Stone said he learned details of plans to fund the state’s required pension contribution Monday. He would have liked to have had more time to review the more than 200-page bill laying out those details.

Still, negotiations about the pension reform plan were not any more hectic than those for many other pieces of legislation, he said

Legislators also voted Tuesday to override Gov. Steve Beshear’s veto of House Bill 279. The bill states that the government “shall not substantially burden a person’s freedom of religion.”

Beshear vetoed the bill during a break in the legislative session, stating that it could potentially threaten public safety and individual civil rights, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

The bill restores the strict scrutiny once in place in the state when government wants to restrict a religiously motivated action, Wilson said.

That kind of scrutiny was eroded in a recent case where the Supreme Court upheld a state law requiring Amish individuals to use orange triangles on their horse-drawn buggies, even though it was against their religious beliefs, he said.

The new bill states that the government needs a “compelling interest” in order to infringe such beliefs, Wilson said.

DeCesare said it was a stretch to think that the bill will threaten civil rights.

“That bill is important to many, many people,” he said.

Stone, who was a co-sponsor of the bill, said he doesn’t think it opens the door for civil rights violations.

“I think people read a lot more into this sort of legislation maybe than is actually in there,” he said.

Under the industrial hemp bill passed Tuesday, the Industrial Hemp Commission is to oversee a research program that includes licensing select growers of industrial hemp. The process would require a background check from the Kentucky State Police and consent to allow KSP to conduct two inspections per year.

While Stone supported the hemp legislation, he said it’s important for farmers not to think that the option of growing hemp will be immediately available to them because federal regulations that prevent hemp cultivation are still in place.

“This discussion is not going to result in any crop being grown any time this year or maybe next year and who knows when,” he said.

If the state is able to get a federal waiver to grow hemp, it could allow Kentucky to grow a crop that no other state in the nation is growing – one which has many uses, DeCesare said.

PROPOSED KENTUCKY DOMESTIC RELATIONS BILL WILL ALLOW "DATING" COUPLES TO GET EMERGENCY PROTECTION ORDERS (EPOs) AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ORDERS (DVOs)

State bill would allow domestic violence orders even if couple isn't living together
Written byJessie Halladay

FRANKFORT, KY. — People who are in dating relationships, but who have never lived together, could seek protection with a domestic violence order under a bill passed from the House Wednesday afternoon.

House Bill 9, which passed 92-5, would broaden the law that allows for victims to request an emergency protective order to include those people who are in dating relationships. Current law only allows protective orders be granted to people who live or have lived together.

Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, brought the bill to the House, pointing out that only Kentucky and South Caroline do not allow protective orders in dating relationships.

Tilley, the father of three girls, said the bill will extend protection particularly for the group most vulnerable to dating violence, girls aged 16 to 24.

The bill will now move to the Senate for consideration.

Last week, after testifying before the House Judiciary committee, Marcia Roth, director of the Mary Byron Project, said the bill is an essential piece of legislation that will protect people. She pointed out that many people have been killed by partners they never lived with.

While the bill has made it through the House before, it has never made it through the Senate. But Roth said she hopes this year will be different.

“The seriousness of this is evident,” Roth said last week.

Editor's note:As a Lawyer who practices Family law extensively, the only problem I see is in defining a rather amorphous term: "dating".
What is to be considered "dating" and for how long is the couple to date? Does going out to McDonald's count or does it have to be an expensive place like Red Lobster?

Kentucky Legislature Tackles Tough Issues In Short Session: Soft Drinks And Beer Cheese.

Kentucky legislature tackles tough issues: soft drinks and beer cheese
Written by Joseph Gerth

It’s good to know the Kentucky House of Representatives is keeping its eye on the ball.

The state’s pension programs are a gazillion dollars in the red, the Kentucky’s antiquated tax system can’t keep up with the needs of the commonwealth and the state’s legislative districts have been out of whack for a year longer than they should have been.

Many problems like this won’t be addressed during the short 2013 session of the Kentucky General Assembly because, legislators say, there’s just not enough time.

So, in steps state Rep. Donna Mayfield, R-Winchester, to show that the really important things can still be addressed. Even in a 30-day legislative session.

Important things like soft drinks and beer cheese.

Really. It’s 2013 and Kentucky’s legislature still hasn’t declared that Clark County is the home of beer cheese. Oh, the humanity.

Now, I must say that I don’t know a whole lot about this subject.

I know plenty about beer and enough about cheese. But Mayfield’s legislation doesn’t include a lot of “what-fors” and “whereases” as many of these naming bills do, to explain why beer cheese is important.

But the Beer Cheese Festival Website tells me it was first served in a Clark County restaurant owned by John Allman back in the 1940s.

Mayfield also wants to name Ale-8-One the official “Kentucky original soft drink.” If you haven’t spent a lot of time in central Kentucky, its a locally-produced ginger ale since 1926.

No wonder Kentucky trails all but a few other states in virtually every metric that matters (thank you, Mississippi and Alabama) if its taken us this long to pass such significant legislation.

We can put a man on the moon, but we can’t name Ale-8-One the official something or other?

We have a state wild animal game species, state horse, state fruit, state flower, state rock and state soil. State soil? Crider soil series.
I don’t know why.

Legislators approved a state gemstone, state rock, state mineral, state tree, state arboretum and state dance. It’s clogging, if you need to know.

There is the state botanical garden, official state science center, state honey festival, state musical instrument, state song and state bluegrass song. Blue Moon of Kentucky, as you might expect.

We have a state music, state theater pipe organ, a state outdoor musical, a state center for African-American Heritage and a state latin motto, which, seems to be in violation of the state’s aforementioned official language, which is english.

The Corvette is the state’s official sports car even though the vast majority of Kentuckians couldn’t afford one. There’s a state Shakespeare festival, a state commonwealth theater, a state amphitheater, and a state tug-o-war championship. That’s in Fordsville.

There is the state covered bridge capital, a state steam locomotive, a state bourbon festival and a state silverware pattern: Old Kentucky Bluegrass — The Georgetown Pattern. You can’t buy it at Macy’s. In fact, I can’t find anywhere where you can buy it.

Not to be outdone, but Rep. Reggie Meeks, D-Louisville,eeee has filed House Bill 56, which would make the Kentucky long rifle the official gun of Kentucky. Shouldn’t Russ Smith, the University of Louisville guard be named the “official gun” of Kentucky?

But I digress.

In his years heading the state House State Government Committee, former Rep. Mike Cherry, D-Princeton, did a pretty good job of killing such bills.

He’s retired now and Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, is now running the committee. We’ll see if he kills the bills like Cherry did, or lets them fly as past committee chairmen have obviously allowed.

If Yonts holds votes on such bills, I have an idea. How about an official state waste of time?

Surely, I jest. Kentucky really has outdone itself in “naming” bills, which are largely used to pat ourselves on the back when we can’t claim credit for great schools, the welfare of our children or high wages for our workers.

We have a state language, state bird, state agriculture insect, state fossil, state butterfly and a state drink. The drink, by the way, is milk. Not bourbon. Figure that?

As You Read This Post, Kentucky's General ASSembly Is In An "ANNUAL Special" Legislative Session, Sent There By Governor Steve Beshear. Hear Me, Folks: Kentucky Gets What It Deserves -- Or Wants! NOT GOOD, At All!

Steve Beshear's Call For Kentucky's "Annual Special" Session Reveals STRONG Animosity Towards David Williams. I Suspect The Feeling Is Mutual!

Watch video below:

then read this: Beshear orders lawmakers back to Frankfort at noon Monday
By Beth Musgrave and Jack Brammer

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear has ordered the Kentucky General Assembly to convene an extraordinary 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 Thursday night without approving the Transportation Cabinet's operating budget.

In his call, Beshear blasted Senate President David Williams for blocking approval of the bills on Thursday.

Beshear said Williams refused to allow a vote on the "bipartisan" bills, "once again allowing his rank partisanship to block the path of a measure so vital to the health and well being of Kentucky's citizens, its economy and its future."

Earlier Friday, Beshear said Williams' greed for more road projects will cost taxpayers more than $60,000 a day for a special legislative session.

Beshear, speaking at a press conference at the Capitol on Friday morning, said Williams did not pass the Transportation Cabinet's operating budget late Thursday — the final day of the regular 60-day session — because he did not want Beshear to line-item veto road projects in his Senate district.

The House and Senate passed the two-year road plan late Thursday, but Williams demanded that Beshear sign the two-year road plan into law before the Senate passed the transportation budget, which would have ensured Beshear could not veto any road projects.

"It's called personal greed," Beshear said. "When Senator Williams received the road plan, it already had $266 million for his district. Over $130 million of which was to be funded in the near-term. But that wasn't good enough for Senator Williams. He made some last-minute, fine-print changes that moved another $155 million of those projects in his district ahead of those of other communities around this state. He wants to guarantee that his projects would be finished first at the expense of others."

"He was worried that I would veto those changes," Beshear said. " In other words, he was worried about himself, not this state."

Beshear also added House Bill 4, a measure that was designed to crack down on misuse of prescription drugs, to the call for the special legislative session.

The state's abuse of prescription drugs is an epidemic, he said. Recent studies show that one in three adults in Kentucky know someone with a prescription drug problem. Three Kentuckians die each day from a drug overdose, Beshear said.

HB 4 would give law enforcement more tools to crack down on rogue doctors who over-prescribe pain medications and limit the ownership of pain clinics to physicians.

"Senator Williams willfully ignored the visible misery of our communities and allowed this essential bill to die," Beshear said. "Why? Because of his road projects."

Beshear said he could not say if he would line-item veto the additional projects in Williams' senate district, which includes Clinton, McCreary, Monroe, Wayne and Whitley counties.

However, Williams has an advantage in his dispute with Beshear. House Bill 267, the two-year road plan, was delivered to the governor late Thursday. He has 10 days to veto the bill. The Senate could adjourn on Monday and wait for the 10-day veto period to expire. Or it could stay in special session until April 24, when Beshear's veto period is up, and then pass the Transportation Cabinet budget if he does not veto any projects in the road plan.

Only the governor can call a special session and set the agenda. But he does not control when the legislature leaves. It takes a minimum of five days for the legislature to pass a bill.

Beshear warned Friday that voters would not be happy if they have to pick up the tab to fuel Williams' ego or to protect Senate road projects.

"If they stay here longer than the minimum amount of days just in order to put money in their pockets or to play political games, the people of this state this fall, when these elections roll around, I think will let them know just how they feel about that," Beshear said.

Williams was not immediately available for comment Friday morning.

Late Friday night, Williams blamed Beshear for the special session. Williams said Beshear knew that the Senate wanted him to sign the road plan before they passed the Transportation Cabinet's operating budget.

Beshear said he would not add any additional measures to the special legislative session, including House Bill 260, which would tap coal severance money to establish a scholarship for kids in coal-producing counties to attend college. Beshear said that he did not want to make the special legislative session longer by adding additional bills.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/04/13/2149334/beshear-plans-to-call-a-special.html#storylink=cpy

Editor's note: Bills that died

These high-profile proposals did not pass the 2012 General Assembly, which ended Thursday:

■ Cooper's Law: House Bill 160 would have nullified deed restrictions on small outdoor structures deemed medically necessary for children 12 and younger. The bill was named after a Lexington boy whose parents were at odds with the Andover Forest Home Owners Association. Cooper Veloudis uses an outdoor playhouse as part of his treatment for cerebral palsey, his parents said. The association said the play house violated deed restrictions for all homes in the neighborhood. The bill passed a House committee but was never called for a vote on the House floor.

■ Human trafficking: House Bill 350 would have given law enforcement more training and more tools to crack down on human trafficking. It passed the full House and a Senate committee but was never called for a vote on the Senate floor.

■ Child abuse: House Bill 200 would have created an independent panel of experts to review deaths caused by child abuse and an ombudsmen's office to investigate complaints about child protection. The bill passed the House but died in the Senate.

■ Juvenile courts: House Bill 239 would have created a pilot project to open some of the state's juvenile courts, which are currently closed to the public. The bill passed the House but never received a hearing in the Senate.

■ Scholarships: House Bill 260 would have used coal severance tax money to fund college scholarships for kids from coal-producing counties. It passed the House and appeared to be cleared for passage in the Senate, but the Senate never took up the measure late Thursday.

■ Abortion: An assortment of abortion-related bills that would have put more restrictions on abortions in Kentucky were approved by the Senate but later defeated in a House committee.

■ Dropout age: Senate Bill 109 was intended to raise the high school dropout age in Kentucky from 16 to 18. Both chambers approved different versions of the bill, but the Senate never reconsidered the bill after it was amended by the House. The original bill would have allowed districts that had alternative programs to raise the dropout age. The House version of the bill would have made the higher dropout age mandatory statewide after 40 percent of school districts raised their dropout age.

■ Welfare drug testing: House Bill 26 would have required random drug testing of people who receive welfare and other public benefits. It received a hearing in a House committee but no vote.

Editor's note: Read the call for "special" session.

Here We Go -- AGAIN: Steve Beshear Will Call Another Kentucky "Special" Legislative Session, Blames David Williams -- But We Blame Them ALL!

Beshear to call special legislative session for Monday
By Beth Musgrave, Jack Brammer and John Cheves

Gov. Steve Beshear and other state and federal officials spoke about Kentucky's drug problems at the Kentucky Prescription Drug Abuse Summit in Lexington. HERALD-LEADER

FRANKFORT – Gov. Steve Beshear said he will call a special legislative session for Monday after lawmakers ended the 2012 General Assembly at 11:59 p.m. Thursday without approving funding for a $4.5 billion road-building plan and a measure to curb prescription drug abuse.

Beshear, after meeting with House Democratic leaders in his Capitol office, said at about 12:45 a.m. Friday that Senate President 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.”

The governor also had harsh words for Williams, whom he blamed earlier in this year’s regular session for killing his proposal to expand gambling in the state.

For 12 years since Williams has been president of the Senate, Kentuckians have suffered under Williams’ leadership, Beshear said.

“His rank partisanship, his obstructionist attitude, have caused numerous special sessions and cost the taxpayers millions of dollars of unnecessary expenses in having to conduct those special sessions," Beshear said.

Beshear said Kentuckians last November rejected Williams “and I whooped him by 21 points. I think everybody in this state got the message except for David Williams.”

Williams called Beshear “a small, petty and vindictive individual.”

Williams said the Senate was ready to approve a road funding bill after Beshear signed into law the road plan that had strong support in the House and Senate.

The Senate wanted to be sure the road plan was signed into law with no chances of any gubernatorial vetoes before approving a funding bill, Williams said.

In the special session, Williams said, the Senate will not pass a road funding bill until the governor signs into law a road plan.

Beshear said he did not want to sign the road plan into law until he had time to review it. A governor has 10 days to review legislation, and may sign it into law, let it become law without his signature or veto it.

That means Beshear would have until April 24 to act on the road plan the legislature approved Thursday. He said he had no idea how long it will take for him to review it.

Beshear also acknowledged that he tried to link his signing of the road plan into law with legislative approval of his efforts to raise the school dropout age in Kentucky.

Asked if he would have signed the road plan into law had the legislature raised the dropout age, he said, "It never got to that point."

The upcoming special session could complete its work in five days, Beshear said. But Williams declined to put a deadline on it.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, blamed the Senate for not acting on the road funding bill despite a compromise the two chambers had negotiated on the road plan.

Williams did not communicate with him once throughout the evening, Stumbo added.

The House opted Thursday not to try to override any of Beshear's 45 line-item vetoes in a more than $19 billion, two-year budget.

Some House Democrats were concerned with the Beshear veto that removed from Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes’ office a “one-stop business portal” to help businesses with state records.

But Beshear, who has a longstanding political feud with Grimes' father, Lexington businessman Jerry Lundergan, later pledged to keep the system in Grimes’ office.

Williams said Thursday night that House Democratic leaders had pledged in budget negotiations last month that the House would override any gubernatorial vetoes.

Stumbo said that was not the case.

Legislative leaders were relieved in late March when they passed the two-year state budget on time. It was the first time since 2006 that the legislature had passed a two-year budget without having to be called into a special legislative session.

Legislators thought that there may not be any special legislative sessions in 2012 but the 11th-hour stand-off between Beshear and the Republican Senate dashed those hopes.

The state road plan includes plans to widen Leestown Road and advance the Newtown Pike extension in Lexington.

The measure passed the Senate unanimously earlier on Thursday. But the bill -- always contentious -- met with more resistance in the 100-member House.

Some House Republicans objected to the plan because they said several road projects were tucked into the bill at the last minute by legislative leaders.

The conference committee that was supposed to iron out differences between the original House and Senate plans never actually met, and under legislative rules, no projects were supposed to be added at this stage, said House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown.

"The way we conduct public policy is important," Hoover said in a floor speech. "The bottom line is, about three people have controlled what you see in this road plan."

Stumbo later said the road plan was negotiated under a general suspension of legislative rules, which means that they were allowed to add more projects. Those projects were supposed to be in the plan from the start but inadvertently were omitted, Stumbo said.

The plan authorizes two new bridges over the Ohio River in Louisville.

Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, protested the plan because he said the bill's language endorses tolls eventually being placed on three of the city's four bridges to pay for the projects.

Tolls are a "regressive tax" on poor and working-class people who must commute over the bridges daily, Wayne said. He suggested instead a higher gas tax or a reallocation of the road fund to favor urban areas. Both proposals drew scattered boos from the House chamber.

Rep. Sannie Overly, D-Paris, who helped draft the road plan, responded to Wayne by saying the legislature does not have the responsibility for establishing a financing method for the bridges. It assigned that job to the Louisville and Southern Indiana Bridges Authority, Overly said.

Later, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet issued a statement saying it has not been decided whether the existing Sherman Minton Bridge in Louisville would be tolled to pay for new construction. "That is a decision that will be made by a future generation of policy makers," the cabinet said. The two new bridges would be tolled, the cabinet said.

The House passed the road plan by a 77-to-16 vote. The Senate approved it 37-0.

Beshear vetoed many sections of the two-year budget bill that would restrict how he can balance the state's books, including provisions that would require any surplus funds to be deposited in the state's "rainy day" fund.

Beshear also vetoed key projects placed in the budget by legislators -- such as $1 million for the Allen County Industrial Authority, $150,000 for the International Mystery Writers Festival in Owensboro and $100,000 for Actors Theatre in Louisville.

Beshear said he vetoed the projects because the legislature did not provide funding for the earmarks.

Beshear explained his vetoes to the House Democratic caucus in a closed-door meeting Thursday afternoon. After Beshear left, the caucus met for more than an hour behind closed doors. But Stumbo said there was ultimately not enough support to override any of Beshear's vetoes.

It takes both chambers to override gubernatorial vetoes. Once House Democrats decided not to override the vetoes, it was pointless for the Republican Senate to try to override the vetoes.

Leaders in both chambers said earlier Thursday that they felt that had an agreement on House Bill 4, which would help crack down on the over-prescription of pain medications. But the Senate failed to vote on the compromise bill.

The bill would move the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting system, or KASPER, to Attorney General Jack Conway's office.

The compromise bill would delete a provision that would require all physicians to pay a $50 fee to use the KASPER system. That provision was taken out after the Kentucky Medical Association objected to it. House Bill 4 would also limit the ownership of pain clinics to physicians.

Stumbo predicted that if HB 4 was signed into law ,the number of rogue doctors over-prescribing pain medications and the number of "pill mills," or doctor's offices set up solely to prescribe pills, would plummet.

"Once it's adopted, we're going to see this problem immediately start to resolve itself," Stumbo said. "These people who are engaged in this particular type of endeavor will leave. My only regret is that we didn't put their sorry butts in jail before they left the state."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/04/13/2149334/beshear-plans-to-call-a-special.html#storylink=cpy

Editor's comment: Kentuckians elect people in office who are just like them, and that's NOT always a WISE choice to make, as we ALL suffer the DIRE consequences of the errors in judgment!

Kentucky's General ASSembly Agrees On State Budget, Avoids Recurring ANNUAL "Special" Session.

Lawmakers reach deal on state budget shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday
By Beth Musgrave

FRANKFORT — House and Senate leaders agreed on a $19 billion, two-year state budget just before 3 a.m. Thursday, providing $3.5 million to help the Kentucky Horse Park and $2.5 million to start the redevelopment of Rupp Arena.

Lawmakers closed the deal just minutes before a self-imposed deadline, giving legislative staffers enough time to make requested changes in the bill before rank-and-file members must vote on it late Friday.

If there are no hiccups on Thursday or Friday, this will be the first state budget the General Assembly has approved on time in three years. Lawmakers would still have one day in mid April to override any line-item vetoes issued by Gov. Steve Beshear.

“We have white smoke,” said Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, shortly after the deal was inked. “They gave us until 3 o’clock in the morning and I want everyone to know that we finished five minutes early.”

The budget includes $2.5 million for Rupp Arena, less than the $3.5 million Lexington had hoped it would get to start planning the redevelopment of Rupp Arena and the surrounding area. To get the money, Lexington must come up with $2.5 million in matching money, about $1 million more than the city had planned to contribute, and the state’s funds can only be used for the Rupp Arena portion of the project.

The agreed budget also includes money for a scholarship program for kids from the state’s 38 coal-producing counties, helping those students attend private colleges or satellites campuses of state universities that are located in coal-producing counties.

The budget deal also tells Gov. Steve Beshear to find $80 million in additional savings in order to make the state’s books balance.

The deal came after three days of negotiations.

The House and Senate versions of the budget — approved earlier this month — were not that different. Both budgets kept key provisions of Gov. Steve Beshear’s original budget proposal, including 8.4 percent cuts to many state agencies, no change in the main funding formula for K-12 schools and no pay raises for state employees. Both chambers also included an additional $21 million to hire 300 more social workers and $1 million for colon cancer screening.

The Senate plan included less new debt than Beshear and the Democratic House and relied less on one-time money to balance the books.

Much of the discussions late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning focused on debt and projects paid for by coal severance taxes. Portions of the taxes on severed coal go back to the coal-producing counties. The House had placed 68 pages of coal severance projects in the budget.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, told Senate leaders during budget negotiations that he did not believe House members would approve the budget without the coal severance projects.

Williams said Republicans did not believe coal severance taxes — which are supposed to be used for capital projects and economic development in coal counties — should be used for re-occurring expenses. The projects paid for using coal severance money include everything from Little League baseball equipment to fire trucks.

“We don’t think the single-county money is being spent as efficiently as it should be,” Williams said.

The Senate eventually agreed to allow the coal severance projects, but Senate leaders asked that language be include in the budget to make it clear that the money was for limited purposes. If a House member and Senate member from the same geographic area do not agree on a coal severance project in that area, no project will be listed in the budget. The coal-producing county might still receive the funding, but would have to apply for it through Beshear’s administration.

The House also had proposed using some coal severance money for a college scholarship program to encourage more Eastern Kentucky students to attend college. But the Senate argued that the scholarship program should be open to all 38 coal-producing counties, including those in Western Kentucky. The scholarships could be used at a university or a satellite of a university located in coal-producing counties.

After hours of going back and forth on Wednesday night, House and Senate leaders were separated by $12.9 million in projects the House wanted.

To close that gap, the Senate agreed to allow $3.5 million to go to the Kentucky Horse Park out of funds that Beshear must find in the budget. Beshear had originally proposed giving additional funding to the Horse Park to offset a budget deficit of $3.6 million. However, both sides agreed that the Horse Park would have to provide a business plan to state leaders by June 30.

The two sides also agreed to give the city of Lexington $1.25 million in each year of the two-year budget for the downtown redevelopment project. The House and Beshear had originally budgeted $3.5 million for the project. But Stumbo said the two sides felt that the money should only go toward the renovation of Rupp Arena. The remaining aspects of a downtown revitalization should be paid for by the city, he said.

The budget did not include an additional $7.5 million to expand the state’s preschool programs, a provision in the House budget. Beshear had originally proposed $15 million over two years for the expansion of preschools. Also not included was additional funding for Kentucky Educational Television and $500,000 for a legal scholarship for minority law students.

Typically, budget negotiations take place behind closed doors. This year, the budget negotiations were broadcast on Kentucky Educational Television, giving the public a rare glimpse of how the final decisions on the state’s two-year budget are made.

“I’ve served on many conference committees and free conference committees and I think this was the most productive and cordial conference committee I’ve ever seen,” Williams said.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/03/29/2130619/house-and-senate-leaders-ink-deal.html#storylink=cpy

Here We Go -- AGAIN; Special Session Looms Large In Kentucky's Near Future, As The General ASSembly Plays "Patty Cake" With State Budget!

House, Senate leaders clash on start of budget talks
Written by Tom Loftus

FRANKFORT, KY. — House and Senate leaders clashed Friday on when formal talks should begin to resolve differences on the proposed $19.3 billion state budget.

Leaders of the Republican-controlled Senate wanted to begin Friday, saying that time is growing short in the 2012 legislative session. But leaders of the House’s Democratic majority said there’s enough time to resolve their differences if talks begin Monday.

“We’re not going to run out of time this time,” said House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. “We’re not that far apart on this thing.”

But Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said he was “very concerned” about the House’s decision to go home Friday and begin formal talks Monday.

Williams said he didn’t know how far apart the two sides are “because we haven’t talked to them yet.” And he said that, even if negotiations go smoothly, it takes staff 36 hours to prepare and publish final documents after House and Senate leaders reach a final agreement.

At issue are different versions of House Bill 265, the state’s spending plan for the two-year period that begins July 1. The Senate majority unveiled its version late Thursday in a closed briefing of senators, then zipped it through the budget committee and a quick floor vote.

Stumbo said House members and legislative staff can use the weekend to digest the Senate’s changes. He said he also needed time to get the Beshear budget staff’s analysis of the differences.

Monday will be the 55th day of a legislative session that the state constitution says can last nor more than 60 days and must adjourn by midnight April 15.

The legislature’s current calendar calls for it to meet each day next week, passing the budget no later than Friday, the 59th day. It has set aside the final day for April 12 to consider overriding any vetoes of bills or budget items by Beshear.

Several legislators said differences in the budget are smaller and fewer than in recent budget sessions. Both the House and Senate agreed to Beshear’s proposal to cut most agencies’ spending by 8.4 percent in 2012-13 and then hold to that reduced appropriation in 2013-14.

Neither the House nor Senate changed Beshear’s plan for no raises for state workers or teachers in the next two years.

And the Senate agreed to some significant changes made by the House — such as suspending for two years the 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase in benefits for retired state workers and scrapping Beshear’s proposed $451 million in bonds for university projects, to be paid by the schools’ revenues.

But the Senate cut a bit deeper into the amount of new debt permitted in the budget. It also made many relatively small changes such as eliminating a $2,500 monthly housing allowance for Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson and rejecting the use of $6 million per year in coal severance tax reveues for scholarships for students in Eastern Kentucky coal counties.

Stumbo said Friday he can accept the elimination of the housing allowance. But he said of the Senate’s deletion of the coal county scholarships: “They (the Senate) took some money that they thought was important to some of us. That’s just a negotiating point.”

Telling Us What Many Of Us Already Knew Except Most Lawmakers, Kentucky Supreme Court Affirms That The General ASSembly's Redistricting Plan Violates Section 33 Of The State Constitution; Legislators Must Run In Old (Previous) Districts.

Read the short opinion here. The court will issue comprehensive opinion later.

Click here to read Judge Shephard's opinion on appeal.

ANYONE who thought the Supreme Court will do away with Fisher 11's constitutional requirement of a population variance of -5% to 5% was sadly mistaken. The court, with this opinion, CLEARLY reaffirmed Fisher 11.

Kentucky Senate Panel Approves Bill Requiring Prescriptions For Some Cold Medicines. It Is Time For The Whole Senate To Kill It!

Senate panel approves bill requiring prescriptions for some cold medicines
By Jack Brammer

FRANKFORT — After hearing emotional testimony from a former methamphetamine user, the Senate Judiciary Committee narrowly approved a bill Thursday that would require a prescription for most cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine.

Kentuckians still could purchase gel caps that contain pseudoephedrine — a key ingredient needed to make meth — without a prescription. It is more difficult to make meth with pseudoephedrine from a gel cap.

The sponsor of Senate Bill 50, Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said he didn't know the bill's chances in the full Senate. The legislation died in the Senate last year.

The committee vote was 6-5. It came after Melanda Adams, 31, of Clay County told the panel about the horrors of her meth addiction, including substantial weight loss, thinning hair, rotting teeth and "a loss of innocence."

Adams, who said she used pseudoephedrine from cold medicines to make meth, thinks the bill will cut the burgeoning number of meth labs in the state. State police said Kentucky recorded nearly 1,200 meth-lab incidents last year — an increase of more than 100 from the 1,080 in 2010.

Makers of remedies containing pseudoephedrine strongly oppose requiring a prescription for the products, which reportedly generate billions in sales annually in the United States.

The industry argues that requiring a prescription would create a hardship for legitimate consumers and add to health care costs, and that there are less intrusive ways to attack the problem.

"Today's vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee ... was a loss for families and workers who depend on these medicines for immediate relief," the Consumer Healthcare Products Association said in a statement.

The industry has spent big money fighting the bill. In January, the association spent $194,957 on its lobbying effort, according to its report to the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission. That was far more than any other company or group, according to spending reports on the commission Web site.

"The reason the drug companies are spending all this money is as simple as it is clear: to protect their profits from selling to drug dealers," said Karen Kelly, director of the anti-drug task force Operation UNITE.

Supporters of SB 50 argue the measure would drive down the number of meth labs in Kentucky.

There have been dramatic drops in the number of labs in two states — Oregon and Mississippi — that require prescriptions for over-the-counter cold and allergy medications that contain pseudoephedrine, police have told the committee.

Vic Brown, a retired state police lieutenant and deputy director of the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, told the Senate committee Thursday about three small children in Leslie County who suffered chemical burns from meth labs in early 2011.

Jeremy Triplett of the state police crime lab testified that 15 percent of the small, crude labs people use to make meth experience fires or explosions.

Meth "cookers" combine cold and allergy pills with substances such as drain cleaner to create a chemical reaction that converts pseudoephedrine to meth. The committee saw a video about the intensity of a meth fire in a two-liter bottle.

Triplett also said that it was "very difficult" to remove harmful residues from meth labs and that he knew of no other substitute for pseudoephedrine as readily available to make meth.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Tom Jensen, R-London, said it costs about $1,500 to clean up a meth lab.

The most compelling testimony came from Adams, who said she started on drugs at age 11 as an act of rebellion.

Adams said she started using meth at age 20 and used it for four years. She showed the committee a photo of her mug shot when she was arrested on drug charges.

"Look at the eyes in this picture," she said. "They're wild, scary."

After using meth, Adams said, she and other abusers often discarded their home-made labs on the sides of roads and streams and gave no thought to the toxic waste.

Adams said she spent three months in jail, six months in rehabilitation and five years on probation. Committee members praised her courage for speaking Thursday.

Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, an opponent of the bill, read two letters from constituents who said that requiring prescriptions for certain cold medications would be unfair to law-abiding citizens.

Schickel voted against the bill. Also voting against it were Sens. Perry Clark, D-Louisville; Jerry Rhoads, D-Madisonville; Dan Seum, R-Louisville; and Katie Stine, R-Southgate.

Voting for the bill were Stivers; Jensen; and Sens. Carroll Gibson, R-Leitchfield; Ray Jones, D-Pike ville; Brandon Smith, R-Hazard; and Robin Webb, D-Grayson.

Jones said opponents of the bill should be ashamed of their "scare tactics" in the media, a reference to a statewide radio and Internet ad campaign against the bill by the trade industry.

Supporters of the bill have set up a group called Real Facts About Meth and started running limited radio ads Thursday.

The ad points to the case of Kayden Branham, also known as Kayden Daniels, a 20-month-old Wayne County boy who died in May 2009 after drinking drain cleaner that police said had been used in making meth.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/02/16/2071453/senate-panel-approves-bill-to.html#storylink=cpy

New Kentucky Congressional Maps Signed Into Law By Governor Steve Beshear.

Read more here.

Senate Panel Approves "Ben Chandler Lifetime Employment Act" Compromise Plan To Redraw Congressional Districts, Over The Objections Of Committee Chairman Damon Thayer, And Others.

Senate panel approves compromise plan to redraw congressional districts
By Jack Brammer

A Senate panel approved a compromise plan to redraw the boundaries of Kentucky's six congressional districts Friday morning, ending weeks of deadlock between Senate Republicans and House Democrats.

The Senate State and Local Government Committee approved the congressional redistricting map over objections of committee Chairman Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, in an 8-3 vote. The bill now goes to the full Senate.

Sen. Tom Jensen, R-London, said the new plan had been agreed upon by Kentucky's congressional delegation.

The new map moves Garrard County from the 6th District to the 2nd District, puts part of Jessamine County in the 2nd District and splits Boyd County between the 4th and 5th districts.

Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, R-Lexington, called the new plan a "Ben Chandler Lifetime Employment Act."

Chandler, D-Versailles, represents Central Kentucky's 6th District. He narrowly won re-election in 2010 over Republican Andy Barr, who is challenging Chandler again this year. However, the deletion of Republican-leaning Garrard County and a portion of Jessamine County will hurt Barr's chance of winning in November.

Thayer said the congressional map is the first bill to get out of his committee over his objection. Thayer, Kerr and Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, voted against the bill.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/02/10/2063378/senate-panel-approves-compromise.html#storylink=cpy

Kentucky House Members Change Mind, Will Appeal Judge Shephard's Redistricting Ruling And Plan To Run In Districts Declared Unconstitutional.

Legislators to appeal ruling on districts
House, Senate seek to run this year under new maps
Written by Joseph Gerth

FRANKFORT, KY. — The Kentucky House and Senate decided Thursday to appeal to the state Supreme Court a ruling that new legislative districts are unconstitutional — and said they would seek to run this year in the new districts.

The move appears to run counter to an announcement made Wednesday after a closed House Democratic caucus meeting. A spokesman had said then that the House members would agree to run in the current districts but would ask the high court to rule that the new districts meet constitutional muster.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled Tuesday that both the House and Senate redistricting plans — required every decade after the latest census — violate constitutional requirements requiring districts to be roughly the same size, as well as a provision in the state constitution requiring redistricting plans to divide as few counties as possible.

He also raised questions about whether the House plan violated a provision requiring districts to contain contiguous counties and whether the Senate plan unnecessarily disenfranchised more than 113,000 people in Fayette County by, in effect, delaying the election in a district there by two years.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said that the appeal probably would be filed early next week and that lawyers for the House and Senate would ask that the high court take the case directly, bypassing the state Court of Appeals in an effort to expedite the court challenge.

Senate Majority Floor Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said a notice of appeal would likely be filed today in Franklin Circuit Court.

The House and Senate redistricting plans are contained in House Bill 1.
Congressional deal

While the General Assembly’s leaders girded for the continuing court battle on legislative redistricting, they appeared nearer to a deal on redrawing congressional district lines — an agreement that has eluded them throughout the 2012 session.

Stivers said the Senate would vote on a plan today but he wouldn’t say what it included. Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, said his understanding is that the map the Senate will approve has been negotiated by Stumbo and U.S. Rep. Harold “Hal” Rogers, R-5th District.

The Senate originally balked at the plan, but Sen. R.J. Palmer, D-Winchester, said he believed the congressional delegation was pushing for finality.

Stivers said that if the House and Senate agree on the plan, it would make moot a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court seeking to have the old congressional lines declared unconstitutional and asking a judge to draw new ones.
Week of confusion

The decision to appeal Shepherd’s ruling came during a chaotic week in which multiple redistricting plans were in place temporarily and the House and Senate seemed to struggle to agree on a next move.

Pierce Whites, a lawyer for Stumbo, said House Democrats voted Wednesday to challenge the plan and seek to run in the new districts but added that a caucus statement indicating they would agree to run in the old districts was “misleading.”

The week also saw some legislators who were planning to retire change their minds and file for office after the new districts were ruled unconstitutional.

And it saw some who had announced bids for the state Senate reconsider and file to run for the House instead.

Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, has filed twice for the state House and once for the Senate as the plans have changed. He’s had to pay $600 to do so — three times the usual $200 filing fee.

“We’re knowledgeable with the process but for (those who haven’t held office before) it must be fairly confusing,” he said.

The legislature’s decision to appeal means that the game of political musical chairs isn’t over and may not be for some time.

Stumbo said he would advise House members to try to file more than once with the Kentucky secretary of state to cover their bases, for both the new and old districts. Stivers agreed that candidates should be allowed to file multiple times to cover themselves under any scenario.

But Lynn Zellen, spokeswoman for Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, said state law prohibits people from filing for multiple offices at the same time.

Stumbo said that there would not be an attempt to change the filing deadline — currently 4 p.m. today.

“I’ve had enough of opening and reopening filing deadlines,” he said.

Kentucky House Appears Willing To Abide By Judge Shephard's Oder On Redistricting So Members Can Run In Current Districts, Senate Mum On Plans.

House Democrats won't challenge order to run in current districts
Written by Joseph Gerth

FRANKFORT, KY. — House Democrats decided Wednesday not to challenge a circuit judge’s order that they run for re-election in their current districts.

But they plan to ask the Kentucky Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of the redistricting plan that was at issue and was struck down Tuesday by Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd.

“I think probably most people just want some end, if you will, to this situation and want to know where they are going to run, when they are going to run and who they’re going to run against,” House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said in an interview.

There was no word on how the Senate intends to proceed — or whether the two chambers can try to resolve things in different ways.

If lawmakers run in their current districts — and Shepherd set Friday as the filing deadline — the logjam that the redistricting issue has created in this year’s General Assembly could come to an end.

It has stopped work on important legislation as lawmakers waited for a plan to be put in place and the filing deadline to pass — meaning they would know what kind of opposition they face this year.

“There is a … great deal of feeling in our caucus that we want to move on,” Stumbo said. “If that means running in our old districts, then so be it.”

Shepherd ruled that both the House and Senate plans didn’t meet constitutional “one-man, one-vote” standards, and he ordered that this year’s legislative races be run in the current districts, which were drawn in 2002.

While the House is not challenging Shepherd’s order on the way the 2012 election will be handled, it still will ask the high court to rule on the constitutionality of the redistricting plan and to provide direction about how to remedy the map if it is found to be illegal.

In the Senate, Damon Thayer, chairman of the State & Local Government Committee, said earlier in the day that it was that chamber’s preference to work on a new map that would meet constitutional muster rather than accept Shepherd’s ruling that members must run in their current districts. But senators can’t do that without agreement from the House since both chambers would have to pass such a plan.

Senate Republican Floor Leader Robert Stivers of Manchester raised the possibility that Shepherd’s order to run in the current districts — some of which have populations that are too large or small to meet federal and state redistricting guidelines — may itself be illegal.

“Under the 14th amendment, one man-one vote principle, we feel it would be subject to attack on that issue alone if we did nothing and would think that some legislator or some citizen may decide to file a federal action,” Stivers said. “What we want to do is comply with the law.”

Meanwhile, Stivers said that there needs to be a change in the state constitution that prohibits the splitting of counties that have fewer residents than the ideal district.

That provision has led to oddly-shaped districts, challenges to redistricting plans and larger counties like Pulaski and Laurel that are split numerous times but have no districts that are fully within their borders.

“It has to be changed because it does not in any way make it practical to try to comply with that section,” he said. “If you take it literally … that chapter of the Constitution needs to be rewritten to ... apply to modern times.”

Legislators and others continued to file papers with the Secretary of State’s office in an effort to make sure they are eligible to run in the right district and have filed the proper paperwork.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate made no headway in resolving the impasse over a congressional redistricting plan after a House-proposed compromise was rejected by Senate Republicans Tuesday.

Stumbo said he believes the issue is dead and will end up in the federal courts, where judges will draw new maps.

Stivers, however, said he believes there is still an opportunity to compromise.

“From my perspective, it is alive and well because … as long as we’re in session, we can draw congressional maps,” he said.

Editor's comment: But isn't it illegal for any member to run in current districts that are beyond -5% TO +5% AS MANDATED BY fISHER 11 sUPREME cOURT CASE?

As Expected By Many, Kentucky Judge Strikes Down Redrawn Legislative Redistricting Map.

Kentucky judge strikes down legislative remap plan
Written by Joseph Gerth

Ruling at a glance

• Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled that the House and Senate redistricting plans violate constitutional principles relating to “one man-one vote.”
• He refused to rule on whether it was constitutional for the Senate to arbitrarily renumber a Fayette County Senate district and said it needs more adjudication.
• He ordered that legislators run for re-election this year in the districts in which they have run for the past 10 years.
• He ordered that the filing deadline for state legislative races be extended until Friday at 4 p.m.
• House and Senate leaders haven’t decided whether to appeal Shepherd’s ruling.

FRANKFORT, KY. — A judge struck down Kentucky’s legislative redistricting plan as unconstitutional Tuesday and ordered that this year’s elections be run in the districts that have been in place for the last decade — unless the House and Senate can pass new plans that meet constitutional muster.

“The court … concludes that the redistricting cure of House Bill 1 is worse than the malapportionment disease that it is legally required to remedy,” Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd wrote in ruling on a lawsuit filed by House Republicans and joined by one Senate Democrat.

The decision cast a cloud of uncertainty not only over the redistricting issue but over the remaining course of this year’s legislative session, which has been all but paralyzed by the challenge to the new House and Senate maps.

Leaders of the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate, who met after the ruling was handed down, said no decision was made about how to proceed.

And it was unclear whether the two sides would meet again Wednesday.

Shepherd found that both House and Senate plans violate constitutional “one-man, one-vote” provisions requiring the legislative districts to vary by no more than 5 percent from the ideal size and that the House plan splits more counties than necessary, thus violating a state constitutional provision.

He said there is “no controlling case law” to determine if the legislature violated the constitution when it switched numbers on two Senate districts — the effect of which was to disenfranchise more than 100,000 Fayette County residents for the next two years. But he said that question needs “full adjudication.”

Shepherd pushed the deadline to file for legislative seats back until 4 p.m. Friday.

Shortly after the ruling, House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, huddled with Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, and Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, to discuss it.

Stumbo seemed to be of two minds on whether there would be an appeal.

He said before the meeting that he expected the legislature would ask the Kentucky Supreme Court to overturn Shepherd’s order, saying that it is flawed in several respects and isn’t grounded in case law.

“I don’t believe that that ruling will stand in an appellate court,” he said.

But after the meeting, he said, “We will obey the court order and we will be prepared to run in the current districts.”

At the same time, Stumbo said he favors an appeal.

“But even if we appeal, there no gurantee of a decision in three days,” he said.

Stivers and Williams said after the meeting that no decision on an appeal has been made, and Stumbo said House Democrats had been told to be prepared to run in their current House districts.

“It’s up in the air,” Stivers said moments after the Senate adjourned for the day.

Williams said he hadn’t “completely read the ruling yet. That’s why we’ve got lawyers. Lawyers will be reading the thing.”

A cheer erupted from the House Republican offices moments after word of Shepherd’s order began circulating through the Capitol just after 3 p.m.

It was the House Republicans who initiated the lawsuit on grounds that the bill violated several requirements of redistricting plans found in both the state and U.S. constitutions. The House plan would force six Republican incumbents out of office, while the Senate plan would do the same to four incumbent Democrats.

House Republican Leader Jeff Hoover of Jamestown hailed the ruling as a victory but said the battle is far from over.

“We’re obviously very pleased with the judge’s decision,” he said. “He agreed with the argument that we made from Day One — that the House plan divided too many counties and it was above population variance.”

Sen. Kathy Stein, the Lexington Democrat who was effectively prohibited from running for re-election this year by the Senate plan, joined the Republicans in the suit, claiming the map drawn by the GOP majority was unconstitutional as well.

Stein, the Senate’s most liberal member, is scheduled to run for re-election this year from her 13th District, as are all other Senate members who represent odd-numbered districts. But the Senate plan moved the 13th District to northeastern Kentucky and renumbered her district as the 4th.

The 4th District is currently in Western Kentucky and is represented by Sen. Dorsey Ridley, D-Henderson, who isn’t up for re-election until 2014.

Stein was thus effectively prevented from seeking re-election this year, unless she moved to an odd-numbered district.

She said Tuesday that the disenfranchisement of her constituents under the Senate plan “does not comport with democracy.”

Stein flashed the “thumbs up” sign to supporters after hearing of the ruling and said, “I’m dancing. … I’m very pleased, absolutely. I was very optimistic that the arguments that we made were constitutionally valid, and I’m very happy that Judge Shepherd has agreed.”

Stein said she is resigned to the likelihood that she will be redistricted out of office if a new plan is passed but will consider it a victory if Fayette County isn’t represented by someone outside of the county.

Still, she added: “I’m very hopeful that the leaders of both houses will take instruction from the opinion.”

In his ruling, Shepherd said there is “no controlling case law” to determine if the legislature violated the constitution by switching the Senate district numbers and effectively disenfranchising 113,724 Fayette County residents for the next two years. But he said the issue needs “full adjudication.”

The judge appeared to kick-start the appeal of his own decision by suggesting that the Supreme Court reconsider a 1994 ruling that placed importance on keeping counties intact and not splitting them among multiple districts.

“It is apparent from the proceedings in this case that the constitutional value of population equality is significantly impaired by the requirement to preserve county integrity,” Shepherd wrote.

“Those considerations, however, must be addressed to the Kentucky Supreme Court, and not to a trial court that is required to apply the binding precedent” of past cases, he wrote.

Shortly after the decision was announced, two Senate Democrats who had decided not to seek re-election —Perry Clark of Louisville and Walter Blevins of Morehead — filed their papers to run.

Meanwhile, some legislators lamented that Shepherd’s ruling would further impede work in what is already a sluggish session of the General Assembly.

The legislature rarely takes up controversial measures until the deadline for filing to run for the legislature passes — and Shepherd’s ruling delays that deadline until Friday. If an appeal is filed, that could push the deadline to even later in the year.

“This just further delays other action,I think,in the General Assembly,” said Senate Minority Leader R.J. Palmer, D-Winchester, who added that few significant bills may pass this year.

“We run the risk of that. I don’t think we’re to that point yet,’ he said.

Said Stumbo, ““Well, I’d say it’s not going to be very good as far as getting things done.”

Editor's note: you can read the judge's opinion here (.pdf file requires Adobe Reader).

As I can quickly read from the court's opinion, judge Shepard feels duty bound to follow Fisher 11 precedent, and finds both the House and the Senate, in at least one county each, violated Fischer 11's -5% to +5% allowable deviation.

The judge sounds like he was unimpressed by the precedent he had to follow and urges (indirectly) for the litigants to appeal to the Supreme Court, where it is equally obvious the judge expects, or hopes, for a different opinion from the higher court.

Jeff Hoover And Others Seek Injunction To Restrain The Enforcement Of Kentucky's Legislative Redistricting Efforts.

Read the plaintiffs' verified complaint here seeking the injunction, memorandum in support of the injunction, and the order the Plaintiffs proposed for the judge to sign.

I suspect the whole redistricting scheme, from what I read since I have not seen the plans, may be declared unconstitutional.

But we have to wait and see.

Kentucky's Legislative Redistricting Proves Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.

Redistrict outrages may face redress
Written by Al Cross

FRANKFORT, Ky. — There is redistricting, and there is redistricting.

The latter is what went down in Frankfort last week, and it went down hard. We figured it would be bad, but not that bad. And things will probably get messier.

Not only did the House and Senate’s partisan majorities pass politically outrageous plans for their respective chambers, going beyond the usual majority protection and minority punishment, but the House plan was unconstitutional on its face.

That was clear — to anyone who knows the rules of redistricting and the rough populations of Kentucky counties — upon first glance. Or, as the lawyers might say, “Prima facie, baby. Let’s go to court!”

And it looks as though Republicans will do just that.

“We’re headed that way,” House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover of Jamestown told me Thursday afternoon, as the bill headed to Gov. Steve Beshear’s desk for signature into law. “Our plan is to seek an injunction and then proceed with the litigation.”

An injunction from a judge could block the bill from taking effect, forcing a delay in the Jan. 31 filing deadline for legislative seats, and perhaps in the May primary elections. And then maybe a special legislative session to pass a plan that meets constitutional muster.

All this because House Democrats thumbed their noses at Section 33 of the Kentucky Constitution, which says a county not large enough to make its own district can’t be divided by a district line. The House divided six such counties: Harlan, Lawrence, Letcher (three ways), Lewis (three ways), Mercer and Trigg.

The configuration of the state and its counties might require dividing two such counties (Bell, Calloway or counties adjoining them, such as Harlan and Trigg), according to a 1995 state Supreme Court decision. That was the ruling that revived the 1891 constitution’s rule against county division, which lawmakers thought had been nullified by the U.S. Supreme Court’s “one man, one vote” decisions.

The legislature complied with the ruling in 1996, but the next time the House drew districts, it backslid, dividing four counties that clearly had no business being divided, two of them (Rowan and Wolfe) in one district — that of Rep. John Will Stacy, D-West Liberty, who privately bullied the mapmakers into submission.

No one sued to invalidate that map, so perhaps House leaders thought they could get away with it again. But the latest map needs to be challenged in court because it is such a monstrosity — legally, geographically and politically — and only the courts can hold the legislature truly accountable.

In addition to the three-way splits of two counties, the House map creates bizarre districts that make a mockery of the basic redistricting principles that districts should be relatively compact and reflect communities of interest. Hoover said the map splits 246 precincts, which will cost local officials time, trouble and probably money.

The new District 80 of Rep. Danny Ford, R-Mount Vernon, runs from the Fayette County line through western Madison County to his home Rockcastle County, which is connected to Casey County by a narrow strip of Pulaski County, along the Lincoln County line.

Just to the east, the new District 89 of Rep. Marie Rader, R-McKee, connects her home Jackson County with McCreary County via a jagged strip through the middle of Laurel County, which is divided among five districts. Though Laurel and McCreary adjoin, they have no direct road connection.

The same is true of Russell and Cumberland, the middle counties in Hoover’s extenuated, new District 83. It is probably one of the five House districts that will have more than one incumbent, presuming a special election next month fills the unexpired term of Agriculture Commissioner Jamie Comer with another Tompkinsville Republican. There are three incumbents in the new 17th District, Butler and Edmonson counties and part of Warren County.

All the matched-up incumbents are Republicans, except Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, whose new District 99 looks much more favorable to him than to freshman Rep. Jill York, R-Grayson.

The Senate map is probably constitutional, but even more politically objectionable.

More than a fourth of senators — 10 of 38 — will be in districts with other incumbents. Since Republicans control the Senate, it’s the Democrats who are getting it in the neck, probably killing their chances of regaining Senate control any time soon.

But the real political hit job is what the bill does to Sen. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, a thorn in the side of Senate President David Williams. It moves her district number, 13, to northeastern Kentucky and gives her old district an even number. Only odd-numbered seats are on this year’s ballot, and there is a one-year residency requirement, so there is no Senate seat for which Stein can run this year.

Lexington’s urban core will be represented, at least theoretically, by Sen. Dorsey Ridley, D-Henderson, whose district number was moved there. Only one other Senate district, a suburban one, lies wholly in Lexington-Fayette, so the state’s second-largest city may not have a proportionate voice in the Senate for two years. If there is a constitutional flaw in the Senate map, this may be it.

Redistricting is always the most political of legislative tasks, and Kentuckians have become inured in the last decade to the legislature putting a priority on politics. Now it has again gone too far, and the courts must put things right. And legislators must think about giving the task to some independent, bipartisan body.

Redistricting is not just a game of inside political baseball; it goes to the fundamentals of our system of self-government. As Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, said in the final debate on the bill, “The long-term result is destruction of this democratic process.”

Al Cross, former Courier-Journal political writer, is director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky. His opinions are his own, not those of the university.

Kentucky's General ASSembly Is Set To Redraw CONgressional Boundaries. Be On The Lookout For UNDEMOCRATIC Political Shenanigans And Maps That Look Like Salamanders.

Read more here, and check out the latest proposals below:

So what happens if both houses don't agree to a proper and reasonable map?