Rep. Floyd: Give ‘credit’ for the special session where it is due — Gov. Beshear

By DAVID FLOYD
50th District State Representative

REP. DAVID FLOYD

Tuesday, April 17, 2012: 9:10 a.m. — So you’re the governor of Kentucky. It’s the last day of the 2012 regular session. On your desk is HB 267, the Road Plan. In it are all the projects that will receive priority during the next two years, together with planning for six years. The House approved the bill. The Senate approved the bill. Your Transportation Cabinet approved the bill. All you have to do is sign it into law.

If you don’t sign it into law, the state will not have a road plan. But the state must have a road plan, else there is no money for road maintenance, the rural & secondary road fund, new road projects – nothing. You know that if you don’t sign the bill, you will have to call the General Assembly back into Extraordinary (Special) Session.

All you have to do is sign the bill that was coordinated with both concerned parties: the legislative and executive branches.

But you don’t sign it. You decide that you want to call a Special Session instead.

Question: Why would you do that? Answer: You want a special session. And there’s a possibility that you will have total discretion on how to spend 4 billion dollars in road funds.

Here’s what was going on that last night. House and Senate knew that the governor believed he could veto certain portions or all of the road plan, and could have done so with no legislative oversight – they wouldn’t be there to meet and consider overriding any vetoes. The governor could pick and choose which projects received money, and which did not. Then he could redirect money to build roads when and where he wanted. That happened two years ago.

So the House and Senate agreed to wait until the governor signed the Road Plan, and then they would pass the bill (HB 266) that authorizes funding for the road plan. It is a prudent and constitutionally sound idea, guaranteeing legislative authority and minimizing the possibility of political gamesmanship by the executive branch.

The governor also wanted the Senate to move on a favorite bill of his, raising the dropout age to 18. So he sent messengers to the Senate, saying “I’ll sign the Road Plan if you pass the dropout bill.” He tried to force them to comply, using the threat of a politically unpopular special session as his weapon.

Either way, he couldn’t lose. Governor Beshear knew that people would blame this special session on David Williams and the legislature’s “inability” to compromise, even though we had already done just that. He could posture in front of a compliant media (said he was “disgusted”), and no one would figure out that it was just what he wanted for the fall’s legislative political campaigns.

For the special session, he will continue to hold the winning cards because we won’t stay in session long enough to override any of his Road Plan vetoes. And if we stubbornly refuse to adjourn, waiting on his vetoes, the House will not go against the governor, and a vote to override will fail. (Beshear has promised one million dollars for their fall campaigns, and they won’t go against him.) Then Beshear will use his power to realign up to 4 billion dollars in road projects to help political allies and hurt political opponents.

And all the while, the media will blame their favorite target – David Williams.

You’ve got to hand it to Governor Beshear; his good-old-boy politics will win the day for him. The responsibility for this special session is his, because that’s just what he wanted.

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