House update: Proposed spending cuts adding heat to budget process

By DAVID FLOYD
50th District State Representative

Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016, 10:01 a.m. — Last week we passed the midway point of this 60-day session.  As you know, the primary mission in even-year sessions is to pass a TWO-year budget.  There is always political maneuvering when writing a budget but this year, several new factors combine to significantly increase a partisan spirit which threatens final budget passage in late March or April.

The first is revenue-oriented.  There is increasing pressure on lawmakers from Kentucky citizens to step up and address the disparity between tax receipts and spending desires.  “We just don’t have the money” is a powerful reality for people who sit down to write a dollar figure next to each budget line.  Just about every citizen acknowledges and agrees with that, as a general principle.  However, when a budget cut affects their particular interest, they rise up to defend that interest in preference to all others.  This is to be expected.  Lawmakers have to deal with these protests – that’s our job.

The second factor is that we have a Republican governor.  He campaigned on a promise to face up to these revenue-based challenges by restraining state spending and fixing the pension crises.  He intends to keep those promises.  Gov. Bevin’s budget proposal called for a decrease in spending, including cuts in some budgeted areas up to 9.5%.  His budget address to the Commonwealth was powerfully delivered; he wants to avoid cuts in areas his administration considers high priority – elementary/secondary education among them.

Now let’s talk process.  All spending bills must originate in the House.  The House has an “Appropriations & Revenue” committee that writes the budget.  To divide the workload, that A&R committee has seven different Budget Review Subcommittees where more specialized work is done by legislators and staffers assigned there.  The final product of these subcommittees is consolidated into a single overall budget, passed in the A&R Committee and then sent to the floor of the House.

Generally, budget review subcommittee work is fairly quiet.  But this year, in contrast, the House majority is staging widely publicized subcommittee hearings, inviting state employees and issue advocates in to testify (emotionally) about how much they will be hurt by any budget cuts.  You will remember that Gov. Steve Beshear had to trim proposed and enacted budgets many times during his two terms, but there were no such meetings in those years.  The treatment is different this year, in my opinion, because the House majority seeks to make as much political hay as they can out of budget cuts under a Republican governor when, in the end, of course, they will vote for the cuts.

The third factor, also political, is control of the House of Representatives next year.  Kentucky is trending politically in a way that seriously disturbs the current House majority.  They will do all that they can during this session to prevent losing their majority in the state House of Representatives in the November election.  A heightened partisan atmosphere makes a budget agreement – any agreement – more elusive.

I’ve said it many times, a budget that makes everyone happy is probably not a good budget.  We each fight for our districts and for policies important to our constituents.  In the end, I’ll guarantee you, not everyone will be happy.  But the work must be done; political differences must be set aside before the session deadline passes on April 15th.  The greater the political pressure, the more difficult the path to compromise.  If politics prevails we will end up needing a special session to pass a budget.  And each side will blame the other for that.

COFFEE WITH DAVE SATURDAY. The best part of this job is hearing from you.  Call me at home, or leave a message at 800-372-7181.  Even better is meeting with you.  This Saturday, Senator Higdon and I will be at the Bloomfield Public Library for “Coffee with Dave.”  There’s no coffee for me to buy at the library.  Sometimes they have a pot on, but you may want to bring a cup of your own.  We start at 9:00.

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