Kentucky’s continuing financial woes are casting dark shadows as the 60-day 2010 session of the Kentucky General Assembly begins today. The approval of the biennial budget for the two fiscal years beginning July 1 clearly is the most important task of this session.
Indeed, approval of the budget is the only duty specifically given the legislature in the Kentucky Constitution. That alone makes it important, but this particular budget may be the most important one in the state’s history. As it now stands, the budgets for the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years will call for between $1 billion and $1.5 billion less spending than the two-year budget legislators approved just two years ago — a budget that has had to be cut four times since its approval in order to meet the constitutional prohibition against deficit spending. Those cuts would have been greater had not legislators increased taxes on tobacco products and retail alcohol sales and used federal stimulus money to erase the red ink.
Thus, instead of looking at ways to increase spending, legislators will be looking at more ways to reduce spending while still maintaining essential services in public education, Medicaid, prisons and social services. This promises to be a difficult chore that should seek the input of all 100 members of the House of Representatives and 38 members of the Senate. That demands that the budget process this year be more orderly and done in a more timely fashion than in past years.
Typically, this is how the budget process works in the Kentucky General Assembly. The governor gives his budget address and submits a budget for consideration. As required by the state constitution, the House of Representatives first approves the budget, usually at about the midway point in the 60-day session. The Senate then approves its version of the budget. Then, the leaders of the House and the Senate meet in a closed-door joint conference committee to try to reach a compromise on the two versions.
The final version of the budget usually is not ready for approval by both the House and the Senate until the final day before the General Assembly takes a recess before returning for two days to act on any vetoes by the governor.
The bottom line is this: While the leaders of both the House and Senate may know what is in the budget, rank-and-file members often are asked to vote on a budget they have not even had time to read. As for giving members who are not in leadership the opportunity to suggest amendments to the budget, forget about it — no time for that.
Since we are naive enough to think voting in ignorance is dangerous, we think legislators as a matter of principle should refuse to vote on any bill that they have not had time to read, but particularly on a bill that will determine the state’s spending for the next two years. No legislator should find out after the fact that the budget he or she voted for contains cuts in spending for programs key to his or her district.
We always have thought it is wrong to wait until the last minute to vote on this most important piece of legislation, and it is even more wrong when that budget includes deep cuts in spending. May the 2010 General Assembly give every legislator time to read the budget before calling for a vote on it.
