FRANKFORT — As it has for nearly all of this year’s General Assembly session, gambling dominated events in Frankfort this past week – but there was movement on a couple of other issues.

The House passed Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposal to reform – in the short-term – the state employee pension systems and House leaders began to focus on the budget for the next two years.

But gambling continued to dominate. On Tuesday, the House Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Inter-Governmental Affairs Committee broke down over competing versions of a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling. At stake were the interests of the horse racing industry, Kentucky’s signature industry and leading agricultural revenue producer.

Horse owners, track interests, and breeders want a guarantee of casino licenses for at least some of the tracks, fearing an open bidding process will leave them out in the cold as better funded casino interests out bid them. The fear is once that happens, Las Vegas-style casinos will capture all the gambling market and dry up the horse industry in Kentucky.

House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, and members of a House subcommittee on gambling offered an amendment which would allow up to nine casinos in Kentucky with a limit of five for race tracks. But it included no guarantee for the tracks. Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, D-Okolona, and Democratic Whip Rob Wilkey, D-Scottsville, offered an alternative which would guarantee five of the nine licenses for the tracks – an approach favored by the horse industry and Beshear. But neither garnered enough votes to pass the committee.

Richards then replaced Rep. Dottie Sims, D-Horse Cave, who had voted for the Clark-Wilkey proposal, on the committee with Rep. Tim Firkins, D-Louisville, and John Will Stacy, D-West Liberty, and their votes carried the Richards’ version out of the committee. But the split reflected divisions in the House leadership and called into question whether the amendment can pass the House.

But the House did pass pension bill, HB 660. Under the bill, future hires would contribute more to retirement and have to work longer to receive full retirement benefits. It would also limit the annual cost of living increase to 1.5 percent – unless the legislature authorized more and funded the greater increase up front. And state employees would no longer be allowed to retire from one state job, claim retirement benefits and then take another state job and start a new pension. They can still return to work while retaining their retirement benefits but would not qualify for a second retirement.

The bill faces almost certain amendment in the Senate which last year attempted to reform the system. That plan would have placed future hires into a hybrid, defined contribution plan in which they would have to contribute to their own retirement. It also would have issued bonds to pay back money it had failed to appropriate in past sessions equal to actuarial estimates of the require contribution.

On Friday, Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said the Senate will “take a look at (the House) bill and offer specific proposals. We’re not going to kill their bill. Their bill does have some good things in it, just not enough of them.”

The Senate took testimony in the Education Committee on SB 1 which would replace the present CATS tests with a national, standardized test. Co-sponsor Sen. Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, said the bill would save the state money and add instructional time in the class room, time which is now spent on preparing for and taking the test. Several critics of the testing system testified before the committee, but one Democratic Senator, Tim Shaughnessey of Louisville complained the committee invited only critics of the testing system.

Williams and Kelly disputed Shaughnessey’s complaint and committee Chair, Sen. Ken Winters, R-Murray, said the committee will hear additional testimony next week. The bill is opposed by Kentucky Education Association and the Jefferson County Teachers Association and faces a tough road in the House.

The Senate also voted to eliminate the office of state Treasurer, moving its duties to the Finance and Administration Cabinet. It would also require that candidates for Attorney General and state Auditor run in non-partisan races, with no party affiliation listed on the ballot. It isn’t given much chance of passage – or a vote – in the Democratic House.

And House leaders announced Friday they will begin meeting with the budget committee on Sunday to determine how much additional revenue they can find to soften the pain in Beshear’s austere budget proposal. Among the options being considered is an increase in the cigarette tax; refinancing state bonds at lower interest rates; and some “minor tax adjustments” as Budget Chairman Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, described it.

Moberly said he hopes to come up with about $400 million to add to Beshear’s executive budget – but he isn’t sure he can find that much or if lawmakers will sign onto the increased revenue package.



RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.