State Rep Reginald Meeks

Final Week – April 16-20, 2012

April 23, 2012

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

It may be due to the fact that so many of us grow up in small towns. We like our communities in small bite sizes. We are known for the number of our people who choose to stay close to home, sometimes only rarely leaving their home county. It happens in cities, too. Growing up, we rarely had to leave our home neighborhood. We could shop, go to school, get our haircut and even go to the public library right there, nice and close to home. Kentuckians relate to each other as much by high school as we do by holler. All this makes it easy to think small. And we legislators are good at doing that.

And we don’t easily let by-gones be by-gones either. I mean, rivalries and disputes can go on and on for generations. Literally – prompting more than one cartoon, newspaper or TV production of the Hatfield & McCoy feud to paint a picture of Kentucky for the rest of the country to forever believe to be the real Kentucky. You know that picture…

Indeed, some of whom I must assume are among our finest citizens are still fighting the Civil War. I recently picked up bumper stickers at a flea market proclaiming, “The South Will Rise Again”; “Ole Times Are Not Forgotten” and “The Truth About Our Flag Being Maliciously Slandered Will Be Told”. We like our past to hang on like a tick.

We’re a tenacious lot, if anything. It’s just that the older I get, the richer the words of Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler become. Whether it be the Christian Laitner shot that STILL shocks the senses of full grown Cats fans (causing complaints about UPS logistics ads last month of all things!) or it’s the result from some past election, we keep our virus’s alive in Petri dishes we carry around like badges of courage – then desperately search for something, or someone, to blame for the disease.

This Special Session is also a result of ongoing conflict. You know that story. Let’s just hope we won’t be back for yet another one next week! At some point the public, members of the General Assembly, the media – and even Leadership itself is going to have to say, “Enough is enough”.

The caboose is loose and the train has skidded far enough off the track — let’s see about reconnecting it. Speaking of transportation…

SO, HERE’S WHERE YOUR BUTTER GETS CHURNED:

The words of House Repub leader, Jeff Hoover – whatever his political motivations were – are instructive. There are processes in place to provide for reasoned debate, and the amicable flow of business up here. And many of them are NOT being followed. His specific complaint: projects were added to the “Road Bill” by Conference Committee members (mostly leadership) outside the purview of the public and outside the process the rest of us have to abide by. That is not the only complaint about the Transportation funding bill.

Rep. Jim Wayne and I questioned info – known to the Transportation Cabinet Secretary – involving the prospect of future tolling of the Sherman-Minton Bridge. A report shows that in 2031, there is a sudden jump in revenue for the Ohio River Bridges Project – a project that will be tolled. It was that revenue spike in 2013 that caused our Q: Is there a potential at some point of tolling Sherman-Minton? The Cabinet’s response was contradictory. Once again, as policy makers we found ourselves being told, “Trust Me” by the Cabinet. Boys and girls, I assure you,any criticism you may have of a government that says, trust me pales in comparison to the cynicism of us Doubting Thomas’ IN government! We are asked to rely on that stale tune, make sound public policy decisions based on it, and then come home and face a critical public! In an election year when it’s all about winning your upcoming election, there’s little wonder why most legislators are not willing to take tough votes – and little wonder why road projects that bring home the bacon are slipped into budgets…

Everyone knows there are more road projects than available funding. But there’s this entire system of systems within Transportation that simply plays havoc with any objective sense of what is sound public transportation policy — unless, of course, you are one of those donor counties that receives much more from Frankfort than you provide. Take for example, the formula for allocating gasoline tax dollars among Kentucky counties. It needs reformulating! Counties with the largest population and the most miles driven on their roads often receive less funding under the current plan than counties with many factors of fewer cars, population and miles driven. It’s an antiquated model that hasn’t been changed since, well, since the day when counties were responsible for building their own turnpikes and tolls for horse and buggy usage were collected to pay for them! Point is, it’s been a long while…and this change is long overdue.

And there’s that matter Rep. Hoover brought up. Road projects appearing out of the blue in the Transportation budget. In my view, the Governor was right to hold firm his right to veto these projects. If his decisions were based on politics – and I don’t believe they were — the Governor surely was on sound footing for making them! Just a cursory comparison of proposed funding in a few select counties with the rest of the state – or just with Jefferson County – reveals the political nature of those projects. That so many of the projects were proposed in the districts of House and Senate leaders is revealing. Importantly, the Governor and the House stood united in agreement that the Governor should have this power.

This much maligned Special Session could end with a whimper and the Senate reduced to making symbolic gestures of defiance in the shadow of a veto proof transportation budget.

CONTACT ME: Call me directly at 502.564.8100 or write me at Rm. 329C, Capitol Annex, 702 Capitol Avenue, Frankfort, KY 40601. I’m also on FACEBOOK so hit me up there or online at Reginald.Meeks@lrc.ky.gov or at http://reginaldmeeks.com. To reach any particular legislator, contact our toll – free number at 800.372.7181. For the deaf or hard-of-hearing, that number is 800.896.0305

March 30, 2012

April 4, 2012

Maybe it was the trail of feathers down the hallway, into my office and around my desk…. Or that when Big Blue Nation supporters came to visit me they wore enough Redbird feathers to make several dusters. But when I arrived on the House Floor, one would have thought there wasn’t a clothed Cardinal in the entire state. They got me good, thanks in part to a creative staff and an unnamed Jefferson County conspirator. Speaking for every RED BLOODED KENTUCKIAN , I must say the Ali – Liston fight will appear to be little more than a street brawl when the University of Louisville shakes up the known civilized world!

Most people these days seem to be focused on winning and losing. Many actually believe the inevitability of a Big Blue championship; the only real issue being the margin of victory. Following this line of irrationality, why even play the game? Just hand out the trophies, sign over the coaching bonuses and let the dreads on the losing side get by the best they can. It’s the ultimate Bluegrass Zero Sum game. But plans to lay others low likely as not end up biting you in the trunk. Ask Duke or Syracuse, Michigan State — or any number of known and lesser known political candidates.

Nothing on this court of life is promised. Not winning. Not losing. There may be better players than you. There may even be a better team on the court facing you. But nothing is promised – them to win, nor you to lose. Even when you can’t beat them, refuse to lose to them…. That’s why they play the game; your very best game. In the emphatic words of Coach Valvano, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up!”

Budget conferees didn’t give up. When negotiations stretched into the early hours of the morning, they did not give up. The job you sent us here to do – pass a budget – will be completed today. Many compromises will have been made. Cuts will be confirmed. Leadership will get their usual road and other projects that few os us regular Joe’s receive.

I suspect most of us found real and quantifiable good in the budget. Some will hold their noses and vote for it. Others took a pass. Despite having only a few hours to review and compare and study, it is done.

It’s important to note that for the first time since 2006, the General Assembly passed a state budget without having to rely on a Special Session. That’s good. But don’t go getting all warm and fuzzy. There’s a game this weekend, and, frankly, this notion of us working together very long is about like expecting Cats fans to cheer for the Louisville Cardinals on Monday night! LOL!

SO, HERE’S WHERE YOUR BUTTER GETS CHURNED:

There’s too much to include in one weekly update, but I’d like to focus on a few key areas. You should know our state budget is $19.2 Billion. While modest growth is projected to continue over the next 2 years, rising costs, the ending of federal stimulus funding and the previous use of one-time funds account for the need for deep cuts that we made.

State borrowing is at the lowest levels in years. Authorized debt is $391 M. This is $580 M less than the Governor authorized and results in a debt ratio of 6.5%. The proposed debt ratio would have been 7.1%. The structural imbalance of the state is cut in half. None of this is where we want to be, but it’s a significant improvement in the right direction.

The Budget Reserve Trust Fund [i.e. Rainy Day Fund] is $ 72.7 M. These are our emergency funds and goodness knows we have needed them. As savings accrue and the state’s economy continues to grow, both the Senate and the House acknowledge this to be an important feature of this budget.

Concerning the Department of Education, base funding for schools remains intact. Both the Statewide IT Academy and KET are funded. Also the Family Resource and Youth Service Centers; Extended School Services; Gifted and Talented program; the Community Education program and funding for Read to Achieve and KEES and other financial assistance sources are funded. SEEK formula is maintained at the current level. The Governor Scholars program is funded in each of the fiscal years; $64 K is added in each year for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing above that provided by the Governor and the Office for the Blind receives an additional $50 K in each year above what would have been provided.

Medicaid is not cut and savings from last year’s reform amounts to more than $300 M. Nearly $20 M is added to boost substance abuse services and $6 M is added to help Kentuckians with mental illness.

The KASPER system will get about $4.2 M to better track and prevent prescription drug abuse. $9 M will go to counties to help with their jail costs.

Thankfully, with House Leadership and public pressure, assistance for indigent healthcare in Louisville will be maintained. Also, the State Fair Board will get $5.5 M to cover deficits at the YUM Center.

WE HAVE YET TO PASS THE TRANSPORTATION BUDGET. And HB 4 remains in the Senate because of what appeared to be a “CATS fight” that broke out among some of our friends in that Chamber… ☺

For the second year in a row, there are no new raises for state workers. Also no COLA for retirees.

Question of the Week – When the Cards win, will the sun come up on Sunday morning??

March 23, 2012

March 27, 2012

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about this week. Normally I have pieces of info or partial thoughts or ideas set aside to revisit when I finally do sit down to write. Not so this week. I had not a clue. Not a clue, that is, until our Caucus meeting yesterday.

For the past 3 weeks, there’s been a sort of détente around here. Members have seen a horrible swath of natural disasters cross districts lines from one end of the state to the other. We came together and raised over $25K just from our staff and House members for relief efforts. We collected over seventeen hundred t-shirts for the kids of Scholar House students. A growing number of Senate bills have been flowing through House committees and even some House bills have come out of the Senate. The weather’s been warm and beautiful — so what’s the problem? As I said….

I didn’t know what to write until our Caucus met. There, we learned the Senate was going to pass their version of the budget bill. We were warned while there may not be a great deal of movement of dollars [there’s just only so much marrow in a bone to move around] THERE COULD BE LANGUAGE CHANGES that could have significant impacts… If you can’t mess with the dollars, mess with how those dollars can be spent! I knew I had my fodder.

So here’s what happening. Next week should be interesting. Budget sub-committee chairs, members and staff will be pouring over the Senate budget with fine toothed combs this weekend. We’ll be looking for any language that changes how we believe your tax dollars should be spent. This is work that one simply has to grind your way through. It’s not pretty, and the budget document is long, but this is absolutely necessary. It could also spell the end of this warm and fuzzy period between the members, and the chambers.

A Conference Committee is already appointed and ready to start resolving any conflicts found between the House and Senate versions. Any compromise between the two versions of the budget must be agreed upon within the next few days and returned to both chambers for approval. Our 2012 session will come to a close on April 12th after the Governor has exercised a 10 day period that allows him to either sign bills into law or veto them. The end of our session could go out like a lamb – or a lion. With the weather we’ve been having, who knows? We’ll just have to keep our eyes open, watch carefully and read every detail.

SO, HERE’S WHERE YOUR BUTTER GETS CHURNED:

A very decent proposal to aid our immigrant communities was passed this week. HB 183 cleared the full House by a vote of 84-8 on Monday and will allow —but not require—local school districts to enroll refugees and legal resident aliens in their high schools, even if the students would be over 21 years of age by the time they receive their diploma. Current law allows students to attend public school until they reach age 21. This will help place more immigrees in better positions to be contributing taxpayers with access to higher paying jobs.

SB 89 was sent to the governor after passing the House on Tuesday. It was filed in response to a 2010 crash on I-65 near Munfordville that killed 10 members of a Mennonite family who were riding in a 15-seat van when it collided with a tractor trailer. Reports indicated that most of the van’s passengers were not wearing seat belts at the time of the crash. Current state law only requires seat belt use in vans designed to carry 10 or fewer people. This is expanded to include 15-seat vans.

HB 165 cleared the House and is sent to the Senate. It will offer a refund on sales and use tax paid on materials used to rebuild in storm-ravaged counties that are declared to be federal disaster areas. And it reaches out to school districts and their staff in those disaster areas by allowing the state’s education commissioner to waive up to 10 instructional days missed as a result of the storms. The “disaster” declaration would preserve schools’ state funding, while ensuring that all school personnel receive salary, wages and benefits for those days.

A statewide “Blue Alert” system to help law enforcement apprehend someone suspected of killing, wounding or abducting a law enforcement officer cleared the House Transportation Committee this week. The system will broadcast identifying information similar to that sent out under the Amber Alert system now in place for missing children. Blue Alerts would be issued only upon request of a law enforcement agency after it is determined that an officer has been killed, injured, or is missing.

An important ABA study from 1976 – 2010 found a nearly 60% error rate in death penalty cases! Of the 98 death penalty cases examined, 50 were overturned. HCR 173 calls for the creation of the Kentucky Death Penalty Reform Implementation Task Force to develop a strategy to implement recommended reforms in these cases.

Protection from domestic abuse was extended to include people who are dating. The bill would only apply to those dating couples who are 18 years of age or older.

Question of the Week – What issue have we not addressed that you feel the General Assembly should address during this legislative session?

March 12-16, 2012

March 19, 2012

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

I know its b’ball madness all over again — and there’ll be more than enough wolf tickets bought and sold to make the Girl Scouts turn Irish greenwith envy, so let me all my two cents in up front. So what’s up with the NCAA seedings? Portland, Oregon. Really?! Let’s see. I believe it was San Antonio in ’11 and Houston in ’10. You get the picture. And if that isn’t enough….

What’s up with this report?? Duke University was the only NCAA tournament team to outspend the University of Louisville and University of Kentucky basketball programs during the 2010-11 season!?

According to an analysis of Equality in Athletics data from the U.S. Department of Education, Duke, UofL and Kentucky — along with Marquette University in Milwaukee — were the only programs among all those making this year’s NCAA basketball tournament that spent more than $10 million for the season. They outspent every other school in the tourney!

Hmmmm…. $10 M? I’ll put a pin in that one for now so as not to upset your basketball “sensibilities”…

Speaking of which – let’s see… UK – played in Louisville. WKU played in Louisville. Murray State played in Louisville — SO WT IS LOUISVILLE DOING PLAYING WAY OUT IN OREGON, of all places??

[You’d think that after spending all that money on basketball…]

And why do two Kentucky teams seem to regularly be paired up so one gets bounced early in the tourney?

And can someone answer how it is that WKU only got 1,000 tickets for their YUM Center fans, anyway?

As a state, we may be at the bottom of the barrel in most areas, and we may have a few issues that we need to focus on and fix. We might even be 20 years behind the rest of the country in everything else, but when it comes to Madness –at least in March, we can show ‘em they got NOTHING on us!

GO CARDS!! GO RACERS!! ….and even widdle PUDDYCATS!!!

WKU, you’ve made us proud!

SO, HERE’S WHERE YOUR BUTTER GETS CHURNED:

The Senate is burning the midnight oil – painstakingly pouring over each and every budget page – meeting day and night to account for every penn….what? You’re not buying this? Ahhh, that business about not working on Fridays, surely it must be – oh, Monday’s too? I, eh, I didn’t know. Surely they must be doing something! After all, we continue to send bills over there almost daily… I’m sure somebody’s keeping up with all the bills they are hearing…and passing….and sending on to the Governor…

This week, we tackled a growing synthetic-drug problem that has re-emerged all across the Commonwealth: synthetic drugs including so-called “bath salts” and synthetic marijuana found in convenience stores and head shops. This is a fascinating snapshot of just how quickly illegal drug manufacturers respond to new challenges. A 2011 law we passed banned specific compounds of synthetic drugs. Underground manufacturers got around the law by altering a drug’s ingredients just enough to create new, technically legal ones. HB 481 fixes that loophole by banning entire classes, not just compounds, of synthetic drugs. It also extends seizure and forfeiture laws to retailers who sell these drugs; makes selling them a felony crime for second and subsequent offenses, and makes simple possession a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to 30 days in jail.

We then turned our attention to the alarming number of abused and neglected children who have fallen through the proverbial cracks of the state’s child-protection system in recent years. HB 200 creates a statewide external expert review panel to thoroughly investigate the death or near death of a child from abuse or neglect. The panel will determine if the state took reasonable measures to save that child or prevent his or her injuries (if the child was under protective services at the time) – and it expands the statutory definition of child abuse to include abuse by a sibling. A major feature is the creation of an independent office to oversee Kentucky’s Child Protective Services agency.

The state’s Transportation Budget and Road Plan was also passed out of the House this week. The Road Plan is a planning document which lays out priority construction projects for the upcoming 6 years. The first 2 years of the 6 year plan is separated out for immediate funding. Projects in the remaining 4 years you might say are put on the shelf in anticipation of continued funding and favorable revenue streams. Transportation projects are interesting. I’ve seen them stay on the books for years before they are begun. Often, Road projects are very high dollar projects. Under this plan, some $1.5 Billion in state construction funds and $1.3 Billion in federal construction funds are allocated for key projects in our Commonwealth.

I will soon publish specific details on Transportation and Road projects in and around our 42nd District.

Question of the Week – What is the proper balance between state supported schools profiting from athletics and state government having sufficient resources to meet the state’s educational needs?

March 5-9, 2012

March 12, 2012

GO CARDS! GO RACERS! GO TOPPERS…..and you too PUDDYCATS!! CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? I don’t mind telling you, if earlier in the session someone had wanted to bet on whether we’d need a Special Session in order to pass a budget, well, they’d be dropping my nickel in an Indiana slot machine right now!. …

SPECIAL EDITION March 7, 2012

March 12, 2012

KENTUCKY’S RECOVERY: First Steps on Our Long Journey Back Last Friday, over the weekend and for years to come, citizens throughout our Commonwealth face the long road toward being able to deal with one of the most life changing events one could ever hope to survive. 10:58am, Friday, March 2. The following was issued by…

February 27 – March 2, 2012

March 5, 2012

The public celebration of women’s history in this country began in 1978 as “Women’s History Week.” In 1987, Congress expanded the celebration to a month, and March was declared Women’s History Month. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? I believe you’re going to want to sit up and pay attention to what’s happening next week here…

February 21-24, 2012

February 27, 2012

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? WHAT A WEEK! It’s been a week filled with anticipation and hope that the voice of the People would trump the expediency of payback politics. [Man, did it disappoint is this regard.] The week showed us there are ways to improve the quality of life for our people. And it…