No Budget — No Projects!

The 2010 Session of the Kentucky General Assembly has come to a close. Unfortunately, the House and Senate were unable to agree on what Kentucky’s next two-year budget should look like. For many KRWA members, no budget means no water and sewer projects. The current state budget will end on June 30, 2010; however, it should be noted that both previously passed House and Senate budgets relied on savings by restructuring debt by June 1, meaning the governor will need to call a Special Session in May.  Look for this session to be called soon after the primary elections on May 18^th.  The Senate has indicated they are unwilling to go into Special Session without a budget agreement in advance in an effort to limit the additional daily cost of another session.

Both the House and Senate budgets, passed in their respective chambers, included substantial savings in the area of public health benefits, Medicaid savings and some effort to reduce corrections costs. In the end, both budgets were very close, but the House wanted to fund a number of construction projects by issuing bonds. Arguing that now is the time to issue bonds while interest rates are at an all-time low and construction costs are consistently below engineers estimated costs. Senate members argued that, in these tough times, the state could not afford to go any further into debt.

As we approach a Special Session within the next six weeks, you will need to continue to keep your legislators informed of your project needs. The Kentucky General Assembly has been very good to KRWA’s membership in past budgets. Unfortunately, there is still much work to be done in providing the basic necessities of affordable water and wastewater services to the public. Thanks in large part to KRWA members contacting their legislators, we were able to stop or change several pieces of negative legislation this session. Thank you for your continuing support and participation in the democratic process.

Only seven (7) out of thirty-nine (39) bills and resolutions that we were tracking during the 2010 Session passed both the House and Senate. Some bills have already received the signature of the governor, thereby becoming law. The governor still has eight more days to veto bills before things are final, but none of the seven that we were watching seem to be in any jeopardy of the governor’s veto pen.

The Bill Tracking sheet has been reduced to the seven successful bills with summaries of their pertinent changes to existing law.

Stay updated on Legislative news by reading KRWA’s Legislative Liasion!

The Kentucky legislature convenes in regular session on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January for 60 days in even-numbered years and for 30 days in odd-numbered years. It convenes in special sessions at the call of the governor.

The Kentucky Constitution mandates that a regular session be completed no later than April 15 in even-numbered years and March 30 in odd-numbered years.

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