Governor will not call the General Assembly into special session if it fails to pass a state budget before the regular legislative session ends on Friday

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Gov. Matt Bev­in raised the stakes on a budget agree­ment Tuesday by announcing he will not call the General Assembly into special session if it fails to pass a state budget before the regular legislative session ends on Friday.

“That I will be absolutely adamant about,” Bevin told reporters after a bill signing ceremony in the Capitol. “I will not call a special session.”

Bevin said he will not reward law­makers with more days of pay at the expense of taxpayers for failing to pass the budget before the regular legislative session ends on Friday.

A special session would cost tax­payers $62,784 per day, according to an estimate by the Legislative Re­search Commission. And a special session would last at least five days.

But the General Assembly cannot call itself into special session. And if a budget for 2016-18 is not passed be­fore the new budget period begins July 1, parts of state government will almost surely shut down.

Bevin, a Republican, put responsi­bility for negotiating a final budget deal on the shoulders of House Speak­er Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. And he said if July 1 rolls around with no budget, Stumbo “can take that to his constituents and explain.”

Still, Bevin said he is optimistic that the House’s majority Democrats and the Senate’s majority Republi­cans — who negotiated the budget be­hind closed doors on Tuesday — will come to a budget deal and pass a state spending plan on Friday. He even called Stumbo “a good leader … some­body who has been at this game a long time.”

Stumbo was not so kind when he re­sponded Tuesday evening, issuing a statement that negotiations are taking so long because Bevin’s budget was “flawed” and “one of the worst I’ve seen submitted by a governor in my 35 years in the Capitol.”

“We are working hard to get a bud­get in time, but the only helpful thing he has brought to the entire process is advocating for moving back the final day of the legislative session,” he said. “That’s not much of a legacy.” 

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said Tuesday night he had not heard Bevin’s comments ruling out a special session and did not want to make any immediate response. 

Budget talks recessed at 9 p.m. Tuesday. Negotiators said they would get back together at 11 a.m. Wednesday. 

“We’re still talking, and that’s good,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Sannie Overly. 

Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Taylor Mill Republican who chairs the Senate budget committee said, “A lot of the big issues are still kind of out there pending…But we’ve some seen some good progress today.” 

On a related matter, Bevin said earlier Tuesday that he had the authority to make the 4.5 percent mid-year cuts he imposed on universities, throwing a verbal punch at Attorney General Andy Beshear who filed suit Monday to reverse those cuts, which are in the current state budget. 

“If I were him, I’d be trying to come up with all of the distractions I could,” Bevin said of Beshear. “He needs to clean up the mess in his own house.” 

That comment was a reference to the federal bribery charge against Tim Longmeyer, who served as the deputy attorney general — the top person on Beshear’s staff — until he resigned. The charge alleges Longmeyer arranged a kickback scheme for cash for himself and political contributions while he served as state personnel secretary under Beshear’s father, Gov. Steve Beshear. 

The attorney general claims Bevin’s March 31 directive that current-year appropriations to publicuniversities and community colleges be cut is illegal. Bevin has said the cuts are necessary to savemoney that can be used to address the crisis in funding pension programs. 

But Beshear said Monday that regardless of the severity of the pension crisis, Bevin does not have the legal authority to reduce appropriations to universities made by the General Assembly in the budget bill. 

Beshear said the governor can only make such cuts when there is a revenue shortfall, which is not the case now. But Bevin said state law gives him the power to make the cuts. 

Meanwhile, state Reps. Jim Wayne, Mary Lou Marzian and Darryl Owens, all Louisville Democrats, filed motions Tuesday seeking to intervene in the lawsuit filed by Beshear, a fellow Democrat. 

By Tom Loftus
The Courier-Journal