Send a message — 04/20/08

Fri, May 16 2008

— Gov. Steve Beshear should veto the millions of dollars in water and sewer and community development projects legislators approved during the waning hours of the 2008 General Assembly and send the following message to members of the State Senate and House of Representatives:
“These projects are being vetoed because General Assembly failed to approve a biennium budget that adequately funds essential services in the state. As long as funding is being cut for primary, high school and higher education and for health services, funding for water and sewer projects — while important — cannot be justified.”
At the same time, the governor should announce that he will not call a special session of the General Assembly so legislators can have time to finish what they had ample time to complete during the 60-day session. The governor should refuse to reward legislators for their shameful lack of action during the session.
To be sure, we are asking the governor to veto approximately $2.5 million in projects in Boyd County, and many — but not all — of those are important. The governor’s veto would earn him the wrath of legislators, representatives and the communities that would benefit from those projects. But the manner in which the projects were funded after the approval of the budget is irresponsible. If for no other reason, they should be vetoed just to discourage such irresponsible behavior in the future.
Important work — most notably pension reform — was left undone during the 60-day session, but that’s only because members of the House and Senate spent so much time doing little or nothing while important matters were pending. The governor should refuse to allow legislators to undo some of the damage they have done by calling a special session. Instead, legislators should be forced to live with what they did — and did not do — during this terrible legislative session.
Of course, we don’t really expect Governor Beshear to veto all the last-minute projects or to refuse to call a special session. That would be political suicide for a governor who has to work with these legislators for another three years.
Still, it would be a good idea.