Published: March 22, 2008 01:34 pm            

Ky. lawmakers entering budget talks amid tense exchanges

Moberly and Williams exchange barbs

FRANKFORT — When legislative leaders met to hammer out the final details of a state budget two years ago, windows were covered with paper, hallways were roped off and state police troopers stood guard.

That may not be the case this year. Top-ranking lawmakers say they may be opening up their budget talks.

House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said last week he'd push to open the discussions following comments by his legislative counterpart Senate President David Williams.

"I would like to conduct it in the open if we can do that. Now, I don't know whether we can do that and come to any conclusion or not," Richards said. "But I have no problems with having every bit of it in wide open view of the public and press."

Hours later Williams, R-Burkesville, said through an aide, Lourdes Baez-Schrader, that he would agree to the meetings being open.

The move follows comments Williams made last week in which he questioned Rep. Harry Moberly's involvement in making spending decisions for Eastern Kentucky University, an institution where the key House budgeteer is employed as a vice president. Moberly fired back, calling the Senate's leading Republican an "egomaniacal dictator."

Whether the verbal sparring helps lawmakers craft a budget with a looming $900 billion revenue shortfall remains to be seen. What's certain is the legislative clock is ticking.

"I am bitter about it, but I'm going to put that aside and go in and act in good faith," Moberly told reporters last week, "and not go in there with a chip on my shoulder."

In recent years, lawmakers have twice left town without passing a budget.

Negotiations between the House and Senate deteriorated in 2002 over whether the state should fund public financing in gubernatorial elections. In 2004, former Gov. Ernie Fletcher's proposed tax code overhaul became the insurmountable sticking point.

This year, lawmakers have the added pressure of a looming $900 million projected revenue shortfall because of sagging tax revenue and soaring government expenses.

Gov. Steve Beshear proposed an austere two-year budget of more than $18 billion that called for 12 percent cuts to government agencies and public universities. Beshear has called on lawmakers to raise the state's tax on cigarettes by 70 cents as a way to boost revenue to avoid the cuts he proposed.

House lawmakers have approved a spending plan that calls for a quarter increase in the state's cigarette tax and raising various other taxes on services. They claimed it was aimed at avoiding the cuts proposed by Beshear.

Beshear and the House have disagreed over the plan.

Senate lawmakers expect to unveil their own plan on Monday and have the full chamber vote on it later that day. That would begin a budget process that has typically led to lengthy closed-door negotiations.

Usually a small group of legislators representing the full General Assembly meet in private to hammer out the final details of a voluminous two-year spending plan. The 138 lawmakers that make up the House and Senate have then voted that proposal into law shortly later.

Often, some lawmakers have bemoaned the fact that they've not been involved in the process. Others have complained they were voting on a document the contents of which they're not entirely sure.

Last week, Williams claimed that Moberly has in the past advocated for EKU to receive authorization for certain projects.

"I've been at the conference table in the conference many times when he (Moberly) has stood up to have things added for Eastern Kentucky University in the budget, OK." Williams told reporters last week. "Now, that's just the way it is and if he doesn't get what he wants in the budget, nobody else is going to get what they want in the budget."

Moberly said Williams comments were "a total falsehood." Instead, Moberly claimed Williams has been responsible for budget negotiations collapsing in the past.

"He has evolved into an egomaniacal dictator and he will brook no dissent from anything that he really wants and he's after me because I stand in his way," Moberly said.

Moberly said Friday he favored opening the process up to the public.

"I want everybody to see what he (Williams) does," Moberly said.

Rep. Stan Lee, the House Republican whip from Lexington, said he had "no problem with turning the lights on and letting people in there to see what goes on."

Conducting the public's business out of the reach of public scrutiny contradicts the idea of open government, Richard Beliles, chairman of Common Cause of Kentucky, said.

"I really don't think that they'll do anything improper," Beliles said. "But it still will not be in the public's interest overall if you close it during some periods. It gives them more and more opportunities to close things."

Kentucky Press Association President David Thompson said lobbyists and some newspaper editorials have opposed the closed meetings.

"I don't think anybody that is a believer in open government wants to see that," Thompson said of closed budget meetings.

Williams said earlier Friday that lawmakers needed "a certain amount of candor" so that lawmakers can discuss the budget freely. Williams said the budget system needed to be changed so the Senate had more time to consider the proposal.

Senate Minority Floor Leader Ed Worley, D-Richmond, said he would support the negotiations being open to everyone.

"If we're going to come out of conference committees and then there's going to be suggestions that members inside that conference committee did anything, then the remedy is let's just open the conference committee and the press can sit there and make that determination for themselves," Worley said.

        

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