Special Session Agenda

Kentucky lawmakers Monday began a special session called by Gov. Steve Beshear to deal with a $1 billion budget shortfall as well as other items, including the creation of a new bond-issuing authority for a mega-transportation project.

The governor has called on lawmakers to close the gap in the fiscal 2010 budget without raising taxes while maintaining the state’s current investments in education, critical areas of health care, public safety, and economic development.

Beshear said his proposal would cut $200 million in spending from the enacted 2010 budget. In addition, his plan would use about $740 million of federal stimulus dollars to help ensure funding for education and mitigate deep cuts to state services. Most other state agencies would also be required to cut 2.6% from current spending for the coming year.

Also on the agenda is a proposal to create a financing authority to ensure construction of mega-transportation projects like the proposed Louisville bridges and other projects.

Other initiatives would modernize the state’s economic development incentives and allow video lottery terminals at Kentucky racetracks to boost purses and breeder incentives in a bid to save one of the state’s premier industries.

“Our racetracks face declining status and even the certainty of closure — if we don’t act now,” Beshear said. “We can no more stand to lose the equine industry’s 100,000 jobs and $4 billion economic impact than we can stand to surrender our title as the horse capital of the world.”

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM BOND BUYER