Tagged: General Assembly

FRANKFORT, Ky. - After a long night of discussions, Kentucky lawmakers have finally reached a $19 billion budget agreement. House and Senate leaders resolved their differences shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday.

Budgets for all three branches of state government have now passed one chamber of the Kentucky General Assembly.

The House spent more than an hour debating the details of the executive, legislative and judicial budgets before easily passing all three.

The House did slightly change Gov. Steve Beshear’s original executive budget. And lawmakers also cut the legislative and judicial budgets by 8.4 percent.

House Budget Chairman Rick Rand says the budget passed isn’t one to brag about, but helps the government maintain important functions.

 FRANKFORT, Ky.  The House is expected to vote on an austere state budget by the middle of next week.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo said he doesn't expect a lot of changes from Gov. Steve Beshear's original budget proposal presented to lawmakers in January.

Beshear's $19.5 billion, two-year budget proposal includes 8.4 percent cuts to most state agencies.

The House Appropriations and Revenue Committee is expected tovote on the budget on Tuesday. The measure could then be considered by the full House on Wednesday.

FRANKFORT, Ky.  The Kentucky House Health and Welfare Committee has given its approval to a bill that would create a panel of experts to review cases in which children are killed or seriously injured because of abuse or neglect.

Democratic state Rep. Susan Westrom of Lexington is pushing the legislation that requires the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services to provide staff and administrative assistance to the group.

FRANKFORT, Ky. - For the first time in Kentucky, a legislative committee is considering a move to abolish the death penalty. The bill received a hearing in a state Senate committee today.

Senate Bill 63 would abolish capital punishment in the commonwealth, a move few other states have accomplished by statute.

The bill has the support of the American Bar Association based on a report the group released last summer detailing numerous problems with Kentucky’s capital punishment system.