Leftovers, legislative and otherwise

The thing about taking time off from one's opinionated old so-and-so/columnist/blogger duties is you can't catch up on everything that went down while you were gone in one Sunday column. And if there are a couple of stray thoughts still hanging around from the days before you went on vacation, there's even more catching up to do. So, we're off, starting with an observation that has been percolating in my mind for several weeks:

1. Back in the day, strong governors ruled in Frankfort. They handpicked legislative leaders. From their first-floor Capitol office, they sent daily notes to the third-floor legislative chambers telling lawmakers how to vote on given bills. And those votes were rewarded with items in budgets prepared by the governors and delivered to the General Assembly so late in the session lawmakers had little or no opportunity to change the spending plans.

That all changed when former Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. took office and showed no interest in following the benevolent dictator style of his predecessors. With Brown taking a hands-off approach, leading lawmakers who had longed for the General Assembly to become a more independent branch of government - led by the late House Speaker Bill Kenton - seized the opportunity to make their dream a reality.

But true legislative independence was short-lived, and is no more than a myth today. Once freed from the rule of strong governors, legislative leaders began learning how to turn themselves into their own brand of benevolent dictators. These days, they rule over their respective chambers by controlling committee assignments, doling out money from caucus campaign committees and, perhaps most important, the allocation of taxpayer-funded "projects" to members' districts.

This year's session offered some perfect examples of how these dictators work. Early on in the session, Senate Republican leaders added two more R's to the Education Committee to assure that a favored bill got to the floor after absence of Democratic members left the committee without a quorum.

Later, Democratic House Speaker Jody Richards had Rep. Dottie Sims, D-Horse Cave, yanked from the Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee after she voted the wrong way on the casino gambling issue. Sims was replaced by two other Democrats whose views on the subject was more to Richards' liking.

And the budget sent back to the House by the Senate was headed for apparent defeat until leaders put together a package of projects that bought a sufficient number of votes to pass the budget.

So, even though the idea of governors acting as benevolent dictators has vanished from the Frankfort scene, it's been replaced by an oligarchic dictatorship of the few.

2. Although these legislative dictators did not put a casino gambling amendment on the ballot for the November election, this issue will not go away until voters have their say. And as long as that issue is unresolved, there will be no serious discussion of Kentucky's long-term revenue needs because a decision up or down on the issue determines how much more money the state needs from other sources.

3. Gov. Steve Beshear has been a puzzlement on many levels, mainly because he and the old hands around him have the kind of experience that should have helped them avoid some of the mistakes they've made. But perhaps the most puzzling thing yet from this crowd was the decision (by whomever) that made Beshear the first sitting Democratic governor to skip the annual East Kentucky Leadership Conference, held recently in Morehead.

Sure, Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo and Chief of Staff Jim Cauley, both natives of the area, were there. And Mongiardo filled in as the featured speaker at the Thursday night dinner (a spot that the people who put the conference on had hoped would be filled by Beshear).

But to some political leaders in the region, the East Kentucky Leadership Conference is viewed as something of a command performance for sitting governors, particularly Democratic ones since the region is partial to that political party. And a governor who has seen his polls plummet as far and as fast as Beshear has can't afford to be missing command performances in friendly territory.

4. After Beshear vetoed the legislature's two-year road plan, Republican Senate President David Williams mentioned the possibility of a constitutional challenge of the veto based on its timing. Williams claimed the governor was one day late in issuing the veto. But the risk in challenging the veto on this basis is that the courts may decide the road plan itself, along with everything else that was enrolled (signed by chairs of the respective houses) after midnight April 16, violates the constitutional provision that says the General Assembly has to adjourn no later than April 15.