House Budget Ignores Dilapidated Schools in GOP Districts

March 11, 2010

The budget bill the House passed Wednesday would pay to replace eight school buildings that are among the state’s most dilapidated, and all are in the districts of Democrats who voted for a crucial revenue measure last week.

But seven such schools — in the districts of Republicans who voted against the revenue bill — were not funded. And that generated a torrent of GOP criticism Wednesday.

“It’s not really about the kids and the horrible conditions of our schools,” said House Republican Leader Jeff Hoover of Jamestown during the debate Wednesday on the budget, which passed on a near party-line vote of 65-33. “If it was you would’ve funded all the schools. Republican or Democrat districts, they are all Kentucky kids.”

The budget bill’s “Critical School Needs” plan includes $684 million in bond funds for 65 school projects, and 50 of those projects aren’t as badly in need of replacement as the seven schools in Republican districts, according to rankings of need posted on the Department of Education’s Web site.

Key Democrats who oversaw the budget process acknowledged that the vote on the revenue bill last Thursday was key in deciding which projects — water and sewer projects, as well as schools – got funded.

&#x0A ;“People who stood up on this floor last Thursday and … cast a vote to pay for it got priority,” said Rep. Rick Rand, the Bedford Democrat who is chairman of the House budget committee, told one Republican critic during the floor debate.

The decisions on funding projects, and the $2.2 billion in new debt contained in the House bill, were key areas of criticism by Republicans during the hours-long debate on the budget measure, House Bill 290. It now goes to the Republican-controlled Senate, which is bound to make many changes in the funding of projects and programs.

Gov. Steve Beshear and leaders of both chambers have refused to support a general tax increase. So they’ve been forced to find other ways to account for a projected $1.5 billion revenue shortfall during the next two-year budget period.