Stumbo Forecasts Quick End to Special Session
Despite our dismay with the unnecessary special session, there is reason to believe that even Speaker Stumbo expects it to be brief and contain little more than passage of the budget.
After Governor Beshear's speech, Renee Shaw conducted incredibly great interviews with Senate President David Williams, Speaker Greg Stumbo and House Appropriations and Revenue Chairman Rick Rand.
After Williams made a number of great points like:
- $200 million in cuts is not very much in a $9 billion budget
- Which means that there should be no noticeable change in delivery of services
- We may be missing an opportunity to make some real cuts
- There's no reason for the session to last beyond Friday, and that
- Anything beyond the budget can be handled in January
Shaw pressed Stumbo on the possibility that Williams put forward: that the budget and some elements of the economic incentive would be all that passed. Shaw asked Stumbo if he would consider that scenario a successful session.
Stumbo declined to answer the question and instead offered that he agreed with the Governor that the session's primary purpose was to deal with the budget and that 'the process itself helps everyone prepare for the future' (paraphrased).
How's that for an admission of it being over before it starts?
