Tagged: senate

Kentucky's U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell has been re-elected as leader of that body’s Republicans. Colleagues unanimously chose the Commonwealth’s senior senator yesterday to lead the GOP team.  McConnell was nominated by Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. 

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam's proposal to overhaul the Tennessee Regulatory Authority has passed the House today. The companion bill passed the Senate last week. The two chambers must agree to a technical change before the measure goes to the governor. The TRA regulates utilities in the state. The bill would change the agency from a 4 member, full-time board to a 5 member, part-time board with a full-time executive director. Sponsors say the change will save the state at least $350,000 a year.

The Kentucky Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee approved a $4.5 billion transportation budget but not before inserting language that would restore nearly $50 million for road construction projects previously vetoed by Governor Steve Beshear. The spending measure now advances to the Senate floor for a planned vote today. Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chairman Bob Leeper cited a "fit of conscience" for his push to put the $50 million in road projects back into the transportation budget.

Kentucky lawmakers are trying again to raise the state's dropout age.

Currently, students can drop out of school at 16 years old with parents' permission. But lawmakers and Governor Steve Beshear have pushed to raise the dropout age to 18, regardless of parental consent.

The latest proposal before the legislature would let local school boards decide  whether to adopt the higher dropout age. But once 70 districts opt in, it will become mandatory statewide.

Kentucky’s General Assembly session is winding down, but budget negotiations are just beginning for the state Senate.  The House passed their version of budgets for all three branches of state government last week. But Senate Budget Chairman Bob Leeper says that doesn’t mean his side will be able to act quickly on the plan.  Leeper says the Senate will compare three separate budgets: Governor Steve Beshear’s original proposal, the House’s changed plan and the last two-year budget.

A move to amend the provisions of Kentucky's constitution that deal with redistricting has been introduced in the state Senate.

State Senator Robert Stivers's bill would change the laws around redistricting, and give more direction for how medium-sized counties could be split.

Right now, the constitution says that any county that can be made one whole district cannot be split. But Stivers's language would allow some counties that can't be split under that rule to now be open to divisions.

Republican leaders are proposing legislation that would tie changes to lottery scholarship requirements to lottery revenue growth.  A GOP-backed measure that would cut some students' scholarships in half has drawn heavy criticism from Democrats who say it's unnecessary because the lottery's education proceeds have increased 4 percent since 2005, with about $10 million more coming in a year.  Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Dolores Gresham announced Tuesday in a statement that if the $10 million is sustained through 2015, then the provisions in the proposa