Just days remain in this year’s legislative session. And with lots of bills still on the board, some Kentucky lawmakers offered their assessments on productivity during KET’s Kentucky Tonight this week. Retiring Representative Danny Ford believes legislative redistricting really bogged down the process.
“I think we’ve spent a lot of time this session dealing with the redistricting issue that has really taken away from us getting down to business and moving on and getting some things accomplished…that took about a month and a half to really get that passed us so we could really go ahead and start dealing with the issues that are really important to the people.”
There are a number of other issues still awaiting last minute action. And Western Kentucky Senator David Givens is optimistic much can still be accomplished the next few days.
“Lots of things are well positioned to still happen. The budget…the road plan…there’s talk about are charter schools coming back into the conversation…lots of things still on the table.”
Another veteran lawmaker, Representative Steve Riggs, says discussion about casino gambling was a factor in slowing progress this year. But, he says there wasn’t much political fallout from the fall gubernatorial election in which Governor Steve Beshear turned back a challenge from Senate President David Williams securing a second term. You can hear conversations like these each week on the WKMS broadcast of Kentucky Tonight, Tuesdays at noon.
