Dear Stephen,
I am sorry for the delay in responding to you but the
volume of my mail has been overwhelming. There is no remedy for public
response for fail to fund a particular program, except at the voting
booth. To avoid such cuts, new revenue is necessary which has been
proposed but opposed. You will remember the Senate Majority opposing
the plan for VLT at the racetracks. Cuts under 5 % are the statutory
authority of the Governor and I know he has avoided cuts to education
when possible.
I hope this is helpful.
julian.carroll@lrc.ky.gov
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Interview with KY Representative Jim DeCesare on 4/14
I was lucky enough to get the attention of one of our state Rep's - Jim DeCesare (R) from Warren Co. for an interview to gain some insight to the state's budget crisis and ask some direct questions. While the facts surrounding some of my more involved questions remain a little fuzzy, Rep. DeCesare did go into detail about portions of the legislative process that explain why this matter isn't as cut and dried as my original approach may have suggested. I'll briefly go over some of the questions that I had intended to ask, then review my conversation with Mr. DeCesare in an attempt to describe the situation more accurately with the information he generously shared with me. Ok, let's get started!
The original set of questions weren't especially relevant in the context that I had presented initially because of my misunderstanding of the legislative process and misconceptions about the distribution of state funds.
Q #1. How can I find out what the absolute total budget was for the last fiscal year (including everything the state received and distributed from all sources inside and outside the state)?
A - Rep. DeCesare recommended the site www.opendoor.ky.gov for state expenditures that are made public, and that a formal open records request could also be submitted. Although these government sites are designed to provide a comprehensive and transparent analysis of our budget, it was impressed on me that full disclosure wasn't available.
Q #2. What is your particular stance on the cuts? (Do you favor or oppose the cuts and why?)
A - Although I was unable to get a direct answer on this, based on our conversation I assume that Rep. DeCesare didn't consider the cuts to be unreasonable. However, the percent of revenues scheduled to be cut from each county presents an issue depending on the county's location and population. In Rep. DeCesare's district, this is going to have a greater impact.
Q #3. How does the state consider it reasonable that education should foot 5% of the budget shortfall when it doesn't receive 5% of the budget?
A - Rep. DeCesare explained that 60% of state funds go towards education instead of the measly 5% or less that I stated. I asked if that included everything from in-state and government(everything the state gets for anything all put together), and unfortunately my question was either misunderstood, too hard to explain, or redundant (in the sense that it had already been answered) because I was still unsure afterwards.
Q #4. What projects or subsidies aren't receiving cuts in the next fiscal year's budget and why not?
A - I didn't present this question because the answers to my previous question(#3) didn't leave me with enough argument against funding for other projects or subsidies. The argument against other projects or subsidies is only valid supposing education would bear an unfair portion of the budget shortfall in proportion to what it actually receives. Assuming education actually receives 60% of the total budget, 5% of the shortfall doesn't seem as significant.
Q #5. What are the ways in which it is possible to force revision of the cuts?
A - I asked if it was even possible or too late for a number of people to take action and "force"(persuade) the House to revise the budget in favor of reducing the proposed cuts to education. Rep. DeCesare told me that it isn't too late and yes it is possible if the right people contact the right representatives in the right way in the right amount of time. As described to me by Mr. DeCesare - the budget is proposed by the Governor and then voted on by the general assembly(House). Theoretically, if enough Representatives were convinced the cuts were more likely to produce unfavorable results versus an alternative, the proposal would be voted against and revisions made.
The original set of questions weren't especially relevant in the context that I had presented initially because of my misunderstanding of the legislative process and misconceptions about the distribution of state funds.
Q #1. How can I find out what the absolute total budget was for the last fiscal year (including everything the state received and distributed from all sources inside and outside the state)?
A - Rep. DeCesare recommended the site www.opendoor.ky.gov for state expenditures that are made public, and that a formal open records request could also be submitted. Although these government sites are designed to provide a comprehensive and transparent analysis of our budget, it was impressed on me that full disclosure wasn't available.
Q #2. What is your particular stance on the cuts? (Do you favor or oppose the cuts and why?)
A - Although I was unable to get a direct answer on this, based on our conversation I assume that Rep. DeCesare didn't consider the cuts to be unreasonable. However, the percent of revenues scheduled to be cut from each county presents an issue depending on the county's location and population. In Rep. DeCesare's district, this is going to have a greater impact.
Q #3. How does the state consider it reasonable that education should foot 5% of the budget shortfall when it doesn't receive 5% of the budget?
A - Rep. DeCesare explained that 60% of state funds go towards education instead of the measly 5% or less that I stated. I asked if that included everything from in-state and government(everything the state gets for anything all put together), and unfortunately my question was either misunderstood, too hard to explain, or redundant (in the sense that it had already been answered) because I was still unsure afterwards.
Q #4. What projects or subsidies aren't receiving cuts in the next fiscal year's budget and why not?
A - I didn't present this question because the answers to my previous question(#3) didn't leave me with enough argument against funding for other projects or subsidies. The argument against other projects or subsidies is only valid supposing education would bear an unfair portion of the budget shortfall in proportion to what it actually receives. Assuming education actually receives 60% of the total budget, 5% of the shortfall doesn't seem as significant.
Q #5. What are the ways in which it is possible to force revision of the cuts?
A - I asked if it was even possible or too late for a number of people to take action and "force"(persuade) the House to revise the budget in favor of reducing the proposed cuts to education. Rep. DeCesare told me that it isn't too late and yes it is possible if the right people contact the right representatives in the right way in the right amount of time. As described to me by Mr. DeCesare - the budget is proposed by the Governor and then voted on by the general assembly(House). Theoretically, if enough Representatives were convinced the cuts were more likely to produce unfavorable results versus an alternative, the proposal would be voted against and revisions made.
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