FRANKFORT, Ky. (WHAS11) – The Commonwealth of Kentucky may know in the next 24 to 36 hours what the Kentucky Senate is willing to fund this year.
The budget is under discussion in their chamber and on Monday the senator in charge of the process suggested their plan will look a lot more like Governor Matt Bevin's vision than that of the House.
Dozens of programs for which Governor Bevin had zeroed out funding in his budget proposal had some hope that a plan pitched by the House would offer some relief. House Republicans paid for that relief by increasing cigarette taxes and a tax on prescription opioids.
Senator Christian McDaniel said those increases will likely not be given the OK by the Senate.
“It's not looking very good that they will be. We'll probably deal with revenue numbers more along the lines of what the governor has and then if there is a desire for tax reform it'll have to be more comprehensive, more growth-focused rather than selective,” Sen. Christian McDaniel, (R)-KY., said.
McDaniel said education is a top priority in this chamber.
“I think that you'll see that some other areas will have to sustain reductions that they weren’t necessarily anticipating but you'll see education shored up largely across the board; from K all the way up through post-secondary,” McDaniel said. “So, we'll have to put the finishing touches on that and progress but certainly I think that you'll see that will be a priority in this chamber.”
Senator McDaniel did not give details as to how they'll shore up the programs insisting they are finalizing the Senate's proposal which he expects to be rolled out in the next couple of days.
This is the first time a Republican House, Senate, and governor have designed a Kentucky Budget and McDaniel admitted it has not gone as smooth as some in his party had hoped. He defended the process as the way the founders would have envisioned with two independent chambers debating with a focus on the Commonwealth of Kentucky and not by party.