Tagged: Capitol Bureau

Governor Steve Beshear says he won’t back down on efforts to bring casino gambling to Kentucky, despite another defeat on the issue last week.

Since his first term as governor in 2007, Beshear has made expanding gambling his main priority. This year, he attempted to pass a constitutional amendment dealing with the issue through the state Senate. The bill fell seven votes short of passage in a vote that critics say should be the end of the issue. But Beshear says the vote gave more resolve to the business leaders and horse racing interests who back the idea.

Several healthcare groups have come together in a public-private partnership to fight cancer in Kentucky.

The newly-formed Kentucky Cancer Foundation is part of a two-million-dollar initiative to help uninsured Kentuckians get cancer screenings.

In his proposed two year budget, Governor Steve Beshear earmarked half a million dollars each year for colon cancer screenings. He also proposed raising another million from a public-private partnership.

At a news conference to announce the partnership, Beshear conceded that two million dollars won’t go very far.

It’s been a busy week in the Kentucky General Assembly.  An effort to legalize casino gambling died on the Senate floor, the sponsor of a measure to regulate the sale of products containing meth precursor pseudoephedrine withdrew it from consideration, and debate continues over the Commonwealth’s dropout age.  Kentucky Public Radio Capitol Bureau Chief Kenny Colston speaks wi

The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled that the latest maps of state legislative districts are unconstitutional.

Lawmakers approved new lines for state House and Senate districts earlier this year. But a circuit court judge declared them unconstitutional, citing a precedent that districts can't be more than five percent larger or smaller than their ideal size. Lawyers for the Legislative Research Commission promptly appealed the ruling on behalf of House and Senate leadership.

Kentucky lawmakers are once again ready to approve a bill capping the state's debt at six percent of revenues.

The issue has been in and out of committee multiple times this session. It started as a constitutional amendment, then changed to a regular bill. And state Senators have renamed the measure to show their commitment to it. It is now called Senate Bill 1.

Currently, Kentucky is just over the six percent debt-to-revenue ratio, and bill sponsor Joe Bowen says the bill is a safeguard.

Governor Steve Beshear's constitutional amendment to legalize casinos in Kentucky has cleared its first legislative hurdle.

The bill passed the Senate's State and Local Government committee 7-4 today.

The measure would allow up to seven casinos in Kentucky. But the committee changed the bill, dropping language that requires five of the casinos to be at horse racing tracks. The measure still requires a 60-mile buffer zone between tracks and independent casinos.

A bill creating an alternative diploma for special needs students is one vote away from becoming law.

Senate Bill 43 would apply different core standards to qualified students who would then earn the alternative diploma. Currently, special needs students in Kentucky receive only a certificate when they graduate.

The bill’s sponsor, Senator Dennis Parrett, says he’s only trying to fix what he views as a problem.