In Frankfort, Shorter Session Appears Unlikely

A proposal to shorten the length of 2011 session of the Kentucky General Assembly appears to be losing steam. At the start of the 30-day session, Senate President David Williams suggested lopping off six days to pay taxpayers back for last year’s special session on the budget. But with just eight days remaining in the session, it’s not looking like that’s going to happen. “I don’t think the House was real interested in doing that. I think we are under the schedule we initially adopted,” said Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers. What about House Speaker Greg Stumbo? “As I’ve said all along, we’re prepared to shorten the schedule. I don’t think anybody wants to be here longer than they have to be, but we do have to solve the Medicaid problem and the budget problems that we have,” he said. Legislation to close a deficit in the Medicaid budget has cleared the House and awaits Senate committee action. Monday is day 23 of the session, which is scheduled to end March 22nd, following a ten-day veto recess.