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NEWS BRIEFS
Ky. House passes budget after lengthy floor debate
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky House passed a $17.5 billion two-year state budget plan Wednesday that divided lawmakers along mostly party lines in a debate focusing on its use of revenue enhancements and a jobs creation component that would pile up more state debt.
The spending blueprint for the budget cycle beginning July 1 features about $2.2 billion in borrowing for a flurry of projects to build schools, roads and waterlines.
Supporters said state government should step up to help stimulate job creation at a time of anemic job growth by the private sector — reflected by the state’s high unemployment rate.
“It’s not our responsibility to come down and say that because people are hurting ... we just need to hunker down and don’t do anything to change this,” said Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, predicting that ratcheting up construction projects could produce 25,000 jobs.
House Minority Floor Leader Jeff Hoover, a Jamestown Republican, said the proposed budget’s overriding theme was the increased debt level that taxpayers would shoulder for years.
“It should make every one of us sick in the pit of our stomach of what we’re doing for our future and our kids and grandkids with this debt,” Hoover said.
