Wednesday, January 26, 2000
N.Ky. gets its share of budget
Wheeling, dealing will begin today
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FRANKFORT — Unlike past legislative sessions, Northern Kentucky didn't land a blockbuster, multimillion-dollar project Tuesday when Gov. Paul Patton released the bulk of his two-year state budget.
But the region fared well, receiving money for new parks, civic centers and a museum in Boone County and more.
Northern Kentucky lawmakers, while pleased with some of the projects and funding in the budget, warned that just because Mr. Patton includes a project in the budget does not guarantee it will survive scrutiny by the General Assembly.
“The hard part begins now,” said House Majority Caucus Chairman Jim Callahan, D-Wilder, a member of the House budget committee. “It's great to get something in the budget, but it's something else to keep it in there.”
The budget process begins today as lawmakers begin poring over the thousands of pages of documents that make up the two-year state budget.
“A lot stays in the original budget, but a lot comes out as people down here start wheeling and dealing,” said Senate President Pro Tem Dick Roeding. “I'll do all I can to keep everything in the budget that is for Northern Kentucky.”
During his Tuesday night budget address, delivered to a joint legislative session and over statewide television, Mr. Patton said his budget supports “the growing economy of Northern Kentucky.”
“A major increase in support of postsecondary education in that area is accompanied by significant investments in other projects in several cities in the three-county region,” Mr. Patton said in the speech.
Since 1995 Northern Kentucky has received nearly $100 million from the General Assembly for big-ticket capital projects that have included the Northern Kentucky Convention Center ($40 million), a science building under construction at Northern Kentucky University ($38 million) and a regional juvenile detention center in Newport ($4.3 million).
Here is a county-by-county look at money in the proposed budget for Northern Kentucky:
• Boone County: $500,000 to build a museum at Big Bone Lick State Park, south of Union.
• Campbell County: $1 million to build community centers in Dayton and Bellevue; $3 million to begin the restoration of the L&N Bridge in Newport into primarily a pedestrian walkway.
• Gallatin County: $250,000 to extend water lines.
• Grant County: $750,000 for a judicial library; $250,000 to extend water lines; $261,530 to pave roads under a new state program called the 21st Century Transportation Fund.
• Kenton County: $200,000 for a youth sports complex in Covington; $50,000 for the Elsmere Senior Citizens Center; $200,000 to improve city services in Erlanger; $200,000 for a park in Independence; and $150,000 for a park in Taylor Mill.
On Monday, Mr. Patton announced that his budget includes $10 million to develop a community/technical college in Northern Kentucky; $12 million to restore the power plant at NKU; and $1 million to restore NKU's existing science building.
Mr. Patton will hold off until today to deliver the most controversial component of his budget, an increase of 7 cents a gallon in the state gasoline tax over the next two years.
Mr. Patton said the money is needed to pay for road repair and construction in Kentucky, but he has stayed away from calling the increase a tax. Instead, he has referred to it as “revenue recovery.”
“No matter what he calls it,” Mr. Roeding said, “that's going to be a tough sell because people know a tax increase when they see it.”
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