By Mark R. Chellgren
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - Gov. Paul Patton, acknowledging the end of his own political career, is trying to calm those who want to succeed him about what they might expect if they win.

Mr. Patton says the budget problems facing the state started on his watch and should be solved during the 12 months remaining on his term.

"I will not be involved in the governor's race in any way during the last year of my governorship but I do pledge a smooth and efficient transition to the winner and offer the full resources of my administration to the next governor-elect during those five weeks between the election and the inauguration," Mr. Patton said in a letter to all the prospective gubernatorial campaigns.

During a series of press conferences called over the last two weeks to dramatize the seriousness of the state's budget problems, Mr. Patton has been careful to characterize the deficit as a failure of the state to meet its obligations.

The programs and services in place, Mr. Patton said, are promises made by past governors and legislatures. If those programs and services must be cut to accommodate the lack of money, they become broken promises.

He said there are only two solutions to the budget problem - cut the services or raise taxes. The governor insists that the $800 million revenue shortfalls in the last two years have already prompted all the cuts that can reasonably be made in the administrative functions of government.

The gubernatorial candidates do not have the knowledge or expertise to propose informed solutions to the state's budget problems and should not attempt to weigh in.

"You should expect us to solve it and you should be bold in saying that," Mr. Patton advised. "Your message should be your vision for Kentucky assuming that you will inherit a government with a balanced budget which funds the commitment of the state and a revenue-generating system adequate to support the needs of a growing, prospering, modern society."

Mr. Patton said he will spend his last year working with the legislature to achieve that end.

And there's the rub.

Members of the General Assembly, most of whom see bright political futures for themselves, are lending only a skeptical ear toward Mr. Patton's drum-beating on the budget. A sizable percentage of legislators, especially Republicans, have signed no-tax pledges and many adhere to the philosophy of voting for all the spending and none of the taxes.

That luxury may end come January, when the 2003 session begins.

Mr. Patton is doing his successor a favor by making his case in public. But for legislators, he seems to be putting them in a box. By extension, his argument is that if legislators don't vote to raise more money, they are breaking their promises. And the governor seems destined to propose a plan that includes raising taxes or perhaps endorses casino gambling, or both. It would then fall to the legislature to draft and vote for a budget that makes the drastic cuts, which would carry its own political cost.