By Charles Wolfe
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher, preparing to run state government on his own spending plan in the absence of an enacted budget, told school superintendents Tuesday they would get funding for only modest pay raises and nothing for building projects.

He also sought to enlist their help in persuading the General Assembly - mainly the Democrat-controlled House - to enact a new tax code. Otherwise, state spending will have to be "very, very austere," Fletcher said afterward.

On short notice, 101 of Kentucky's 176 school superintendents met in the capital with Fletcher and top aides, including his budget staff.

Reporters were barred from the meeting. Budget Director Brad Cowgill said afterward that a Fletcher spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 would give school districts an extra $6 million - or $10 per pupil in average daily attendance.

That would fund a 1.5 percent raise for some employees - principals, librarians and counselors. Districts would be required to use their reserves to give the same raise to classroom teachers, as well as aides and other support employees. In addition, the state would scrape up $2 million for teacher pensions, Cowgill said.

A $10-per-pupil increase would be paltry, some said. "It's kind of like going from $19.95 to 20 dollars and 2 cents," said Fred Bassett, superintendent of Beechwood Independent schools in Northern Kentucky.

"At least we didn't get cut, and it looked like the governor was really trying to support education," Bassett said.

The General Assembly adjourned April 13 without passing a budget or a tax plan that Fletcher had designed to be "revenue neutral" for up to two years.

His Republican allies who control the Senate insisted on having both in a single bill. House Democrats refused, wanting a budget but not the tax plan.