By Charles Wolfe
The Associated Press

FRANKFORT - A judge's order forbidding new state-funded construction in the absence of a state budget may delay hundreds of campus projects for which universities were going to use their own money.

Other agencies that use their own revenues for projects, not relying on money from the state's General Fund, could be similarly affected, administration officials said Thursday.

They said they expected to seek clarification from the judge.

Even with self-funding, university projects have to be authorized by the General Assembly and spelled out in the state budget.

The General Assembly failed to pass a budget for the new biennium before it adjourned in April.

Kentucky began a new fiscal year Thursday, running on Gov. Ernie Fletcher's own spending plan for the first quarter.

State government was not forced to shut down.

But Franklin County Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden ruled after a hearing Wednesday that the administration could not launch building projects or programs that were not previously authorized and funded by the General Assembly.

Administration officials were still mulling Crittenden's order Thursday.

"I don't think anybody thought that we were talking about university projects yesterday," said Fletcher's general counsel, John Roach.

Fletcher's spending plan - he titled it the Public Services Continuation Plan - contained scores of projects, mostly for universities.

The judge's order meant institutions could not issue bonds to fully finance the projects, but they could begin work with cash on hand.

Universities have revenue sources from tuition, dormitory and dining hall fees.

"The vast majority of capital projects that would be authorized, but for the judge's order, are not funded with general funds or General Fund bonds," Bill Hintze, deputy state budget director, said.

As for postsecondary education projects, Hintze said: "We have a question as to whether those are prohibited by the judge's order. Our first reading is, they probably are."

Sherron Jackson, assistant vice president for finance at the state Council on Postsecondary Education, said the universities had been given Crittenden's order but no instructions on implementing Fletcher's continuation plan.

"We're all really on hold until they can get some clarification," Jackson said.

Also Thursday, a 2 percent pay raise for state government employees went into effect, as provided in the Fletcher plan as an austerity measure

Employees get raises on their hiring anniversary dates, not all at the same time.

The raise ordinarily is 5 percent, an amount specified in statute.

The budget law, had one been enacted, would have been used to override the pay statute.

Attorney General Greg Stumbo, who sued to challenge Fletcher's use of a spending plan, said the legality of a 2 percent raise was among issues still to be resolved.