Six days left, time for last-minute dealing

With six days left in their 2008 session, lawmakers are renewing their annual practice of approving with little discussion last-minute bill amendments and committee substitutes that often benefit special interests.

On Wednesday, the Senate budget committee held a special meeting in a room off the Senate floor to approve a raft of taxation bills, some of which looked a lot different once all the vaguely explained changes were made.

At least one thick bill, to provide tax breaks for developers in Tax Increment Financing districts, was altered by the committee. But despite one senator’s repeated queries, nobody on the panel would admit who had wanted it altered or why.

“Anybody want to take ownership of this?” Senate budget Chairman Charlie Borders, R-Grayson, asked the senators around the table. There was an awkward silence. Nobody replied. Then they passed the bill unanimously.

In another case, senators took House Bill 262 -- the Democratic House plan to raise new revenue through a 25-cent increase in the cigarette tax and sales taxes on services for the wealthy -- and gutted it.

Rapidly passing out paperwork around the table, senators filled the void with their own preferred tax measures, including:

-- a state income tax rebate for military members, which the sponsor (Sen. Elizabeth Tori, R-Radcliff) said could cost $10 million a year, probably more, it’s impossible to know ahead of time;

-- myriad and generous tax breaks for the film industry if they make movies in Kentucky (sponsor: Sen. Richie Sanders, R-Franklin), mirroring a House tax bill, with no known  cost;

-- a sales tax break worth up to $250,000 a year for concession sales in certain “public facilities” related to entertainment that seat between 500 and 8,000 people in counties of fewer than 100,000 people, not counting arenas owned by colleges and universities. This would apply -- perhaps exclusively -- to the Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center in Pikeville, in the district of the amendment’s sponsor, Democratic Sen. Ray Jones II;

-- and legal reclassification of an emerging television technology -- multichannel video programming services -- as a “communications service” and not a “cable service” for the purposes of taxation (sponsor: Sen. Dan Kelly, R-Springfield).

Senators who hadn’t participated in the 11th-hour amend-a-thon leafed through the 39-page bill that resulted and asked a few questions, trying to figure out what they were about to approve. But in the end, only Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, did not vote “aye” on the bill. He voted “pass” instead.

“I’m just trying to figure out how much this costs,” Shaughnessy said.

Nobody could tell him.

-- John Cheves

Comments

[drippingwithirony]

Wow, isn't that amazing that Sen. Jones came up with that $250,000 figure for a sales tax "break" considering the EKY Expo Center runs with about a $250K deficit each year?

Jones is bound and determined to make the public temple to Paul Patton a ward of the state. These arenas must learn to stand on their own instead of having their hand out to taxpayers.

[state worker too]

This is why every dam legislator in state government should be voted out of office.

All they care about is themselves and their buddies.

The motto of all politicians is "Quid Pro Quo"

[William Kennedy]

That's right, all the tax money needs to go to Louisville to build Pitino Areno, a building large enough to hold the coach's ego. To hell with East Kentucky!

[Taxpayer]

All the tax money? Do you know anything about the tax structure in KY? Louisville is responsible for about 3/4 of all the taxes paid in KY but yet they only get about 1/3 of it back. I'm not saying it all needs to go to build Rick a new arena, but I sure didn't hear anything when they used the taxpayer dollars to build Rupp or when they revamped Rupp inside a few years ago when the esteemed legislator Mr. Barrow's pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. If it wasn't for Louisville, Eastern KY would get less than they get now. So I'd lay off them and I'm not from Louisville, Lexington actually.

[William Kennedy]

Louisville and Lexington are both very proficient, like Frankfort, at "collecting" taxes from other parts of the Commonwealth. We in the rural areas shop there, eat there, seek recreation there, and many work there to drive the engines of Kentucky's economy. Just because you all collect the taxes for the state, however, doesn't mean the funds should not be distributed to rural areas where we do not have interstate highways, airports, factories, etc. It is still a Commonwealth and I'm damn tired of the bellyaching coming from the Golden Triangle for the few pennies we in the hinterlands manage to sneak out of Frankfort. Maybe we should declare a one day strike for everyone from East and West Kentucky to boycott the Golden Triangle. If we did that, your wonderful cities would look like ghost towns!