Governor Beshear's budget

Governor Beshear wrote a guest column in today's Herald-Leader:

Kentucky must begin breaking its reliance on one-time solutions to balance our budget. I admit that my proposed budget includes some of those one-time solutions, such as debt restructuring, alternative borrowing and fund transfers. Is this the best practice? No, but it's necessary at this, the worst economic time in our recent history, to keep from making damaging cuts to our core priorities.

Already we have cut almost $1 billion in spending and have shrunk the executive branch to the smallest it's been in two decades. Along with cuts we've been steadily and quietly remaking government — including a new round of efficiencies called the Smart Government Initiative that could save some $77 million over the biennium — to create a stronger, leaner and more sustainable operation. My budget also requires an array of initiatives to hold down increasing costs of prisons and Medicaid.

The new, recurring revenue my plan produces is actually revenue that already exists. Kentuckians are already gaming, but the taxes on those recreational dollars are traveling across our borders to fund roads, schools and health care in other states.