KFTC Members Meet with Speaker Richards

It was the first lobbying experience for many Bowling Green members.  Julie Gunn, a student WKU student, came because she's concerned about the tuition hikes and the budget cuts.  Nancy Givens came because she wanted to ask her representative what the state was doing to invest in renewable energy.  Ben Kickert came because he wanted to share what Bowling Green is doing to protect tenants and empower voters.  Jenn Myatt came down from Lexington to tell Speaker Richards that voting rights are more important than silly games.  Sandi Joiner, Donna Aros, Bryan Moats, and Meredith Martin came because they want to make Kentucky better and because they wanted to show solidarity with Truman Hurt and other KFTC members from Eastern Kentucky, who came to ask Speaker Richards what he could commit to do to unclog the Stream Saver bill.

Members shared these concerns and questions, and pressed Speaker Richards to step into his leadership role for the good of the state.   He agreed that he thought that the restoration of voting rights for former felons "is more important than gambling," but was vague on his willingness to call the bill up for a vote anytime soon. (Almost a week after the meeting, HB 70 still hasn't been called.  Representatives who support the bill are joining KFTC members and allies in calling on the Speaker to call up HB 70, so they can vote it through the House.) 

Members presented some concerns about what the budget cuts and the unfairness in the current tax code, and presented HB 262 as a set of solutions that should guide Speaker Richards' toward fair and sensible revenue reforms.  They explained to Speaker Richards that our tax system asks a bigger percentage from those least able to contribute, and that so many of our public services have been chronically starved of investments for years, and that families and advocates and service groups are struggling to figure out how to weather the latest round of budget cuts.  Speaker Richards mentioned that he was working on ways to get revenue, and that Rep. Moberly is working on a revenue plan that sounded similar to our HB 262, but he didn't commit to supporting that plan.

Maybe the most perplexing part of the meeting was when Speaker Richards answered Truman's request to use his leadership to let the Stream Saver bill (House Bill 164) out of Rep. Gooch's Natural Resources and Environment Committee.  Speaker Richards said that he couldn't do that.  He said that committees were self-selecting, that it was our role, not his, to make sure that appropriate legislators served on each committee.  He doesn't play games, he said, with committees, especially not in the middle of the session.  If we wanted to pass Stream Saver, Speaker Richards suggested, we should take it to the Senate.**

Members appreciated, as Ben said, that the Speaker seemed "willing to listen," and that even if we didn't agree, it was helpful to learn how we might continue to follow up on what is needed.

**Three days later, Speaker Richards removed Rep. Dottie Sims from the Elections and Constitutional Amendments committee because she decided to vote against his gambling bill.  He replaced her with two representatives who would ensure the passage of that bill through committee. And then later in the week he moved HB 592, backed by business interests, from the Appropriations Committee, where it was not going to receive a hearing, to the Economic Development Committee.