Senate budget cuts to the quick

We're learning bits about the Senate budget proposal.  We expect more to be uncovered in the coming days, but here's a collection of what we know now.

 The Senate budget proposal:

• Cuts funding for education by 2.5% over the next two years. This means $37 million for the first year alone.  There's also a provision to allow local school districts to exceed class size limits, and kindergarten classes can now have up to 24 kids without even a teacher's aide.  (Districts are "are encouraged to utilize parent volunteers.") Update: The cuts to education might be up to $97 million. A C-J article published today says that education advocates are pointing out that the language is vague, and it's difficult to know exactly how base education funding is impacted. There are significant concerns that schools in poor districts will not be able to withstand the Senate's cuts, since the Senate is assuming that schools can dip into other pots, and in many schools, those pots are empty.
  


• Cuts funding for Medicaid by $26 million.
  


• Eliminates state funding to inspect amusement park rides


• Eliminates grants for county fairs


• Eliminates state funding for the Kentucky Pride program.


• Eliminates funding for the LRC’s Long Term Policy Research Center.
  

We'll post more information as we gather it.  In the meantime, you can read more about the proposal in these articles:

• Ronnie Ellis's article


• Herald-Leader blog article


• Courier-Journal article


• The LRC's bill description. Scroll down to SCS.
  

 It's a very bad budget.  The news articles point out that Sen. Leeper, the A and R Chair, broke down into tears, even as he said, "We've done our best."  But we disagree.  The truth is that the Senate can choose to propose revenue reforms. They chose not to, and Senator Leeper certainly won't be the only Kentuckian brought to tears as the impact of this budget reaches our families and communities.