KyKurmudgeon

A few ramblings as yet another legislative session slip-slides away:

1. This General Assembly session could set some kind of record for non-productivity. As of adjournment Monday, the 19th day of a 30-day session, just five pieces of legislation had passed both chambers. And two of those were housekeeping resolutions. Much of the early part of the session was consumed working out the details of the tax increase on alcoholic beverages and tobacco products, reworking this year’s budget and twisting enough arms to get both measure passed. Since then, the dominant issue has been the still mysterious road plan that remains hidden in some undisclosed location known only by a select few. Sure, committees keep pumping out bills. And each house keeps passing its own measures, most of which likely will die in the other chamber. Oh, well, if they’re not doing much for us this year, they at least aren’t doing much to us either.

2. House Speaker Greg Stumbo did the right thing pulling the plug on his poorly vetted General Assembly Accountability and Review Division (GAARD) legislation. As originally proposed, GAARD resembled the secretive Court of the Star Chamber English monarchs used against their political rivals in the Middle Ages. A revised version offered more transparency, but a transparent GAARD would still waste taxpayers’ dollars by duplicating the efforts of other agencies and even some of the General Assembly’s existing committees. As some House members indicated during a hearing Monday, GAARD would step on those committees’ toes and concentrate too much power in the hands of the legislative leaders who make up the Legislative Research Commission. So, what Stumbo ought to do is pull the plug on GAARD entirely and save taxpayers the cost of studying it in the interim.

3. Exile, the Central Kentucky band that has achieved national success as both in both rock and country music, performed in the House Monday. During most of their performance, five female House members stood together in the front of the chamber near the band with big grins on their faces and occasionally swaying and clapping their hands along with the music. Watching them, I began to see Reps. Leslie Combs, D-Pikeville; Kelly Flood, D-Lexington; Martha Jane King, D-Lewisburg; Tanya Pullin, D-South Shore; and Robin Webb, D-Grayson in a whole new way. To me, they will now always be the House Groupies. UPDATE: A member of the House Groupies informed me that Rep. Marie Rader, R-Mckee, was rocking along with them.