KyKurmudgeon

Today’s column:

A General Assembly session with no real blow-up? What did the Frankfort Plant Board put in the city’s water this winter?

Whatever it was, most everyone played well with each other in the legislative sandbox — so far, at least. Two veto days remain in this odd-year short session, and some contentious issues remain in play.

But let’s give credit where credit is due. The major players — Gov. Steve Beshear, Senate President David Williams and House Speaker Greg Stumbo — have made nice to each other this year.

As a result, a few things got done. But I would stop well short of calling it, as Stumbo did, the most productive session since 1990.

Mostly, this session has seen legislators apply a teensy-weensy Band-Aid to a gaping revenue wound that couldn’t be staunched with all the gauze in the state, indulge their addiction to projects and give the major product of that 1990 session — the Kentucky Education Reform Act — a swift kick in the backside.

“Swift” in the sense of hasty, rushed and without a vetted alternative ready to replace the outcast CATS test as a means of holding our schools accountable for the next few years. After all, if you plan on replacing your roof in three years, you don’t go ahead and tear the old shingles off now.

But let’s not be too critical. We can’t expect Kentucky lawmakers to break all their bad habits in one short session.

Yes, they opted for the quick fix instead of the “vision thing” in regard to the state’s future revenue outlook. Yes, they swiped the state’s credit card again to add more projects to their road plan. Yes, they abandoned some of the principles of KERA.

But House and Senate leaders avoided one of those confrontations that have left so many recent sessions in gridlock. And that’s progress.

For a while Friday, such a confrontation seemed possible. At his weekly press conference with Stumbo, Williams said the Senate would wait for the road plan to pass the House and be signed or line-item vetoed by the governor before taking up legislation freezing the gas tax to prevent a scheduled 4-cent decrease on April 1.

When Stumbo responded by saying, “I think we would like to see the Senate pass the four pennies (first),” the potential for another confrontation existed.

Last year, Beshear vetoed the road plan enacted by the legislature, House Bill 79. When Williams challenged that veto, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd declared the bill unconstitutional because it didn’t receive final legislative action before midnight April 15, the constitutional deadline for the end of a 60-day session.

No doubt, last year’s veto was a motivational factor in the Senate’s desire to hang on to the “pennies” legislation until Beshear signed the road plan or vetoed line items in it.

Stumbo’s motivation was simple as well. Members of the Democratic-controlled House were already on the hook for a second “tax” vote in this year’s session. They didn’t want to pass a road plan heavy with projects in Senate leaders’ districts until the Republican-controlled Senate joined them on that hook.

This time, though, what started as a mini-standoff didn’t escalate into gridlock. This time, it produced cooperation instead of confrontation. Cooperation between Beshear and Williams, who reached an accord on what parts of the road plan might be subject to veto. Cooperation between the House and Senate, which took the form of simultaneous passage of the two bills at issue.

As their respective chambers voted, Williams and Stumbo talked via phone. And shortly before 6 p.m., after much waiting, Williams announced Senate passage of the “pennies” bill. A moment or two later, the House vote on the road plan became official.

Technically, then, you could say the Senate blinked first. But in cooperative times like these, who cares?