From Kentucky Public Radio's Tony McVeigh Kentucky House and Senate negotiators worked late Wednesday night trying to reach a compromise on a new state spending plan.After more than nine hours of negotiations, the budget conferees packed it in around 11:30pm. House Speaker Jody Richards says they’re making some progress, but haven’t agreed on much."It just takes a while to go through all of it and understand as much as we can," Richards said.Senate budget chairman Charlie Borders is frustrated with the pace of the talks."Seems like it’s this process we have to go through and posture for a couple of days before we can get serious," said Borders.The conferees hope to reach agreement on an almost $19 billion spending plan by Saturday night. That would allow House and Senate floor votes on the budget early next week, before the session takes a two week veto recess.
Rick Howlett was midday host and the host of LPM's weekly talk show, "In Conversation." He was with LPM from 2001-2023 and held many different titles, including Morning Edition host, Assignment Editor and Interim News Director. He died in August 2023. Read a remembrance of Rick here.