Kentucky lawmakers are preparing to return to Frankfort for the January 4 start of the 2011 General Assembly. It’s a 30-day session, but Senate President David Williams is pushing an aggressive agenda including immigration, tax code and pension reform. “These are things that can pass the Senate in a very timely fashion and give the House more time to consider these things than they usually have for major pieces of legislation in a regular session. It is an aggressive agenda, but I think that all these things are things that can and should be done,” he said. But House budget chairman Rick Rand says those are complicated issues to be tackling in a short session. Gov. Beshear, meanwhile, is proposing a modest session agenda. He wants to tweak the Medicaid budget and raise the state’s dropout age from 16 to 18. Beshear is seeking re-election, and Sen. Williams wants his job.
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.
