Budget Talks Continue This Week in Frankfort

From Kentucky Public Radio's Tony McVeighHearings on a new state budget are expected to begin this week in the Kentucky House.House members don’t have an actual budget bill yet. That should come this week. But they do have a broad outline of the spending plan.Agency heads and university presidents have all appeared before budget subcommittees, and budget chairman Rick Rand sees no need to repeat that process.“Obviously, some of the agencies that feel like they’re more adversely affected, we may hear from them, for them to make their final pitch," says Rand, "but the subcommittees have done that work and I think they’re pretty close to concluding their work.”Rand still expects to get the budget out of the House by the first week of March. That would leave three weeks for Senate consideration and final budget negotiations before the session takes a 10-day break for possible gubernatorial vetoes.