Beshear: Special Session Over

by Brenna Angel, Kentucky Public RadioThe Republican-controlled Kentucky Senate plans to go back to work in Frankfort on April 6, but Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear maintains that the special session is over. Lawmakers passed the Senate’s version of a Medicaid budget bill last Thursday and Beshear quickly issued line-item vetoes to the GOP-supported budget cuts. Because the House, which is controlled by Democrats, has adjourned for the year, the governor says his vetoes will stick.“For my vetoes to be overridden it takes votes of both houses. So the Senate meeting again is a useless exercise, and they really ought not to be wasting their time or the taxpayers’ money in doing that,” he says.Meanwhile, all state lawmakers continue to be paid for the special session. It amounts to about $63,500 a day, including weekends. Beshear says the Senate majority should refund the Commonwealth.“All that the Senate majority needs to do is pull out their checkbooks and write a check back to the Commonwealth for any pay that they receive after last Thursday, the last day that anybody worked up there,” he says.