FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - A divided Kentucky House passed a revenue bill Wednesday that would raise the state’s motor fuels tax to supply more money for road projects, drawing objections from Republicans who signaled it could resurface as a campaign issue in the fall.
The measure - a component to balancing the state budget - deals with a number of revenue matters, but the debate focused on the gas tax.
The bill would raise the tax at the pump by 1.5 cents a gallon. The current gas tax is 30.8 cents per gallon, which automatically took effect at the start of 2014. The increase would restore the tax to the level in place at the end of 2013, less than three months ago.
The state’s gas tax is tied to the average wholesale price of motor fuels, allowing it to shift up or down or stay unchanged every three months.
House GOP Floor Leader Jeff Hoover said Kentuckians have paid a higher state gas tax for years as wholesale fuel prices rose.
“We told the people of Kentucky that if the wholesale price went up and the state taxes went up, they went up,” Hoover said. “But we also assured them … that when they went down, they would just go down.
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Republicans seeking to take over the House for the first time in nearly 100 years plan a vote that would force Democrats to register their support of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law.
State Rep. Joseph Fischer, R-Fort Thomas, has filed an amendment to the state’s $20 billion biennial budget that would reduce the state’s Medicaid population and eliminate the state’s health insurance marketplace, two pillars of the federal affordable Care Act. The smooth rollout of Kentucky’s state-run marketplace has been considered a success story of the federal Affordable Care Act as marketplaces run by the federal government and some other states have faced glitches.
Thursday would be the first time Kentucky’s Democrat-controlled lower chamber will vote on a law opposed by many in Kentucky. The amendment is expected to fail. But the intent is to put Democrats on the record with a vote.
“We don’t agree with it, and we want to know what House Democrats think about it,” said Rep. Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, the House minority floor leader.
With Democrats clinging to an eight-seat margin in the House, Republicans could cite votes in favor of the Affordable Care Act in their November campaigns.
“It’s going to be an issue that plays a role this fall,” said Steve Robertson, chairman of the Kentucky Republican Party.
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Lt. Garlin Murl Conner left the U.S. Army as the second-most decorated soldier during World War II, earning four Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars, seven Purple Hearts and the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during 28 straight months in combat.
But despite backing from congressmen, senators, military veterans and historians, he never received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military distinction, awarded for life-risking acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.
Now a federal judge in Kentucky has ended his widow’s 17-year quest to see that her husband received the medal.
U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell, in an 11-page opinion issued late Tuesday, said a technicality will prevent Pauline Conner of Albany, Ky., from continuing her campaign on behalf of her husband, who died in 1998. Russell concluded that Pauline Conner waited too long to present new evidence to the U.S. Army Board of Correction of Military Records, which rejected her bid to alter her husband’s service record.
Russell praised Conner’s “extraordinary courage and patriotic service,” but said there was nothing he could do for the family.
“Dismissing this claim as required by technical limitations in no way diminishes Lt. Conner’s exemplary service and sacrifice,” Russell wrote.
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - The Kentucky Senate has passed a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe, and patients to use, cannabis-based oil for medical purposes.
The non-intoxicating cannabidiol has been used in other states to treat severe seizures in children, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.
The bill is sponsored by Republican Sen. Julie Denton of Louisville who says that the oil would be studied by Kentucky research universities. Doctors would be able to send patients to those universities to acquire the oil.
The bill drew no vocal opposition in the Senate chamber.
The measure cleared the state Senate on Wednesday with a unanimous vote. The bill moves now to the Kentucky House for consideration.
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