The General Assembly session about which legislative leaders and Gov. Steve Beshear have been bragging was, in fact, largely a failure. In some instances, lawmakers did the wrong thing -- for example by relaxing school accountability. In others, they did too little -- for instance, by adopting a pitiably small revenue package while claiming to exhibit political courage.
It's true that, during the 2009 session, there was less partisan bickering, but then Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate President David Williams shouldn't expect praise for behaving themselves. Nor did it take much grit for members to stop a 4-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax increase, thus producing more money with which to spread blacktop among their constituents.
Some important issues simply didn't get addressed.
C-J laments the failure to pass House Bill 433, which would have let Jefferson Community and Technical College spend up to $10.5 million of its own funds to improve its outmoded, overcrowded downtown Louisville campus, some of which is dilapidated.
I'll take their word for it.
But if there is one glaring omission from Kentucky's legislative agenda it is the legislature's aversion to tackling comprehensive tax reform. Until that heavy lifting gets done, we're going to have this same conversation over and over again.
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