How the bill “sneaked” by
These things don’t just “happen” — somebody got their way
From, Kentucky Citizen Digest, January/February, 2001.

It is interesting to see how a bill is radically amended, placed on a “fast track” and then passed, yet nobody steps forward to take the credit.  The answer to “Who dun it?” may never be fully revealed, but Claude Witt of the Temperance League maintains that the job was deliberately and clandestinely done.

The bill’s history raises a number of questions with answers less easy to find.  SB 247 was originally introduced in the Senate on Feb. 10 and was subsequently passed by that chamber on March 2 by a margin of 37 to 1.  It was received in the House of Representatives on March 3, but it was on March 23 when a committee substitute, with stark changes, was submitted and was ultimately passed on March 24.

Then, it finally traveled back to the Senate on March 27 for the Senate’s agreement to the changes.  There it was placed onto the Senate consent calendar without anybody noticing it until it was too late.  (The “consent calendar” is a list of bills that are designated for passage without further debate or scrutiny.)

According to the bill’s original sponsor, Sen. Tom Buford, R- Nicholasville,  “This was a sneak thing that came back.”  Critics point to the manipulation of the bill in the House, but also question why it was placed on the consent calendar in the Senate.

Sen. Vernie McGaha, R-Russell Springs, shares similar concerns and contends that he and several other senators believed they were voting on the original legislation they sent to the House.  McGaha thinks the bill was held by the House with the hope that the changes would slip by the Senate in the tumultuous last days of the session.

However, McGaha may yet have the last word in this debacle because he has since pre-filed a bill that would restore the local-option law to what it was before SB 247.  McGaha’s bill will be heard in February in the new odd-year session  just approved by Kentucky’s citizens on Nov. 7.

Buford says he will vote for the bill and expects many of his colleagues in the Senate to do the same.  The House, of course, is a different story, so only time will tell.
 
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst