Some major bills which didn’t pass got all the attention at the end of the 2009 General Assembly, mostly because the House surprised Gov. Steve Beshear and the Senate by refusing to take them up in the last couple of days.

Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said the House had already passed the measures but couldn’t take up the versions of the bills amended by the Senate unless it suspended a rule to use veto override days only for that purpose. Gov. Steve Beshear and Senate leaders David Williams, the Republican President, and Ed Worley, the Minority Leader, indicated they thought when lawmakers left town for a 10-day recess on March 13, everyone had agreed to take up those bills when they returned.

That didn’t happen. The most notable of the bills were Besehar’s economic development package which would have altered incentives for business and industry to locate in Kentucky, placing more emphasis on retaining existing industries and providing incentives to lure the film industry to the state and a NASCAR Sprint Cup race to northern Kentucky; a budget clean up bill which would have provided more money for public defenders – and local prosecutors; and a bill to allow financing such infrastructure mega-projects as bridges across the Ohio River.

“I feel like we had a good session,” Williams said. “It could've been a great session.” Still, in a floor speech on the concluding day, Williams said “this short session has certainly not been short on success.”

House Republican Minority Leader Jeff Hoover said the General Assembly accomplished a lot.

“It was a very good session,” Hoover said on its final day. “We were able to draft and pass a balanced road plan that will mean a lot for the state. We were able to make the reforms in KERA (Kentucky Education Reform Act) so many people wanted. And we were able to deal with the fiscal crisis – at least for this year.”

The road plan, according to Worley, will move “shovel ready” projects forward with $421 million of federal stimulus funding, and create jobs immediately. The General Assembly voted to freeze 4 cents of the 22.5 cents a gallon gasoline tax which would have been removed without legislation. That allowed the state to bond another $400 million of road projects.

Williams called the passage Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Sen. Ken Winters, R-Murray, and championed by Majority Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield, “a great victory for education and more particularly for parents, students and teachers.” The bill changes the state school accountability test, making it less time consuming and less expensive. Most importantly, Williams said, it will track individual student achievement and progress and compare their performance to those of students from other states.

Lawmakers passed a 30-cent increase in the cigarette tax and applied the 6 percent sales tax to retail sales of packaged alcohol. Those measures, combined with the use of budget reserves and spending cuts implemented by Beshear plugged an estimated $456 million shortfall in this year’s budget.

One bill which passed after Kelly and Worley offered it in several previous sessions could have long-term benefits for Kentucky’s perpetually strained budget. Senate Bill 4 provides for drug screening and treatment for non-violent offenders as a condition of bond and could allow the offender to enter long-term treatment. If the defendant successfully completes the treatment, he or she could receive diversion and avoid conviction. Kelly estimates it could keep as much as 20 percent of Kentucky’s large (about 21,500) prison population out of prison and save the state millions of dollars.

Other notable legislation passed this session included requiring entry into a data base of payday loan transactions and a bill which requires high school coaches to be trained to respond to heat stroke emergencies. The first was sponsored by Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow, who characterized it as a compromise on legislation he’d previously offered which would have capped interest rates on such loans. The lack of the cap caused some who supported Bell’s previous bills to oppose it. Bell said he will use the data to determine if a cap is warranted.

The other was sponsored by Rep. Joni Jenkins, D-Shively, in the aftermath of the heat-related death of Pleasure Ridge Park High School football player Max Gilpin, 15, who collapsed during an August football practice. His coach, David Stinson, was charged with reckless homicide.

Other bills which didn’t make it were easing some mine safety measures, a bill to allow drilling for oil and gas on publicly owned lands, and a measure which would have lifted the ban on nuclear power plant construction in Kentucky. And Stumbo’s bill to allow electronic slot machines at horse tracks never got a floor vote.

Several lawmakers, including Stumbo, predicted the budget fix is temporary and anticipate a special session to deal with next year’s likely shortfall. That might also resurrect his slots bill. Rep. Jim Wayne, D-Louisville, and Rep. Bill Farmer, R-Lexington, sponsored bills to revise the tax code and produce more state revenue. Neither got anywhere, but both Stumbo and Beshear promised – in exchange for votes for the tax measures in this year’s budget fix – to consider future code revision.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort, Ky. He may be contacted by email at rellis@cnhi.com.