Money for a gas line project in Owen County, as well as a judicial center for the community, remained in the budget this week after the bill received approval from the Senate on March 21.
While other communities lost funding for projects, Owen’s $5 million for the gas line project was intact after the document made its way through the Senate after House approval three weeks ago.
“As it sits right now I’m very confident that we’ll keep the gas line and the courthouse projects,” said Billy O’Banion, Owen County Judge-Executive. “It’s very rare for a project to make it to the conference committee and then be taken out.”
Also still in the budget was $500,000 for the city of Owenton’s water intake project and $400,000 for a sewer project which will eventually mean that residents of Eagle Creek Campground will have septic services.
“We don’t know about the Homeland Security project because there were no dollars attached to that,” O’Banion said.
The county had asked for about $200,000 in funds to prepare for possible future terrorism attacks at the advisement of Rep. Royce Adams. The federal government would provide funding to the state for the projects and the money was to be split among the Kentucky counties.
O’Banion said once the governor signs the budget bill, a concerted effort will be made to get the natural gas project under way.
“We’ve already reopened talks with Cynergy and we’ll go back to Carrollton to talk to them again about what they can do,” he added.
Connecting to Cynergy’s line in Gallatin County would cut about 4 miles off the project, but Cynergy also has a monthly charge attached to its contract that made the Carrollton deal more feasible in the past.
O’Banion estimated it could be as late as spring 2007 before the project breaks ground and it could take up to two years to get an industry into the spec building at the industrial park.
“There’s much of the work already done, so it may go faster than expected,” he said.
In other budget actions, the Senate has earmarked part of Kentucky’s gasoline tax to pay for new Louisville bridge projects as part of a budget bill passed March 21.
Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate met over the weekend in hopes of coming to a compromise.
Under the Senate’s version of the bill, the gasoline tax would no longer be tied to the average wholesale price but would be fixed at 1.1 cent per gallon.
When the House of Representatives approved the budget bill, it removed $55 million in funding for the Ohio River bridges while moving the money into various road projects around the state.
In the Senate version of the budget, the bridge money was restored.
The amount of debt the state should carry has also been a source of controversy with Gov. Ernie Fletcher hoping to keep the figure around $932 million. The House is looking to borrow about $1.8 billion for its budget. The Senate’s version of the budget increases borrowing to about $2.16 billion.
In a statement, Fletcher praised the Senate’s version of the budget and some of the changes it enacted after the House approved it.
Fletcher pointed to several items in the Senate version of which he approved, including adding two instructional days to the school calendar, providing funding for the Louisville bridge projects and deleting site-specific language from the budget.
One of the most high profile aspects of the House budget — pay hikes for educators — remains intact under the Senate proposal.
Since the Senate approved its amended version of the budget on March 21, there has been little movement on either side. A committee, made up of representatives and senators, will be meeting in an effort to hammer out a compromise before the session is scheduled to end.
Lawmakers will be working through the committee in hopes of finding a compromise for the budget that is expected to be around $18 billion.
Through spokesmen, Senate President David Williams and Fletcher said they expected a budget to be passed this session.
Twice in the past four years the General Assembly session ended without a budget in place.
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A bill designed to protect funeral ceremonies from protesters has cleared both houses of the General Assembly.
The measure was created in response to a series of protests arranged by members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., who claim that God is punishing the United States for tolerating homosexuality.
The bill, that was approved on a 94-0 House vote, now goes to Fletcher for consideration.
The group recently announced it would launch protests at military funeral ceremonies at Fort Campbell.
One of the bill’s sponsors, State Rep. Mike Weaver, a retired U.S. Army colonel and long-time veterans’ advocate, called the protests “despicable.”
Under HB 333, protesters would have to stay 300 feet away from services or be charged with first-degree disorderly conduct. The bill would also prevent protesters from using bullhorns in order to disrupt services.
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A bill that would take on school bullies is cornered in a Senate committee.
The proposal, HB 270, has been stuck in the Senate’s education committee since early February. With this year’s session winding down and higher profile legislation taking precedent, it’s unclear if it will make it to a vote in the Senate.
The bill defines bullying as repeated verbal, non-verbal, written communication, physical acts committed by a student against another student on school premises, on school-sponsored transportation or at a school-sponsored event with intent to injure, intimidate, alienate or threaten another student that results in physically harming a student, damaging or stealing a student's property; substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school; or creating a hostile environment that substantially interferes with a student’s educational benefits, opportunities or performance.
Under the proposal, school districts would be required to have written plans in place to deal with students who engage in disorderly behavior, including harassment, intimidation or bullying of another student.
If the measure is approved, school districts could suspend, expel or take other disciplinary action against a student.
If a student is disciplined for three harassing acts in a single semester or has been the target of bullying three times during a semester, the school district would be required to report the incidents to the Kentucky Department of Education.

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