Beshear's Re-election Campaign Will Cost KY Taxpayers $169 Million

No, not because Beshear is illegally charging campaign expenses to the taxpayers, which may or may not be the case.

It's because instead of spreading out $169 million in necessary budget cuts over the full 12 months of this fiscal year, Beshear will put off making any cuts until after the election, thus wasting five months of budget time.

Trying to cram $169 million in cuts into seven months instead of 12 months means that Kentuckians will suffer nearly twice the public service cuts we would have to suffer if Beshear would man the fuck up and initiate the cuts today - or rather yesterday, the first day of the fiscal year.

From the Herald:

Gov. Steve Beshear's administration must cut $168.9 million from the state budget for the 2012 fiscal year, which started Friday, but the administration remains mum on details of how the cuts will be made.

Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear, said this week that the administration was considering its options and concentrating on closing out the 2011 fiscal year.

Under the two-year budget passed by the state legislature, the Beshear administration had to find $131 million in savings or cuts for fiscal year 2011 and $168.9 million in cuts for fiscal year 2012. The state's general fund budget for fiscal 2012 is $9.3 billion. Because of a steep decline in state tax revenues, the legislature has had to balance the budget eight times to make up for shortfalls since Beshear took office in December 2007.

Sen. Robert Leeper, chairman of the Senate budget committee, said Republicans are concerned that if Beshear waits too long to implement the cuts for fiscal 2012, the amount of money that state agencies will have to cut will be even greater in future months.

"If they are trying to postpone these efficiencies until after the election, that's going to be extremely dramatic cuts," said Leeper, an independent from Paducah.

Beshear, a Democrat, faces Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, in the general election in November.

When asked when the cuts will be announced, Richardson declined to give a date.

"We are still working on a plan and will advise agencies when those plans are complete," Richardson said.

They're already complete. They won't be released, however, until oh, right around 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9.