Since the House and Senate conference committee members have apparently agreed on "no new taxes" in the executive branch budget, keep in mind the story I reported last week: the House and Senate have already approved a budget for the Legislative Branch that includes 5% increases in funding each of the next two years and bars any cuts in LRC staffing. If universities, public schools and social services are all forced to take cuts in the executive branch budget hammered out in conference committee, Governor Beshear may conclude that lawmakers and their staff need to share in the pain a little bit. He could veto their budget.

When I pressed House Speaker Jody Richards on opening up the budget conference committee last week and he agreed, we didn't expect David Williams to go along. When Williams joined the "open it up" crowd, one Frankfort reported replied "damn, he called out bluff." In other words, the Frankfort press corps wasn't really chomping at the bit to cover hours and hours of tedious talk about the budget, despite our repeated clammoring for the conference committee meetings to be open to the public. The wheeling and dealing necessary to come up with a compromise spending plan is undoubtedly easier to do behind closed doors and out of earshot of KET cameras. But it's clearly in the public interest to see the whole bloody process at work.

What's going through the minds of those democratic House members who already voted for increases in the cigarette tax and sales taxes on some services? I haven't checked the list of the 50 House members who voted for the revenue bill but I'm guessing some of them may have tough races this fall, with no projects or continuation of services to show for their vote to raise taxes. On the other hand, when university students and their parents get hit with 12% tuition hikes this fall, they should have the phone number of their representatives and senators handy, particularly the ones on the republican side of the aisle.