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Source: Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.迷你倉Dec. 22--Regular sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly are always dominated by the adoption of a new state budget, and that will certainly be the case for the 2014 session beginning Jan. 7 in Frankfort.But this session is also shaping up as one that will focus heavily on education funding, or, more precisely, restoring funding for elementary and secondary education.In an interview Tuesday looking ahead to the 2014 General Assembly, Gov. Steve Beshear called for more money for the state's education system, with cuts elsewhere if necessary."I am determined to reinvest in education with this upcoming budget, so if I have to cut some other areas to do it, that is what I am going to do," he told reporters Tuesday, according to an Associated Press report.Beshear said the state needs to restore funding cuts made to education during the recession. While he didn't mention specific cuts, he said everything will be on the table when he prepares his budget.Another AP report said the state Department of Education has asked for $336 million in additional school funding in the two-year budget, most of it to restore per pupil funding to pre-recession levels. Support Education Excellence in Kentucky funding, or SEEK as it is known, is currently $3,827 per student. It was $3,866 in 2009. Other areas of school funding have been drastically cut as well.If school funding cuts are not restored, Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday has warned that school districts will have to cut up to 2,000 teachers and teaching assistants."Our most compelling job is to create a new two-year budget," Rep. Tommy Thompson, a Daviess County Democrat and member of the House leadership team, said. "It will be the most challenging budget in recent history because of the disconnect between the forecasted revenue we're going to have versus the needs that have been identified and expressed because of significant cuts and programs woefully underfunded over the last five years."Since the national recession began, Thompson said about $1.6 billion has been cut from the state budget. It had to be done, he said, but it has left a lot of programs in need of major funding restoration."The governor's top issue is education, and I certainly agree with that," Thompson said. "We all realize we need to restore education funding."Beyond restoring SEEK funding, Thompson said "flex focus grants" for such things as extended school services, professional development for teachers and school technology have been severely trimmed."We ought to strive to get back to at least 2009 levels," Thompson said. "I hope we can find money for flex focus grants and the technology needs of schools. Education is job one for our state. In this environment, it will be tough."Thompson said he has heard reports of funding problems associated with the state teacher retirement system, which could require $800 million over two years to fix."Plus, we had to cut child care assistance," he said. "People use it to work or go to school. If you don't have child care, you can't do either."Expect plenty of talk about expanded gambling and tax code reform, Thompson said. A pair of expanded gambling bills have already been filed, similar to bills allowing casinos filed in prior sessions."Whether there's any appetite for tax reform is very questionable," Thompson said.Sen. Joe Bowen of Owensboro said the session will boil down to setting spending priorities."While we will have fairly impressive revenue growth numbers, and our structural imbalance is not as mini storagead as it has been, the numbers I've seen are we've got about $4 billion in additional requests from agencies, which is off the chart," Bowen said. "The requests are so astronomical. Education, corrections, retirees, Medicaid -- we're going to have to obviously prioritize."Fiscal challenges will dominate the session, Bowen predicted, but policy issues will be thorny as well, he said."Gambling has resurfaced, it just has," he said. "And there will be more discussion of the Medicaid expansion and the challenges that presents. The governor has brought up tax reform at a late hour. We needed a real foundation of interim discussion. We needed to study the report of the (tax reform) commission."Bowen said he supports comprehensive tax code reform. "We need it, I'm for it, but it's a lot to crowd into the session at this late hour," he said.Along with education funding, other big issues sure to gain the attention of lawmakers include the growing heroin problem in Kentucky, whether cities and counties should have the option to levy a local sales tax, a statewide smoking ban and government employee pension issues."I'm for comprehensive tax reform," Bowen said. "I don't think we need to continue to piecemeal it. I would support (local option sales taxes) if, in fact, it could show it would bring relief to the state budget."Bowen said he was considering filing a bill that would move final authority for the adoption of state regulations from the executive branch to the legislative branch."What we see in Washington and Frankfort, the executive branches are doing things by executive order and moving away from balance of powers," he said. "People want balanced power."Bowen said he is also interested in more use of public-private partnerships. "We need to embrace the private sector to solve public problems," he said. "... There's all kinds of ways the private sector can do things better than government."Democratic Rep. Jim Glenn of Owensboro, a college professor, called for attention to education funding."I want to make sure we have solid funding for kindergarten though 12," Glenn said. "I want to make sure we have enough dollars for new technology in schools. Kentucky is the first in the nation to have Internet access in every school. I want to make sure we don't fall behind. We are transitioning away from hard copy textbooks to online textbooks, which gives students faster access to content. We need to make sure we keep funding teacher training."Glenn said education is Kentucky's answer to surviving global economic change.As for expanding gambling in Kentucky, Glenn is skeptical because he said casinos in the border states of Ohio and Indiana are already established."I'm not sure how much money is left on the plate for us," he said.Republican Suzanne Miles, the newly elected representative from the 7th District, said she attended a budget review session in Frankfort early last week."I'm trying to get ready, looking over bills and topics," Miles said. "The budget will be the first thing."Miles, who defeated Democrat Kim Humphrey on Dec. 10, will have had less than a month to prepare for the session. Regular sessions have 60 working days, but the session won't end until mid-April."Several state legislators have agreed to help me in every way possible, to help me navigate and do my new job," Miles said.Steve Vied, 691-7297, svied@messenger-inquirer.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) Visit the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) at .messenger-inquirer.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage