Bevin’s opponents miss the bigger picture as he trolls them on social media

(Note -- this was written more than two weeks ago and submitted for publication to the newspapers in my area that have been carrying this column, but I'm just now getting around to posting it on the blog site.)

One of the best things about Gov. Matt Bevin being a political outsider is that he can afford to be unorthodox in his approach. He doesn’t feel bound by convention the way previous governors have. He’s used to a businesslike environment where things get done without being bogged down by process and red tape.

So, with the clock ticking on this year’s General Assembly session, Bevin took note of the House of Representatives’ slow pace in adopting a biennial budget. Last Monday morning, he fired a shot across the bow of the Democratic majority and posted a video on social media, urging the legislature to get to work and pass the budget.

His move obviously got under the Democrats’ skin, because a few hours later, they posted photos of what they said was a committee meeting in the Capitol Annex. The Stumbocrats also claimed that Bevin didn’t know how the process works because the House typically does not convene in full session until 4 p.m. on Mondays, and much of the work on the budget is done in committee meetings in the Annex instead of the House chambers in the Capitol.

That sounds plausible enough on its face, but the Democrats’ defense doesn’t hold up under close scrutiny.

For starters, the Monday committee meetings don’t typically start until after lunch, so even if Bevin had gone to the Annex at 11 a.m. to try to find legislators hard at work, his search would have come up empty.

But there was something more sinister at work here. Even as House Speaker Greg Stumbo and his House Stumbocrats claimed that Bevin was trying to mislead the public, they were engaged in an even greater and darker deception.

The committee purported to have been meeting in the photos the House Democratic leadership posted was the Transportation Budget Review Subcommittee. A clock shown in the background of one of the photos indicated the picture was taken around 1 p.m. There are two major problems here. First is that the committee wasn’t scheduled to meet until 2 p.m. Second is that the official House calendar for Monday, March 7, shows that the Transportation Budget Review Subcommittee meeting was cancelled.

An explanation was offered by someone with deep knowledge of Frankfort – a former legislator and a former high-level gubernatorial staff member. He stated that many of the legislators pictured aren’t even members of the Transportation Budget Review Subcommittee.

The Stumbocrats lying to the people of Kentucky in an attempt to discredit only the second Republican governor in 45 years? Surely not. But it appears as if that’s exactly what happened. It looks as if the Stumbocrats, stung by Bevin’s unexpected attack, fought back by finding a bunch of their legislators and sticking them in a room with a bunch of papers stacked on a table and staging a photo opportunity.

But the Stumbocrats missed the bigger message. The House – and, to be fair, the Republican-controlled Senate – typically don’t convene in full session until 4 p.m. on Monday, but committee meetings usually don’t start until after lunch on Mondays. The General Assembly usually adjourns around noon or so on Fridays. This basically means that the legislators use only about four out of every five working days each week to conduct business.

Those who go into public service should know that sacrifice is expected. Legislators are paid well for 90 days of work in a two-year period, with an occasional interim committee meeting or special session thrown in. Yet they use Monday mornings to travel from their homes to Frankfort, and Friday afternoons to travel back home. No one else who works away from home during the week gets that luxury. They have to travel on Sunday and Friday evenings to be at the job on time on Monday and to put in a full day on Friday. Legislative business should begin on Monday mornings, not Monday afternoons. Yes, it’s a long way from Paducah or Mayfield or Cadiz to Frankfort, but those who ran for office knew that when they got into politics. They should be willing to sacrifice Sunday evenings at home to do their duty.

The same Frankfort observer who caught the chicanery with the legislators in the photograph made another observation. He said that the General Assembly can afford to have some flexibility in scheduling early in the session, when little business of consequence is being conducted. But when time is running out and the budget is still under consideration, the senators and representatives need to be on the job as much as possible to get the work done.

Passing the biennial budget this session won’t be easy. Ignoring fiscal realities, House Stumbocrats don’t seem willing to go along with the necessary cuts Bevin has proposed. The Senate is expected to concur with most of Bevin’s recommendations. That means there will be an impasse between the two chambers which will have to be hammered out in a conference committee, then approved by both chambers. It’s entirely conceivable that as time runs out on the session, the old tradition of stopping the clock will be followed so legislators can pretend they got their business finished on time.

Or, it’s possible that no budget will be passed at all, and the Stumbocrats would be only more than happy to operate the state on a continuation budget from former Gov. Steve Beshear’s last two years.

At any rate, the Stumbocrats in the House got so upset over being trolled on social media by Gov. Bevin that they missed the bigger picture. They aren’t working as hard as they should, or as much as they should, to get a budget passed. And they resorted to dishonest measures in an attempt to retaliate. That’s something the state’s voters should remember when all 100 House seats are up for election in November.