Lexington Herald-Leader

April 16, 2008

Health Services for Kids Cut Back

Tobacco Money Transferred Out

By Sarah Vos

svos@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT -- A slew of health programs for young children face cutbacks after lawmakers diverted $12 million earmarked for the services to balance the state budget.

A group of programs called Kids Now, which offers services such as immunization shots and newborn hearing exams for low-income families, is supposed to get 25 percent of the tobacco settlement money paid to the state by cigarette makers.

But in the state budget agreed to earlier this month, lawmakers transferred about $6 million in each year of the biennium to the General Fund, where it was used for other purposes. The programs had expected to get about $30 million each year.

Advocates said the move wasn't fair, especially considering that lawmakers found enough money to fund $225 million in construction projects.

"Young kids in Kentucky are paying the price for pork barrel projects," said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates.

"It's very clear that flatlining services in that area is tantamount to a reduction in services."

Lawmakers argued that the transfer of funds wasn't a cut because the programs will receive the same amount they have in years past.

The state expects to receive more tobacco settlement money in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 because more cigarettes were sold in Kentucky.

"Those additional revenues were dropped to the bottom line," said Senate Majority Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield.

Rep. Jimmie Lee, D-Elizabethtown, said the changes were necessary to balance the budget.

"It was a move they did to find General Fund money because they had no revenue," said Lee, who chairs the House budget subcommittee on human resources.

House Democrats had pushed the Senate to approve a 25-cent increase in the state's 30-cent-per-pack cigarette tax, but Senate Republican leaders balked. That move would have generated about $110 million a year for health and education programs.

However, Kelly noted that lawmakers allowed the Kids Now programs, which are funded through the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, to keep $9 million they had not spent this year.

Normally, that money would have been transferred to the General Fund, he said.

The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence had asked Gov. Steve Beshear to veto the $12 million transfer from the budget.

"We hoped he would veto it and are disappointed that he didn't," said director Bob Sexton.

The largest cutbacks will come in the Department of Public Health, which provides medical services and home visitation programs for newborns in low-income families.

Those programs had about $16.5 million this year but will lose $4.2 million in fiscal year 2009 and $4.4 million the following year.