The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 7

391 THE COURIER-JOURNAL KENTUCl SAKIRDAY, JANUARY 17, 1 998 rzz 1998 Kentucky General Assembly Committee passes bill aimed at fi PiPi flFIPfS wflfl FPFlPCFf1 is B4 7 t-ir? haven't been worked out, Maple saidi' But Owens said he thinks the fines might be used to help pay for losses or damage caused by the violation, and he said they need to be steep enough to get the violator's attention, "It needs to be painful enough that the next time, you don't do it," he said. fo to the commission for redress will faster and more effective than going to court, he said. The commission has an "institutional memory" of the developer's history, and the developer or builder will have to come before the Planning Commission for future projects. Specifics of the local ordinance Legislative briefs i )lWMm If V- fdV fi fell Uuf 1 I 1 Iv' i. mf- 4 By NINA WALFOORT The Courier-Journal FRANKFORT, Ky.

A bill that would allow Jefferson County to punish developers and builders who break their promises sailed through a Senate committee Thursday. The bill, backed by county Commissioner Russ Maple and sponsored by Senate President Larry Saunders of Louisville, would allow the Louisville and Jefferson County Planning Commission to fine anyone who violates "binding elements" conditions attached to development plans. Developers have failed in a number of instances in recent years to abide by their agreements. Many violations have involved cutting down trees that were supposed to buffer neighbors from new development, but others have involved glaring lights, improper construction and encroachments into stream beds. Saunders described the legislation, which would allow Fiscal Court to pass an ordinance setting up the sanctions, as a "consumer protection" measure.

"We're assuring residents that any time a builder makes a promise he will have to follow through, and if not, there will be a penalty," he said. Currently, when developers violate a binding element, the county negotiates with them to make restitution. If they don't within 30 days, the county has to take them to court. The bill, which was approved unanimously by the State and Local Government Committee, still faces hurdles. The full Senate and the House must pass it, and then Fiscal Court would have to draft and pass a local ordinance.

Saunders said he expects the Senate to pass it. State Rep. Steve Riggs, a Jeffersontown Democrat who is chairman of the House's local government committee, said that he hasn't reviewed the specifics of the bill but supports it in principle. Jefferson County Commissioners Irv Maze and Darryl Owens said they favor an ordinance. "It's long overdue," Maze said.

Wayne Bennett, director of the county's division of planning and development services, said that most developers address violations to the county's satisfaction within the 30 days allotted. But when they don't, being able to Iff IT 1 Monday to be a dual holiday Though their calendar doesn't say so, Monday's day off for legislators is not only Martin Luther King Day, it is Robert E. Lee Day too. State law requires that the legislature observe both days as holidays, but this year they both fall on Jan. 19.

The official legislative calendar approved by the Legislative Research Commission shows Monday as a holiday forking only, but LRC Director Don Cetrullo said that it doesn't mean the Robert E. Lee holiday is gone. The tribute to the Civil War general will ride again, probably 2000. Cetrullo said that the legislature's late start this year meant a calendar so tight that the LRC couldn't wedge in another holiday. Lawmakers will be off Jan.

30 in honor of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt before a pair of other presidential holidays in February. House approves election law change The House yesterday passed a bill that would allow anyone in line when polls close at 6 p.m. to vote no matter how long workers must keep the polls open. Currently, voters in line when the polls close can only vote until 7 p.m. Rep.

Allen Maricle, R-Shepherdsville, sponsored House Bill 6 after dozens of voters in three crowded northern Bullitt County precincts were turned away during the 1996 election even though they were in line before the polls closed. Voters and candidates filed suit against then-Bullitt County Clerk Nina Mooney after the election, claiming the vote was unfair. A Bullitt circuit judge allowed several voters to cast ballots several days after the election. The bill passed 85-1 with no discussion. It now goes to the Senate.

Cities favor local limits on tobacco Seven cities across the state have endorsed a resolution asking the General Assembly to give communities the power to restrict tobacco use by teens. The resolution, drafted by the Louisville-based anti-smoking group Kentucky ACTION, calls for amending a state law prohibiting communities from enacting teen tobacco-use ordinances that are stricter than the state's Covington is the latest city in Northern Kentucky to endorse the resolution. Edgewood and Bellevue also have approved the resolution, as have the Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Department and about 30 other state health organizations. Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, is expected to bring the resolution before the House.

Kentucky has one of the highest rates of tobacco use among children in the nation and the highest adult smoking rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. More than 31 percent of adult Kentuckians smoke, the CDC said. PHOTOS BY STEWART BOWMAN, THE COURIER-JOURNAL Fred Williams, center, of Louisville, was among 77 Kentucky State Police cadets who attended Gov. Paul Pattern's press conference. One proposal is higher standards for police officers entering the profession.

Patton plan harsher on violent offenders Continued from Page Bl would require violent criminals to serve 85 percent of their sentences. The current minimum is 50 percent. The bill also would apply the death penalty to murderers of young children, witnesses or informants. Justice Secretary Dan Cherry said many violent criminals are repeat offenders. Making them serve more time would mean "you are actually precluding a lot of crime, a lot of serious violent crime," Cherry said.

But Patton would try to alleviate an immediate prison-crowding problem by placing up to 850 property-crime offenders and drug users into a new state program of home incarceration, with electronic monitoring and substance-abuse treatment. "That will save our precious, very valuable, expensive prison beds for the more violent offenders," Cherry said. In addition, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Mike Bowling, the House sponsor of the bill, said it would force judges to consider alternatives to prison, such as drug treatment and community supervision. "We are going to tighten up the language" in current law on sentencing," Bowling, D-Middlesboro, said. "It's pretty loose, and the judge can do pretty much what he wants." Corrections Commissioner Doug Sapp said the budget Patton will present to legislators Tuesday includes: $3.4 million for design of a new medium-security prison that will have 1,790 beds; $16.4 million for renovations and 180 more medium-security beds at the women's prison in Shelby County; $5.2 million for a 200-bed dorm at Blackburn Correctional Complex, a minimum-security prison near Lexington.

Sapp said the administration also is requesting more money to place additional inmates in county jails. More than 3,100 state prisoners are now housed in county jails. Patton's bill will incorporate several recommendations to help crime victims and battered spouses and children. The proposals, made by advisory groups that Attorney General Ben Chandler convened, include increasing court fees that each convicted defendant is assessed from $10 to $30. The additional $2 million the increase would generate, plus federal and state funds, would allow the hiring of 15 more victim's advocates in prosecutor's offices making them within reach statewide.

iC fo v-7? Mifo UD: Lh, i 1 HIGHLIGHTS Violent offenders must serve 85 percent of their sentences. Reinstates the penalty of life without parole for capital cases. Begin design of a 1 medium-security prison. Place 850 non-violent felons in home incarceration. Raise threshold for felony theft from $300 to $600, which would keep some petty thieves in county jails.

Provide more money for crime victims' fund from court fees. At least one victim advocate in every county. Create victim witness-protection program. Try to enforce domestic violence protection orders issued in other states. Provide for notification of release of violent offenders who are mentally ill.

Add three types of crimes carrying possible death penalty: murder of a trial witness, premeditated or planned murder, and murder of a child under 12. Allow "geriatric parole" for old inmates not considered dangerous. No "good time" credit for sex offenders unless they complete treatment. Prohibit parole for some crimes committed while wearing body armor. Create criminal justice council for long-term planning on penal code, sentencing reform, other issues.

Create uniform criminal justice information system that connects all parts of system. Include automated warrants file. Cost: $5 million. Also create automated fingerprint identification system. Cost: $5.8 million.

Set minimum physical, educational, psychological standards for new police officers. Expand "drug courts." Increase penalties for manufacture of methamphetamine. Create specific offenses in state penal code for hate crimes, including church arson; and filing of bogus liens, which have been used to harass public officials. school grade-point average, beginning with students starting college in 2001. But the start-up dates are also being discussed with Patton's staff, he said.

The concept of merit scholarships appears to have bipartisan support in both chambers of the legislature. However, one key lawmaker, Sen. Benny Ray Bailey, D-Hindman, said this week he has serious questions over using lottery money. Bailey, chairman of the powerful Senate budget committee, said lottery revenue comes largely from low-income people but would be spent on scholarships for which wealthy students would qualify. But Shaughnessy said, "We want to send a message to everyone the poor, the rich and the middle class that if you work hard we will help you continue your education." he Courier-Journal is offering GUIDE and the OUTLOOK A At' Yf Corrections Commissioner Doug Sapp outlined uses of $25 million in appropriations for the corrections system that Patton will present to legislators Tuesday.

Law-enforcement agencies would receive better technology to help catch criminals under Patton's plan. He wants a computer system that would unify all police agencies in Kentucky, so that a backlog of unserved arrest warrants cart be eliminated and so that officers who stop motorists could find out what their records were in other jurisdictions. Patton also wants a statewide, automated fingerprint system. He massaged a task force's proposal to license all new police officers in the state. It would be done through the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council, not a new bureaucracy, and would cost about $400,000 a year.

Cherry acknowledged "we have had some resistance" from police groups to the proposal, which would make new officers meet basic standards of physical, psychological and educational fitness. But Patton said current laws might allow someone "who is totally unfit" to become a police officer, which he said was a danger to current officers as well as the public. Patton did not include in his crime bill a proposal to lower the blood-alcohol content needed to convict someone of drunken driving. But Chandler, who had a drunken-driving task force that urged the stiffer definition, said it would be part of a separate bill. "We really didn't even try to get it included as part of this package." very strongly that it needs to be tied to the lottery." Kentucky Lottery revenues, which amounted to $151 million last fiscal year, go into the state's General Fund the fund that gets most tax revenue and pays for most state programs, primarily education.

Shaughnessy wants to gradually transfer lottery revenues to a merit scholarship fund over eight years. But some lawmakers, including the legislature's top two Republican leaders, have questioned the use of lottery revenue, which they consider an unpredictable source of money, for such a program. Shaughnessy, though, says the lottery revenue has been steady over the past six years. Snaughnessy's original bill would have offered partial to full scholarships based on a student's high '1 1 1 the comprehensive Standard Poor's ANNUAL FORECAST '98 as a service Please mail me sets 1997 YEAR-END STOCK GUIDE vital investment facts on over 5,500 common and preferred stocks, including all listed in the New York Stock Exchange, plus NASDQ stocks. There are 49 columns of valuable information on each stock, including December's and 1997's price range and comparison with previous years.

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Total enclosed Together, these two powerful resources provide a wealth of practical investment facts and guidance an ideal reference for any investor, expert or novice. These publications are regularly valued at a total of $32.95 per set, but The Courier-Journal is making them available to its readers now for only $7.50 per set. Simply attach your check or money order to the coupon and mail. The guides will be mailed after February 1, 1998. Continued from Page Bl postsecondary education." He has indicated support for the merit scholarship idea, but has said he first will provide full funding for existing student-aid programs based on need the College Access Program and the Tuition Grant Program.

The fate and the form of the measure will become clearer Tuesday when Patton is expected to mention the matter in his budget address to the General Assembly. One big issue to be resolved in his discussions with Patton, Shaughnessy said, is whether the program should be funded with lottery revenue. "The governor's expressed a concern that by tying it to the lottery that we lose support of some legislators," Shaughnessy said. "I still feel Name Address. Apt.

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