FRANKFORT - After a tense day filled with political posturing and rhetorical jabs, House and Senate leaders decided to wait until Monday to begin hammering out an agreement on how to fix Kentucky's Medicaid budget.

Following a short meeting late Friday afternoon between House and Senate leaders, House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate President David Williams remained hopeful that a deal between the two sides could be inked before March 22, the last scheduled day of the 2011 legislative session.

But time is running out and the two sides are philosophically far apart on how to deal with a potential shortfall in the $6.5 billion Medicaid budget.

The Democratic-controlled House has passed Gov. Steve Beshear's budget proposal, which includes shifting $166 million from next fiscal year to the current fiscal year in the Medicaid budget. The Senate has passed a measure that calls for cuts to almost all government agencies of less than 1 percent this fiscal year, which ends June 30, and 2.26 percent in the second year of the state's two-year spending plan. Education was spared in the first year of the proposed budget but would sustain cuts in the second year.

Filed Under : Medicaid