Tax and budget bills - and estimated money - all adjusted on Kentucky lawmakers' final day

FRANKFORT, Ky. — On the final day of its session, the General Assembly approved dozens of changes in its budget and tax reform bills and revealed a lower estimate of how much money the tax bill is expected to generate.

The changes were part of three different bills and were passed over the complaints of minority Democrats who — in what has become their familiar refrain in the sessions' closing days — said they had no time to read the new bills or research their consequences.

"These bills are cut in backrooms with a lot of input from lobbyists," complained Senate Minority Leader Ray Jones, D-Pikeville, of the measure amending the tax bill.

But Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said this was the first time in his 20 years as a senator that budget and tax bills passed early enough in the session for lawmakers to go back and make fixes.

The Senate, and later the House, easily passed the changes to the budget bill and gave final passage to the tax changes.

Trump administration: Louisville is not a sanctuary city and complies with federal law

During a committee debate of the tax changes, Sen. Chris McDaniel, the Taylor Mill Republican who chairs the Senate budget committee, acknowledged the net effect of the changes with the tax reform bill passed Friday would produce $395.8 million in new state revenue over the 2018-20 budget period.

"That gives me huge pause for concern," said Sen. Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, who noted the new total is $80 million less than an estimate made last week and $40 million less than an estimate made on Friday.

The changes to the tax bill include a fix that deletes the original bill's suspension of a tax incentive used by some of Kentucky's major employers, including Toyota, Ford and GE.

The bill also will remove a "business-to-business" tax effect of the original bill by saying the cost of labor for equipment repairs of large-scale manufacturing operations will not be subject to the state sales tax, McDaniel said.

Related: Tax reform bill inadvertently cut credit used by Toyota and others

And out-of-state communications, cable and internet services also got a break with one change. The new tax bill will allow only such companies to continue to base their corporate income tax liability under an existing formula that they prefer. The original tax bill included a new formula for the corporation income tax that most Kentucky corporations sought.

Democrats said the additional corporate tax breaks reinforced their concerns that the overall tax reform benefits corporations and the wealthy at the expense of average Kentuckians, and the bill amending the tax plan passed the House with the minimum 51 yes votes required.

Separate bills made changes to the 2018-20 state budget.

One key change will freeze for one year the current pension contributions of certain quasi-government entities like community mental health agencies and local health departments. Those agencies were facing hikes in pension costs of more than 60 percent starting in July.

McDaniel said the budget change also contains a directive to Kentucky Retirement Systems to study a long-term solution allowing such agencies to exit the state pension system.

More on this: Republican lawmakers steamroll Bevin vetoes, pass budget and tax bills

Another budget change will authorize the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System to pay for health insurance coverage for dependents of teachers who retired since 2010 but are not yet 65 years old and eligible for Medicaid.

McDaniel said this wording only allows the teachers' system to pay for this benefit and does not mandate that it pay. But he said this is no change from current state policy.

"We've always counted on the KTRS board to make that decision," he said.

Coal counties will get a larger share of state coal severance tax revenues under another budget change. And a different bill amending the budget will fund the Kentucky Wired project, allowing it to borrow up to $110 million to pay off costs for numerous delays in its project to build a high-speed internet network in all 120 counties.

Related: 'It doesn't really feel like a win.' Teachers see veto overrides as hollow victory

On Friday, the House and Senate overrode Gov. Matt Bevin's vetoes of the original tax and budget bills. Those bills will become law.

But Bevin will be able to veto the bills passed Saturday making changes to the budget and tax bills. And any vetoes Bevin might issue will stand.

How Kentucky lawmakers voted

Here's how Kentucky lawmakers voted on overriding Bevin's budget veto

Here's how Kentucky lawmakers voted on rejecting Bevin's tax plan veto

Tom Loftus: tloftus@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @TomLoftus_CJ. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/toml.