FRANKFORT — 2012 is already proving to be a year of great change for McCreary County as Governor Steve Beshear on Friday signed into law controversial plans to re-draw state legislative districts.

    The plans were devised by the majority leadership in both chambers — Democrats in the House and Republicans in the Senate. While most attention has focused on how each party chose to pit incumbents of the other party against each other, local citizens have been more concerned about McCreary County’s placement on the legislative maps.

    The House plan moved the county from the 52nd District now represented by Sara Beth Gregory into the 89th District represented by fellow Republican Marie Rader. The new 89th is  comprised uses a sliver of Laurel County to connect McCreary with Rader’s home base, Jackson County.

    The Senate plan released Wednesday took McCreary County out of the comforts of the 16th District, represented by Senate President David Williams, and into the 21st District with Laurel and Wayne counties. That district is currently represented by Tom Jensen (R-London).

    While Beshear complained of the partisan motivation of the Republican Senate without commenting on those of the Democratic House, it wasn’t enough to convince the governor to veto the bill.

    “[T]he deadline for Kentuckians to file for these House and Senate seats is Jan. 31, only 11 days away,” Beshear said in a statement Friday.  “Therefore, I am signing House Bill 1 today so that all citizens interested in filing for any of these seats will know what House or Senate district they are in and have time to get their filing papers in order to file for office.”

    “If the governor truly believed that HB 1 is such an egregious piece of legislation, he should have the courage of his convictions to veto the plan,” Williams said in his own statement. “As usual, though, he prefers to cast aspersions instead of taking responsibility for his own actions or inactions and thereby continue to make Frankfort more partisan than it already is.”

    Given the anger and outrage of minority members in both chambers, it might be hard to find a more partisan place than Frankfort already. At least that seemed to be the mood at a table in the Capitol Annex cafeteria where five Republican House members gathered for lunch.

    “I think both chambers are equally guilty of partisanship,” said Rep. John Carney, R-Campbellsville. “I think the losers here are the people of Kentucky.”

He and Rep. Sara Beth Gregory, R-Monticello, think a less partisan process is needed. Carney noted that 12 states use independent, non-partisan commissions to draw legislative lines and he wants Kentucky to at least look at that approach to see how it works.

    Gregory said she had read stories indicating some of those commissions have had problems so she wasn't sure that's necessarily the answer.

    “I would support more transparency,” Gregory said. “The plans need to be publicly available for a couple of days before they vote so people can know what's happening.”

    Beshear's statement also called for “some type of non-partisan, citizen-based group (to) be created to participate in the process” prior to the next re-districting after the 2020 U.S. Census.

    Meanwhile, although state districts are now law, the leaders of the two parties have yet to agree on a congressional map. House Speaker Greg Stumbo said Friday morning the two sides were still “far apart.” He said the Democrats had offered substantial changes to their original map (which moves McCreary County into the 2nd Congressional District) but the Senate Republicans responded with basically their original map (which leaves our county in Rep. Hal Rogers’ 5th District). He wouldn't share any specifics.

    “Our position has always been that the current congressional districts should be changed minimally to constitutionally conform to population shifts so that most Kentuckians will be able to benefit from the same representation and maintain electoral accountability,” said Williams. “Any attempt on either side to gain new political advantage from the congressional redistricting would be futile.”

    The House and Senate adjourned Friday morning without a resolution. Both chambers weren’t scheduled back in session until 4 p.m. yesterday.

    In the meantime, locals are attempting to make their voices heard. On Friday, the McCreary County Chamber of Commerce released a resolution urging lawmakers to keep Congressional boundaries as they are.

    “By changing our Congressional District from the 5th to the 2nd, this would create a hardship on our citizens to travel to Bowling Green for federal business,” the resolution reads in part. “The current economic condition would make it even more difficult for our citizens to have to conduct their business more than 170 miles and two and a half hours from home.”