page_title: Paul E. Patton
section_title: Second term as governor (1999–2003)
hierarchical_section_title: Paul E. Patton / Political career / Second term as governor (1999–2003)
caption_attribution_description: English: James Garrard (1749–1822), the second Governor of the U.S. state of Kentucky
context_page_description: Paul Edward Patton is an American politician who served as the 59th governor of Kentucky from 1995 to 2003. Because of a 1992 amendment to the Kentucky Constitution, he was the first governor eligible to run for a second term in office since James Garrard in 1800. Since 2013, he has been the chancellor of the University of Pikeville in Pikeville, Kentucky after serving as its president from 2010 to 2013. He also served as chairman of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education from 2009 to 2011.
  After graduating from the University of Kentucky in 1959, Patton became wealthy operating coal mines for 20 years. He sold most of his coal interests in the late 1970s and entered politics, serving briefly in the cabinet of Governor John Y. Brown Jr. and chairing the state Democratic Party. In 1981, he was elected judge/executive of Pike County. He made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 1987, but was elected in 1991, serving concurrently as lieutenant governor and secretary of economic development under Governor Brereton Jones.
  Four years later, Patton was elected Governor over Larry Forgy.
context_section_description: After the gubernatorial election in 1999, Louisville senator Dan Seum announced he would change his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, citing his conservative voting history, including opposition to the state lottery, KERA, and abortion. This switch, which Patton learned of too late to intervene, equalized the number of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. Six weeks later, Paducah senator Bob Leeper announced he would also change his party affiliation. Patton traveled to Paducah and met with Leeper, but was unable to convince him to remain a Democrat. Leeper had a history of conflict with Democratic Senate President Larry Saunders, but he insisted his party switch, like Seum's, was based on political philosophy. Leeper's switch gave Republicans a majority in the Senate for the first time in the state's history. David Williams was elected President of the Senate, and held the Republican majority together effectively. Consequently, Patton faced a difficult task in maneuvering his agenda through a divided General Assembly.
  The rift between Williams and Patton became permanent during negotiations over the state budget in 1999. Patton proposed to Williams a 7-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax, with 1 cent of every 7 dedicated to counties with the most unpaved roads – usually heavily Republican counties ignored by past Democratic governors. Patton claimed Williams told him he had 10 votes in the Senate for the increase. But gas prices spiked before the measure came to a vote in the Senate, and Williams failed to deliver his votes after the House passed the tax. The administration and key Republican senators reached a compromise that saved Patton's budget with tax changes that were mostly revenue-neutral. Patton believed Williams had deliberately misled him, however, and the two never reconciled.
  Another issue confronting both Patton and the legislature was how to spend federal funds from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Kentucky's share of the settlement totaled $3.5 billion over 25 years. Because tobacco was a major cash crop in Kentucky, Patton proposed that half of the settlement be used to diversify the state's farmers' crops. One-fourth of the money would support health care and anti-smoking efforts. The remaining one-fourth would address early-childhood care and education, a cause important to Patton's daughter, Nicki, an early-childhood educator.
  In November 2000, Kentucky voters approved a constitutional amendment providing a shorter legislative session in odd-numbered years with longer sessions in even-numbered years. Most of Patton's proposals failed in the 2000 and 2001 legislative sessions. The economic boom that had provided ample funds for his programs during the first term slowed in 2001, and by 2002 the state was $800 million short of meeting its budget. In 2002, Republicans in the General Assembly called for an end to public campaign finance, as an economy measure. Calling it "welfare for politicians", Republicans estimated that abolishing public campaign finance could save the state $30 million. Ultimately, the issue derailed the biennial budget during the regular legislative session. In April 2002, Patton called a special legislative session to approve the budget, but legislators were still unable to agree. For the first time in the state's history, the fiscal year began without a budget. This left Patton to run the state government for a year without a budget in place.
  Besides the budget, another measure that failed to pass in the 2002 session was a bill to eliminate the death penalty for juveniles. The precedent for the juvenile death penalty had been set in the 1989 Supreme Court case of Stanford v. Kentucky, wherein the court ruled that Kevin Stanford could be executed for the 1981 rape, sodomy, and murder of a gas station attendant in Jefferson County, Kentucky, even though Stanford was only 17 at the time of the crime. In 2003, Patton announced he would commute Stanford's sentence. Patton did oversee the execution of two adult prisoners in 1997 and 1999, making him the first Kentucky
caption: James Garrard was the only Kentucky governor to succeed himself in office prior to Patton, doing so in 1800.
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