Kenny Colston

With this year's legislative session over, a look into lobbying spending in Kentucky shows big money is still a major player in Frankfort.

During the first two months of the this year's session, lobbyists spent $4.2 million to influence lawmakers on bills.  The Legislative Ethics Commission says that's a 10 percent increase on the amount spent in the first two months of the last short session, which was in 2011.

Full spending reports won't be out for at least another month, but so far two lobbying groups stand out from the rest: Altria Client Services and Century Aluminum. Both spent more than $80,000 this January and February. Altria lobbied for a change to tobacco taxes, which passed. Century lobbied for a bill to let aluminum smelters buy power on the open market. It did not pass.

Other big spenders include the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Kentucky League of Cities.

Kentucky legislative leaders say they're proud of the 2013, with legislators having accomplished pension reforms, cleaned up other bills and passed others dealing with hemp, special taxing district and military voting.

Many of the legislature's top priorities were passed in the 30-day session, although most of them were hatched as last minutes deals in the waning days of the session.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo said the 2013 session may have been his proudest in more than a decade.

"I think that history will not have seen the chaotic events of the last day but it should record that this was a very successful session," he said.

Senate President Robert Stivers says the success of the session doesn't rest on any one person's shoulders, but collectively on the legislature.

Kentucky lawmakers have achieved a compromise that would set up a regulatory framework should the federal government legalize industrial hemp.

The so-called hemp bill—Senate Bill 50—gives control of licensing of future hemp farmers to the Industrial Hemp Commission, but allow the Kentucky State Police to do background checks on the farmers.

The state Department of Agriculture would be given many administrative roles for licensing hemp farmers and the University of Kentucky would be charged with researching the issue.

The plan was agreed upon in the final hour of the 2013 General Assembly session. House Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins says it's a good compromise.

Kentucky's legislative leaders have passed two bills to shore up the state's underfunded pension systems, effectively staving off a special session on the issue.

The new plan would reduce a personal tax credit of $20 to $10, generating roughly 33 million in revenue that would go to General Fund, but lawmakers would use for pensions. It would also use revenue from technical changes in the state's tax code, as well as money from federal tax changes.

Overall, the plan would generate $96 million in the 2015 fiscal year and $100 million in 2016 fiscal year.

In a news conference with legislative leaders after the bill passed, Governor Steve Beshear said the process will work as a template for other states.

"This is a good solution to a thorny problem. A solution that other states around the country will be looking at as they look at options to solve their own crises," Beshear said.

A bill requiring prompt pay for health care providers participating in Kentucky's Medicaid managed-care system is heading to the governor's desk—but it could be vetoed.

The bill,  sponsored by House Speaker Greg Stumbo and would move disputes between providers and managed care organizations to the Department of Insurance to be settled.

Many Medicaid managed-care providers providers over late or non-existent payments from the MCOs for the services they did, repeatedly telling lawmakers their problems.

The House passed the legislature in February and the Senate OKed it on Monday.

But the bill isn't favored by the MCOs and the Cabinet for Health and Family services, which currently hears disputes, has concerns too, leading some to believe Gov. Steve Beshear will veto it. And if it is vetoed, Stumbo said he'll make a larger priority in 2014.