Kentucky Citizens Judicial President David Adams filed a lawsuit in Franklin Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of the bulk of the Commonwealth's system of economic development.
Adams asked the court to rule "activities of government in the Commonwealth violate the plain language of the Kentucky Constitution when they treat individuals and groups of individuals differently from each other in terms of taxation, ownership or use of private property or substantial and particular benefits derived from public property."
He seeks temporary and permanent injunctions against continued proliferation of such efforts. Governor Steve Beshear and Secretary of the Cabinet for Economic Development Larry Hayes were named as defendants in the lawsuit.
Adams claimed three specific statutes are unconstitutional and that government economic development "has grown to consume far more collective activity, power, attention and resources than could have been envisioned as recently as 1986."
That's the year a bill in the General Assembly proposed as an effort to attract Japanese automaker Toyota to manufacture cars in Georgetown, Kentucky granted substantial new powers to state government to control private economic activity in the Bluegrass State.
Adams said "substantial waste of state resources and centralization of power in contradicting the plain language and the clear intent of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky" made judicial action necessary.
