Market Expansion Open Thread

I'm headed to northern Kentucky this morning to tape a television program with political reporter Pat Crowley.

Gambling On Legislator Benefits And Paychecks

Now that casino gambling is dead, Rep. Jim Wayne(D) and Rep. Dwight Butler(R) want to remove accountability from the legislature for beefing up their pay and benefits and give it to a board they create and appoint.

Given the crappy way lawmakers increased pension benefits for themselves in 2005, I really can't imagine we would want to take on the risk of voting for the Make Legislator Pay Increases Easier Act of 2008.

Shades Of Barbara Erwin

The Louisville Courier Journal has a story about the Kentucky School Board loading up Commissioner Jon Draud's compensation with a bunch of sick days.

The "money" quote:

“Right now, I don’t have any sick or vacation time,” Draud said. “I don’t anticipate anything, but if I were to get sick, I would have nothing to fall back on.”

That should go over pretty well with the teachers.

Can't help remembering the dust up our last Ed Commissioner Barbara Erwin had about getting larded up on sick days.

Is it just an interesting coincidence that this little goody was slipped into HB 470 yesterday?

Notwithstanding any statute to the contrary, the executive branch of government shall accept from the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System all accrued annual and sick leave balances and service credits of employees leaving the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System and accepting appointments within the executive branch.

That's a pretty expensive benefit to be dishing out to political appointees or, in this case an appointee) when school districts are talking about laying off employees.

What Might We Do With Legislator Pay?

I'll report details when I have them, but the House is getting a bill today amending the Constitution's provisions relating to legislator pay.

Jody Richards Has A Decision To Make

(Thursday night update: the bill didn't come up for debate but Rep. Brinkman filed an amendment to lower the tax. Good move! Still tough for Jody.)


One of House Budget Chairman Harry Moberly's tax increase bills that may come up for a vote on the House floor this afternoon got a surprise amendment yesterday.

The tax Moberly wants to increase is the infamous Alternative Minimum Calculation Democrats agreed was an "un-American" income tax on businesses with no net income when Ernie Fletcher was governor.

There is no way Richards has the courage of his convictions to allow a vote on this amendment. He will, with a straight face, rule the amendment not germane. This will kill the amendment.

Or he can allow a vote and watch the tax increase he wants die a well-deserved death.

Gooch Wants To Tax Free Speech

Rep. Jim Gooch has filed a bill requiring editorial writers and cartoonists for "a news organization which engages for profit" to register with the state as lobbyists.

Senate To Consider Chris Thieneman Act

The state Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on a bill to prohibit city employees in Louisville from pushing ballot initiatives on the clock like they did in support of the doomed Louisville Library Tax.

Happy Ronald Reagan Day!

The state Senate just named today Ronald Reagan Day in Kentucky.

Enjoy!

Kathy Stein Time

The House Judiciary Committee has wasted an hour and a half listening to testimony on HB 304 that has had nothing to do with the actual bill.

There is no doubt legal immigration is great in a lot of ways, but the bill is about handling illegal activities of illegal aliens.

What a complete mess and embarrassment, Chairwoman Stein.

"Give Me Liberty Or Give Me A U-Haul"

The Lexington Herald-Leader wants to amend the state constitution to automatically restore voting rights to convicted felons. The bill stands no chance of passage, which is probably a good thing since we hardly need to expand the base of voters electing themselves bigger entitlements from taxpayers.

In fact, encouraging people to get with the program or get out of the state could become a theme in this General Assembly if we were to encourage suddenly civic-minded felons to find another state that wants their problems and their votes, along with sending illegal aliens and drug-abusing welfare recipients packing.

All Eyes On David Williams

Governor Steve Beshear continues to disappoint and now there is someone who can make him pay for it.

Now that Senate Republicans have picked up Dan Mongiardo's former seat, Senate President David Williams is the most powerful man in Frankfort.

Just don't screw it up like the Republicans in Washington D.C. did.

Entitlement reform, education reform, and transparency need to be at the top of the list.

That means this, this, and this. And then, for good measure, do this and this.

Lawmaker, Lawmaker, Give Me A Clue

In separate news stories today, we have young people getting involved in the legislative process. Unfortunately, they are both going about it in a way that misses the mark.

Matthew Spicer of Frankfort has put together an automated external defibrillator bill that will give the Kentucky Department of Education unwarranted control of private schools.

"Basically I want it in every public and private school in Kentucky," he said. "They should have AEDs and sporting practices and events."

If we want to mandate them in the public schools, that's fine. But the private schools probably all already have them, and don't need the state nosing around. Spicer and Graham should leave the private schools out of it.

Meanwhile, a Rockcastle county ten year old doesn't like high caffeine "energy drinks."

"I think it should be a law because there are a lot of kids that like them; they think it gets them up but it doesn't," Tate Clements said.

The fifth grader at Brodhead Elementary drank part of his sister's energy drink after hearing friends talk about the rush of energy the beverages can give.

"It was good at first but after a few minutes you start feeling all jumpy," Clements said.

A five minute discussion with this young man about liberty and purpose of laws would do him a world of good.

Who Is Leading The House?

Kentucky's House of Representatives is in disarray. The Democratic caucus hasn't even met once since the first week of the General Assembly. While they wait for Greg Stumbo to come and tell them what to do, some enterprising lawmakers need to start filing discharge petitions to get bills moving around the stagnant leaders.

House rule 48 describes the discharge petition procedure:

Whenever a committee fails or refuses to report within a reasonable time a bill submitted to it, a member may sponsor and file with the Clerk a written request, signed by twenty-five or more members, to call the same up for consideration on the next succeeding legislative day after the filing of the request. The effect of this petition shall be to bring before the House the question of whether the committee to which the bill has been assigned has held the bill for an unreasonable time.
Upon the motion of the member sponsoring the request, and if a majority of the members elected to the House concur that the bill has been held an unreasonable time, the bill shall be considered as though it had been regularly reported, and sent to the Rules Committee.

The Rules Committee's responsibilities are covered in House rule 41. The rule reads in part:

All bills and resolutions having been reported out of the committee to which referred and having received their second reading shall be referred to the Rules Committee. The Rules Committee may refer any bill or resolution before it back to a standing committee...
No bill or resolution shall be referred back by the Rules Committee on more than one occasion...
No bill may be kept in Rules Committee for longer than five legislative days. Within that time, each bill must be reported to the floor or referred back to a standing committee.

The House is sitting on their important bills and the rules provide discharge petitions to light a fire under House leaders. Let's get on with it.

Steve Beshear's Magic Carpet Ride

We are still waiting for Governor Steve Beshear to clue us in on how he is going to handle the public employee pension disaster. I'm guessing he has amended his earlier statement to a "no comment."

For the record, here is his earlier statement on the pensions.

Are We Almost Ready To Stop Screwing Around?

Governor Steve Beshear's casino bill probably doesn't even have the 60 votes to get out of the House. The cigarette tax as savior for the state is beyond ridiculous.

The only way out of our budget mess is to cut spending and the only question that matters is "where do we start?"

Cutting out prevailing wage, raising co-pays on Medicaid and state employee health plans enough to limit overutilization, stopping welfare payments to drug abusers, etc.

The answers are there. We just need a few more politicians with the courage to get it done.

Oodles Of Doodles On Google

For vanity's sake, I had to find out where I fit in to the 6.3 million Google entries bearing my name.

I'm number eight.

Queen Hillary In Your Spam Folder

If you have an email address, you have probably gotten a compelling message from the heir to some African fortune offering to share it with you. All you have to do is send your bank account information and, of course, turn your brain completely off.

It's not hard to imagine we are looking at the same kind of sucker's bet with Hillary Clinton's offer of free health insurance for everyone:

Clinton has not always specified the enforcement measures she would embrace, but when pressed on ABC's "This Week," she said: "I think there are a number of mechanisms" that are possible, including "going after people's wages, automatic enrollment."

Do you really have to think long and hard about whether you want Bill and Hillary Clinton to have control over your paycheck or your checking account or both?

Let The People Decide

Anyone hoping to kill off the casino gambling issue for 2008 might want to pick two or three of the constitutional amendment bills and start pushing lawmakers to pass them. Kentucky law prohibits more than two amendment questions on a November ballot.

As much as I would like to see shorter, more focussed legislative sessions and the abolition of the Treasurer's office, maybe I'll pick raising the homestead exemption and limiting a governor's pardon powers just to get it done.

Puff The Magic Draggin'

Anyone who really thinks raising the cigarette tax seventy cents more is going to stop teenagers from smoking has never been in a long popcorn line at a movie theater, or a fast food restaurant, or a mall.

And the other justification -- that it will provide needed revenue for the state -- is also just smoke and mirrors. The reality is people crossing over from other states to buy low-tax cigarettes bring other economic activity that will be sorely missed if the low taxes disappear.

It would be much cheaper and easier to decrease benefits for welfare beneficiaries who smoke. Raising the cigarette tax just cuts into the help that our money provides them anyway.

We Need A Transparent Transportation Cabinet

If you are looking for a part of state government that really needs to post its checkbook on the internet to keep everyone honest, look no further than the Transportation Cabinet.

Here is a bill filed yesterday that will generate some interesting discussions in the Senate. Someone in the House might at well stick an amendment on there making the Transportation Cabinet post all its financial transactions and contracts online.

Unless, of course, the most ethical government in Kentucky history is hiding something...