Leadership Vacuum In Frankfort Red Light District

It has been two days since Governor Steve Beshear introduced his stillborn casino plan. If the House Democrats had the votes to pass it, it would be worthy of serious discussion. But they don't.

The real story in all this mess is the ideological split in House leadership. The House Democratic caucus has ceased to function and is ripe for a serious shake-up.

While they sort that out, though, the rest of the state has serious needs that are being ignored.

Busting Kentucky out of its welfare mentality can get started by getting serious about illegal immigration and drug-abusing welfare recipients. We need to cut back on the political feeding trough mentality, too, on the way to reforming public employee pension plans before they break the state. Governor Beshear said he will introduce a pension reform plan next week. He really needs to reverse his growing string of policy missteps by getting this one right.

The term "public employee" should suggest those who earn their living through the government work for us, but as their benefits gets more out of hand, we wind up working harder for them. This trend needs to be reversed a whole lot more than we need to sit around watching debate on a revenue scheme that stands no chance of passage.

We can't improve the state by putting up with the same nonsense.

Please Read Bluegrass Policy Blog

I really kind of get a kick out of telling people that I blog for a living.

KentuckyVotes.org, my main gig, is a blog. You can make comments about bills and respond to other comments. If you haven't already gone on there and set up an account to receive daily updates, feel free to do so. That is getting to be a pretty interesting community.

Bluegrass Policy Blog is another thing I do. Usually that is an expansion of bill descriptions that don't really fit KyVotes or just observations about other things going on. It is less political than Kentucky Progress, but if you like this site, you should like that one as well.

Have a great weekend. I'll be on here and Bluegrass Policy Blog posting regularly, as I do seven days a week.

Keep in touch.

Another House Dem Tax Increase Bill

HB 538 makes permanent a tax increase on retailers slipped into the 2006 budget. Rep. Sannie Overly is the lead sponsor, but this one has Rep. Harry Moberly's fingerprints all over it.

Cut The Local Government Secrecy

It is just about time to stop looking for a magic treasure chest of state government revenues and get serious about ways to cut spending and reducing government to a more affordable level. Requiring local governments to post their budget ordinances online is a good step in that direction. Easing the process of comparing what our local governments are spending their money on is a critical part of making government more accountable to the people.

An amendment filed yesterday to this bill would make that a reality.

A Nuclear Power Plant? In Kentucky?

A bill filed today would make it easier for an application to build a nuclear power plant to succeed in Kentucky.

Does the fact that I have two children studying to go into nuclear engineering color my opinion of this bill? You betcha.

And lest you think this bill won't even get a hearing, check this out: it has a Senate twin.

Talk Show Talking

I went up to Northern Kentucky last week and chatted with Pat Crowley on his television show about some of the goings on in Frankfort.

Here it is.

If We Blow Enough Sunshine Up Its Butt, Do You Think It Might Start To Glow?

The casino amendment:

"Are you in favor of increasing state financial support for elementary and secondary education, expanding health care for senior citizens, children and others, support for local governments, and combating drug and alcohol abuse and other important programs by permitting the General Assembly to authorize up to five casinos subject to approval of the voters in the city or county where the casino is located; and up to seven casinos licenses for existing horse racing associations, all of which will be subject to the approval of a state agency created to oversee casino gaming."

Kentucky To Outlaw Mountain Dew?

Two dental professionals testifying to the House Health and Welfare Committee just stated "Mountain Dew Mouth" looks a lot like "Methamphetamine Mouth."

A couple of legislators off camera immediately made comments suggesting that Mountain Dew be made illegal.

Now THAT would get more people interested in the political process.

Brandon Spencer Gets Paid By Greg Stumbo

Remember when Rep. Brandon Spencer, an ambulance company executive, had an epiphany and decided he didn't want his House seat as much as he wanted to give it to the ever eager Greg Stumbo?

Today we saw the pay off for Mr. Spencer.

Time To Wake Up Jonathan Miller

Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary Jonathan Miller likes to say he is for "good government," "openness," and "transparency."

That would be a whole lot easier to believe if he weren't sitting by quietly while the House allows his cabinet to operate under the cover of darkness.

This is outrageous. And the mainstream media, who I guess is busy covering the dead casino bill due out tomorrow, is complicit.

Sports Caption Should Fire Them Up

There was nothing funny about the Kentucky Wildcats' 41 point loss to Vanderbilt last night. But then I saw the caption on a game photo in the Lexington Herald Leader:

CATS SUFFER WORST LOSS IN SERIES HISTORY
Kentucky mimicked a night of political landslides. Alas, the Cats played the role of Hillary Clinton buried in defeat in the Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., primaries.

I wonder how many angry letters to the editor they will get on this one.

Illegal Immigration Enforcement Bill Gains Steam

Looks like someone has put up a petition in support of HB 304. It is here.

Do Nothing Frankfort

The first bill to get a vote in both the House and Senate passed today. Was it something to benefit education? Taxes? Pensions? Entitlement reform? Transparency? Legislative reform? Immigration? Drugs? Local governments?

Nope. It was Abraham Lincoln's birthday.

So glad the glory days have returned to Frankfort.

Gambling With Your Child's Well-Being

As Governor Steve Beshear prepares to divulge his casino gambling plan, he is expected to ignore the downside of creating more avenues for self-destructive, math-challenged Kentuckians to blow up their own finances and then turn to taxpayers for a bail-out.

This is a mistake, of course.

At the very least, Governor Beshear should propose to fine anyone with gambling winnings an amount equal to those winnings if that person's non-gambling income would qualify him or her for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit or if the household receives KCHIP, food stamps, or other state aid in the same tax year the gambling winnings occur.

Making it impossible for low-income Kentuckians to profit from gambling would have the effect of preventing them from frittering away their money. And ours.

Another thing that didn't make our country great

We have become a nation that allows illegal aliens to bleed us dry, subsidizes lifestyles of the drugged and lazy, and elects politicians who play hide the checkbook.

But this beats all of those.

Andrew Horne Gets Ditched

Now Mitch McConnell's opponent looks like it will be the persona non grata of the Democratic Party, Bruce Lunsford.

Cue the weeping and wailing on the Yale campus, where word of their hero's demise apparently hasn't yet hit.

Update: now they know.

Illegal Immigration Gets Serious Look

The House Judiciary Committee will hear testimony on HB 304 from Shelbyville Police Chief Robert Schutte at 2 pm.

You should be able to see it on www.ket.org.

Wanna Bet?

I'd sure like to have a piece of the action on House Budget Chairman Harry "Easy Money" Moberly's assessment of Governor Steve Beshear's casino gambling scheme.

"I think it's 50-50 now that casino gambling will get out of the legislature this year."

The source of this quote is the Lexington Herald Leader.

Good Thing Hypocrisy Doesn't Cause Cancer

I don't know anything about smokeless tobacco being safer than cigarettes, as Professor Brad Rodu says in the Lexington Herald Leader, but I think his column raises an important point about the economics of taxing people into various forms of compliance.

Radu says we should cut the tax on smokeless tobacco to encourage people to switch to it from cigarettes:

"Put in simpler and conservative terms, smokeless use carries less than 2 percent of the health risk of smoking. A rational tobacco tax policy would set taxes accordingly. If lawmakers raise the cigarette tax to $1, the tax on smokeless tobacco should be two cents."

Radu is a smokeless tobacco industry researcher, so we could be cynical and suppose he is just trying to keep his ox from getting gored. But that pales in comparison to the cynicism of those who claim in the same breath that higher cigarette taxes will cut smoking while raising revenues.

The cigarette tax increase bill also raises taxes on smokeless tobacco. For the children and, one imagines, the added revenue.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more effective to refuse KCHIP benefits to children of smokers? That would be a serious incentive for some parents to either quit smoking or figure out a way to take care of their own kids.

Then we could keep cigarette taxes low to encourage border residents of other states to keep coming over to buy their smokes in Kentucky and we might have a few more welfare dollars to make sure those who really need the help can get it.

Defrauding Our Way To Prosperity

If casino gambling as a public policy were a fashion statement, it would be a white leisure suit. If Governor Steve Beshear continues to ignore our real problems like public employees benefits underfunding, out-of-control entitlements, and inefficient government spending practices, he will not only get his casino plan crammed down his throat by his own House of Representatives, but he will find his big labor constituency unable to keep him in office by itself.

Might as well face facts about the state's wasteful labor policies now. Then let's look at our welfare mentality. And then we absolutely must cut our lavish state employee/retiree health benefits.

Failure to address these issues when the necessity of doing so constitutes fraud. And while it might be fun for Team Beshear to blame Ernie Fletcher for not addressing these issues, it doesn't change anything.