An Amendment Worth Talking About

Rep. Jamie Comer filed an amendment today to the felon voting bill, HB 70, that would require felons to repay 25% of the cost of their incarceration before having voting rights restored.

Keeping His Eye Off The Ball

Governor Steve Beshear has been cozying up to former Rep. Mike Weaver recently and taking an interest in his race against Rep. Tim Moore.

The anti-gambling people, the anti-socialized medicine people, and Senator Brandon Smith report that is probably good for Rep. Moore.

Beshear was asked recently about his solution to his political problems. He offered this:

Jim Wayne's World Invades Earth

Rep. Jim Wayne's bills usually get laughed out the House, but this year looks to be different.

The House appears ready to call for a vote on HB 262, an enormous tax increase. It stands no chance in the Senate, but the House has gone off the deep end.

Another Money-Saving Idea

How does it benefit Kentucky for us to give free health insurance to part-time city commissioners and county magistrates?

And let's not have any more of that "best and brightest" bunk...

Where's Kentucky's HillaryCare Now?

One of the best things about the current fiscal crisis in Kentucky is no one is talking about spending more money on government-provided health insurance.

Well, almost no one.

The fiscal note on HB 345 estimates that for KCHIP, Kentucky will spend $198 per month in 2008-09 and $212 per month in 2009-10 per child. That's a little much, especially considering that it's just Kentucky's share before the federal match.

Another line in the fiscal note, however, would be a more useful focal point:

"Allowing members to remain in the program who are not eligible would prevent the program from serving the neediest population due to limited funding."

We need to be raising eligibility limits on KCHIP, not lowering them. Doing so would enhance our ability to help the kids from the poorest families.

We Have Your Answer, Mr. Cross

Al Cross gives an interesting history lesson about part of what plagues Frankfort in today's Courier-Journal.

In it, he lodges a valid complaint about how incumbent legislators a generation ago rigged the game for themselves so that they could more easily get over on their constituents. Inexplicably, this outrage persists:

"(That led to a series of wholly selfish acts; lawmakers made the primary filing deadline one of the earliest in the nation, so they could gauge their opposition before casting controversial votes.)"

It doesn't serve the public interest to arrange our elections with the sole purpose of unfairly protecting incumbents. Given the mess our incumbents have put us in, it should be pretty easy to see that unraveling any part of this twisted tizzy would help democratize the power base in the state.

Senate Bill 3 would move the legislative filing deadline to after even-year sessions, to enhance citizens' ability to protect themselves from legislators who lose sight of their purpose in Frankfort.

Seems to be a bit of that going around.

Better Get Rid Of CATS Before They Try This

The private school and home school families in Kentucky may think they can sit out the current education reform debate about the public school testing program.

Think again. Look what they are trying to do in Tennessee:

Home-schooled students and their parents, along with private school pupils, flooded the halls of the General Assembly on Wednesday to oppose legislation that would impose public school testing requirements on all school-age children.

Time for all liberty-minded Kentuckians to stand up to the education establishment here before it is too late.

David Williams Is Selling Sandwiches

Did you hear about the California high school student who started a thriving business selling sandwiches in his school's parking lot? His school rewarded his initiative and creativity by suspending him for two days.

I think about that when I see the educrats carping at Senate President David Williams for trying valiantly to get rid of Kentucky's long-ago thoroughly discredited CATS assessment program.

Ernesto Scorsone Is As Ernesto Scorsone Does

Good grief. With all the real problems we have in this state now, why is Sen. Ernesto Scorsone filing a discharge petition to try to make it more illegal for kids to be mean?

Don't just sit there, feel good!

If we really want to light a fire under bills that are getting soaked, we should look here.

Greg Stumbo's Plan B

Now that things aren't looking so hot for the casino gambling "campaign contribution" gravy train, Rep. Greg Stumbo is taking steps to shore up elected officials' pensions.

Are They Not Paying Attention At All?

Our educational system is a mess. The educrats have proven to be masters at getting more money for themselves, but when it comes to raising Kentucky out of the bottom in achievement they keep reverting to the old tried and true cooking of the books.

So now that the money has dried up and the Senate has gotten together a serious bill to lessen the influence of these same people, it is no surprise to see their friends get a little silly.

Like in this Bowling Green Daily News editorial that suggests everything would be fine if we just enacted a new feel-good law requiring our children to play nicely.

"Broken"

Governor Steve Beshear sent out the invitations to his own butt-kicking with this casino gambling-as-savior stuff. He is now going to get it with both barrels.

Are we almost ready to start talking about cutting way back on government spending so we can get off the same-old, same-old train and start on a new track?

Jessamine county's own Pastor Jeff Fugate delivers a little down-home commentary below. It's not complicated, folks.

Actions Speak: Harry Moberly Unveils Plan B

House Budget Chairman will rush nine revenue increase bills through his Appropriations and Revenue Committee tomorrow in a hastily called meeting to be held as soon as the House adjourns for the day.

The dead casino bill, of course, was Plan A. Grab on to your wallet.

These are the bills:
HB 257
HB 512
HB 566
HB 608
HB 609
HB 610
HB 611
HB 614
HB 629

It's Called Priorities, Senator

Senator Julian Carroll is getting pretty exercised trying to make the case that we should continue to spend the millions of dollars to run the check printing and Ebay selling functions of the office of Treasurer, instead of disbanding the office as SB 14 would do.

He said several silly things, but this one stood out:

"Why are we so determined to put some issues on the ballot, but we're selective about what we put on the ballot?"

I'm assuming that was his weak plug for the dead casino gambling amendment.

Time To Shoot The Wounded

The casino gambling amendment just failed to pass out of the House Constitutional Amendment committee.

Watch The Wal-Mart Haters Now

Now that Wal-Mart is getting ready to go all in for health clinics in their stores, get ready for their opponents in Frankfort to try to trip them up and keep your healthcare more expensive than it needs to be.

I spoke to a Wal-Mart spokesman today who said there are no regulatory hurdles to putting such clinics in Kentucky stores. In fact, Kroger has already beaten them to the punch. (Look at these prices!) But as the proliferation of market forces lower prices here, we can only hope the General Assembly does what's best and repeals the Certificate of Need laws that cost Kentuckians much more than we would like to think about.

Bang! Bang! Gun Bill To Impact Campus Shootings

A Tennessee state legislator says he is going to introduce a bill to allow full-time employees of colleges and universities in that state who are also concealed carry permit holders to carry guns on campus.

This might help with the silly objection that allowing guns on campus would lead to drunk college students running around shooting each other.

McCain Might Start Measuring For Drapes

If you saw Dukakis in the tank and Kerry in the clean suit and thought they were funny, you haven't seen anything yet (from Drudge):

We Need Anti-Gambling Forces To Fight For More

Pastor Jeff Fugate of Clays Mill Road Baptist Church can draw a crowd. He has gotten engaged in the casino gambling debate and is putting together a rally at the Capitol for March 5.

It would be very helpful if, while they are up there, the anti-casino folks put a word in for getting welfare recipients off drugs and for putting the state government's checkbook on the internet so taxpayers can see where their money is going. Or at least to make legislators negotiate the budget out in the open like honest people.

Chamber of Commerce Supports Welfare Bill

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce put up their legislative update tonight, listing their support of HB 592. They don't specify which tax increase they want to pay for this added spending.

If nothing else, someone should add a measure to disqualify drug abusers from getting existing welfare benefits or this new garbage.