House tries tinkering its way to prosperity

The House just chickened out on meaningful public employee benefit reform by rejecting the changes the Senate made to HB 600 which would have moved us in the direction of sufficient funding for our woefully underfunded liabilities.

The House must prefer that we just pay more later. Our payday lender friends should be overjoyed that so many people have such disdain for fiscal prudence.

Kathy Stein gets schooled

House Judiciary Chair Kathy Stein has tried every trick in the book this year to keep the illegal immigration bill from getting an honest hearing in Frankfort. As neighboring states pass laws to restrict hiring of those here illegally, Kentucky can't just stand by and do nothing.

Falsified identification documents are a big part of the problem. So this afternoon when Rep. Bob Damron attached identity theft provisions from HB 304 to HB 553, it sailed through the House. Don't know if the MSM picked up on this, but it is a big story today.

Ronnie Ellis needs answers

Columnist Ronnie Ellis describes problems with the Kentucky budget process such as the do-nothingness of legislators for at least the first half of the session, the secrecy, and the way the budget is then rammed down everyone's throats at the last minute so it has to be voted on without being read or discussed.

Maybe if we are going to have a bill to criminalize anonymous comments online, we need a bill to prohibit syndicated columnists from complaining about the bad actions of lawmakers without offering solutions.

Mr. Ellis would do very well to familiarize himself with House Bill 58, House Bill 413, and Senate Bill 3 which would eliminate each of the problems he describes.

If we're broke, let's be transparent

It continues to amaze me that the mainstream media hasn't jumped on board the government transparency movement. Even Chairman Harry Moberly's protege Rep. Don Pasley stuck his toe in the water. Governor Steve Beshear got caught on tape promising to show the public more of where their money is going. Come on in, guys, the water is fine!

The Sam Adams Alliance is leading the charge in getting the states to open their books to public inspection. We should join them now!

Cracking The CON, Inflating Health Insurance

Another disappointing feature of the Governor Steve Beshear administration is the continuation of support for the destructive Certificate of Need (CON) program.

House Bill 747 would open the door just wide enough to start justifying repeal of the whole mess. HB 747 comes up for a vote in the House Health & Welfare Committee tomorrow morning.

Also tomorrow, the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee will vote on making the ICARE subsidy permanent. ICARE takes tax money from you and me and gives it to people who don't buy their own health insurance. ICARE was established as a pilot project in 2006.

Team McCain Might Want To Look At This

Project Vote Smart regularly chastises candidates of both political parties for not answering its "Political Courage Test."

Currently, if you look at the PVS entries for both Anne Northup and Rep. John Yarmuth, you will see the following message:

REPEATEDLY REFUSED TO PROVIDE ANY
RESPONSES TO CITIZENS ON ISSUES THROUGH THE 2006
NATIONAL POLITICAL AWARENESS TEST WHEN ASKED TO DO SO BY

Key national leaders of both major parties including:
John McCain, Republican Senator
Geraldine Ferraro, Former Democratic Congresswoman
Michael Dukakis, Former Democratic Governor
Bill Frenzel, Former Republican Congressman
Richard Kimball, Project Vote Smart President

Over 100 news organizations throughout the nation also urged their candidates to supply their issue positions through the National Political Awareness Test.

If you happen to look at the entry for presidential candidate John McCain, you will find the following:

Senator John Sidney McCain III repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on the issues through the 2008 Political Courage Test when asked to do so by national leaders of the political parties, prominent members of the media, Project Vote Smart President Richard Kimball, and Project Vote Smart staff.


Urge Senator John Sidney McCain III to fill out the Political Courage Test

Senator McCain might want to stop asking others to fill out this stupid survey if he won't do it himself.

Kentucky Progress 2.0 Open Thread

I just took a class in blogging. Planning some major upgrades. Stay tuned...

Cutting Taxpayer Spending On Corporate Welfare

Are you still looking for a way to cut government spending to shore up Kentucky's bad budget picture?

Try HB 748 and HB 750, which would set Kentucky up to get out of the corporate welfare business. This is something a lot of Kentuckians should be able to agree on. Tax cuts across-the-board benefit taxpayers, but individualized tax abatements to individual corporations benefit very narrowly while hurting everyone else.

Beshear Holding Tax Increase Rally Wednesday

After campaigning for months as a candidate against tax increases, Governor Steve Beshear is now apparently leading the charge.

Their cause celebre, raising the cigarette tax, seems like an odd move for a politician whose jumping-off point in October was this:

Beshear said he not only would not raise taxes, but that he would support repeal of the infamous Limited Liability Entity tax (LLET) signed into law by Governor Fletcher. Beshear won't have to go far to find a way to repeal the unpopular tax, as the bill has already been pre-filed. The third horse on Beshear's trifecta box is, of course, casino gambling.

Lots of water under the bridge since then.

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday, for a bridge today...

Probably the best thing that can be said about the state's role in federally-matched health coverage plans like SCHIP and Medicaid is that they are big government at a discounted rate.

So what are we to think when the House wants to spend money we don't have to build bridges on interstate roads?

Our all-powerful congressional delegation really should be playing a role in this, rather than leaving it to Frankfort.

One way to handle a bullying bill

Senate Democrats are up in arms because the House's "bullying" bill got a committee substitute from President David Williams that doesn't include the word "bullying" or the phrase "The Golden Rule." More symbolism over substance, as usual, from that chamber's minority party.

After an angry diatribe, Senator Julian Carroll thoughtfully added "I am not a Greek philosopher."

The bill passed. I'm sure my kids feel safer already.

Making People Mad 101

Richard Day at Kentucky School News and Commentary says:

"David Adams at the Bluegrass Institute reported yesterday on an anti-union group that is offering to "pay the ten worst union-protected teachers in America $10,000 apiece to get out of the classroom - for good."

The Center for Union Facts presents state data on union activity, including financial resources, but focuses on the percentage of teachers fired by the states - as some magically omniscient measure of teacher quality.The logic is - private school teachers are better because more of them get fired.

David would have to tell us how many folks at BGI were fired last year - but I'm not sure how that would relate to the quality of their work anyway.

This is clearly a cynical gimmick designed to ramp up anti-public school sentiment."

More Sneaky House Budget Actions

House Democrats just suspended the rules to throw another amendment on the budget bill and were trying to force a vote without allowing Republicans to even read it.

After a request from Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, a fifteen minute break was granted for a quick read. But what we really need, though, is this bill to give legislators and the public time to read their garbage before it is crammed down our throats.

Taxing In Circles and Picking Our Own Pockets

Rep. David Watkins just made a House floor speech in favor of cutting out the health ravages of smoking by raising the cigarette tax twenty five cents a pack. He spoke about how much it costs taxpayers to cover through Medicaid the treatment of smoking related diseases.

Since Medicaid recipients who smoke are likely to pay the tax increase with our money anyway, wouldn't it make more sense to take steps to remove benefits from people who smoke?

Jody Richards Allergic To Taxpayer Rights

While Rep. Jody Richards was dripping orange hair dye on Rep. Greg Stumbo's speaker's chair yesterday, he had a chance to strike a blow for taxpayers.

He failed.

Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo's economic development transparency bill was the perfect vehicle for Rep. Jim DeCesare to attach his transparency bill and get it a hearing in the House.

Richards, showing yet again his apparent lack of understanding of the term "germane," ruled the amendment out of order.

Asking Jim Newberry

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry goes in for a deposition on Thursday to testify regarding his role in the cover-up of the Fayette County Detention Center prisoner abuse scandal.

Perhaps he will have details about the revelations of a jail employee trading clean drug tests for sexual favors and car detailing at Paul Miller Ford.

No Priorities, Only More Spending

The House Budget Committee just voted to raise your taxes more.

Rep. Jim Wayne said legislators would be "dead-beat parents" if they didn't raise taxes.

"All of us want more in the budget and the only way we are going to get more in the budget is to raise more revenue," Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark said, summing up perfectly what is wrong with our state government.

The bill they voted on was HB 262. As of this writing, not all the details are available. Hope to have it updated tonight.

Rep. Bob DeWeese and Rep. Danny Ford called out House Dem leaders for trying to cram the tax increase down their throats. Rep. DeWeese also complained that legislators will have to vote on the budget without being able to read it.

Rep. Keith Hall suggested there would be "blood on my hands" if he didn't vote for the tax increase. He voted for it.

The Tax Increase Fix Is In

The Senate Budget Committee is set this morning to vote on the HB 258 tax increase bill the House passed 97-0.

And no, don't call me and tell me it was just a tax increase on companies not headquartered in Kentucky or that it just turned back the clock on a part of the 2005 tax modernization. Consumers pay more when corporate taxes go up, even if the corporations aren't based in Kentucky.

A year ago, we were going to get rid of this tax. Doesn't anyone remember that?

It is disgusting to see Harry Moberly writing the tax increase talking points for Frankfort Republicans now. What's next, another cigarette tax increase for the children?

Sunny And Money Monday!

I'm stuck in the Louisville Airport after a car accident/traffic jam/missed flight/toiletries tossed in the name of jihad all-day nightmare as I try to get to Washington D.C. for the week.

To top it all off, the internet connection I just blew five dollars on here doesn't work very well. I plan to do updates tonight, but it might be a little thin until then.

March 10 Monday Morning Meeting

Monday (3/10/08) at 10 am in Frankfort, Bluegrass Institute's education analyst Dick Innes will speak about reforming the education assessment program called CATS and about why the bureaucrats (and their politicians) are against Senate President David Williams' SB 1.

The forum will be held in the conference room at the Kentucky Association of Homebuilders, 1040 Burlington Lane in Frankfort.

Anyone is welcome to attend, but please email me at adams(at)bipps.com to let me know you are coming. Members of the media are welcome to attend, but the entire meeting is off the record.