Kentucky Votes becoming a serious political tool

The Kentucky Votes website now has a database of legislative bills and voting records going back to 2005. Readers can search by keywords, bill numbers, or legislator names.

Elections are coming up quickly. Happy hunting.

Can't believe we are still fighting this fight

Next week, Congress will take a big vote on taxes. It will be interesting to see how Rep. John Yarmuth and Rep. Ben Chandler play this one.

Jail officials spotted in Covington

Fayette County Detention Center administration officials Don Leach, Jim Kammer, Todd Eads, and Mary Hester are all discussing their future with federal authorities this morning.

Stay tuned for updates...

Anyone ready to cut fat at Lexington jail?

The city of Lexington is looking at ways to eliminate excess spending. Here's an idea: Ron Bishop, Don Leach, Jim Kammer, Todd Eads and Mary Hester are all administration officials at the Fayette County Detention Center earning more than $80,000. In addition to their fat salaries -- and given the disgraceful state of the jail -- is there really any reason they should also be driving around city-provided cars all the time?

And Ron Bishop drives his car home to Louisville every night. If you live in Lexington, you are paying for his gas.

Also can't help wondering how many city vehicles will be carrying these folks up to Covington Thursday to speak to the federal grand jury investigating their activities.

Why so squeamish, Governor Steve Beshear?

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear officially made his "no tax increase" campaign pledge a lie today when he signed into law HB 258, a corporate tax increase.

One funny thing about this, though: Beshear has already gone on the record championing tax increases and has even talked about calling a tax increase special session of the General Assembly. So why would he gloss over a tax increase victory today with this odd press release?



You will notice the headline touts four bills, but the press release only specifically names two. The two that rated only an oblique reference were HB 233 and HB 258.

House Bill 258 will, according to the fiscal note attached to the bill, raise $500,000 in new corporate taxes before June 30 and $4.7 million over the next biennium.

Count on Massachusetts to think of this first

Just when you thought Kentucky's time bomb of a public employee benefit program couldn't get any worse, you realize our workers aren't going to court to demand pension payments based on their government-provided cars, Blackberries, and computers -- yet.

"In fact, he argued, if the court rules that the use of a car is considered income (though it's not taxed as such), it would open the door to future retirees claiming pension increases based on their use of computers, or even for health benefits."

Our public employee benefits plans are currently $26 billion in the hole. Kentucky's two-year executive branch budget is $19 billion.

Are you a "stupid conservative?"

John David Dyche, a Republican, showed today why the Louisville Courier Journal doesn't mind running his columns:

"Republicans in the Kentucky General Assembly have conflated the concept of conservatism with opposition to any and all tax increases. This is unfortunate and incorrect. Properly understood, conservatism is an attitude of realistic prudence toward politics and society, not a rigid position on any single issue."

And then former Republican Rep. Jon Draud, currently Education Commissioner, showed the same condescending attitude toward people who oppose making government bigger in an interview this afternoon. If these guys are looking for someone else to be smarter than, I hope they feel free to pick me.

Ben Chandler getting comfortable in D.C.

The National Taxpayers Union 2007 Congressional report card is out and the numbers are fairly predictable for Kentucky's delegation.

The one thing that stands out is how far and how low Rep. Ben Chandler has slipped in his regard for taxpayer interests during his time in Washington D.C.

Chandler scored a 4% F in 2007, down from his high-water mark of 21% in 2005. For a little perspective, Senator Hillary Clinton had a 9% in 2005 and a 3% in 2007. Rep. John Yarmuth scored a 6% in 2007.

Kentucky's Republicans did significantly better.

Follow this link and you can look them up on your own.

Too much money in Kentucky education?

One of the least reported state government stories in recent years is the deplorable condition of financial controls in Kentucky's school systems.

Understanding this shines a different light on the current yammering about money by education bureaucrats and their enablers.

Be on the lookout for the talking point du jour about Kentucky underfunding its schools compared to other states. The other side of this one statistic suggests we may be actually overfunding schools. Given our mediocre education results in Kentucky, that should be some serious food for thought.

Now is when it starts getting fun...

In the last week before a pivotal grand jury session in Covington coming on April 10, the guillotine is about to fall hard at the Fayette County Detention Center.

Jail Director Ron Bishop is on his way out. Very soon.

Mayor Jim Newberry may actually have to comment on this one.

Long live the Gatton Academy!

Did you know David Hawpe is still alive and writing silly garbage for the Louisville Courier Journal?

In yesterday's column, Hawpe took issue with a magazine article headline that described the 120 high school students who got into WKU's Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science as the brightest in the state:

Based on that system, the ideal applicant ought to be a test-tutored grind who is adept at sucking up to teachers and counselors and telling interviewers what they want to hear.
Not exactly the type to end up on the senior superlative page in the yearbook, under the heading "Most Popular."
What do they do in the Florence Schneider Hall rec room: sit around chugging chai and debating string theory? Grooving on the latest episode of "Battlestar Galactica" or re-runs of "Dr. Who?"

Hawpe is upset that a small number of high school students who are better at math than he is don't have to stay stuck in their district schools if the curriculum isn't challenging enough for them.

Hawpe may be in luck, though. The Gatton Academy looks to be headed to the dustbin of good educational ideas because the General Assembly didn't put any funding in the 2009-10 budget for it. And, frankly, I'm surprised he seems to have missed the fact that the school was already operating illegally.

The Gatton Academy may well not exist for long, but the idea of improving educational opportunities shouldn't stop there. If we ended Kentucky's ridiculous prohibition of charter schools, it wouldn't have to.

You are your neighbor's corporate financier

Government at all levels has already done such a fine job fixing up real estate markets, it is should be no surprise the Lexington city council wants to build a 35-story building.

And why should they worry something might go wrong? Lexington taxpayers are underwriting the project.

Not sure he cleared that with the candidates

Speaking on Face the Nation this morning, DNC Chair Howard Dean just explained that the increasingly bitter Democratic presidential primary won't hurt the eventual winner because "both candidates know this race is bigger that Senator Clinton or Senator Obama."

New twist in Fayette Jail saga

FBI agents bearing subpoenas paid a visit to the Fayette County Detention Center yesterday in search of senior administration officials.

And a new word was added to the mix: embezzlement.

The grand jury investigating the mess at the jail meets Thursday, April 10. Justice Department officials speak privately about their surprise that the senior officials at FCDC have been unusually unhelpful in their investigation, which continues to grow tentacles.

Mayor Jim Newberry had no comment.

Kentucky's out-of-touch school bureaucrats

A month-old letter from Kentucky Education Association President Sharron Oxendine to legislators pushing for a seventy cent cigarette tax increase, Rep. Jim Wayne's wish list of further tax increases, and legalized casino gambling shows how far this "education" group has strayed from its intended purpose.

Now that Governor Steve Beshear is making the rounds to push for a special session on tax increases, this might be good time for a reminder of what these folks are up to.

Meanwhile, Education Commissioner Jon Draud is putting together his task force to study "improving" the CATS education assessment program. This group will be stacked with people like Oxendine and Prichard Committee-types with little interest in doing anything but screaming for more money.

While the Kentucky Department of Education is in charge of grading its own assessments, though, additional funding should be considered a very unwise investment.

Go here for the latest on that.

Focus on the big money

Now that our loan sharks are safe and schoolyard bullies are running for cover, we'd better get serious about our $26 billion monster.

Helen Mountjoy doesn't want you to read this

... but she probably wants your fourth grade teacher to "coach" you for a few months on the essay you will have to write about it.

Helen Mountjoy is the state Education Secretary and a big supporter of the status quo in Kentucky primary and secondary education.

Bad Kentucky test scores are bad news for her. Of course, the stranglehold the teachers union has on the system is bad news for the rest of us. But raising awareness helps matters over time. Go ahead and read this.

And then take a look at the KDE spin you will read in tomorrow's MSM.

Let's call them Austere Bonds

The word of the day in Frankfort has been "austere." That refers, of course, to the adjective most commonly used to describe the $19 billion dollar state spending plan passed last night. Just curious, I've looked all day for mention of the level of bonded indebtedness in this bill.

Haven't seen it in the media anywhere.

Bonded indebtedness is the amount that we expect to overshoot the mark of incoming revenues, but plan to go ahead and spend the money we don't have anyway, our constitutional prohibition of such activity "notwithstanding," as they say in the biz.

Got that?

Anyway, the bonded indebtedness we just agreed to heap on ourselves over the next two years is $1.2 billion. Thank your kids.

6:48 Update: Read Section 49 and 50 of the Kentucky Constitution for more on borrowing.

Making budget sausage in Frankfort

The Senate has put some of the previously removed infrastructure projects for the 2009-10 biennium into HB 410.

House Budget Chair Harry Moberly is on the floor now explaining why he is going to vote against the budget. He spoke feverishly, claiming the Senate was buying the House members off with projects.

The budget passed.

Live-blogging Mitch McConnell

Senator Mitch McConnell will speak to the Madison County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner gathering this Friday night. Dinner starts at 6pm at the Russell Action Folk Center, 212 W. Jefferson Street in Berea. Tickets are $25 and you can reserve yours by calling Chris Cooper at 859.200.7711.

See you there!