Beshear reiterates pension wisdom

The smartest thing Governor Steve Beshear has said yet about our $26 billion pension debacle is this:

"Not as accurate as I have been in the past?"

Watching Hillary Clinton try to turn her lie about Bosnia into a positive for her campaign last night was even more fun than watching her husband explain that the cigar was his.

Now let's have a repealing party

The ink is not yet dry on the last bills coming from the 2008 General Assembly and they are already talking about a special session to raise taxes, fix the pension mess, and other assorted items.

Two bills that should be repealed as part of the effort to clean up the $26 billion public employee benefits disaster are HB 470 from this year and HB 299 from 2005.

Both sides in Florida get cigarette tax increase

Governor Charlie Crist of Florida promised to kill a proposed cigarette tax increase. This is not a surprise, since Crist probably wants to keep his name on the VP short list.

But what is a surprise, perhaps, is that even the sponsor of the tax increase bill understands there are limits to what the tax can accomplish:

The proposed tax increase "is not something we dreamed up to try to balance the budget," Deutch told lawmakers. "It is something we introduced to try to save lives."

If approved, the bill's success would be marked by a drop in tax revenue, the result of fewer people smoking, Deutch said.

"That's what we want to happen," Deutch said. "We won't have an ongoing stream of revenue. We will see it shrink every year."

That's more than we can say for Kentucky's wild-eyed tax raisers.

Demand better educational opportunities now

Late last night, the Kentucky General Assembly made legitimate the state's illegal charter school. Now we must force them to allow this fine example of what school choice can be to be duplicated so we better serve the educational needs of our children.

The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University was created in the 2006 budget with a $3.3 million appropriation, but no enabling legislation was passed to get around education laws prohibiting the kind of advanced training currently enjoyed by 120 high schoolers at WKU. Another $10 million in state money spruced up an old building on campus to house the new program.

Our current laws are set up to protect the status quo in the public schools. The Gatton Academy is an important leak in the dam. The tremendous opportunity presented to these few students involves spending tremendous resources. Now that we have agreed that the effort makes sense for some, we should do more to help those students who don't fit the public school mold bust out. With a little creativity, we could do so for much, much less money.

Ending Kentucky's old-fashioned prohibition of charter schools is the way to start this process.

Jerry Abramson tax tactics lose big

The General Assembly just completed an overwhelming smackdown on the Louisville Library Tax Increasers with a unanimous Senate vote.

A worthy Tax Day debate

Which is better, a flat tax or a national sales tax? Here's a good way of looking at it:

Grayson applauds death of gubernatorial runoff

Secretary of State Trey Grayson quickly sent out a press release approving a bill that could affect his next election.

The House this afternoon passed HB 370, which the Senate amended to include repeal of the gubernatorial runoff election. The bill now goes to Governor Steve Beshear, who is expected to sign it.

“Turnout in most runoff elections is abysmal which often leads parties to nominate a candidate with fewer votes than the top vote-getter in the original primary,” Grayson said. “This legislation is something that most, if not all, legislators agreed was bad public policy.”

Jason Mays comes out swinging

As the 2008 General Assembly session draws to a close, one of the biggest political questions for the upcoming elections is this: will Governor Steve Beshear go to Georgetown to try to save House Majority Caucus Chairman Charlie Hoffman?

Here is Hoffman's opponent Jason Mays:

KY GOP 6CD

Jon Larson is a Republican candidate for Congress in Kentucky's sixth district. Tony McCurdy is his opponent in the May primary. The winner will face Rep. Ben Chandler in November.
This is Jon Larson:


And here is Tony McCurdy:


Any first impressions?

Forgy: battle against casinos not finished yet

Republican stalwart Larry Forgy spoke in Winchester Saturday night about John McCain and the War on Terror, tax increase efforts in Washington D.C. and Frankfort, and Governor Steve Beshear's ongoing campaign to bring casinos to Kentucky.

Still looking for government waste?

If you aren't happy with how the General Assembly did this year, you will be interested to know they messed up their opportunity to shut down the Treasurer's office.

What a waste.


They also could have changed the rule that allows lawmakers to sit around the first month of each election year doing nothing, waiting (on the clock, of course) for the filing deadline to pass.

Lexington jail Hydra grows another head

An internal city of Lexington investigation into on-the-clock business activities of Senior Administration officer Don Leach of the Fayette County Detention Center has attracted the attention of state law enforcement officials. Jail sources report substantial evidence of a link between Dr. Leach (well, sort of) and former Fayette county jailer Ray Sabbatine in a systematic misuse of city property for personal gain.

Counting, but not drowning

Grover Norquist is coming to Kentucky in May to speak to the Bluegrass Institute (oh, and the NRA, too) and The Lexington Herald Leader's Larry Dale Keeling is so upset about it he turned off his spell checker.

Actually, you can see from Keeling's post (if you click on it) he is talking about state government employment getting down below the legal limit, which can only be a good thing for the state. Norquist is indeed, as Keeling supposes, pleased.

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.