Another reason to fire Ron Bishop

A multi-million dollar class action lawsuit against the City of Lexington has reached a settlement agreement, according to federal court documents, and so the city's taxpayers are about to see tangible harm for keeping Fayette County Detention Center Director Ron Bishop employed way past the time since he has proven himself to be a major liability.

Taxpayers have Mayor Jim Newberry, whose law firm represented the city in the matter and will enjoy another healthy payday, to thank for the hit they are going to take. And it will get worse.

The lawsuit resulted from a management scheme at the jail involving shorting employees on their paychecks in violation of the Federal Labor Standards Act and the Kentucky Wage and Hours Act.

This whole thing is stupid and unnecessary and, as usual with the Newberry administration, the only real winners are the lawyers.

Agreement between the city's and plaintiffs' attorneys was worked out on the phone Monday and the judge ordered a hearing for approval of the settlement for Thursday, September 4.

Ohio's Gov. Strickland hates everyone

"Ohioans for healthy families" hasn't weighed in yet on Gov. Ted Strickland's (D) opposition to their wild plan to mandate businesses provide paid family sick leave to everyone.

The economic development along Kentucky's northern border would be fabulous if these folks ran off their businesses with this stuff. Unions and left-wing groups are trying to get the mandate in the form of a ballot initiative.

Finally, a tax-me-more fund

Thanks to action by the Public Service Commission, big spenders and enviro-activists will be able to put their money where their mouths have been.

From the PSC press release:

"In an order issued today, the PSC granted Kentucky Power’s request to begin a “green pricing option” that allows customers to purchase renewable energy. A customer will be permitted to purchase up to 500 blocks of 100 kilowatt-hours per month, at $2 per block. A kilowatt-hour is the amount of electricity used by a 100-watt light bulb in 10 hours. A typical Kentucky Power residential customer uses about 1,350 kilowatt-hours per month. Kentucky Power will use the revenue produced by the optional payments to purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) from generators of renewable energy. Sources include wind power, solar power, hydroelectric power, landfill gas, biomass and others."

That's a whole lot of green for being green. It will be very interesting to see how many people voluntarily get on board.

And if Gov. Beshear decides to provide some of that elusive "leadership" by volunteering to put the Governor's Mansion on this silly scheme, I vote no.

Just get them out of the way

The Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) gets it exactly right in their criticism of what passes for government involvement in private business:

""Kentucky as a whole has not made adequate economic progress over the last 30 years," Jason Bailey, research and policy director for the association, said
in an interview. "We are largely stuck in an old approach to economic development that's really based on recruiting industry with the use of tax incentives.""

Unfortunately, this clear-headed analysis leads into more of the same interventionism MACED tends to fall into:

The study’s recommendations include:

• An increase in the share of state economic development resources that go into entrepreneurship and small business development;

• The creation of a state commission to raise the profile of entrepreneurship, conduct research and convene an annual summit;

• A new system of expanded performance-based investments in existing and new
entrepreneurship and small business programs across Kentucky;

• A new state role in helping coordinate and connect the various public, non-profit and private programs across the state.

There is something perverse about setting up a government bureaucracy to incentivize and guide entrepreneurism. We would do much better to shut down the economic development cabinet, cut taxes, and reduce regulation that hurts private productivity.

Sure, teach entrepreneurism in the schools. In fact, make it a part of the required curriculum at every high school and state college and university. But then get government out of the way.

It's called shoring up the base

The "African Americans and Women in Politics" class at Berea College is wasting no time indoctrinating students. Hillary Clinton's "Living History" is off the required reading list and Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope" is on it.

School is in, time for vouchers

An extraordinary event at the Democratic convention that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Harry Reid, Ben Chandler, John Yarmuth, and friends don't want you to know anything about:

Hit this link.

Dems in Denver greeted by 50 of these

And there is more where this came from.

Left-wing money flows into Kentucky

Rep. Ed Whitfield's opponent, Heather Ryan, just got $5000 for her campaign for being a "Progressive Patriot."

This says a lot about Kentucky education

What does it say about Kentucky education when this message lies at the top of the Education Cabinet Secretary's web page:

"Unemployment benefits extended in Kentucky"?

Making Ford, GM, Toyota buy us silly golf carts

Mark Hebert reports Gov. Steve Beshear may be making a big deal Monday about taking tax dollars from existing employers and giving them to ZAP, Inc.

It would be much cheaper and effective if we just made our policies more conducive to business growth across the board.

Really, we are subsidizing photo-ops for politicians with this garbage and doing it with money from existing businesses. What a waste.

Bruce Lunsford wearing thin

Larry Dale Keeling gets to the heart of Bruce Lunsford's just-folks schtick with this:

"When he’s winging it, Lunsford also can go overboard trying to establish his ”folksy“ street cred with anecdotes about his childhood on a farm..."

Oh, and did Lunsford mention he went to the bathroom outside when he was a small child and that the American Dream is dead?

Some of us only need one

Here are twenty reasons to repeal corporate income taxes.

I have several favorites on this list, but this one is really worth a look:

"11) The OECD has found that corporate taxes are most onerous for dynamic, high-growth companies that are challenging more established firms."

All the more reason for people in central Kentucky to be aware of this upcoming rally in Lexington. Waiting around for politicians to get serious about pro-growth reforms on their own just won't cut it.

Biden his time, denying Iranian threat

I guess Sen. Barack Obama is trying to balance out his ticket with a little gravitas -- or at least gray hair -- by adding Sen. Joe Biden on as Veep.

The Republican Jewish Coalition is not impressed:

"In 1998, Sen. Biden was one of only four senators to vote against the Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act, a bill that punished foreign companies or other entities that sent Iran sensitive missile technology or expertise. Biden was one of the few senators to oppose the bipartisan 2007 Kyl-Lieberman Ammendment labeling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. In a December 2007 debate, Biden said "Iran is not a nuclear threat to the United States of America." On MSNBC's "Hardball," Biden said he "never believed" Iran had a weapon system under production. "The Jewish community was already gravely concerned with Senator Obama's naïve understanding of the Iranian threat. An Obama-Biden ticket has proven that it is ill-equipped to deal with this threat. By selecting Senator Biden to join his ticket, voting for Senator Obama has now become an even greater risk," said (RJC Exec. Director Matt) Brooks."

Now here is an appropriate government function

Governor Steve Beshear says "don't try suicide."

Looking out for their own

Jessamine County Sheriff Kevin Corman has somehow managed to weather investigations for misappropriation of funds by Attorney General Jack Conway and Auditor of Public Accounts Crit Luallen.

Sources inside both offices report Corman is being given time to repay the funds while the public is kept in the dark.

Skippy jumps in water over his head, again

In his next column -- appearing soon online and in a fast-growing number of Kentucky newspapers -- Bluegrass Institute policy director Jim Waters blisters Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary Skippy Miller for, well, being Skippy:

"When he was Democratic Party chairman and clawing his way up the bureaucratic food chain, Miller spoke as a partisan and thought as a partisan. But now that he serves as a cabinet secretary, he should file away his partisan ploys and focus on what best serves the public."

Skippy picked a fight with Waters for challenging Frankfort to get serious about spending transparency.

No one has to die for government transparency

While so much attention is focused on China because of the Olympics, it might be easy to miss the case of a bureaucrat there sentenced to death for taking bribes.

As tempting as it might seem to have Kentucky bureaucrats having each other killed for corruption, it's not hard to image that power being abused by the wrong person. (Greg Stumbo, anyone?)

Anyway, it seems the Chinese criminal is unlikely to actually suffer the death penalty for his crimes.

But the point from those of us who want less government corruption in Kentucky is that no one has to die. We just want government spending posted to the internet so we have a better idea of what is being done with our money.

Don't forget public employee benefits reform

While the Frankfort crowd is trying to work out a way to raise taxes before the end of the year, in Kalamazoo, Michigan they are getting serious about trimming back public employee benefits.

"Taking the first steps in overhauling its employee health-care coverage, the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved raising the age for retiring with full benefits to 65 from 60."

"However, the board delayed action until next year on the more contentious question of whether to stop offering health-care coverage for the dependents of future employees."

Despite the increasingly outlandish rhetoric from the Beshear Administration, a seventy cent tax increase on cigarettes isn't going to save the state. Revisiting public employee benefits would be a much more meaningful step in the right direction.

Since the public sector regulates private sector access to health insurance, we should bring public sector benefits more in line with ours. Putting them on the same side of the table with the rest of us may remove some of the resistance to market reforms to bring down costs.

Give me billions and I'll save $68 million, too

The Boston Globe is fired up about the Massachusetts universal healthcare mandate saving $68 million in its fund for uninsured people because the state is sucking up billions in tax dollars to buy them insurance:

"Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, the state's secretary of Health and Human Services, said that the latest enrollment figures should bolster the state's case with the federal government."

""It shows them that it's a good model for Massachusetts," Bigby said in an interview. "The intent of healthcare reform was that if people were getting coverage," then the number of patients relying on the state and hospitals to pick up the tab for their care would decline, she said."

"That appears to be happening. For example, from July through September 2007, the most recent period for which data is available, the number of visits to hospitals and community health centers by the uninsured declined by 37 percent, compared with the same period a year earlier, the report said. That drop translated to a $68 million savings in the pool of money the state sets aside to cover the uninsured."

"Massachusetts has requested more than $11 billion in federal support during the next three years to pay for dozens of healthcare programs, including its crown jewel, its nearly universal health coverage system. The federal payments, which are crucial to keeping the landmark program afloat, were set to expire June 30, but the state has received four extensions."

Another great government success. How long before Kentucky tries to emulate it?

This is what makes Drudge Report #1

And in other news, The Lexington Herald Leader is sinking like a rock with analysis like this from Larry Dale Keeling:

"Am I the only cynic who believes the recent decline in oil and gas prices is the oil industry's attempt to influence the November election by reducing the pain somewhat so Americans will feel less anger toward a Republican administration?"