Answer this, Governor Beshear

Very plausible rumor on Page One Kentucky has Rep. Larry Clark going to work in the Gov. Steve Beshear Administration if he loses his House leadership position.

Clark would then join a growing list of lawmakers who taking advantage of a special pension provision they gave themselves that continues to cost the state money unnecessarily.

You're cutting expenses now, aren't you Governor? Then you won't want to do this, will you?

Monkey see, monkey do the opposite

U.S. House Democrats are getting ready to repeal term limits for committee chairmen. Kentucky's legislative bodies should, in turn, enact this power-checking reform just as those in D.C. are throwing it away. Committee chairmen would play much better with others if they knew they would each soon be back in the peanut gallery.

Conversely, imagine how much more of a jerk Barney Frank will be with enhanced job security.

There will be plenty of opportunities this year for doing the right thing by zigging in Frankfort while Washington zags. Take, for example, card check legislation.

Of course, the best we can hope for from Frankfort this year is probably just not to raise taxes.

Price fixing? Now there's an idea!

Monday night on KET, Senate President David Williams suggested that the desire to make college more affordable might necessitate fixing tuition rates at state schools.

At a time in which we really need long-term solutions, this isn't one.

Instead, we should move away from need-based aid and toward merit-based aid.

This is a discussion that Kentucky has to have, so I'm glad President Williams brought it up. But tuition freezes barely make a good band-aid. Getting the perverse impact of artificially inflated demand for a college education out of the equation is the only way to really lower education costs.

Big changes coming to Lexington jail

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry remains tight-lipped about a very damaging internal audit relating to the Fayette County Detention Center, but sources with the city say the report could be made available as soon as this afternoon.

Newberry is already in plenty of trouble for his actions related to the jail.

Stay tuned for updates...

Six hundred thousand new federal employees

I didn't think to watch Barack Obama's video this weekend until I saw a reference to it on Drudge questioning his proposal to add 600,000 federal government employees. What Obama said was he is going to "create" three million jobs, of which "eighty percent will be in the private sector."

Considering that Kentucky is drowning in red ink largely because of excessive public sector labor costs, it seems striking that Obama would think this might work.

I didn't hear anything else worthwhile on this video, did you? Looks like more money for cornflation and infrastructure and electronic medical records. Wow.

Another indicator of where we're headed?

Looks like gouging on Barack Obama Inaugural memorabilia is as easy as taking candy from a baby:


And the private sector price is...

Obama says he is swift and bold

Bloomberg.com quotes President-elect Barack Obama mischaracterizing the coming trillion dollar federal bailout of cities and states as an act of courage that will somehow reverse the economic downturn.

Lots of luck:

I can't imagine giving people like Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear part of a trillion dollars will do much of anything but encourage him to come back next year begging for twice as much. The only way off this treadmill is to force governments to face the consequences for their actions and change their ways.

Maybe this is how we kill off Keynes

John Maynard Keynes is the early 20th century economist whose philosophy has culminated in Bush-Obama super-sized stimulus plans. Keynes famously deflected long-term concerns about his borrow now, pay later economics by saying "In the long run, we're all dead."

Keynes died in 1946. With any luck, remembering the following will lead to the death of his goofy, spendthrift fiscal policies. Seriously, does anyone really believe that the bailout of cities and states will stay under $775 billion? And if you really believe we will jumpstart the economy by "creating" 3 million government union scale jobs with even more borrowed money, I'm willing to sell you my share of the bridge spanning the Kentucky Ocean. Cheap.

Obama has the votes to do this. Knock yourself out, guys. We'll be waiting and keeping score.

Not why we sent McConnell back to Senate

The AP's Bruce Shreiner quoted Sen. Mitch McConnell talking about the bailout for cities and states, which will surely wind up over $1 trillion:

""This should not be treated as an appropriation bill, but something more broadly stimulative," he said."

Good grief.

Borrowing money at the federal level for politicians to spend at the state and local level can't be treated as anything other than an appropriation bill, because that is exactly what it is. And what the heck is this "broadly stimulative" stuff?

So much for hoping there were enough Republicans in the Senate to stop the really bad bills. Sure it may be nice to stop card check and socialized medicine, but what's the point when we are giving away the farm creating massive slush funds from sea to shining sea?

This is disgraceful.

Coverup always worse than the crime

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry is sitting on an internal city report describing former Fayette County Detention Center administrator Don Leach's improper use of taxpayer property in his own consulting business activities.

Sources report Leach's abuse is ongoing, months after his forced retirement.

Vigilance takes no days off

Got a New Year's Day press release from the Libertarian Party of Kentucky about Gov. Steve Beshear's failure to follow through on his oft-repeated promise to show Kentuckians how their money is being spent.

From the release:

"We have not forgotten the promises made, and we expect the transparency that the state’s desperate financial situation demands. This is a trying time for every Kentuckian, and we all deserve the right to join the dialogue. Further, we reserve the right to be informed, in order that we can reach just and equitable solutions to the challenges facing Kentucky today."

Kudos to them for jumping on this opportunity to stand up for taxpayers.

That's what I'm talking 'bout!

Lexington's Bill Marshall nails it in a letter to the editor in yesterday's Herald Leader:

Brilliant! Thanks Bill.

This is wrong on so many levels

Connecticut is seriously considering bailing out newspapers. (Ha! Just like Kentucky.)

What a nightmare. Like we really need another one...

Simplest blog post of 2008

The proposed cigarette tax increase isn't supposed to "work." It will change some buying habits, resulting in lower revenues. That won't become apparent until after the anticipated revenue increase has already been spent. Then other taxes will have to be increased to make up the difference.

That's why nonsmokers should oppose the cigarette tax increase.

Turning Kentucky into New Jersey

We already know Gov. Steve Beshear covets New Jersey's casinos, but did you know he is following Gov. Jon Corzine in providing bogus pension relief to municipalities?

"Cash-strapped mayors give the plan mixed reviews. Some, such as Woodcliff Lake's Joseph LaPaglia, are ready to take the deal, confident the state will be flexible in a repayment schedule if things don't improve by 2012. But Wayne's Chistropher Vergano, a Republican, is wary. He dubbed it an "election year gimmick.""

""It's not making the payment go away,'' Vergano said. "It's like a 30-year mortgage and turning it into a 35-year mortgage. … The debt is not going away.""

Beshear's scheme is not any more complicated than that.

MSM got scoop, but missed the story

The Louisville Courier Journal and the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer both knew what Gov. Steve Beshear was going to talk about at his press conference today, but neither seemed to grasp the meaning of his latest move.

Is Don Leach job hunting?

I keep getting "Google" hits on this site from Texas; someone checking on "Donald Leach Fayette" and spending quality time reading up on the former Fayette County Detention Center administrator.

Try it yourself.

Seems to mirror the activity on the site that happened back when the jail's Director Ron Bishop was looking -- unsuccessfully -- for a job in Florida.

Zero-sum gaming ourselves to prosperity

With nearly every state in the Union facing fiscal troubles, wouldn't it be great if all the states called a cease fire on the "economic development" front? We'll never know how many billions of dollars are wasted by companies pitting one state's taxpayers against another in the name of recruiting jobs away from each other.

While states and the feds are talking about weathering the current storm, this should be something that can be worked out fairly easily.

Sen. McConnell?

With accomplishments like these...

Gov. Steve Beshear made a season's greeting youtube video for state employees, taking credit for expanding KCHIP spending with money we don't have and "a successful pension reform special session" that didn't do anything to move us farther away from bankruptcy.

Heckuva job, indeed.

Thanks to the Courier Journal political blog for pointing out the video.

Is that a promise or a threat, Governor?

Gov. Steve Beshear's latest prognostication is on stateline.org this morning:

All the more reason, Governor, to cut government spending now to a realistic level within our means. Too many of our scarce resources are going to protect the politically-connected. Kentucky needs more political leaders who don't cower behind their fancy desks waiting for a tidal wave of tax increases to sweep them to higher ground. Now we have no feasible alternative to putting the interests of the majority of Kentucky taxpayers over those who populate the tight inner circles of political power. Prevailing wage has to go now. Corporate welfare has to go now. And every dime of education spending must be made transparent to the public so we can spend our money more efficiently there.

As Beshear fails to take these positive actions, it becomes clearer and clearer that he is merely positioning for the tax increases he promised to avoid when he was campaigning for office.

And we are still waiting for our $180 million efficiency study.