Beshear's economic development lip service

In announcing today that he was expanding his special session call to include expansion of corporate welfare programs, Gov. Steve Beshear said he values existing Kentucky businesses:

"Our existing businesses are some of our most precious resources," Gov. Beshear said. "We must nurture them and help them, particularly when they’re looking to reinvest. We cannot continue to watch other states pirate them away."

We are never going to dramatically improve Kentucky's economic situation continuing to play this same game of taxing everyone too much and rebating money to a few companies. All Beshear wants to do is double down on the same losing hand.

Shutting down Kentucky's "Economic Development" Cabinet should be a top priority for anyone who calls Kentucky home.

Rand Paul gets a boost

Not that this is a surprise, but Dr. Rand Paul's exploratory committee got a noteworthy shot in the arm today:

Dragging it out of Jack Conway

Attorney General Jack Conway has been able to slink along quietly while the rest of Frankfort wrestles over what to do about horse racing in Kentucky.

Conway is sitting on two requests for an AG opinion about expanded gambling at horse tracks. Rep. Jody Richards asked in May if slots at the tracks need a constitutional amendment. Sen. Damon Thayer asked in April if instant racing machines were permissible under current law.

Conway, a candidate for U.S. Senate, may be hesitant to take a position that damages his political aspirations in a tough primary contest.

So we are left with Gov. Steve Beshear's slots bill, Sen. David Williams' proposal that deserves credit as an interesting alternative, and the strong likelihood neither will pass in this month's special session.

Williams pointed out today that for slots at the tracks to generate $60 million for higher purses, more than $4.6 billion would have to be poured into the slot machines. By comparison, about $470 million is bet on horse racing at the tracks in Kentucky each year, about $489 million is bet in charitable gaming, about $778 million is bet on the Kentucky Lottery, and about $500 million is bet by Kentuckians at casinos in Indiana and Illinois.

Seems like a pretty safe bet that we don't have the money to gamble $4.6 billion in racetrack slot machines.

Sen. Thayer's idea may be worth a look, though. Instant racing machines allow users to place bets on video of one of 50,000 archived horse races given limited information about the horses in each particular race. This wouldn't open the door for out-of-state casino operators and just might provide the revenue the tracks need.

It seems to have worked well in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

In any event, someone needs to light a fire under Jack Conway. If he gives a thumbs up to instant racing, Kentucky tracks could start installing them right away and lawmakers could get back to work on the budget.

Williams calls Beshear out on slots

Just two hours after Gov. Steve Beshear had a press conference to claim that video lottery terminals will save the horse industry and provide revenue to the state, Senate President David Williams called another press conference to say that they won't.

Williams offered an alternative plan that would place a 10% surcharge on lottery tickets, establish a 1.5% tax on out-of-state wagering at Kentucky tracks -- which currently goes untaxed -- and other measures to supplement horse racing purses to better allow the Kentucky horse industry to compete with other states without expanding gambling.

Williams said about 30% of the money he is proposing for purse supplements would come directly from the General Fund, comparing the move to tax increment financing of about $18 million a year.

Williams said he hoped that Gov. Beshear would put his proposal on the special session call and suggested that if he didn't, nothing would come out of the session.

Are those jobs saved or created?

State Budget Director Mary Lassiter just told the Joint Budget Committee that Kentucky is going to bring in an extra $18.5 million in FY 2010 by hiring more staff in the Revenue Department.

Plumbing Newberry's information black hole

Current and former Lexington jail employees will be surprised to learn that Mayor Jim Newberry's administration apparently hasn't been keeping any of their complaints filed against certain members of jail administration:



It is also possible this is just another Newberry stall tactic, in hopes that the CWA will just go away. What say you, Mayor Jim Newberry?

His primary opponent former Mayor Teresa Isaac could start asking questions about this kind of thing, but, really, she won't.

Trey Grayson in Lexington

Secretary of State Trey Grayson will have a fundraiser for his federal campaign exploratory committee on Tuesday evening, June 30, at Mike Scanlon's Fleetwood Vintage Car Garage, 540 E. 2nd Street in Lexington.

Want to go? Call 859-757-4349.

Confronting the nonsense in Frankfort

There will be a June 17 state Capitol Tea party, noon to 1 pm.

The overspending and the overtaxing continue to weaken our fiscal situation and damage our competitiveness. And now Gov. Beshear's best idea is throw millions of our dollars at a car racetrack.

Another event has already been scheduled for the Capitol on July 4 from noon to 2 pm and in Lexington the same day at 3:30 pm.

Kentucky budget needs your input

The Wall Street Journal has it right. State budgets, including Kentucky's, will probably get worse before they get better.



Kentuckians are as bad as anyone else about hating pork unless it is their own. We can buy a little time for weaning ourselves off pork if we can get serious immediately about government spending transparency. When we can all see exactly where each public dollar is going, we can agree in larger numbers about where to cut.

Rep. Jim DeCesare had been a leader on spending transparency, but as a member of the minority party in the House he hasn't been able to force the issue. Sen. Damon Thayer is working on a transparency bill for the 2010 General Assembly. That should be key to getting a handle on where the money is going. Secretary of State Trey Grayson has already put his reputation on the line to champion spending transparency. His rapidly increasing profile can help a lot.

Our education budget deserves more than the lip service it has gotten for years. Unaccountable bureaucrats have shown no willingness to self-regulate with our money. Tell your friends and neighbors that now is the time to force school districts and the Kentucky Department of Education to post all their expenditures to the internet in real time.

We may get some temporary budget cuts in the upcoming special session. But in order to keep falling back into this same trap we need a fully-informed discussion about fiscal priorities and we can't do that until we have spending data readily available to everyone.

"Couldn't have been the unions and CAFE!"

The Courier Journal editorial page blamed General Motors' failure on "atrocious marketing and production decisions." Yeah, that's what did it.



I wonder if they consider the GM dealer's ad on their website an example of "atrocious marketing."

Kentucky state sovereignty resolution filed

Rep. Stan Lee filed HCR 10 on Tuesday, which would claim state sovereignty for Kentucky under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution if it passes both chambers of the General Assembly in 2010.

The resolution states the U.S. government must stop any mandates beyond its constitutional purview and repeal and stop passing any laws that require the states to act under threat of penalty or loss of federal funding.

This resolution would be taken more seriously if Kentucky weren't so heavily dependent on federal funding, but maybe that is the idea.

What, no pro-Obama rallies in Frankfort?

As talk about a General Assembly special session the week of June 15 picks up, plans for small government rallies in Frankfort are coming together as well.

The Family Foundation will hold a "Stand for the Constitution" rally on Tuesday, June 16th at noon in the Capitol Rotunda. The We Surround Them group is working on details for another rally on Wednesday at the Capitol.

Can't wait to see if any big government, spread the wealth, soak the "rich" rallies sponsored by the other side materialize.

Dumbing down America 46 states at a time

While busily trying to scare Kentuckians into making government bigger and more expensive out in front of everyone, Gov. Steve Beshear has quietly also signed onto a pact with 45 other state governors for national educational standards.

The Washington Post has the story and the quote of the day:
Margaret Spellings, who was education secretary under President George W. Bush, said in a recent interview that she supports states coming together to raise the bar for students. But she worries that the effort could distract attention from students who are failing today.

"We have a speedometer, and it says we're going too slow," Spellings said. "Should we get a more precise speedometer? Sure. But the most important thing is speeding up."

The rest of the article is here.

Notably absent from this pact were Texas, Missouri, South Carolina, and Alaska. I think making the case for adding "shut down the U.S. Department of Education" in the 2012 GOP platform just got a real boost.

Kentucky has no business messing around with this nonsense when we have supposedly been doing it on our own for the last twenty years. The last thing we need is more blue ribbon commissions and study groups from the same people who have been drawing pay checks for twenty years doing the same things with limited results and even less accountability.

That's what Kentucky's 2009 Senate Bill 1 was all about.

Taking the fight to Georgetown tonight!

I'm going to Scott County tonight at 7:00 for the Freedom Rally there at the Courthouse. Here is some good advice for the grassroots movement from National Review Online.

"If the Tea Party movement wishes to stand for something concrete, and sensibly avoid being co-opted by the Republican party, it might consider embracing Reagan’s Economic Bill of Rights."

Read the whole article here.

The battle to come...

Last night, Illinois taxpayers caught a break when legislators failed to pass a massive tax increase. Now the fun part starts and Kentuckians would do well to pay attention.



It can come as no surprise that those who lobbied loudest for tax increases to avoid cutting fat in Illinois state government will have no interest now in cutting fat.

We should expect no less a tantrum by our Kentucky taxers. Frankfort can't raise taxes this summer and they don't have the votes for slot machines. A lot of fat remains in state government, but they will have kids sitting three to a desk in schools before they admit it.

Get ready. This is going to be nasty.

More people need to see this

Watch these people keep straight faces talking about how socialized medicine will save $350 billion a year by putting everyone on Medicare!

Associated Press' balanced coverage shortfall

The mainstream media is clinging hard to the spin that Kentucky has a billion dollar "shortfall." Conveniently overlooked in stories like this is that the 2010 budget is $867 million higher than the 2009 budget.

I thought Gov. Beshear said he was making government smaller.



This AP story completely glosses over the other side of the "shortfall" theme in only one very inadequate sentence:

"Senate President David Williams, a Burkesville Republican, disputes the figure and said the shortfall is a smaller percentage."

That's pathetic underreporting of a story with at least two sides.

One interesting note, though. If you read to the end of the article, you get a quote from Western Kentucky University's Dr. Brian Strow, the BB&T Chair for the Study of Capitalism:

"Lawmakers should consider "meaningful economic reform" that would create more jobs and reduce the budget, Strow said."

Amen to that.

Dr. Strow is also a member of Dr. Rand Paul's Economic Council of Advisors.

Having their fiscal irresponsibility and eating it, too

Isn't it funny that so many of those Kentuckians who believe the spent Social Security Trust Fund IOU's equal real money and nothing to worry about now insist that the only way to look at next year's state budget projection is to compare that figure to fiscal year 2008's overspending and hit the panic button?

History is on our side

Grab your wallet: Legislature convenes June 15

This afternoon, Gov. Steve Beshear called the General Assembly into special session beginning June 15.

His statement included the following:

"Our priorities will be holding the line on taxes for working families already struggling to make ends meet; maintaining investments in our school children; preserving commitments to the health care needs of our most vulnerable and the safety of our people."

Do we need to ask what Beshear's definition of "working families" is? Also, if we had a functioning mechanism for tracking school expenditures, it's likely we would conclude that "maintaining investments" isn't necessary. And if government made fewer commitments to "health care needs," health coverage would be more affordable for all of us.

I seem to remember Senate President David Williams saying something about the battle to end all battles over taxes and spending. It will be interesting to see how that goes.