John Kemper: stop money-losing debt restructuring

Frankfort debt restructuring over the last four years has encouraged overspending and will cost Kentucky taxpayers hundreds of millons of dollars for what amounts to an accounting stunt, Republican candidate for state Auditor John Kemper said.


"Looking at the numbers, they are claiming $427 million in cash flow savings from debt restructuring over fiscal years 2009 to 2012 and then there is a real loss of $600 million over the next seventeen years just to make the budget look balanced while Steve Beshear has been governor," Kemper said. "Problems like this inspire me to run for auditor. If I am elected I will work to stop any debt restructuring that loses Kentuckians' money like this."

Kentucky casino bills filed today

Kentucky Republican state Rep. Michael Nemes has filed a casino bill and a constitutional amendment allowing counties to decide if they get either a full casino or slots at racetracks.

The measures pre-filed today (here and here) would create a Kentucky Gaming Commission and taxing schemes of 21% of gambling revenues to the state and a $3 per person admission fee for casinos, of which 2/3 would go to the state and 1/3 to the county or counties in which the casino is situated.

The bill contains no provisions to prevent the state from overcommitting projected casino revenues, which will ultimately be what makes this whole idea a loser for Kentucky if it passes.

How is this NOT news?

It has been a week since the Beshear administration responded to complaints about a state debt web site not being updated in three years by pulling down the link to the site.

Beshear's Republican opponent Senate President David Williams, who voted for every dime of our quickly accumulating debt, has failed to mention Beshear's aggressive lack of transparency on this issue.

State bonded debt has increased by three billion dollars under Beshear. Federal stimulus funds to Kentucky totalled $3.4 billion. We owe almost a billion more in unemployment funds. Revenues went down, but not this much. And Beshear is running for re-election as a good steward of state finances.

Kentucky's state debt is a huge news story and Kentucky's media is missing it. Worse, they are missing it because neither candidate for governor is talking about it.

What am I missing here?

Rep. Jim Wayne wants to eat your "puny" county

Be on the lookout for a new line of attack against the Tea Party: liberals who praise and agree with us.

At the end of a recent CN2 interview, Rep. Wayne was asked about the Tea Party.

"I think the Tea Party -- we need to listen to them. And the reason we need to listen to them is because we not only have a tax problem in this state, we have a spending problem in this state and that's where the Tea Party can help us."

Sounds good, right? Two problems though. Wayne represents the far left wing of the legislature and when he talks about a tax problem, he means they aren't high enough. But when he starts talking about a spending problem is when it really gets dicey.

Wayne then made a case for cutting government spending by consolidating counties because of all the money spent on courthouses and "multiple sheriffs and county judges and magistrates and everything that are all going to get pensions and all going to get salaries and all going to get health insurance and so on and so forth."

While there is no excuse for all the money spent on palatial courthouses in recent years, which Wayne voted for building, by the way, and the idea of shrinking government by consolidating some bureaucracies makes sense, eliminating elective offices makes government bigger and further removed from the people being represented.

Imagine your county being merged with another, larger county and all your local representatives being eliminated. In subsequent elections, with most if not all successful candidates for local office coming from the more populous area of the new, larger county, where do you think their attention will tend to be directed?

The far left is trying to seduce the Tea Party with their talk of smaller government, but what they are offering is fewer, larger governments with less representation and more distance between elected officials and their employers. Don't buy their snake oil.

Kemper catches Steve Beshear erasing web page

Governor Steve Beshear has made state finances less transparent to Kentuckians by hiding the one statistic telling the whole story about our fiscal situation, state Auditor candidate John Kemper said.

"Kentucky is billions of dollars deeper in debt than we were when Beshear came into office, but you have to be an archaeologist to find exactly how much," Kemper said. "We complained that his administration hadn't updated the page showing state bonded debt and the response today apparently was to pull down the link altogether. An independent auditor would shed light on this and since my opponent owes his political career to Beshear, I'm doing it. Governor Beshear should post our debt figures where they are easy to find or explain why he doesn't want to."

Thank you Oregon and North Carolina!

Kentucky had the third highest state gasoline tax increase in the country in 2011.

Only seven states increased gas taxes on their citizens this year.

Todd P'Pool case shines light on bad law

A Kentucky Knows Best email yesterday about the poorly written state law being used against Attorney General candidate Todd P'Pool stirred up some interesting information.

Republican Todd P'Pool is being hounded by Jack Conway using a law Governor Steve Beshear wrote thirty seven years ago and that the Kentucky Supreme Court found unconstitutional ten years ago.

Now is a great time to go through Kentucky's campaign finance laws to justify what we can (which won't be much) and throw out the rest.

Thanks to Marcus Carey for the heads up on the Supreme Court case.

Repeal KRS 121.310 for P'Pool and Conway

Both the Lexington Herald Leader and Louisville Courier Journal reported this week on supporters of Kentucky Attorney General candidate Todd P'Pool facing felony convictions for talking about their candidate and his opponent Attorney General Jack Conway.

The news stories are here and here.

At issue is KRS 121.310, which appears as follows in Kentucky law:


The law is so sloppy and imprecise it should be repealed. To do otherwise is to allow an unconstitutional prosecution of speech while empowering government to make up the rules as it goes along.

First, the law doesn't necessarily restrict only employers. By stating "no person shall" without defining person, much less specifying employers as a target, the law could mean to inhibit anyone from talking to someone who has a job. Then, we could interpret "coerce or direct any employee" to mean "tell any employee." Worst of all, the rest of paragraph (1) could easily apply to wearing a t-shirt or possessing a political bumper sticker or flyer.

And paragraph (2) is worse.

Todd P'Pool's supporters shouldn't face felony convictions under this ridiculous statute and Jack Conway's shouldn't either, which they clearly and easily could if Republicans sought to make the point. Repealing this nonsense makes sense for all Kentuckians.

Lexington taxpayers to get blindsided in September

A jury trial scheduled for September 26 in Jessamine Circuit Court will rock Fayette County taxpayers and shake up Lexington's political scene.

John Vest vs. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, originally filed in 2007, resulted from official mishandling and cover-up associated with multiple cases of civil rights violations at the Fayette County Detention Center.

Former mayors Teresa Isaac and Jim Newberry were directly involved in the mishandling and cover-up.

Vest was the FBI's informant whose testimony sparked an October 2006 raid by dozens of federal agents to the Lexington jail. Vest's only request was to be transferred to another city job with immediate supervisors who might be less likely to try to kill him.

Had Vest simply been transferred, much of this would have just gone away. In fact, rumors are circulating of both Isaac and Newberry eyeing a rematch with Mayor Jim Gray. But they may have to reconsider after Lexington taxpayers finish writing a multi-million dollar check to Vest due to official misconduct by these incompetent politicians.

Frankfort finds its hurricane

Earlier this year, Frankfort politicians agreed to "balance" Kentucky's Medicaid budget by borrowing $166 million in 2012 funds to spend in 2011.

They also set out to save money in 2012 and beyond by switching to a managed care system. Of course, they are attempting to do this without reducing the state government Medicaid workforce.

Perhaps an early indication of how things are going so far comes today with news that Kentucky's Medicaid Managed Care Hotline is backed up and excess calls are being routed to Pennsylvania, where they can't be answered due to complications related to Hurricane Irene.

Just pointing this out

The top issue in America right now is jobs and the role government has played in messing up the economy by taxing too much, spending too much and building up its own power at the expense of the people.

The failure of Gov. Steve Beshear's opponent to credibly differentiate himself on these issues surely has a lot to do with the fact that Intrade.com gives him just about a zero percent chance of winning in November.

If you really disagree, of course, you should probably call Intrade.

Is it the Kentucky typo tax?

Kentucky Auditor candidate John Kemper pointed out something odd about the record-high deposit to the state's rainy day fund a month ago: it's illegal.

"Kentucky state law prohibits putting more than half of an annual surplus into the budget reserve trust fund, also known as the rainy day fund," Kemper said. "A change in the law in 2010 allows the governor to spend all the rainy day money without the General Assembly's permission for the rest of this fiscal year. Our legislators are going to have to be more careful controlling spending in the next budget."

Budget officials in Frankfort said this morning that the legislature changed the law in the 2010 special session to allow Beshear to put more than half of the $156.8 million "surplus" into the rainy day fund. But HB 1 didn't notwithstand KRS 48.705. Instead, it temporarily rescinded KRS 48.700.

Big difference.

We will never know for sure who mixed up the numbers of the two statutes, but by notwithstanding KRS 48.700, the legislature allows Beshear to spend all of the $121 million in the rainy day fund without the permission of the General Assembly.

Giving Beshear control over that much money is not a great idea and something at least some members of the legislature claim to oppose doing. If Beshear misappropriates any part of that money, we should call it the Kentucky typo tax.

Tea Party stops local tax increase; more coming

Kentucky Auditor candidate John Kemper congratulated the McCracken County Board of Education on Friday for rejecting a property tax increase and he encouraged other boards and local governments across the state to follow suit.

"Frankfort hides a lot of taxing and spending by passing it off to the local level," Kemper said. "Tea party groups across the state are engaging local officials and impressing on them the importance of tightening their belts just like the rest of us. As our message grows stronger, we need to see more officials all over Kentucky work harder to get spending under control rather than raising taxes."

John Kemper challenges Jack Conway

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway needs to clarify creditor rights in the event of a municipal bankruptcy in the commonwealth, John Kemper, candidate for Auditor of Public Accounts, said.

"With our growing debt, pension obligations and Obamacare on the way, we need to be clear about what happens if we can't pay the bills. Who gets paid first: bondholders or pensioners? Without a law that spells out what we have to do, it's up to the Attorney General to specify who gets paid when there is not enough to go around."

Kemper's political opponents have attacked him for warning about Kentucky's excessive accumulation of debt, but he hopes politics doesn't stop them from acting to protect taxpayers.

"It's a simple request, really," Kemper said. "I'm willing to overlook the fact that no one has done this yet if General Conway just gets on it now."

Maybe you prefer a debt-enslaved Kentucky?

Kentucky Auditor candidate John Kemper will hold a press conference at the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday morning August 18 at 11:30 am. He will address his Debt Free Kentucky platform.

We need a Tea Party upgrade

Lexington activist Kim Shady best summed up Barack Obama's tirade against the Tea Party this week when she said blaming us for the S&P downgrade was "like blaming Paul Revere for the British coming."

Indeed, the Tea Party confounds ruling class politicians in both parties simply by telling the truth about overspending and hyperactive big government. And bad Republicans don't like it any more than bad Democrats do.

That's why we've formed Kentucky Knows Best Political Action Committee to help channel the power of the movement into winning Kentucky state legislative races in 2012 and beyond. If you'd like to know more or to help, please call me at 859-537-5372 or email kyprogress@yahoo.com. You may also contribute to the effort by clicking here.

Thanks,


David Adams
Executive Director
Kentucky Knows Best PAC

Call your Congressman

As of right now, all six Kentucky members of the U.S. House of Representatives are officially "undecided" on the Obama debt deal.

Please join a Kentucky Debt Limit Town Hall meeting Tuesday August 2 at 7pm ET at the Scott County Courthouse in Georgetown, KY. Your input is highly valued and greatly appreciated by the Tea Party.

And obviously our elected representatives need to hear from you now.

See no, hear no, speak no political stunts in KY

A perfect example of what is wrong with Frankfort presented itself this afternoon when Gov. Steve Beshear put out a press release proclaiming that he put $121 million in the state's rainy day fund.

Beshear actually does well with this if you see it for what it is. He is a politician running for office, trying to get a positive news story and no tough questions. The Lexington Herald Leader picks up the assist.

The rest of us are supposed to pretend not to remember the $166 million in Medicaid funds "borrowed" from 2012 three months ago. And of course he will get away with it politically because his Republican opponent voted for the same nonsense.

That's bad enough, but we are also supposed to ignore the state debt this money would be much more properly applied to than to use it for political stunts like this. Again, his Republican opponent voted the same way.

And this $121 million could be dropped into the deep dark hole of unfunded public employee benefits without even making a sucking sound as it disappeared into the abyss. But because there are no political points to score between establishment politicians, the big media sees no story.

More than one mandate to kill

One element of the federal debt limit debate seems to be turning to a Republican effort to repeal ObamaCare's requirement that all people buy health insurance.

The so-called "individual mandate," though, isn't the worst part of ObamaCare. And pulling it out by itself leaves the worst part to wreck healthcare in America even faster.

The worst part of ObamaCare is the requirement that health insurance companies provide coverage to all applicants without regard for pre-existing health conditions. This provision removes market forces from health insurance and leaves the only remaining issue as whether premium payments come directly from consumers or from the government. As costs continue to spiral upward, more consumers will be unable to pay and Medicaid will get bigger and bigger.

Removing only the individual mandate will just make that devolution occur faster because younger and healthier people will avoid the whole mess and self-insure. That leaves older and sicker people to drive up costs faster in the government-controlled plan, destroying what's left of the insurance market and leaving it all to bureaucrats.

The solution to ObamaCare is to get government out of healthcare as much as possible. But trying to piecemeal our way out of ObamaCare could make us worse off than ever.

One way to solve debt standoff

There were rumors this afternoon that the White House and Senate had worked out a budget deal with spending cuts and without tax increases (and a fun-to-watch left-wing panic attack).

The White House denies it now. Seems like we could easily dispense with all this tax loophole stuff by simply repealing all income taxes.