Unbridled "Medicaid Eligibility" foolishness

Governor Steve Beshear's 2012-2014 budget proposal includes a bonding request of $50 million for a Medicaid Eligibility program to "provide for real-time time determination of applicant eligibility."

Aside from the obvious stupidity of spending $50 million for a program to tell if someone is eligible for Medicaid or not, the laundry list of federal agencies involved in the project suggests strongly this has something to do with the ObamaCare program the legislature is quietly allowing Beshear to implement without our approval.

If there is any resistance left in Frankfort, now would be a great time to start resisting.

Kathy Stein gets her David Williams payday

Sen. Kathy Stein has been redistricted out of her state Senate seat. Expect her to quickly get appointed to another state job to cash in on the David Williams pension scam.

So far, the Kentucky legislature in 2012 has shown no inclination to clean up any part of the pension mess or address the debt problem.

Forty eight days remain in the 2012 General Assembly.

Only 8 cosponsors on concealed carry bill

Kentucky state Rep. Mike Harmon is trying again to restore to Kentuckians the right to carry a concealed firearm without getting a government permit first.

The biggest surprise about this bill, filed Wednesday, is that only seven other House Republicans have signed on with Rep. Harmon.

Please call your representative and ask him or her to stand up for our Second Amendment rights. In an election year in Kentucky, surely we can pass a bill like this.

Say no to this "health" nonsense

Kentucky's House Health and Welfare Committee will take up HB 206 on Thursday. It's a bill that would spend millions of dollars putting health departments across the Commonwealth through a new national accreditation process.

Sounds pretty hopey-changey to me.

If we need to improve our public health departments, that's fine. But the Public Health Accreditation Board needs to develop a track record of doing more than calling themselves experts before we spend money we don't have on their program.

The bill will pass the committee because that is how they roll. But the bill shouldn't stand up under much scrutiny. Let's hope it gets some before it hits Gov. Beshear's desk.

Tennessee might beat Kentucky this time

Tennessee's state Senate leader Ron Ramsey needs to get with Kentucky state Rep. Lonnie Napier before he gets much further with his welfare drug testing proposal. But once Ramsey gets clear on the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, he appears to really be on to something.

Ramsey says he wants to drug test nearly everyone getting any kind of government benefits. The problem with this is that in order to get through the inevitable court challenges, any such bill must limit testing to cases in which there is shown to be probable cause.

But that's easy to fix.

The really interesting part is where Ramsey's Tennessee proposal goes next. He doesn't just want to test welfare recipients, but also corporate executives getting government subsidies and even legislators.

You see, this isn't just about drugs. It's about questioning who gets government money and why. Once we start weeding government recipients out based on anything -- and drug abuse is a fairly easy one to sell -- then we are one big step closer to questioning the programs altogether.

And we can't get government under control until we question thoroughly the value of every program, eliminating the ones with limited value. Failed welfare programs and "economic development" are two fine examples.

Proliferating pain pill perversity

A new legislative proposal in Frankfort underscores the need to teach economics more widely in Kentucky.

House Bill 251 would cause some health care providers to be prosecuted as felons for accepting cash for their services. The intent is to cut down on overprescribing of pain pills, but at a time that our federal government is moving toward destroying our healthcare system through radical manipulation of insurance options, the last thing we need to be doing is telling sick people they can't pay cash to go to the doctor.

In fact, multiple medical examples such as contact lenses, plastic surgery, and LASIK, which are not payable by health insurance, suggest strongly that we should be encouraging cash payment for healthcare rather than throwing people in jail.

There are better ways to make prescription drug abuse more illegal than it already is. We don't need to throw bad economics into the mix.

Beshear sneaking ObamaCare past legislature

Understanding what is going on with ObamaCare in Kentucky depends on which Steve Beshear you believe.

With no chance a state ObamaCare exchange bill could pass even the Democratic-controlled House this year, Beshear's best option is to do nothing and let the law collapse on its own. His administration, when pressed by concerned Kentuckians, insists that is the approach it is taking. But they have told others something altogether different.

Last month, the Beshear administration told Health Policy Director Joy Johnson Wilson at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington D.C. that Beshear is proceeding secretly to implement a state-run exchange by executive order through the Division of Certificate of Need in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services' Office of Health Policy.

We can't afford ObamaCare in Kentucky and as word spreads of Beshear's duplicity, outrage across the Commonwealth will send that message to Frankfort very clearly. 

The legislature should move immediately to get its members on record in support of or against Beshear's sneaky ObamaCare implementation. Such action would shine some much-needed light on Frankfort. 

Rep. Richard Henderson gets two things right

This Thursday, January 19, Agriculture Commissioner James Comer starts making good on his campaign promise to restart hemp cultivation in Kentucky with a 3:30 pm press conference to unveil a bill by Rep. Richard Henderson that would make the growing of hemp legal in Kentucky.

Misinformed opponents sometimes confuse hemp with marijuana, which is odd since hemp cross-pollinates with marijuana and renders it useless as a drug. The economic benefits of hemp cultivation are well-documented. Kentucky House members who care about growing our economy should join Rep. Henderson and Commissioner Comer.

Rep. Henderson is also one of the forty seven cosponsors on Rep. Lonnie Napier's welfare recipient drug testing bill. We need more lawmakers in Frankfort who understand both industrial hemp's many benefits and who can tell the difference between it and the drugs on which welfare recipients shouldn't be spending our money.

The Thursday press conference will be held in the State Capitol. Please plan to attend if you can and invite friends. Further details will be made available here when we get them.

Stopping welfare waste starts here

Kentucky state representative Lonnie Napier has the best bill in the country for drug testing welfare recipients and so far forty six of his fellow House members agree.

The bill's forty seven cosponsors (including Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Majority Caucus Chairman Bob Damron) are more than enough to guarantee the bill a floor vote in case Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Tom Burch attempts to tie up the bill prematurely.

More efficiently attacking abuse of the welfare system is a great tea party issue. If your representative is not a cosponsor, please call him or her today.

Is David Williams Sugar Tax coming back?

Kentucky Senate President David Williams may be taking another flip on his flip-flopping over the proposed Snot Tax just as a new study could help revive his 2009 call for a tax on sugary drinks.

Sugar tax advocates say the federal government could save lives and billions of dollars in public health expenses by levying a penny-per-ounce "user fee" on certain soft drinks.

But just three weeks ago, Kentucky lawmakers killed a proposal which would have stopped Kentuckians from using food stamps to buy some junk foods.

Frankfort rarely misses a chance to make government bigger, but can't stomach a commonsense approach that would reduce spending and improve people's lives at the same time. And big-government Republicans who won't sign no-tax pledges always seem to be in the middle of it.

How to limit Kentucky's debt now

Kentucky's General Assembly should add to its two proposed constitutional amendments limiting state debt by simply seeking to pass a bill to do the same thing.

The two main advantages to this approach are that simple majorities are necessary to pass a bill -- as opposed to super majorities for constitutional amendments -- and that a new law created in this fashion could take effect immediately rather than next year.

We need to not wait any longer than is absolutely necessary to start the process of getting Kentucky's debt crisis under control.

And it doesn't have to be complicated at all. Take a look at KRS 58.020. This brief paragraph in state law could be improved greatly just by adding the following language:

"General fund appropriation-supported debt service" means the amount appropriated by the General Assembly for interest or other required periodic payments associated with general fund appropriation-supported debt, whether or not the debt has actually been issued.


The authorization of general fund appropriation-supported debt service by the General Assembly shall not at any time result in a ratio of authorized general fund appropriation-supported debt service to revenues of greater than five percent.


If the amount of authorized general fund appropriation-supported debt service exceeds five percent at the time of adoption of this provision, no new debt shall be authorized by the General Assembly until the level of authorized general fund appropriation-supported debt service falls below five percent.

Frankfort 2011 debt increase largest in history

Governor Steve Beshear's administration today finally released details on state finances for fiscal year 2011 showing a net increase in state bonded debt of $908 million, a state record.

This figure doesn't include the billion dollar debt owed to the federal government for unemployment benefits or the tens of billions in unfunded public employee benefits.

As of June 30, 2011, the end of FY11, the state's total bonded debt was $7.96 billion. The largest single component of the outstanding debt is the Kentucky Housing Corporation.

These facts will likely continue to escape public notice due to the timing of their release. State government has had these figures since last summer. 

Thomas Massie running for Congress

Lewis County Judge Executive Thomas Massie has officially entered Kentucky's 4th congressional district Republican primary race to replace retiring Rep. Geoff Davis.

Massie enters the race with the apparent backing of Sen. Rand Paul to take on establishment pick state Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington and Boone County Judge Executive Gary Moore.

The most interesting thing about this race at the beginning is the role presidential politics will play in whether Massie can overcome the geographic disadvantage of living in the rural, eastern part of the district. Massie's support for presidential candidate Ron Paul and Sen. Rand Paul is well-documented and those relationships are  far closer than either of his opponents has with any presidential candidate. So far, Sen. Mitch McConnell has been silent about the race.

Otherwise, Massie is solid on the issues, speaks well, is wickedly smart and should be a force to be reckoned with on the campaign trail.

Calling all Tea Partiers!

Kentucky's Senate State and Local Government Committee will take up the issue of a state debt limit Wednesday, January 11, at noon.

Now is the time to make your voice heard on this issue.

Kentucky has a very serious debt problem. Sticking with the status quo is not an option. Of course, getting this wrong won't work either. If you can, please engage in the process right away by telling your representatives we need to limit the amount of debt the General Assembly and Governor can pile on us.

The committee meeting will be in room 154 in the Annex and should be available live on KET.org.

Kentucky debt limit efforts gain steam

Kentucky now has two state debt limit bills setting a debt ceiling below its current level and requiring a four-fifths vote of both chambers of the General Assembly to raise it, and only then after an emergency declaration by the Governor.

Rep. Mike Harmon's HB 108 would require the limit of appropriation-supported debt service to be set at 5% of General Fund revenues. Senator Joe Bowen's SB 56 is essentially the same bill except that it sets the limit at 6%.

Given the choice, 5% is better. Both bills would put the question of a state debt ceiling on the November ballot to let the people decide. Please share this post with your networks and let your representatives know where you stand on limiting Kentucky's state debt.

Alecia Webb-Edgington picks a side

Roll Call profiled the upcoming Kentucky 4th Congressional District GOP primary with an article that included the following quote:

“I am not of the establishment. I am a Republican. And I think I represent all paradigms of the Republican Party,” (state Rep. Alecia) Webb-Edgington said.)

In other words, she is an establishment candidate. The Republican party contains people who really want to break up the big government, bailout, debt-and-tax status quo and it also contains people who prefer to keep things pretty much as they are, but for themselves to be in charge of it.

You can't represent both of those and Alecia Webb-Edgington does not.

We will keep having nasty primaries about the direction of the Republican party between those who really want    smaller government and those who do not until this is resolved. The best you can do is represent one side and work to persuade the other. Until then, claiming to represent both is a pretty cynical (and increasingly ineffective) way of perpetuating the establishment.

You can read the Roll Call article here.

Why Kentucky's CAFR matters

Another week has passed without Kentucky's Finance and Administration Cabinet releasing its 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. State law requires that it should have happened by September 30, 2011.

This matters now because it will show clearly that state officials knew what a mess they had made of state finances well before the November elections.  We know that from digging through other reports.

The Commonwealth is buried in debt -- a fact which the CAFR will make abundantly clear -- and we got that way with bipartisan action in Frankfort.

This should have been the biggest issue of the fall campaign, but it wasn't an issue at all because neither of the two main candidates for Governor brought it up.

Disgraceful.

Will you vote for Steve Beshear's tax reform?

Governor Steve Beshear's new tax reform commission is supposed to report recommendations by the end of 2012 for action in 2013.

Among his key goals for reform is ensuring "adequate revenue to fund critical state services."

Bear in mind this is coming from a politician who spent more than $3 billion he didn't have in his first term while claiming he was being fiscally responsible. He boasts about recruiting tens of thousands of Kentucky families onto the government health insurance rolls and about doling out special tax treatment in order to "create" jobs.

Governor Beshear's idea of what constitutes a critical state service should tell us that to him, tax reform means tax increases.

Our legislative races this year are going to have to be about protecting us from tax increases and ever-expanding government for when 2013 comes around and Beshear starts touting his blue-ribbon plan for raising revenue.

If your representatives won't hold the line against Beshear on this, you shouldn't support them.

Beshear: I'll gladly tell you Tuesday, 1/17

A request to the Beshear Administration for the state's current debt ratio just resulted in the following response: the answer will be in the Governor's Executive Budget document on Tuesday, January 17.

The debt ratio is simply the current amount of appropriation supported debt service as a percentage of current revenue. It should be a pretty easy number to track down for the people who keep the books.

My best guess is that the number, whenever it is revealed, will have more than doubled since 2010 in a bipartisan Frankfort orgy of spending and borrowing.

Today is Day Two of Beshearmageddon.

Beshearmageddon

Governor Steve Beshear's spokeswoman has confirmed he will seek spending cuts of 7 to 9 percent this year.

InsiderLouisville.com has the story here.

From the story:

“Preliminary (cuts) have been requested for next year at 7 to 9 percent,” stated Kerri Richardson, Gov. Steve Beshear’s deputy communications director, in an email response to an Insider Louisville query.

Frankfort politicians in both parties had to know this was coming. The excessive spending never stopped during the recession and this is just the tip of the iceberg because principles of budgetary responsibility have been so actively ignored for so long.

This helps explain, of course, why the state finance people are hiding legally mandated reports.

And it is particularly odd that only two days ago, Speaker Greg Stumbo was on television discussing plans for huge increases in school spending. Was he totally in the dark?

The legislature will want to respond to this by borrowing more money but we can't let them do it.