Making People Mad 101

Richard Day at Kentucky School News and Commentary says:

"David Adams at the Bluegrass Institute reported yesterday on an anti-union group that is offering to "pay the ten worst union-protected teachers in America $10,000 apiece to get out of the classroom - for good."

The Center for Union Facts presents state data on union activity, including financial resources, but focuses on the percentage of teachers fired by the states - as some magically omniscient measure of teacher quality.The logic is - private school teachers are better because more of them get fired.

David would have to tell us how many folks at BGI were fired last year - but I'm not sure how that would relate to the quality of their work anyway.

This is clearly a cynical gimmick designed to ramp up anti-public school sentiment."

More Sneaky House Budget Actions

House Democrats just suspended the rules to throw another amendment on the budget bill and were trying to force a vote without allowing Republicans to even read it.

After a request from Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, a fifteen minute break was granted for a quick read. But what we really need, though, is this bill to give legislators and the public time to read their garbage before it is crammed down our throats.

Taxing In Circles and Picking Our Own Pockets

Rep. David Watkins just made a House floor speech in favor of cutting out the health ravages of smoking by raising the cigarette tax twenty five cents a pack. He spoke about how much it costs taxpayers to cover through Medicaid the treatment of smoking related diseases.

Since Medicaid recipients who smoke are likely to pay the tax increase with our money anyway, wouldn't it make more sense to take steps to remove benefits from people who smoke?

Jody Richards Allergic To Taxpayer Rights

While Rep. Jody Richards was dripping orange hair dye on Rep. Greg Stumbo's speaker's chair yesterday, he had a chance to strike a blow for taxpayers.

He failed.

Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo's economic development transparency bill was the perfect vehicle for Rep. Jim DeCesare to attach his transparency bill and get it a hearing in the House.

Richards, showing yet again his apparent lack of understanding of the term "germane," ruled the amendment out of order.

Asking Jim Newberry

Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry goes in for a deposition on Thursday to testify regarding his role in the cover-up of the Fayette County Detention Center prisoner abuse scandal.

Perhaps he will have details about the revelations of a jail employee trading clean drug tests for sexual favors and car detailing at Paul Miller Ford.

No Priorities, Only More Spending

The House Budget Committee just voted to raise your taxes more.

Rep. Jim Wayne said legislators would be "dead-beat parents" if they didn't raise taxes.

"All of us want more in the budget and the only way we are going to get more in the budget is to raise more revenue," Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark said, summing up perfectly what is wrong with our state government.

The bill they voted on was HB 262. As of this writing, not all the details are available. Hope to have it updated tonight.

Rep. Bob DeWeese and Rep. Danny Ford called out House Dem leaders for trying to cram the tax increase down their throats. Rep. DeWeese also complained that legislators will have to vote on the budget without being able to read it.

Rep. Keith Hall suggested there would be "blood on my hands" if he didn't vote for the tax increase. He voted for it.

The Tax Increase Fix Is In

The Senate Budget Committee is set this morning to vote on the HB 258 tax increase bill the House passed 97-0.

And no, don't call me and tell me it was just a tax increase on companies not headquartered in Kentucky or that it just turned back the clock on a part of the 2005 tax modernization. Consumers pay more when corporate taxes go up, even if the corporations aren't based in Kentucky.

A year ago, we were going to get rid of this tax. Doesn't anyone remember that?

It is disgusting to see Harry Moberly writing the tax increase talking points for Frankfort Republicans now. What's next, another cigarette tax increase for the children?

Sunny And Money Monday!

I'm stuck in the Louisville Airport after a car accident/traffic jam/missed flight/toiletries tossed in the name of jihad all-day nightmare as I try to get to Washington D.C. for the week.

To top it all off, the internet connection I just blew five dollars on here doesn't work very well. I plan to do updates tonight, but it might be a little thin until then.

March 10 Monday Morning Meeting

Monday (3/10/08) at 10 am in Frankfort, Bluegrass Institute's education analyst Dick Innes will speak about reforming the education assessment program called CATS and about why the bureaucrats (and their politicians) are against Senate President David Williams' SB 1.

The forum will be held in the conference room at the Kentucky Association of Homebuilders, 1040 Burlington Lane in Frankfort.

Anyone is welcome to attend, but please email me at adams(at)bipps.com to let me know you are coming. Members of the media are welcome to attend, but the entire meeting is off the record.

House Dems' New Population Reduction Scheme

One point missing from our discussion about the competing Democratic plans to raise your Kentucky taxes is that the reliance on refinancing bonds works like a tax increase, too. If we redo a bunch of bonds that are within just a few years of maturity, but have higher interest payments than are available now, we will wind up paying more money on that debt over time.

The interest payments may be lower now, but by resetting the terms back out to twenty years, we are ensuring that Kentucky taxpayers of the future will pay more then because we didn't cut spending now.

If we were actually saving the savings it might be a different story, but you know we won't be doing that.

And when you add in the public employee benefits disaster no one is talking about anymore, you see that we are only setting the timer on a killer bomb that will go off after the current crop of "leaders" is dead or out of office.

And speaking of death, HB 707 zings you on your final exit by prohibiting anyone but funeral directors from transporting a body to be cremated. Limiting competition here is certain to increase final expense prices.

Ed Worley Gets One Thing Right

Senator Ed Worley just said on the Senate floor "The basic question before us today is 'have we been successful with KERA and with CATS?"

It is correct to say that is the question at the heart of the current education debate.

But the magic didn't hold for long. Worley said the answer was "yes" and then he voted "no" on Senate Bill 1 and then added that we would really "humanize" the education process by passing a bullying bill.

Photoshop Me, Baby, One More Time

This picture would now be perfect if Governor Steve Beshear had a cigarette in his left hand.

Another Steve Beshear Fib (Non-Smoking Version)

If you haven't gotten in the habit of reading the Bluegrass Policy Blog, you may have missed this.

Cutting The Fat In Reverse

Now that Governor Steve Beshear has come clean about his support for a seventy cents a pack cigarette tax increase, we are about to see it get better.

House Majority Caucus Chairman Charlie Hoffman is going to propose raising it by a dollar.

Shaughnessy Spins The Roulette Wheel

Senator Tim Shaughnessy stopped to explain his vote against the SB 1 education reform bill by making an odd comparison that defines the opposition to improvement of public education in this state.

"This is a gambling bill," Shaughnessy said. By that he meant changing from the familiar course would present too much risk.

Nonsense. Depending on the education bureaucracy to operate with little real accountability and putting them in charge of administering the state's method of tracking their efforts would never be tolerated in the real world and should not be supported by taxpayers.

Senate Bill 1 just passed out of the Senate Education Committee on a party-line vote.

What, No Jail Time?

Senate Bill 246, filed Wednesday, requires parents to send their children to public school until age eighteen.

This is perhaps the closest we will get to any kind of school reform from this General Assembly. The only way they could make this junk worse would be to work up some kind of punishment for parents when their teenagers drop out of school. Otherwise, the people who really get hurt by expanding compulsory attendance are the kids who want to learn but are required to sit next to the disruptive kids who are forced to stay in school.

Sorry Charlie

Rep. Charlie Hoffman is riding out his last days in House leadership kicking the casino gambling horse, trying to get it to make the final turn.

But it won't get him to the finish line. It is dead.

Hoffman stuck another amendment on the casino bill today. What a complete waste of time this whole General Assembly session has been. Leaders like Sorry Charlie just won't get us anywhere.

Here Comes Adult Supervision

Louisville GOP insiders say long-time activist Craig Maffet has the votes to become the next chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party.

This is a welcome change in The River City.

(D)-Disarray

House Democrats have cancelled tomorrow's caucus meeting where some hoped they might get their act straight.

The group has not met since the first week of the General Assembly, which is very unusual and suggests there is no functioning leadership.

3/06 UPDATE: Now it looks like the the meeting will happen, but the agenda will only include the budget and tax increases.

More Attacks On Political Speech

HB 775 would prohibit posting anonymously to a blog, website, or message board and levies hefty fines for violations.

SB 214 would criminalize internet-based communications deemed annoying.