Thursday, July 02, 2009

On a personal note...

I am suspending publishing of the Kentucky Progress blog immediately to take a position as a consultant with the Rand Paul for U.S. Senate Exploratory Committee.

More about that soon.

This site has been both very hard work and a lot of fun. I expect to return to it at the conclusion of this new project. Meanwhile, the site with its existing posts will remain up as will my contact information at the top of the page.

I've met and worked with a lot of fantastic people during the 4 1/2 years on Kentucky Progress who I probably would not have gotten to know otherwise. I'll always be grateful for that.


Hope to see you soon!

David

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Next episode of Ben Chandler vs. voters

Lost perhaps in the recent frenzy of Congressional pillaging is the fact that President Barack Obama's labor union payoff is not yet complete. That means card check is headed back to the front burner.

U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia), speaking on a national media conference call Wednesday morning, expressed concern about the so-called "Employee Free Choice Act," which wipes out secret ballot protections for workers in union elections and forces binding government arbitration on American businesses. It's called "card check" and it means unions will be allowed to vote themselves into workplaces by forcing workers to sign cards out in the open instead of voting a secret ballot. Then, if unions and management can't reach agreement, the federal government will swoop in and dictate terms.

Rep. Ben Chandler is in favor of this.

Price said he is concerned the bill sets the stage for "making employers liable for union pensions." That would represent very large costs that will ultimately be passed along to consumers.

Price also said he expects the card check bill to go through the Senate first, where Sen. Tom Harkin is putting together a "compromise." Price is skeptical that this move will work out well for workers.

"I don't think one can compromise away the right to a secret ballot," he said.

The devastating impact this bill would have on American prosperity combined with the cap and trade fiasco, another Chandler "accomplishment," should greatly concern central Kentucky voters.

Mongiardo splits the baby on health reform

Left-leaning Kentucky web sites Barefoot and Progressive and Page One are jumping all over U.S. Senate candidate Daniel Mongiardo for not cheerleading enough on government healthcare reform in the following video.

In fact, they are calling him a "Republican" because he knows the shortcomings of the Canadian system Democrats now seem to want so badly. Mongiardo worked as a doctor in Canada for four years.

In Canada, Mongiardo said, "There's a thing called rationing of healthcare meaning you just don't give it. I never saw a patient in the clinic that I scheduled for a tonsilectomy, in the operating room. There was a three year waiting list for a tonsilectomy. And there was, you know, months and months waiting list for a lot of different things."

Mongiardo describing this experience is considered heresy among the far left. Interesting to see how his candor affects his primary election bid.



Should Mongiardo survive the primary, his big problem becomes his inability to move past what seems to be his only political solution for any political question: electronic medical records.

Closing the barn door too late alert

State Auditor Crit Luallen sures knows how to work the news cycle on an old story that is sexier than it is substantial:



It's almost as if putting government checkbooks online and doing a full audit of the Kentucky Department of Education would be bad for business.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Why not just break some windows?

Wednesday is minimum wage increase day in Kentucky. The economic illiterates at Kentucky Youth Advocates couldn't be more thrilled. So how, exactly, does the government forcibly taking money from some people and giving it to other people benefit the state's economy?



Obviously, it doesn't.

Falling for the broken window fallacy is great politics, but the math is not much different than that supporting Obamanomics.

Wild (and misplaced) rhetoric

The Lexington Herald Leader editorial board is mighty upset about the Kentucky Association of Counties misspending perhaps several thousand dollars.



The funny part, really, is that they are worried about insufficient spending documentation of an organization whose money only indirectly comes from taxpayers when they can't be bothered to look at the much larger pool of abused taxpayer funds going through our public school system.

The last time Auditor Crit Luallen perused any Kentucky Department of Education spending at all, though, she found millions being tossed around on the disgraceful CATS testing system. Fortunately for us, the CATS program was phased out by the 2009 General Assembly.

But no one knows how much the non-functioning accounting system used by our education bureaucracy is costing us unnecessarily. Those who have succeeded in pushing for Washington D.C. to audit the Federal Reserve should help us force a real top to bottom audit of the Kentucky Department of Education.

Lee Cruse looks at taking on Ben Chandler

Growing opposition to Congressman Ben Chandler has fueled quiet speculation in recent months that he might draw a high profile opponent in 2010. One candidate has started raising money and set up a web site and several others are considering the race.



WLEX TV's morning field anchor Lee Cruse says he has been approached about entering the race and is considering it. He had a brief comment about the possibility:

"I am still on the fence because of the personal sacrifice my family would have to make. That’s due to equal time regulations that would require me to leave the job that I love."


Cruse, 39, grew up in Winchester.

Grover brings Big Mo to Lexington

A top Washington D.C. Republican came to Lexington Monday with an optimistic message for local conservatives.

"One of the things that has changed is that we have learned to react to the spending rather than waiting for the tax increases," said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform.

Speaking to an energized crowd in a Fifth Third Bank conference room downtown, Norquist stressed the importance of focusing on the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010 rather than getting sidetracked on animosity for President Barack Obama.

"The most important thing we can do is take the House back in 2010," Norquist said. "Nothing else comes close."

He added that he thinks this is a very realistic goal.

"There are 40 seats Republicans need to pick up and there are 49 Democrats in districts carried by McCain," he said.

That would include the Sixth Congressional district of central Kentucky.

"I think anyone who voted for stimulus, the budget, and cap and trade has a target on his back and you can beat him on those votes alone," Norquist said.

Congressman Ben Chandler voted for all three.

Norquist pointed out that the first Obama tax increase earlier this year ended the longest period in American history without a federal tax increase. The streak spanned fifteen years. He said resisting the suggestion that Republicans move to the left on their policy positions is indispensable to bouncing back in the next election.

"The fact that they want us to drop the tax issue when Obama spent so many millions promising that he wouldn't raise taxes demonstrates how important the tax issue is," Norquist said.

Healthcare reform looks to be the hottest issue for 2009. Norquist dismissed the Obama plan simply.

"I've never gotten one of them to sit still long enough to explain to me why they need $1 trillion to $3 trillion more for a healthcare system that is going to be cheaper," Norquist said.

He also made an interesting point about the global cooling/global warming/climate change controversy. He told a story about Al Gore coming to one of the Americans for Tax Reform meetings. He asked Gore which of his policy suggestions related to the climate would not apply if he suddenly learned that man-made climate change was not real. Gore responded that he wouldn't change any of them. Norquist said this makes it clear that arguing the status of the climate is a waste of time.

Norquist encouraged attendees who have grown frustrated by the Republican party to increase their involvement.

"If you want to change the Republican party, join the Republican party," Norquist said. "It's not important that people on our side of the aisle agree on everything. We just need to agree that the government should leave us alone."

Monday, June 29, 2009

Finding out what's worse than a loan shark

Another day, another one-sided, single-sourced "news" story in the Lexington Herald Leader about shutting down private businesses and turning their functions over to the state.



When are we going to see a story about how much Kentucky taxpayers "lose" to the government each year?

And if payday lending customers go to those businesses because of no alternatives, what do they think those people will do when that option is eliminated legislatively?

Easy. They will hit up the taxpayers.

Horse industry needs a better argument

The Lexington Herald Leader's pro-casino columnist Larry Dale Keeling's latest effort strays from the mark on a key point that deserves unbiased scrutiny. He wrote:

"As a political issue, expanded gambling may not be ripe in the General Assembly. But it's a lot riper than it was just two weeks ago. Progress was made when it passed the House for the first time."


It would be far more accurate to say that a big-government scam is what passed the House. Packing on more than a billion dollars worth of borrowed pork is what passed that bill through the House by one vote. Pretending otherwise just further delays the horse industry from focusing on a workable solution to their problems.

I'm all for freedom in the marketplace and am sympathetic to the industry trying to compete with those in other states. But in our smoke-and-mirrors budgeting welfare state, though, I can't support opening the door to casinos when it mainly means creating another bill of goods to elect politicians while taxpayers get stuck with more debt. The horse industry shatters any validity in its argument by joining forces with those in Frankfort who won't let a little thing like running out of money stop them from spending.

I want the horse industry to succeed, but we have to realize that slots only at the tracks will not be enough for the billion-dollar vote buyers. They will cut your throats at the first opportunity by setting up casinos outside the tracks. Figure out a way to expand your revenue stream without further damaging taxpayers. The political saber rattling just isn't going to cut it.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Sunday evening vanity alert

Found in the Lexington Herald Leader:


How about Benito Mussolini instead?

After public disclosure of his taxpayer-funded trip to see his Argentinian mistress, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had the gall to compare himself to the Old Testament adulterer King David, who maintained his power after his crimes became publicly known.

Sanford, a former 2012 presidential hopeful, should reimburse South Carolina taxpayers the cost of his trip, resign, and go away quietly.

"A country of arbitrary rules"

Potential U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Rand Paul said current federal policies run the risk of doing significant damage to American society:



Speaking to the Scott County Young Republicans, Dr. Paul compared the crisis in our current government to that of ancient Rome past its prime and discussed the risks of the Federal Reserve inflating the currency.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

All hands on deck!

Every club, organization, and group of every kind in Kentucky's Sixth Congressional district should call Rep. Ben Chandler's offices Monday and invite him to come to your next meeting and explain his support for Cap and Tax.

This battle is far from over. The bill now goes to the Senate and it will be amended there. If it passes the Senate, it will have to go back through the House for agreement on the changes.

Invitations to Chandler should also be sent to local media via press release. If your Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Garden club, neighborhood association, bridge club, or whatever needs help calling out Rep. Chandler for this latest outrage, I'll be glad to assist you. My contact information is at the top of this page.

The key is that when Chandler refuses to show up or fails to respond, we do another press release and keep hounding him.

Rep. Chandler's Washington D.C. office number is (202) 225-4706 and his Lexington number is (859) 219-1366.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Pelosi power pooper passes

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Energy Tax bill 219-212. U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler voted for it.

Georgia Congressman Tom Price attempted to stop debate to request a moment of silence for the millions of Americans who will lose their jobs as a result of the bill's implementation.

Someone's desperate for a PR victory

Gov. Steve Beshear is going to great lengths today to take credit for state taxpayers picking up the tab for storm cleanup.



4:00 UPDATE

And, of course, it worked. The Kentucky Post seems to think that the Governor's administration, rather than taxpayers, will be picking up the $14.6 million. That's quality journalism right there!

Ben Chandler turns off your air conditioner

In case you were wondering, U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler voted for the Cap and Tax procedural vote that barely passed the House.



Evening update: Rep. Chandler voted for Cap and Tax and the bill passed the House.

We shouldn't have to beg

We can't improve a government that we can't see. That is what the transparency movement is all about. In Kentucky, Rep. Jim DeCesare, Sen. Damon Thayer, and Secretary of State Trey Grayson have been leaders in the fight against a stonewalling Frankfort which is strangely reluctant to allow taxpayers to see what is going on with our money.

The federal effort remains small as well (click here for more):



Every city and county government in Kentucky should post their checkbook registers to the internet for everyone to see. Every school district, too. We have the technology and the resources and we shouldn't have to beg for government that has nothing to hide.

Trouble in casino paradise?

Kentuckians seeking to make our state budget problems go away -- or even get just a little better -- might want to look at a Friday New York Times article about a new billion dollar tax increase in casino-rich New Jersey.

My favorite part to start the weekend with a laugh was the new tax on lottery winners.



Maybe they should just stand at the door of their casinos and bum rush any patrons who try to leave with any cash or with room left on their credit cards.

Big government is the problem here. It's a shame that Kentucky's horse industry has cast its lot with people who buy votes with billions of dollars of borrowed public money. If they really want to "level the playing field" with tracks in casino states, they should seek to do so without digging Kentucky into a deeper government hole. They have energy, passion, and numbers on their side, but if it is mainly going to go for driving our state deeper into the fiscal ditch, I wish them slow and painful failure.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

President says Kentucky needs ObamaCare

The Obama Administration will release reports for every state in the nation Friday describing how things will be better for everyone in each state if we let him implement socialized medicine.

Another "press release journalism" hit job

How would you respond if one of your enemies put out a press release about you and the newspaper called you for a response, but you couldn't see details of what was said?

When it happened to Kentucky Coal Association's Bill Caylor Wednesday, he said he hadn't seen the "study" put out by MACED, a left-wing advocacy group based in Berea.

But the Lexington Herald Leader went ahead and ran a front page story:



Fortunately, Kentucky now has independent blogs. To see CyberHillbilly's response to the silliness, click here.

Do you support Obama's Energy Tax?

Word is bond

Potential U.S. Senate primary opponents Dr. Rand Paul and Secretary of State Trey Grayson, while also racing to a June 30 fundraising deadline for midyear reporting purposes, have been quick to make a very timely promise.

It's called the Taxpayer Protection Pledge and it's a promise to voters to never vote for a tax increase. Dr. Paul, who as the chairman of Kentucky Taxpayers United has collected dozens of such written promises from candidates over the years, has already signed his. Weeks ago, Secretary Grayson scheduled a meeting with Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist for this coming Monday in Louisville to sign his no-new-taxes pledge.

The Taxpayer Protection Pledge has drawn attention recently because of the way U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler used it to sneak into office under false pretenses and is now poised to vote for the largest tax increase in history.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, will be in Lexington on Monday night, 6 pm to 8 pm at the Fifth Third Bank building for a private reception. If you'd like to attend, contact Dawn Cloyd at dcloyd@thielaudio.com.

Don't need a new car? Pay up anyway

Before running out of Frankfort slapping each other on the back for such a "successful" special session, legislators slipped into a corporate welfare bill $25 million to give to Kentuckians who buy new cars after September 1.

And we're doing this while we are hopelessly broke.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Watch your back, Steve!

House Speaker Greg Stumbo kicked off his run for Governor in 2011 with the following announcement Wednesday afternoon:



I guess that's more fun than Stumbo saying "We punted the serious issues again in 2009, called an extra session and wasted more taxpayer money, but we managed to make government bigger, more powerful, and more expensive. Thanks!"

Healthcare reform for the rest of us

In case you aren't excited about ABC television's Socialized Medicine Obamathon tonight, here's a better way:



Briefly, what we need is the ability to buy health insurance across state lines, separation of health insurance from employment, to get the federal bureaucracy out of healthcare, and to get real about the idea that more government is going to make healthcare cheaper unless what they really mean is rationing of services.

Blowing the whistle on the wrong scam

After decades of rampant abuse of our public employee pension system by politicians and bureaucrats resulting in a more than $30 billion underfunding, its funny to see KRS getting worked up about a few phone calls.



If you like this year's wasteful special session, you would have loved last year's, in which the politicians claimed to fix the state's pension problems. And then they came back earlier this year and raided the system again.

The only way to get out of the pension mess Frankfort has put us in is to pour money into the system at a much faster rate. And that means less spending on other pet big-government projects.

Now.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

A flat tax never killed anyone

Did a tax avoidance strategy in Washington D.C. cause the deaths of nine people in a DC Metro accident Monday? (Click the image below to expand and read.)

Independence Day Tea Parties in Kentucky

Friday July 3 ---

Jenkins City Park in downtown Jenkins, Kentucky. 6pm to 8pm.

Madison County Courthouse in Richmond. 6pm to 7:30pm.


Saturday July 4 ---

Jefferson Square in Louisville. 11am to 2pm.

Laurel County Courthouse in London. Noon to 1pm.

Corbin City Hall in Corbin. Noon to 2 pm.

Grant County Courthourse in Williamstown. Noon.

State Capitol steps in Frankfort. Noon to 2pm.

Fayette County Courthouse in Lexington. Starts at 3:30pm right after the parade.

I will be speaking in Madison County and Laurel County. Hope to see you there!

$60,000 for your Tuesday hot air

The Kentucky legislature is expected to spend much of the day Tuesday in conference committees seeking agreement on everything but slots.

Just go home, guys.

There's my Herald Leader!

Agreeing with the Lexington Herald Leader editorial page's slots bill opposition recently was pretty strange. Tuesday morning brought a return to normal:



If "incentivizing" our economy with corporate welfare worked, then Kentucky, with one of the most active state economic development cabinets in the nation in this decade, would already be an economic nirvana.



Since the government's definition of "economic competitiveness" translates into English as Kentucky being one of the poorest states, shouldn't we be considering a new strategy instead of tweaking and expanding the old one?

One thing that should be perfectly clear by now is we don't need state government trying to serve as a mini-Obama, picking which companies get welfare and which ones pay it. What we need to do is repeal corporate taxes, which are all passed along to consumers anyway. Pay for the cuts by making government smaller. Until we start thinking like this, we will continue getting the same bad results from Frankfort.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Keep killing the zombie casino effort

Interesting to hear red-faced slots supporters in the Capitol Annex Monday evening snarling about raising $100,000 against every Republican Senator in next year's elections.

I thought they were all immediately moving to Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Kentucky is never going to start moving toward general prosperity until we get past these money games. To think that we are using $742 million from Washington D.C. (improperly, of course) to fill in a hole caused by rampant overspending and then borrowing more than $1 billion more to buy votes to set up another money-losing scheme should have us all grabbing our torches and pitchforks.

My friends who threw in with the casino mob used the "levelling the playing field" argument to say "all the other kids are doing it." The point, though, is that all the other kids are broke because they have fallen for yet another fool's gold scheme. Kentucky is going to have to stop falling for them and stop following the failed examples of neighboring states if we are ever to right our ship.

Cooking up different ways to bankrupt our state is never going to improve our fiscal situation. Never.

We should stop trying pretty soon, don't you think?

Ben Chandler goes squishy, again

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler has already decided to take a firm stand on both sides of the socialized medicine issue. Now, he appears determined to say nice things about monetary system transparency without actually doing anything about it.



This is Chandler's form letter that he sends to everyone who asks him to cosponsor the Audit the Fed bill.

Slots for Tots, or not?

The Kentucky House of Representatives is still sitting on the slots bill passed Friday. The Senate has already passed the budget and appears ready to go home if the House doesn't produce their bill by 4:30 this afternoon.

I suspect the House will send over Slots for Tots and it will die in the Senate.

4:30 pm Update: The House met the 4:30 deadline and the Senate is going into budget committee to consider the slots bill.

6:00 pm Update: The Senate budget committee is now hearing testimony in opposition to casinos, which the House refused to do.

7:10 pm Update: Senate budget committee has killed the slots bill.

Attaching a label to Mitch McConnell

Winchester Sun editor Randy Patrick recently interviewed Sen. Mitch McConnell biographer John David Dyche. Here's an interesting excerpt:



You can read the rest of the interview here.

Moving the electorate on a similar shift from its current big-government mindset to support of liberty and support for smaller government will be tough with no apparent Ronald Reagan type on the horizon. As dependency continues to grow, some catalyst is needed to move us back in the other direction. Sen. McConnell could play an important role in that.

Slow news day in Lexington?

If our intrepid mainstream reporters in Lexington are looking for something to do today, they should read this and then ask mayoral candidate Teresa Isaac her opinion about how her successor Mayor Jim Newberry has handled the ongoing federal investigation of the Fayette jail inmate abuse scandal.

Why I do what I do

At the state Lincoln dinner last month, Senate President David Williams said "For those bloggers who want to see a battle over taxation and spending, you're about to see Armageddon."

That is, indeed, what I want to see. And what Kentucky needs to see.

In his Louisville Courier Journal column this morning, Joe Gerth printed that Williams quote, but left out the word "blogger."

Countering mainstream media spin was my original intention in starting up this site over four years ago. Having them sometimes try to edit me out of the picture is just part of the payoff.

Living to see a real Frankfort battle over taxes and spending (or, in this case, borrowing and spending) would just be awesome. And this could be the week it happens.

You don't have bring on the end of the world, Senator Williams. Just say no and go home.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Do you approve this message?

Attorney General Jack Conway has started running a television commercial telling parents to "friend" their children on Facebook and to watch out for online predators.

If anyone in Frankfort is really looking for someplace to cut unnecessary state expenditures, this kind of "welfare for politicians" should go first.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Rand Paul defends Bunning from attacks

Sen. Jim Bunning's political opponents have continued efforts to smear Kentucky's junior senator over a $20k a year salary he earns for baseball autographs. Yesterday, potential Republican rival Dr. Rand Paul came to Bunning's defense:
"It is okay for Ted Kennedy to accept $2 million or Hillary Clinton $6 million up front for a book, likely ghostwritten, but Jim Bunning is taken to the shed for accepting $20,000 for signing autographs."

"The Congressional ethics rules are a farce, and I believe the attacks on Jim Bunning are partisan in nature. Many years ago, Millicent Fenwick, a liberal Republican from the Northeast, was a great champion of so-called ethical rules on earnings for Congressmen. Of course, she rarely mentioned that she had never worked a day in her life and lived off of a family trust fund."

"Current ethical rules allow multimillionaire businessmen to continue earning large checks from ownership of business but limit the earnings of anyone who must expend labor. Thus teachers, lawyers, barbers, and doctors are limited in outside income."

"The unintended consequence is to deter citizen legislators who live in their state and continue to work. Once elected officials are completely dependent on their Congressional salary, they are even more likely to vote to please special interests in order to continue to get elected."

"I agree that politicians should not be allowed to make $50,000 speeches to groups that receive or seek federal funds, but we should rethink rules that prevent elected officials from continuing their original careers."


Dr. Paul has formed an exploratory committee to consider a run at Bunning's Senate seat, as has Kentucky's Secretary of State Trey Grayson.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Cheering for a trainwreck

The Senate has amended and combined various bills in the already disastrous special session, effectively tying the whole process in knots.

Good.

Next week will be lots of fun watching the House and Senate slug it out if only because any agreement now very likely won't include a lot of the junk (here and here) proposed by Gov. Steve Beshear and House Speaker Greg Stumbo -- and perhaps none of it.

5:20 pm update: Senate President David Williams said the House Democrats have until 4:30 pm on Monday to deliver the slots bill to them or he will send the Senate home ending the special session.

Obama blows up Kentucky special session

Gov. Steve Beshear may want to talk to his buddy in the White House.

The Obama administration is threatening states with loss of federal funding if they use stimulus funds (from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund) for purposes other than to increase school funding:



This is, of course, exactly what we are in Frankfort doing right now. From the budget bill HB 1:



In other words, the federal government is telling us that Gov. Beshear needs to go back to the drawing board on his budget plan and that this special session is now officially a bigger disaster than anyone could have imagined.

Checkmate, again

US News and World Report has a story about schools that will delight public school bureaucrats who only read headlines and then spin superficial analysis into a justification for giving more money and power to public school bureaucrats while expecting less from them.



The story is actually fairly well balanced if you read it all. There are some real problems with the study referenced in the article, but refuting it is not really necessary.

Regular public schools that fail mainly just get more money. Public charters that fail get shut down. Which type of school do you think is going to be more motivated to innovate and improve?

Kentucky law currently prohibits establishment of the kind of school that is routinely shut down if it fails to educate students.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Panic thick enough to cut with a knife

Rep. Charlie Hoffman is the last person in the General Assembly who would betray labor union chiefs. So it was interesting to see him file an amendment to the slots bill that would repeal prevailing wage requirements on school construction projects.



It's like a tell in poker. And all the House Dems' chips are on the table.

Repeal the state income tax, require drug testing of welfare recipients, post all government (state, local, and school) spending on the internet, repeal certificate of need and give us school vouchers and maybe we'll talk.

(Midnight update -- thanks to Kristen Webb Hill, who pointed out the LRC entry of this amendment has Hoffman's name on it, but that the actual amendment language has Rep. Jeff Hoover's name on it. That would make more sense and would also be the second time this month the LRC has put the wrong name on a bill.)

(9 AM update -- House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover was indeed the sponsor of the prevailing wage amendment and the LRC has fixed their error. Bet Rep. Hoffman got some interesting phone calls last night and early this morning. Here is the new entry on the LRC web site:

Next up: energy

I'm headed to Lexington for a discussion about energy production in Kentucky. We're meeting at The Inn on Broadway at 6:30 pm.

The meeting is open to the public.

Stumbo clings to overspending habit

Rep. James Comer just demonstrated to House Speaker Greg Stumbo that Kentucky could build 28 more schools with the proposed school spending in the current vote buying scheme if we only suspended the prevailing wage.

Stumbo responded that he is willing to "study" the issue. Wonder how long it will take him to study the impact of lowering construction costs by twenty percent and decide to waste the money anyway because his labor union supporters want him to.

This is no revenue shortfall crisis. It is a crisis of propping up failed ideology.

Moberly denies vote buying

Rep. Harry Moberly is testifying to the House Budget Committee and complaining about the "vote buying" criticism of tying votes for slots to spending on school construction.

He said tying policy priorities via spending to revenue measures was "Budgeting 101" and something that is always done.

Right. If only we did a better job of linking our spending to our revenues, we wouldn't even be talking about a budget crisis in the current year, much less sucking up $742 million in federal money to even come close on the next two years.

Will Gitmo prisoners come to Kentucky?

Well, it looks like Tennessee is doing what it can to keep the terrorists we know about out of their state:



Rep. Stacey Campfield is a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

Kicking Frankfort's can down the road

While Kentucky plays around with lesser issues, California is at least looking at what we should be looking at: unfunded public pension liabilities.

Kentucky is in the hole $30 billion on our pension obligations, but continues to play funding games rather than seriously cutting state government to be able to afford massive retirement bills when they come due.

When Kentucky's retirement system actuarial reports come out later this fall, renewed interest in this mess should motivate proper action, but probably won't.

In California today, a vote is expected to allow their retirement system to continue to pretend that there is no problem. Kentucky has done the same thing -- a process called "smoothing," which involves spreading current financial losses over future years -- in each of our last two legislative sessions. This allows the problem to get bigger, costing taxpayers more. From a legislator's perspective it is okay, though, because they are future taxpayers.

To his credit, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets it:


All the legislators in Frankfort know that this pension time bomb is our biggest problem.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Upping the bogus casino headline ante

The Lexington Herald Leader's misleading $700 million casino headline hadn't even cycled off their web site's front page Wednesday evening and they went and added another, $1.3 billion, one.



Nice job, guys. How many billions will you be up to tomorrow? Make mine a red Ferrari.

Kentucky Tea Party today

I'm headed to Frankfort to speak on the Capitol steps at noon.