Thoughts for the New Year
The most important issue in the next year and the year after will be creating a fair and equitable tax system for Kentucky. Let’s face it, no one ever wants to pay taxes and almost no one is in favor of going cold turkey on the services provided by government. Also anyone that has looked that current system knows it doesn’t work, and is not going to work in the future.
So a lot of my upcoming posts will deal with taxes.
At this point in time the three major candidates for Governor are not doing well in addressing the problem.
Steve Beshear seems content on spreading the pain, with the exception of non-merit state employees, until we have Casinos. This is a band aid approach and won’t work long term.
David Williams wants to study the problem. This is nothing but activity taking the place of action. Williams knows the issue has already been studied to death but doesn’t seem to have any kind of plan.
Phil Moffett has about half the answer with putting sales tax on services, but he is real short on details.
So if we are passing out grades at this point, Beshear gets D, for a bad plan, Williams gets an F for no plan and Moffett gets a C- for half a plan with no supporting information.
A lot more on this topic later.
Moving on, the creationist theme park, Ark Encounter sounds like a good idea to me if the Commonwealth makes sure that any tax breaks come back to the state. I’d be in favor of requiring all the principals in project to personally responsible for the pay back to the state. This is what any bank would require of any small business person for a loan.
I really am in favor of separating out of state tourists from their money and providing jobs for Kentuckians. And for those that complain about the kind of jobs this will provide even a low paying job is better than no job.
And finally a Constitutional Amendment to Safe Guard Hunting and Fishing, really?????
Another WTF moment in the legislature.
How about a Consititutional Amendment guaranteeing that politicians can waste tax payer money pandering to anyone they want, that seems to be in about as much danger as hunting and fishing rights in Kentucky
