Even after all of these years of being around Kentucky state government I can still be amazed at some of the thought processes of the members of the Legislature.
For example can you imagine a single piece of legislation that deals with abortion, hunting, fishing, coal, the Ten Commandments, guns, ammo and gambling. Wow…
SB 10/LM/CI (BR 286) - D. Thayer, D. Williams, J. Westwood, M. Wilson
AN ACT proposing to create a new section of the Constitution of Kentucky, adopting a 21st Century Bill of Rights.
Propose to create a new section of the Constitution of Kentucky adopting a 21st Century Bill of Rights; claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; establish that no law or rule shall compel certain persons to participate in health care systems or to provide abortion services; prohibit laws that prevent the severing of coal, that restrict posting of the Ten Commandments, that restrict hunting and fishing, or that infringe upon the lawful possession or use of firearms or ammunition; prohibit expansion of gambling unless it is permitted by a constitutional amendment; establish that governmental agencies should promote the use of Kentucky coal and make public information available on the Internet, and that the General Assembly should provide a reasonable period of time for public review and comment on any appropriation or revenue measure.
Maybe there’s hope for one that deals with taxes, jobs, education, health issues, roads, sewers, and tourism. Nah, probably not……..
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Omnibus unauthorized alien act - Show me the Money
I know politicians love these hot button issues. I also know that in Kentucky we have no problem enshrining bigotry into law. But before this goes any further, I have just one practical question.
How the hell are you going to pay for this?
Because I don’t see any way for this law not to require more jails, more law enforcement, and more court time and those things cost money.
SB 6/LM/CI (BR 45) - J. Schickel
AN ACT relating to unauthorized aliens.
Create new sections of KRS Chapter 432 to define terms; set out the intent of the chapter and prevent the adoption of policies, administrative regulations, or laws that restrict the enforcement of federal immigration laws; allow for determining the immigration status of a person on reasonable suspicion, the arrest of an unlawful alien upon probable cause, and the transference of a convicted unlawful alien to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the United States Customs and Border Protection; specify that officials or agencies may not be prohibited from sharing the immigration status of a person under specific instances; indemnify a governmental law enforcement officer where the officer has been brought into a legal action; make it a Class D felony to intentionally smuggle persons for profit or commercial purposes, a Class B felony if the smuggled person is under 18 or the offense involved a deadly weapon, or a Class C felony if serious physical injury is used or threatened; define trespassing by an unauthorized alien in the first degree and set out the penalties for conviction; make it a Class A misdemeanor for a person to transport or conceal unauthorized aliens, or encourage an unauthorized alien to come to this state; amend KRS 186A.320 to include motor vehicles used in violation of Section 8 of this Act in the impoundment procedures.
Jan 4-introduced in Senate; to Judiciary (S); taken from Judiciary (S); 1st reading; returned to Judiciary (S)
How the hell are you going to pay for this?
Because I don’t see any way for this law not to require more jails, more law enforcement, and more court time and those things cost money.
SB 6/LM/CI (BR 45) - J. Schickel
AN ACT relating to unauthorized aliens.
Create new sections of KRS Chapter 432 to define terms; set out the intent of the chapter and prevent the adoption of policies, administrative regulations, or laws that restrict the enforcement of federal immigration laws; allow for determining the immigration status of a person on reasonable suspicion, the arrest of an unlawful alien upon probable cause, and the transference of a convicted unlawful alien to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the United States Customs and Border Protection; specify that officials or agencies may not be prohibited from sharing the immigration status of a person under specific instances; indemnify a governmental law enforcement officer where the officer has been brought into a legal action; make it a Class D felony to intentionally smuggle persons for profit or commercial purposes, a Class B felony if the smuggled person is under 18 or the offense involved a deadly weapon, or a Class C felony if serious physical injury is used or threatened; define trespassing by an unauthorized alien in the first degree and set out the penalties for conviction; make it a Class A misdemeanor for a person to transport or conceal unauthorized aliens, or encourage an unauthorized alien to come to this state; amend KRS 186A.320 to include motor vehicles used in violation of Section 8 of this Act in the impoundment procedures.
Jan 4-introduced in Senate; to Judiciary (S); taken from Judiciary (S); 1st reading; returned to Judiciary (S)
AN ACT relating to retirement.
OK, no one is going to read the verbiage below, so here is the Cliff’s Notes version of David Williams plan to shaft state employees.
1. The Legislature has got itself and all of Kentucky into financial trouble because they run from tax reform like it was the Black Plague.
2, Because of number 1, they have short changed the retirement accounts of state employees by not contributing enough to cover the cost. They did this to cover revenue short falls. Several sessions of the General Assembly and Governors have been complicit in this. Without sufficient funding the current system will fail.
3. Since they still lack the cajones to do anything about real tax reform and appear to be incapable of living up to the promises they have already made, they once again seek to balance the budget on the backs of state workers, with a plan that shifts the retirement system from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan.
If you want to be in government service then you have to basically trust Wall Street to keep you safe and let’s have those great investment minds at Kentucky Retirement Systems help Wall Street. We’ve all seen how well that works
4, If this passes then making a career in Kentucky state government is only for those that have some other plan for retirement.
SB 2/LM/AA (BR 330) - D. Thayer, D. Williams, J. Bowen
AN ACT relating to retirement.
Create a new section of KRS 21.345 to 21.580 to close the Legislators' Retirement Plan and the Judicial Retirement Plan to new members effective July 1, 2012, and to prohibit legislators and judges who take office on or after the effective date of this Act from participating in a retirement system for their service as a legislator or judge if the individual is retired and receiving a benefit from a state-administered retirement system; create a new section of KRS 21.345 to 21.580 to allow members of the Legislators' Retirement Plan and the Judicial Retirement Plan with less than 5 years of service to transfer their membership and account balance to the Public Employees Retirement System; create a new section of KRS 61.510 to 61.705 to close the Kentucky Employees Retirement System, the County Employees Retirement System, and the State Police Retirement System to new members effective July 1, 2012, and to prohibit retired members of other state-administered retirement systems from contributing to these systems or the Public Employees Retirement System if they are reemployed on or after the effective date of this Act; create a new section of KRS 61.510 to 61.705 to allow members of the Kentucky Employees Retirement System, County Employees Retirement System, and the State Police Retirement System, with less than 5 years of service to transfer their membership and account balance to the Public Employees Retirement System; create KRS Chapter 61A to establish the Public Employees Retirement System, a defined contribution plan administered by the board of the Kentucky Retirement Systems for new employees hired by a participating agency in the retirement systems closed under the provisions of this Act; establish administrative requirements of the Public Employees Retirement System and authorize the board to establish or amend existing plans or to contract with the Kentucky Deferred Compensation Authority for administration of the plans; establish eligibility for membership in the Public Employees Retirement System; provide that individual agencies may establish additional defined contributions with matching contributions for reemployed retirees not eligible to participate in the Public Employees Retirement System; establish matching employer contributions of 5% for non-hazardous employees and 8% for hazardous employees contributing to the Public Employees Retirement System and vesting rules for employer contributions; establish the State Treasurer as custodian of the Public Employees Retirement System; require that each employer shall contribute to the Public Employees Retirement System the amount that is otherwise contributed for employees still participating in the closed systems and to provide that the contributions shall be distributed to fund benefits and expenses of the Public Employees Retirement System and to pay off unfunded liabilities of the closed systems; cross-reference statutes pertaining to the Kentucky Employees Retirement System related to the Kentucky Retirement Systems board, investment committee, employer duties, confidentiality of member accounts, correction of errors in records, and statements made under oath; allow the General Assembly to suspend or reduce benefits provided under the Public Employees Retirement System; establish minimum line-of-duty disability and death benefits for members of the Public Employees Retirement Systems of 25% of pay to the member or deceased member's spouse and 10% for each dependent child and require the systems to contract with a insurance company duly licensed in the state of Kentucky for administration; authorize the board to establish retiree health coverage for members and beneficiaries upon retirement or in-the-line-of-duty disablement or death and to establish a benefit of $10 per month for non-hazardous employees and $15 per month for hazardous employees; amend KRS 6.515 and 21.370 to increase the cost of purchasing active duty military service to the full actuarial cost for members of the Legislators' Retirement Plan and the Judicial Retirement Plan; prohibit s
1. The Legislature has got itself and all of Kentucky into financial trouble because they run from tax reform like it was the Black Plague.
2, Because of number 1, they have short changed the retirement accounts of state employees by not contributing enough to cover the cost. They did this to cover revenue short falls. Several sessions of the General Assembly and Governors have been complicit in this. Without sufficient funding the current system will fail.
3. Since they still lack the cajones to do anything about real tax reform and appear to be incapable of living up to the promises they have already made, they once again seek to balance the budget on the backs of state workers, with a plan that shifts the retirement system from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan.
If you want to be in government service then you have to basically trust Wall Street to keep you safe and let’s have those great investment minds at Kentucky Retirement Systems help Wall Street. We’ve all seen how well that works
4, If this passes then making a career in Kentucky state government is only for those that have some other plan for retirement.
SB 2/LM/AA (BR 330) - D. Thayer, D. Williams, J. Bowen
AN ACT relating to retirement.
Create a new section of KRS 21.345 to 21.580 to close the Legislators' Retirement Plan and the Judicial Retirement Plan to new members effective July 1, 2012, and to prohibit legislators and judges who take office on or after the effective date of this Act from participating in a retirement system for their service as a legislator or judge if the individual is retired and receiving a benefit from a state-administered retirement system; create a new section of KRS 21.345 to 21.580 to allow members of the Legislators' Retirement Plan and the Judicial Retirement Plan with less than 5 years of service to transfer their membership and account balance to the Public Employees Retirement System; create a new section of KRS 61.510 to 61.705 to close the Kentucky Employees Retirement System, the County Employees Retirement System, and the State Police Retirement System to new members effective July 1, 2012, and to prohibit retired members of other state-administered retirement systems from contributing to these systems or the Public Employees Retirement System if they are reemployed on or after the effective date of this Act; create a new section of KRS 61.510 to 61.705 to allow members of the Kentucky Employees Retirement System, County Employees Retirement System, and the State Police Retirement System, with less than 5 years of service to transfer their membership and account balance to the Public Employees Retirement System; create KRS Chapter 61A to establish the Public Employees Retirement System, a defined contribution plan administered by the board of the Kentucky Retirement Systems for new employees hired by a participating agency in the retirement systems closed under the provisions of this Act; establish administrative requirements of the Public Employees Retirement System and authorize the board to establish or amend existing plans or to contract with the Kentucky Deferred Compensation Authority for administration of the plans; establish eligibility for membership in the Public Employees Retirement System; provide that individual agencies may establish additional defined contributions with matching contributions for reemployed retirees not eligible to participate in the Public Employees Retirement System; establish matching employer contributions of 5% for non-hazardous employees and 8% for hazardous employees contributing to the Public Employees Retirement System and vesting rules for employer contributions; establish the State Treasurer as custodian of the Public Employees Retirement System; require that each employer shall contribute to the Public Employees Retirement System the amount that is otherwise contributed for employees still participating in the closed systems and to provide that the contributions shall be distributed to fund benefits and expenses of the Public Employees Retirement System and to pay off unfunded liabilities of the closed systems; cross-reference statutes pertaining to the Kentucky Employees Retirement System related to the Kentucky Retirement Systems board, investment committee, employer duties, confidentiality of member accounts, correction of errors in records, and statements made under oath; allow the General Assembly to suspend or reduce benefits provided under the Public Employees Retirement System; establish minimum line-of-duty disability and death benefits for members of the Public Employees Retirement Systems of 25% of pay to the member or deceased member's spouse and 10% for each dependent child and require the systems to contract with a insurance company duly licensed in the state of Kentucky for administration; authorize the board to establish retiree health coverage for members and beneficiaries upon retirement or in-the-line-of-duty disablement or death and to establish a benefit of $10 per month for non-hazardous employees and $15 per month for hazardous employees; amend KRS 6.515 and 21.370 to increase the cost of purchasing active duty military service to the full actuarial cost for members of the Legislators' Retirement Plan and the Judicial Retirement Plan; prohibit s
Activity vs Action
The first order of business by the Republican Kentucky Senate is to waste the tax-payers money. This is nothing but business as usual simply activity to cover a lack of a plan. The research has already been done, they know the answer, but very few of our elected officials have the cajones to take on the issue. I predict this will sail through the Senate and the House and be signed by the Governor.
TEA party members take note, these guys are part of the problem not he solution.
SB 1 (BR 839) - D. Williams, B. Leeper
AN ACT relating to fiscal policy, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring an emergency.
Establish the Kentucky Council on Revenue Reform to assess the effectiveness of the state and local tax and revenue system and propose legislation to revise revenue statutes; declare legislative findings; provide for the appointment of members to the council; require the council to report to the Legislative Research Commission on or before November 30, 2011; provide sunset date for the council; APPROPRIATION; EMERGENCY.
Jan 4-introduced in Senate; to Appropriations & Revenue (S); taken from Appropriations & Revenue (S); 1st reading; returned to Appropriations & Revenue (S)
TEA party members take note, these guys are part of the problem not he solution.
SB 1 (BR 839) - D. Williams, B. Leeper
AN ACT relating to fiscal policy, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring an emergency.
Establish the Kentucky Council on Revenue Reform to assess the effectiveness of the state and local tax and revenue system and propose legislation to revise revenue statutes; declare legislative findings; provide for the appointment of members to the council; require the council to report to the Legislative Research Commission on or before November 30, 2011; provide sunset date for the council; APPROPRIATION; EMERGENCY.
Jan 4-introduced in Senate; to Appropriations & Revenue (S); taken from Appropriations & Revenue (S); 1st reading; returned to Appropriations & Revenue (S)
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