Corporate Welfare or Political Pandering - You Decide

Let’s talk about buying votes.  There are many ways to buy a vote, David Williams is demonstrating one today.

“FRANKFORT — Kentucky businesses could lose $640 million in federal tax credits if the state doesn't appropriate money to make interest payments on a federal loan that is bankrolling unemployment benefits, Gov. Steve Beshear's administration told lawmakers on Thursday.

Senate President David Williams quickly urged Beshear to call a special legislative session to approve using some of a $121 million surplus from the fiscal year that ended June 30th to pay for part of a $28.5 million interest payment due on Sept. 30.”

Here are the essential points of the story”

"We are fighting to hold on to every job that we can," Williams said. "The fact that every employer in the state could lose up to $400 in federal credit for each of their employees could be devastating."

Unemployment insurance benefits are funded entirely by employer contributions through corporate taxes, not through state General Fund dollars.

(Budget Director Mary) Lassiter told a legislative committee on Thursday that the state has about $8.5 million it can put toward the $28.5 million interest payment. That leaves a balance of $20 million.

The tax credit is worth roughly $377 per employee in Kentucky, state officials said. There are currently 1.6 million people in Kentucky in jobs that are covered by unemployment insurance benefits.

So let’s do some basic math using the numbers in the story:

Employers have under paid the system by $20 million dollars.  That works out being $12.50 per employee.  The Legislative Research Commission estimates the cost of a special session in Kentucky at about $63,000 a day.  

So  the bottom line here is that David Williams wants to spend $63,000 a day  to take $20,000,000.00 General Fund dollars (your tax dollars),  and spend the money to give a tax break to employers that have underpaid their obligations.

Let the employers take the tax hit.  If they get smacked for $400 bucks per employee maybe the will lobby the legislature, during the regular session, to increase the unemployment contribution by $12.50 per employee.

Williams is doing nothing by political pandering and propagating corporate welfare.

In a side note soccer mom Alice Forgy Kerr once again proves she really has no business being in the legislature.

“Sen. Alice Forgy Kerr, R-Lexington, chastised Lassiter and Beshear's administration for not having a plan to address the $20 million shortfall during a meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue.

Lassiter noted that the plan was approved and vetted by the legislature and a committee that is chaired by Kerr.

"But I'm not the governor," Kerr said, noting that it was Beshear's task force.”