More Circus Acts

Finishing up the first 100 proposed changes to the way we live we have the following:

Will we get an Elvis Chapel in the basement of the Capitol Annex to go with this law? Oh, this is an EMERGENCY piece of legislation; someone must need to get married fast in Frankfort.

HB 79/LM (BR 278) - J. Higdon
AN ACT relating to the solemnization of marriage and declaring an emergency. Amend KRS 402.050 to allow solemnization of marriages by a member of the General Assembly who has been authorized by the presiding officer of his or her chamber; amend KRS 402.090 to forbid any legislator to solicit, accept, or agree to accept anything of value in exchange for solemnizing a marriage; amend KRS 402.100 to require all marriage certificates to contain a space where the officiating legislator may affirm membership in the General Assembly and list the date he or she was authorized to solemnize marriages; EMERGENCY.

I’m a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. No, the two are not mutually exclusive. But sometimes the cradle to grave hand holding that is often legislated is just a bit much for me. How about looking at the state budget before worrying about an 18 year old being an idiot with a credit card.

HB 83 (BR 388) - J. Glenn
AN ACT relating to college student financial awareness. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to require public postsecondary institutions to provide new undergraduates with information regarding credit cards and debt management and encourage them to conduct informational sessions; encourage nonpublic postsecondary institutions to provide new undergraduates with information regarding credit cards and debt management and to conduct informational sessions; permit institutions to utilize existing debt education materials from nonprofit entities; and require the Council on Postsecondary Education to assist institutions in identifying appropriate materials and curricula.

What a waste of time.

HB 85 (BR 390) - J. Glenn
AN ACT designating burgoo as the state dish. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 2 naming and designating burgoo as the state dish.

Should we warn them not to use a credit card?

HB 86 (BR 391) - J. Glenn
AN ACT relating to sales and use tax holidays and declaring an emergency. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 139 to provide a sales and use tax holiday for the first week in August each year to exempt clothing with a sales price of less than $100 per item, school supplies, and school art supplies; define terms; EMERGENCY; EFFECTIVE May 1, 2009

Ok, this is going to take a minute to read but bear with me. First we have a bill that claims to relate to agroterrorism.

HB 91/LM (BR 345) - M. Denham
AN ACT relating to agroterrorism. Create new sections of KRS Chapter 247 to define "agricultural equipment," "agricultural facility," "agricultural product," and "agroterrorism"; establish damages for committing agroterrorism; amend KRS 500.080 to define "agricultural equipment," "agricultural facility," and agricultural product"; amend KRS 512.010, 513.010, 513.060, and 527.205 to conform; repeal KRS 437.410, 437.415, 437.420, and 437.429.

The bill really deals with paying farmers damages and filling the pockets of lawyers.

“Any person who commits an act of agroterrorism shall be liable for personal injury and for restitution for the value of the agricultural facility, agricultural equipment, or agricultural product damaged or destroyed, as determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, plus interest, attorney's fees, and reasonable court costs.”

According to a Rand Institute National Defense Research Brief, there are six short- to medium-term recommendations for dealing with agroterrorism.

1. Conducting a comprehensive needs analysis to determine appropriate investment requirements for the federal emergency management infrastructure.

2. Increasing the number of state and local personnel with the skills to identify and treat exotic foreign animal diseases.


3. Assessing how to foster more coordinated and standardized links between the U.S. agricultural and intelligence communities.

4. Focusing attention on issues of law enforcement and the use of forensic investigations to determine whether disease outbreaks are deliberate or naturally occurring.

5. Revisiting the effectiveness of the passive (voluntary) disease reporting system, especially in providing more consistency with indemnity payments to compensate farmers for destroyed livestock.

6. Evaluating surveillance, internal quality control, and emergency response at food processing and packing plants to weigh the immediate costs of improving biosecurity against the long-term benefits of instituting those upgrades.

Since the bill doesn’t address anything close to the recommendations the question becomes this:

Is this bill the product of sloppy research or just an attempt by a clueless legislator trying to impress the fools that put him in office? If you are going to try and pass a law to deal with a potential problem at least do some of the homework first.

And finally when is a tax not a tax; when it’s a disbursement fee?

HB 95/LM (BR 178) - B. Montell
AN ACT relating to child support. Amend KRS 205.721 to require the $25.00 disbursement fee for child support to be charged to the noncustodial parent.

Good, Bad and Just Plain Weird

Moving on through the bills filed in the Kentucky House.

I do notice that the bill does not include taxing services provided by accountants or owners of retirement communities. This must be a clerical error; surely the sponsors didn’t mean to exclude these services.

HB 51 (BR 90) - B. Farmer, D. Floyd
AN ACT relating to taxation. Amend various sections of KRS Chapter 139 to expand the sales and use tax base to include certain services and rental of commercial real estate, repeal certain exemptions, and lower the tax rate; create a new section of KRS Chapter 141 to apply the provisions of that chapter to taxable years beginning before January 1, 2010; amend KRS 141.020, 141.040, and 141.0401 to make the individual income tax, corporation income tax, and the limited liability entity tax effective for taxable years beginning before January 1, 2010; amend KRS 138.358 and 139.260 to conform; repeal KRS 139.485 and 139.486; EFFECTIVE July 1, 2009.

I don’t have a problem giving former military personnel a break. But the only thing this bill accomplishes is to waste tax payer dollars by requiring state agencies to spend time interviewing people they will never hire.

If a person tests well and can do the job, they may get an interview and maybe the job. If the person is totally not qualified, and has no political connections, then it doesn’t matter how many extra points they get or how many times someone has to interview them, they are not going to get the job.

When it comes to state jobs, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

HB 61 (BR 227) - M. Cherry
AN ACT relating to honoring military service. Amend KRS 18A.150 to expand the state hiring preference honoring military service; require the adding of five or ten preference points to a military-connected individual's examination score used for state hiring in classified positions; permit the total of an examination score and preference points to exceed 100; require that a register certificate of finalists for a state job identify all finalists entitled to preference points, whether or not an examination is actually a part of the selection method; require that an employing state agency offer an interview to all finalists entitled to preference points unless five or more of the finalists are entitled preference points, in which case, the employing state agency shall offer an interview to no fewer than five.

Could someone explain to me why a black man from Louisville sees a need for these pieces of legislation?

HB 62 (BR 253) - R. Meeks
AN ACT relating to the definition of "American Indian." Amend KRS 446.010 to define "American Indian" to mean a person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment to the tribe of origin; make conforming amendments

HB 63 (BR 254) - R. Meeks
AN ACT relating to recognition of American Indian tribes. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 171 to allow a group desiring to be formally recognized as an American Indian tribe to submit a petition to the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission; provide criteria that shall be met to be recognized as an American Indian tribe; authorize the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission to approve petitions submitted for recognition; provide approved petitions to the Governor and, if the Governor accepts the recommendation, provide for issuance of an executive order recognizing the approved group; require the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission to promulgate administrative regulations identifying the procedures to be followed in submitting a petition and appealing and decision of the commission.

I’ll go with this one only if the state never pays for any member of this committee to travel outside the borders of the United States. Alright, everyone together now, say "No Junkets at Tax Payer Expense".

HB 64 (BR 255) - R. Meeks
AN ACT relating to economic development. Create a new section of Subchapter 12 of KRS Chapter 154 to establish the International Business Relations Committee as a permanent committee of the Legislative Research Commission; provide that the committee shall address efforts to attract and maintain international businesses in Kentucky and open foreign markets to Kentucky goods and services.

Thank you Dr. Watkins.

HB 68 (BR 189) - D. Watkins
AN ACT relating to a cigarette surtax and declaring an emergency. Amend various sections of KRS Chapter 138 to create an additional cigarette surtax of 70 cents; increase the tax rates for other tobacco products and snuff; impose a floor stock tax as of July 31, 2009; EMERGENCY.

After someone does their time they should be allowed to vote.

HB 70/LM (BR 289) - J. Crenshaw, D. Owens
AN ACT proposing an amendment to Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to persons entitled to vote. Propose to amend Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky to exclude a convicted felon from the right to vote only until expiration of probation, final discharge from parole, or maximum expiration of sentence; submit to the voters for ratification or rejection.

Given the homophobic nature of the General Assembly this has the chance of a snow ball in hell of passing, but a least the issue is on the table.

HB 72/LM (BR 284) - M. Marzian
AN ACT relating to civil rights. Amend KRS 344.010 to include definitions for "sexual orientation" and "gender identity"; amend KRS 344.020, relating to the purpose of the Kentucky's civil rights chapter, to include a prohibition on discrimination because of sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.040, 344.050, 344.060, 344.070, and 344.080, relating to prohibited discrimination in various labor and employment practices, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.025, 344.100, 344.110, and 18A.095, relating to the same, to conform; amend KRS 344.120 and 342.140, relating to prohibited discrimination in places of public accommodation and advertisements therefor, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.170, 344.180, 344.190, 344.300, and 344.310, relating to the state and local human rights commissions, to include prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the scope of their powers and duties; amend KRS 344.360, 344.680, 344.370, and 344.380, relating to prohibited discrimination in certain housing, real estate, and other financial transactions, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.367, relating to prohibited discrimination in certain insurance sales, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.400, relating to prohibited discrimination in certain credit transactions, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; and make various technical amendments.

Why Can't They Keep It Simple?

As of today there have been 177 bills filed in the House. Here are some, between 25 and 50 that have snagged my attention.

I like this one, I would have been a little happier if age and sexual orientation had been included as a basis for prohibiting wage differentials.

HB 33/LM (BR 175) - M. Marzian
AN ACT relating to wage discrimination. Amend KRS 337.423 to prohibit wage discrimination on the basis of sex, race, or national origin by prohibiting wage differentials for employees who perform equivalent jobs; provide exceptions for wage differentials based on seniority or merit systems, systems that measure wages by quantity or quality of production, and factors other than sex, race, or national origin; amend KRS 337.420 to define equivalent jobs as those that are equal under the federal Equal Pay Act, or jobs that are dissimilar but equivalent in skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions; and amend KRS 337.425 to require promulgation of administrative regulations on or before July 1, 2010 to specify criteria for determining jobs that are dominated by employees of a particular sex, race, or national origin, and acceptable methodology for determining equivalent skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions; EFFECTIVE July 1, 2011.

The gotcha in this bill is that “nothing in this section may be interpreted to authorize expression by students that are a …..violation of school policies”. But have faith that any budding high school journalist can find the weasel words to skirt this little provision. So let’s hear it for free speech.

HB 43 (BR 63) - B. Yonts
AN ACT relating to high school newspapers. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 160 to provide that public high school student journalists have right to exercise freedom of speech and press in school-sponsored media; direct that student journalists are responsible for determining content of school-sponsored media; provide limitations for content determined by high school students; provide that school boards are immune from civil and criminal liability based on student expression in school-sponsored media; require local board adoption of student freedom of expression policy.

We have all dated that psycho, regardless of gender, that we never, ever, under any circumstance want to be anywhere near again.

HB 48/LM/CI (BR 218) - J. Jenkins
AN ACT relating to dating violence. Amend KRS 403.720 to include dating partners among the class of persons allowed to obtain domestic violence protective orders; amend KRS 431.005 to reference the definition of "unmarried couple" in KRS 403.720.

Let’s not make someone the victim of a crime twice.

HB 49/LM (BR 220) - J. Jenkins
AN ACT relating to employment. Amend KRS 337.415, relating to court-ordered appearances by employees, to define terms; prohibit employers from discharging or retaliating against an employee who is a crime victim when the employee takes leave to attend proceedings associated with the crime; require employee to give employer reasonable notice to take leave when practicable; provide guidelines for use of paid leave time; require employer to maintain confidentiality of records and communications with employee crime victim; create a penalty for failing to maintain confidentiality.

I like the idea of extending voting time. The only question I have is how much is this going to cost and who is going to pay it?

HB 50/LM (BR 187) - D. Owens, L. Clark
AN ACT relating to early voting. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 117 to allow early voting by requiring in-person absentee voting to be conducted for at least 12 working days before the Sunday prior to election day; require this voting to be held in the county clerk's office or other place designated by the county board of elections and approved by the State Board of Elections; amend various sections of KRS Chapter 117 to conform

Why don’t we just make a simple law that says; when you are driving a moving vehicle, any moving vehicle, and on a cell phone the police can pull you over, confiscate the phone and fine you a $100.00.

HB 41/LM (BR 135) - D. Floyd, T. Burch
AN ACT relating to the operation of a motor vehicle. Create a new section of KRS 189 to define terms; prohibit the use of a personal communication device without the use of a hands-free device by the operator of a motor vehicle, and provide limited exceptions; amend KRS 189.990 to provide for period ending January 1, 2010 during which courtesy warnings will be issued for a violation of Section 1 and set a fine of between $20 and $100 for a violation of Section 1 on or after January 1, 2010.

HB 41/LM (BR 135) - D. Floyd, T. Burch
AN ACT relating to the operation of a motor vehicle. Create a new section of KRS 189 to define terms; prohibit the use of a personal communication device without the use of a hands-free device by the operator of a motor vehicle, and provide limited exceptions; amend KRS 189.990 to provide for period ending January 1, 2010 during which courtesy warnings will be issued for a violation of Section 1 and set a fine of between $20 and $100 for a violation of Section 1 on or after January 1, 2010.

Let me simplify this for the dense among you. Gambling – BAD IDEA. Gambling won’t raise the money the proponents promise, and it creates a new set of social problems. This is just what we need, like the lottery, another tax on people that can’t do math. And it’s an EMERGENCY people.

HB 32/LM/CI (BR 73) - T. Burch
AN ACT relating to video lottery terminals, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring an emergency.

I can always count on Stan Lee to come up with a WTF moment for me. OK, no one wants a sex offender near their kids, but why make a big deal out of Halloween? Why not just say stay away from any activity with a minor? Keep it simple, if you are a sex offender stay the hell away from kids.

I bet Stan has something against Wiccans and Halloween.


HB 38/LM/CI (BR 149) - S. Lee, C. Embry Jr.
AN ACT relating to sexual offenders. Amend KRS 17.545 to prohibit a person required to register as a sexual offender, for an offense committed against a victim who was a minor, from residing in specified areas and from participating in any Halloween activity with a minor.

I’ll buy this is valid if they reduce the drinking age for a 17 year old in the military.

HB 39 (BR 134) - D. Floyd
AN ACT relating to motor vehicle operator's licenses. Create a new section of KRS 186.400 to 186.650 to exempt 17-year olds who have enlisted in the military from the requirement to obtain an intermediate license; amend KRS 186.412, 186.450, 186.452, and 186.454 to conform and to clarify that individuals over the age of 18 are exempt from graduated driver's licensing provisions.

And one final question why is the only bill in this post that is an emergency is the gambling bill?

The Circus is Back in Town

Meandering through the pre-filed legislation before the Kentucky House of Representatives usually provides me more than a few WTF moments and the less frequent, “That sounds like a reasonable idea” moment.

Due to short attention spans I’ve only looked at the first 25 bills filed in the House, I’ll get to the others later.

First the short list, the ideas I like:

No one, well almost no one, buys medical equipment for fun. Exempting durable medical equipment sounds like a reasonable exemption.

HB 3 (BR 437) - S. Riggs
AN ACT relating to durable medical equipment. Amend KRS 139.472 to exempt durable medical equipment from the sales and use tax; EFFECTIVE July, 1, 2009.

As I’ve previously posted the devil is in the detail, anything the shines a little more light in the dark corners of government is a good idea.

HB 13 (BR 75) - J. DeCesare, C. Embry Jr.
AN ACT relating to accounting for the expenditure of state funds. Create new sections of KRS Chapter 42 to require the Finance and Administration Cabinet to create a searchable Web site to provide certain information on the expenditure of state funds; provide that the new sections shall be known as the "Taxpayer Transparency Act of 2009."

Please make them stop, and could we include every law enforcement group that hires professional beggars to annoy the public under the pretense of being a charity.

HB 18 (BR 79) - J. Higdon
AN ACT relating to automated or recorded political telephone messages. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 367 to prohibit use of automated calling equipment or recorded political telephone messages from or by a political party or campaign; make use of such equipment for communicating political messages by a political party or campaign a Class B misdemeanor; provide that each prohibited automated call or recorded political message shall be punishable by a civil penalty of not less than $5,000; provide that an injured person may bring a cause of action for damages up to the amount of actual damages or $1,000 whichever is greater.

Then there are the ideas that are close, but need some work:

Why couldn’t the following bill just say “state-operated institutions and programs?

HB 6 (BR 400) - T. Burch
AN ACT relating to homelessness. Amend KRS 194A.735 to continue the homelessness prevention pilot project to offer discharge planning on a voluntary basis to persons exiting state-operated institutions, foster care programs, and persons serving out sentences in state-operated prisons in Oldham County.

I’ll go with this one if they change it from “appropriation measure or a revenue measure” to any floor amendment or free conference report regardless of subject.

HB 14 (BR 76) - J. DeCesare, S. Lee
AN ACT relating to a legislative time-out prior to voting on a floor amendment or a free conference report related to an appropriation measure or a revenue measure. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 6 to require a legislative time-out period of 24 hours prior to a vote on an appropriation or revenue bill or amendment.

Bills I Don’t Like:

I’ll go with this one if they include members of the legislature before every session, with random follow up screenings during the session.

HB 15 (BR 42) - M. Henley, J. Gooch Jr.
AN ACT relating to substance abuse screening pilot programs for public assistance recipients. Amend KRS 205.200 to create two pilot substance abuse screening programs for recipients of public assistance.

This sounds like a good idea, but this reads like a further institutionalization of the two party system that limits it he involvement of independent voices.

HB 17 (BR 24) - J. Higdon
AN ACT relating to primaries. Amend KRS 116.055 to permit a registered independent to vote in the primary of one party for each primary; amend KRS 118.125 to provide that a primary candidate shall not be a registered independent; amend KRS 117.125 to provide that electronic voting machines be reprogrammed to allow a registered independent to vote for a party's candidates in a primary.

And finally under the redundant, why are they wasting time on this again, classification we have the burning need to change automobile license plates.

Here’s a suggestion, let’s allow anyone to put anything they want on a motor vehicle license plate, as long as the person is willing to pay for the plate. Kentucky can be the Café Press of state license plates.

I'm sure this idea will offend someone, freedom of speech usually does.

HB 24/LM (BR 78) - J. Gooch Jr., H. Collins, M. Cherry, R. Crimm, R. Damron, C. Embry Jr., K. Hall, M. Henley, S. Riggs, S. Santoro, K. Sinnette, T. Thompson
AN ACT relating to motor vehicle license plates. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 186 to establish an In God We Trust license plate as an alternate standard issue license plate; set forth design characteristics and eligibility standards; amend KRS 186.240 to conform; EFFECTIVE January 1, 2010

HB 25/LM (BR 120) - R. Nelson, C. Embry Jr.
AN ACT relating to motor vehicle license plates. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 186 to establish an "In God We Trust" license plate as an alternate standard issue license plate; set forth design characteristics and eligibility standards; amend KRS 186.240 to conform; EFFECTIVE January 1, 2010.

Weasel Words and Retirement

The General Assembly has passed the retirement bill. The bill was loaded with weasel words that allow the legislature to back out of any commitment.

Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, was the lone lawmaker to oppose the bill. He warned that the legislation is a mediocre first step that doesn't do enough to keep the retirement system from draining the state government's coffers in the future.

”If our goal is to achieve mediocrity in the pension plan, we have succeeded,“ Buford said.

The net result of the bill was to screw the workers and retirees a little bit while the Legislature doesn’t bite the bullet and do the right thing.

There are three approaches to this problem.

One the approach the legislature took. Reduce benefits to workers and retirees, but not enough that they actually scream. Promise to do better in the future and claim victory.

”Regardless of the speeches about this being an important first step, this is the ball game,“ he (Jody Richards) said. ”This puts us on a sound foundation for several years.“

Richards, once again, exhibits an inability to do math. If a worker is hired this year, after this bill goes into effect, and given the changes just made, the system will still not be on sound financial footing when the worker retires.

A second approach would be the David William's totally shaft the worker proposal.

One of the more controversial proposals not addressed by the legislation is a plan (Senate President David) Williams has backed that would create a so-called defined contribution option, similar to 401(k) plans that let workers manage their own retirement investment accounts.

Here is the bottom line on 401(k) investments from the Kentucky Deferred Compensation Authority, the existing state 401(k) agency.

Investing may involve market risk including the potential loss of principal.

In other words, with Williams plan you have a chance of reaching retirement age and not have a retirement fund.

The third approach would be for the General Assembly to pass comprehensive tax reform and generate enough revenue to meet the obligations to state employees.

But the odds of the General Assembly summoning up the collective backbone to do such a thing is doubtful. These folks couldn’t pass a cigarette tax increase when it was not only the right thing to do but was supported by most of the voters.

Julian Carroll on The Retirement Bill

The following is a copy of an email sent to me by a friend in Frankfort. My friend received the email from former Governor and Senator Julian Carroll.

Carroll has always been on top of money issues in Frankfort and his analysis of the retirement bill is pretty dead on.

Dear Friend,

I recently reported to you the negotiated House and Senate Leadership Pension Bill, together with charts showing the details of the agreed plan. Governor Beshear had previously charged the Leadership with negotiating such an agreed plan as a condition for calling the Legislature into a Special five-day Session in order to enact into law the proposed plan.

Just as a matter of explanation to some who are not familiar with the process, House Bill 1, the pension bill, was introduced Monday, June 23 on the first day of the Special Session and immediately referred to a House Committee for action. The Committee considered the Bill and reported it back to the House for a first reading.

The Bill received its second reading today and House Bill 1 will be considered for a vote on Wednesday, June 25, on that same day, the bill will be received in the Senate, referred to a Senate Committee, and reported out of Committee to have its first reading as required by the Constitution. The Senate will give the Bill its second reading on Thursday, and call the Bill for final passage on Friday. The Bill will then be enrolled and sent to the Governor, and the Session will adjourn Friday.

The Bill contains an Emergency Clause, which provides for it to become effective on enrollment and signing by the Governor. House Bill 1 will become law upon the signature of the Governor, presumably on Friday June 27, 2008.

I have received numerous questions about the pension bill. I hope that the bullets below will help clarify any questions that you may have.

For existing employees, beginning July 1, current and future KERS, CERS and SPRS retirees will receive a set 1.5 percent Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA).

For current employees, hazardous KERS, CERS and SPRS retirees, who return to work on or after September 1, 2008 in SPRS in a hazardous duty position in KERS or CERS, will be required to observe a one-month break in employment.

All other KERS, CERS and SPRS retirees who return to work on or after September 1, 2008 in KERS, CERS or SPRS, will be required to observe a three-month break in employment.

Provided the break is observed, the employee can return to work, draw his pension, but will not contribute to the systems or earn a second pension. However in order to further fund the system, the employer will be required to pay contributions to the systems and the health insurance premium of the retiree not to exceed the cost of a single premium.

The Bill will presumably become law on Friday, June 27, 2008 , so the provisions for new hire's after September 1, 2008 as previously reported, will be in affect.

The argument, which has been made for increasing the break in reemployment to three-months is the savings that will be realized both for balancing the new budget starting July 1 and funding the unfunded balance for the retirement system.

I hope this information, along with what I have previously sent, will answer most of your questions.

Please feel free to contact me if I can be of assistance to you.

Julian M. Carroll
State Senator

Reduction in Retirement Benefits

I’m not going to take on the entire retirement reform bill at one time. If I did your eyes would glaze over, I know mine do, before we got half way through the legalese.


So let’s just start with the changes to the Cost of Living Adjustment for existing retirees.

The bill quits using the Consumer Price Index to compute the Cost of Living Adjustment and sets the annual raise to 1.5 % per year.

The Legislature has the ability to do away with COLA’s for existing retirees anytime they want “The General Assembly reserves the right to suspend or reduce the benefits conferred in this subsection if in its judgment the welfare of the Commonwealth so demands.”

Here is the zinger"

The Consumer Price Index has never dropped to 1.5% during the last 20 years. Below are the percentages for the last 20 years. The General Assembly will happily screw the state employees by annually reducing their purchasing power.

Below is the CPI for the last 20 years.

1987 3.60%
1988 4.10%
1989 4.80%
1990 5.40%
1991 4.20%
1992 3.00%
1993 3.00%
1994 2.60%
1995 2.80%
1996 3.00%
1997 2.30%
1998 1.60%
1999 2.20%
2000 3.40%

2001 2.80%
2002 1.60%
2003 2.30%
2004 2.70%
2005 3.40%

2006 3.20%
2007 2.80%

Idiots or Liars?

Retirement investments suck; at least that’s the opinion of the Legislative Research Commission (LRC).

Seven months after this blog broke the story that Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS) and the Kentucky Teachers Retirement Systems (KTRS) combined over the last 3 years underperformed by $2 billion, the LRC came out with a report saying they underperformed by $2.9 billion. Slightly different time periods but the result is the same.

The excuses by the Executive Directors of both systems prove that they are either blatant liars or totally incompetent.

From Mark Hebert’s Blog:

The CEO's of both pension systems told lawmakers that they've been hamstrung by cash flow problems and a past ban on foreign investments.

From the Associated Press story:

Gary Harbin, executive secretary of the Kentucky Teacher's Retirement System, said the system has been limited by regulations that prevented international investments. That has since changed, and the retirement system is performing better, Harbin said.

There have never been any regulations preventing KRS or KTRS from investing internationally. This was confirmed in the 1998 review by Kentucky State Auditor that recommended both KRS and KTRS invest internationally.

This hallucination of a regulation was totally self-inflicted by their own incompetence.

From page 21 of “AN EXAMINATION OF INVESTMENTS AND INVESTMENT PRACTICES OF THE KENTUCKY RETIREMENT SYSTEMS AND THE KENTUCKY TEACHERS’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM”:

KRS and KTRS should further diversify their investment portfolios by including international holdings.

Cash flow issues have no influence whatsoever on pension investment return. This is unheard of as an excuse in other states,

So it’s your choice, are the Executive Directors of the Pension Funds idiots or liars?

Bully From Burkesville

One great thing about the court system in this country is that any idiot can file a law suit.

Senate President David Williams sued Gov. Steve Beshear Friday, claiming the governor's veto of a $3.8 billion state highway spending plan is unconstitutional.

This is grand standing, and an exercise in money wasting, by David Williams. The bully from Burkesville just doesn’t like it when someone shoves back.

All Williams will accomplish here is to keep his name in the news and waste a few more of our tax dollars.

And the guys in the General Assembly wonder why no one loves them.

Bozo's In Frankfort

The Herald-Leader has a story that Kentuckians are dissatisfied with the state Legislature.

Two of every three Kentucky voters don’t like the way the Kentucky legislature is doing its job, a new poll shows.

We needed a poll to tell us this? But here is the zinger.

The higher disapproval rating of 66 percent now suggests the public saw little accomplished in the 2008 General Assembly, Dugi (Don Dugi, political science professor at Transylvania University) said.

He added that polls of job satisfaction with the U.S. Congress usually are low, but are high for individual members of Congress. “I would imagine that most Kentuckians think more highly of their local state legislator than they do the legislature as a whole.”

I don’t think very highly of the job done by either my Representative or my Senator. Between them, their performance has generally been intellectually AWOL.

Neither one is a prize but at least they are not an idiot like “No Global Warming” Jim Gooch.

The Government We Deserve

Every organization that has been around for a while has its’ problems. Take the Kentucky General Assembly for example.

The governor summed up the end to his first General Assembly as "disappointing," while lawmakers described the last day's worth of legislative meltdowns in harsher terms laced with disgust.

"It ended in possibly the poorest fashion I can remember in the 16 years I've been here," said Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville -- one of many Democratic lawmakers who have publicly complained about how it all fell apart.

The basic problem is that voters generally think the members of General Assembly as a group are bunch of idiots, and their legislator is the only person with their head screwed on right.

The cast of characters in the legislature is same as any large organization:

We have the old guy that can’t do his job any more, the arrogant SOB that would rather score office political points that do his job and the guy who is so stupid you wonder how he finds the door to the office.

We also have the slacker that doesn’t show up for work half the time, the greedy bastards watching out for numero uno, the office ditz that has never had an original idea, and the guy one step away from the penitentiary.

Of course on the other side we have the guy really trying to do his job and a gutsy lady that doesn’t take a lot of crap from the good ole boys.

The good guys are outnumbered by the incompetent, arrogant and greedy. That will continue to be the case until the voters wake up and actually send more good guys to the legislature, until that happens you can expect more of the same.

We get the government we deserve.

Rancid Pork Belly

How much pork does it take to feed the Kentucky General Assembly?

According to the Herald-Leader it’s about $80 million.

When the state spending bill for education and health programs appeared doomed earlier this month, legislative leaders turned to an old standby to entice support from more lawmakers:

projects.

And lots of them.

The result was $80 million worth of buildings, park improvements, water and sewer lines, sheriff's vehicles, fire trucks, baseball fields and programs such as abstinence education spread
across 38 mostly rural counties in Eastern and Western Kentucky.

The details are listed in House Bill 410.

So I wondered what the money was being spent on. Below are about $6 million of the projects.

Bell County Fiscal Court - Projects and/or Equipment $1,100,000

City of Middlesboro - Projects and/or Equipment $115,000

City of Pineville - Projects and/or Equipment $70,000

Breathitt County Fiscal Court - Breathitt County Museum - Welcome Center $150,000

City of Jackson - Parks and Recreation $100,000

Daviess County Fiscal Court - Downtown Development Projects - Incentives – Operational Expenses $331,935

Daviess County Fiscal Court - Economic Development Projects - Incentives - Operational Expenses $327,198

Floyd County Fiscal Court - Develop New Mud Creek Park $150,000

Floyd County Fiscal Court - Develop Veteran's Cemetery $100,000

Floyd County Fiscal Court - Mountain Top Recreational - Repair - Upkeep - Maintenance $400,000

Floyd County Fiscal Court - Wayland Sports Hall $100,000

Floyd County Fiscal Court - World War II and Korean Memorial $30,000

Hancock County Fiscal Court - Various Projects $186,102

Harlan County Fiscal Court - Adventure Tourism $316,000

Harlan County Fiscal Court - Tri-City Little League – Lights $60,000

Henderson County Fiscal Court - To Promote Tourism for the Rivers and Waterways of Henderson County $10,000

Hopkins County Fiscal Court - Hopkins County Sports Complex – Site Development and Improvements $225,000

Hopkins County Fiscal Court - Sports Complex - Site Development and Improvements $ 300,000

Knott County Fiscal Court - Appalachian Artisan Center $500,000

Knott County Fiscal Court - Bond Payment - Equipment/Improvements – Sportsplex $1,400,000

Do you really think that throwing money at these projects justifies screwing the educational system and social programs in this state?

This bill and the budget passed by the General Assembly is more about a group of politicians spreading political spoils and staying in office than anything else.

Taxing Students

Looks like Lee Todd will have to do what the General Assembly lacked the political will to do.

Raise Taxes

From the Courier-Journal:

The University of Kentucky yesterday proposed raising in-state tuition by 9 percent next year, increasing the amount incoming freshmen would pay each semester by $319.75, to $3,867.75.

You can call it a tuition increase if you want, but it is a tax increase on students and their families.

Professional Whining

I find it truly grating on the ear when affluent professionals whine.

The budget currently before Steve Beshear has raided the professional boards. So be it. What the General Assembly did to these boards’ pales in comparison to the raping of social programs and education.

From the Courier-Journal:

In a move critics say could threaten public safety, lawmakers scooped up millions of dollars in fees that professionals -- such as doctors, nurses and dentists -- pay to support their licensing agencies.

The whining about protecting the public is a smoke screen. Yes, their purpose is to police their professions and some of this does happen, but the primary purpose of most of these boards is to collect licensing fees.

If you don’t think they are cash fat, then why do they all need separate buildings and facilities scatter across the state? Why shouldn’t they all be in the same location, sharing hearing rooms and support staff?

Even though there is some centralization of the boards in Frankfort there a lot of others scattered across the state. Here are a few examples.

Kentucky State Board of Accountancy
332 W. Broadway, Suite 310
Louisville, KY 40202

Kentucky Board of Architects
Spindletop Administration Building
2624 Research Park Drive, Suite 101
Lexington, Kentucky 40511

KY Board of Auctioneers
9112 Leesgate Rd #5
Louisville KY 40222

Kentucky Board of Barbering
9114 Leesgate Rd. Suite 6
Louisville, KY 40222

Kentucky Board of Chiropractic Examiners
209 South Green Street
Glasgow, KY.

Education Professional Standards Board
100 Airport Road, 3rd Floor
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

Kentucky Board of Haridressers & Cosmetologists (not my typo, click the link)
111 St. James Court Suite A
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

Kentucky Board of Nursing
312 Whittington PkySuite 300
Louisville, KY 40222

Instead of whining perhaps our professionals should put pressure on the General Assembly to up the cigarette tax.

After all, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, psychologists have contributed $66,508.77 to various politicians. Nurses have contributed $488,732.75, and physicians have contributed $4,013,886.19.

There is $4.5 million dollars in influence from only three professions.

Get A Fraking Clue

File this one under “When are they going to get a fraking clue.”

An Eastern Kentucky lawmaker who resigned abruptly just three weeks before the start of the 2008 General Assembly session has taken a $60,000-a-year state job in the Transportation Cabinet.

In political life perception is the same as reality. If it looks like a duck, smells like a duck, sounds like a duck most people will think it’s a fraking duck even if you call it a fraking stork.

Fraking Transportation Cabinet.

The Next Budget Battle

Steve Beshear has left himself a way out of the budget mess.

A day after legislators approved a lean state budget; Gov. Steve Beshear said he might veto specific spending items, but not the entire measure. He also warned of a possible special lawmaking session to raise taxes.

David Williams also has a way to save face from this fiasco.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said it's the governor's responsibility to call a special session if revenue figures fall 5 percent below current projections. The budget bill spells out that shortfalls of less than 5 percent can be addressed by the governor without legislative approval.

Well I can pretty well tell you that the Bush administration will continue to drive the economy into the crapper and Kentucky will follow. Revenue will fall 5% or more below current projections.

So what should Steve Beshear do now?

First, take a red pen to every pork barrel project in the budget.

Second, take a few months to lay the ground work for a special session dealing with tax increases. Twist a few arms, pass out a few goodies, kiss and make nice, or kick butt whatever it takes to get the ducks lined up.

Third, help Greg Stumbo become Speaker of the House. Given recent performance Jody Richards should pass the gavel to someone that might have a clue on how to manage caucus. This one act will improve state government immeasurably. On the well documented in the media personal side, Greg Stumbo is a train wreck, but never underestimate his political skills.

Fourth, actually know exactly what you want out of the session before you start and make sure everyone else knows what the game plan too. People can be convinced raising taxes is necessary, but not if it’s just to pour money into a black hole.

Take the issue to the public and show them graphically what an underfunded state government really means to them personally.

Dear Mr. Sloth

I received this comment on a previous post, so consider this a follow-up.

Rightwing Ground Sloth has left a new comment on your post "No More Mr. Nice Guy <http://www.ralphlong.com/2008/04/no-more-mr-nice-guy.html> ":

Ralph...you really should try and explain how tax increases ends up benefiting the economy. I'd love to read about that. It seems to me that Tennessee is doing reasonably well and they have no income tax at all.

I'm no finance guy. Don't even play one on TV. But it seems to me that if you raise taxes then prices go up as well. Those companies you are taxing are going to offset that tax on the backs of the very people you are trying to help. Raise income taxes on those people in Kentucky that pay taxes would only serve to make them tighten up even more than they already are with gas prices where they are. When they tighten up on their spending the sales tax receipts plummet. Again, I'm no finance guy, but that just doesn't make sense to me.

While those state employees toil away for nothing(compared to their private sector peers) and look into next year at their proposed 1% raise you are suggesting we raise their taxes so they end up LOSING money with that raise? They are already losing money to the 2.7% inflation rate! They have been going backwards for the past several years anyway...you tax hike won't help that.

So...splain yerself...please.

So here is the ‘splainin’:

Dear Mr. Sloth,

First, Tennessee does have an income tax:

The individual income tax is imposed only on individuals and other entities receiving interest from bonds and notes and dividends from stock.

Second, Tennessee’s primary source of revenue is the sales tax:

Generally, the state's sales and use tax rate is 7 percent.

Food is taxed at 5.5 percent, but candy, dietary supplements and prepared food are taxed at the increased 7 percent rate.

Local sales taxes also are collected and those rates vary from 1.5 percent to 2.75 percent.

When it comes to soaking the poor Tennessee is one the best states in the country.

From Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States. “

When all Tennessee taxes are totaled up, the 2003 study found that:

The state and local tax rate on the best off one percent of Tennessee families—with average incomes of $828,000—is 3.3% before accounting for the tax savings from federal itemized deductions. After the federal offset, the effective tax rate is a mere 3.0%.

The average tax rate on families in the middle of the income distribution—those earning between $24,000 and $38,000—is 8.8%. After the federal offset, the rate is 8.7%, nearly three times the effective rate the richest pay.

But the tax rate on the poorest Tennessee families—those earning less than $14,000—is the highest of all. At 11.7% it is nearly four times the effective rate of the wealthiest Tennesseans.

By comparison Kentucky Sales and Use Tax are imposed at the rate of 6% of gross receipts or purchase price. There are no local sales and use taxes in Kentucky.

Kentucky does not tax food.

….food and food ingredients means substances, whether in liquid, concentrated, solid, frozen, dried, or dehydrated form, that are sold for ingestion or chewing by humans and are consumed for their taste or nutritional value. Excluded from the exempt food and food ingredients are the subcategories of (a) alcoholic beverages, (b) tobacco, (c) candy, (d) dietary supplements, (e) soft drinks, and (f) prepared food.

So if you want to talk about being poor and paying taxes then I’d rather be in Kentucky.

Third, there is no legislation to “raise income taxes on those people in Kentucky”.

Fourth, the sales tax increases that were killed by the state Senate were on:

Commercial janitorial services, including carpet, upholstery, and window cleaning; armored car services; security services; Chartered air flight services if a pilot is furnished, including hot air balloon flights; and Commercial linen services, excluding: Commercial uniform services; and Commercial linen services provided to hospitals and nursing homes.

Now I realize that those taxes will impose a burden on individuals needing to have their hot air balloon cleaned before the armored car arrives with their money, but I can live with that.

Fifth, considering the real costs of smoking, everyone would be better off if it went away. The arguments made by the Tobacco Apologistas just don’t hold up.

Once again let’s look at the real costs of smoking.

Annual health care costs in Kentucky directly caused by smoking - $1.50 billion

Portion covered by the state Medicaid program - $487 million

Residents' state & federal tax burden from smoking-caused government expenditures - $602 per household

Smoking-caused productivity losses in Kentucky - $2.13 billion

If there is one single answer to "how tax increases ends up benefiting the economy" then just add up the billions of dollars that would be added to the Kentucky economy if tobacco went away.

Yes, a tax on smoking is a regressive tax; it will impact the poor more than the rich. And yes, I know you can’t legislate morality or health. But you can sure tax stupid behavior. I see this tax as much a social policy as a revenue generation device. The tax makes good long term health policy and good long term fiscal policy.

Sixth, successive governors and legislatures over the last four decades have systematically stripped financial rewards from state employees. I have repeatedly said the common way to balance the budget is to do it on the backs of state employees.

If we had a sane tax policy, then state workers could be paid amounts comparable to the private sector. The plantation mentality, (guess who the slaves are), used by a long line of Kentucky politicians culminating in David Williams will continue to prevail as long as sound bites like “No New Taxes” resonate with the voters.

For state workers there are two alternatives, either shut up and take it or unionize. If you don’t like the idea of a union look at the teachers. As a group the legislators and the Governor are a hell of a lot more scared of what the KEA is going to do than what state workers are going to do.

Please feel free to use these talking points when discussing the issues with other sloths.

No More Mr. Nice Guy

Legislators don’t like the budget.

Hours after weary House and Senate budget negotiators finished a patchwork $19 billion spending plan, other lawmakers began blasting it for what they considered fatal deficiencies: education and health program cuts, paltry teacher raises, and few projects.

The wave of frustration that crested suddenly Tuesday -- especially among House Democrats -- now puts in jeopardy the prospect of passing the two-year state budget, which legislative leaders had hoped to do Wednesday.

The Governor doesn’t like the budget.

“However, I can say I’m disappointed that the proposed budget does not include any plan for additional, recurring revenue so desperately needed by Kentucky.

“As you recall I proposed not one but two plans for recurring revenue -- namely expanded gaming and an increase in the state’s low cigarette tax -- in an effort to move the state forward in the areas of education, health care, public safety and economic development.

Brereton Jones thinks Beshear screwed up handling expanded gambling.

Former Gov. Brereton Jones, who was instrumental in persuading Steve Beshear to run for governor, is criticizing Beshear's handling of a constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling in Kentucky.

Beshear was "in the perfect position of getting it done and he did not," Jones said Tuesday in an interview. He is chairman of the Kentucky Equine Education Project, which pushed casinos.

I think Casinos are a bad idea, but Jones is right, Beshear just didn’t get it done.

So what can Governor Steve Beshear do? Here are a few suggestions.

First, if that mass of Jell-O, the General Assembly, actually passes the budget the Governor should veto it. If the legislature doesn’t pass a budget we move to step two.

Second, the Governor should call the legislature into special session after the May primary election. He should privately threaten to keep calling them into session until the November election unless they pass a reasonable budget. This keeps legislators with contested campaigns from raising money, a real motivator to get something done.

Third, hand Jody Richards and Harry Moberly the budget bill with tax increases and projects. Tell them they can change commas but they can’t change the substance of the bill. Make it clear that if they screw this up then Governor will not be pleased.

Fourth, take David Williams to the wood shed, something long overdue, and hang every painful program cut back on his head. Give Williams a diplomatic way out but make it clear that you, as Governor, will make his life a living hell in every possible way unless he cooperates. Believe me a Governor can do this even to David Williams.

Fifth, drag every waffling member of the legislature, Democrat and Republican, into a one on one session with the Governor and his staff and make it damn clear that screwing with the Governor on this will make their life incredibly unpleasant. Tell then what they are getting, what it’s going to cost them and what they need to say in public.

Sixth, take the message of what government cut backs mean to every citizen to the public forum. The Governor has the bully pulpit. He should use it. The mainstream media is lazy. He can supply them with an endless amount of information on why his plan is good and why David Williams and his toadies are evil.

Bottom line Steve Beshear needs to grow a pair and quit being Mr. Nice Guy.

Know Your Friends

I recently got a couple of Fund Raising emails from http://www.kentuckyvotes.com/. The emails came from Kelly L. Smith [postmaster@bipps.org]. Now I subscribe to this site, along with a number of other sites and I know its run by the same folks that run the Bluegrass Institute. Kentucky Votes is a pretty good service if you ignore most of the comments on the site.

The subject of the email was KentuckyVotes.org_A Testimonial from Norman Davis and contained this line.

Our friend and colleague, Norman Davis of Clarkson, Kentucky, is a regular user of Kentucky Votes. No big deal, I’m a regular user of Kentucky Votes. But to think that Norman Davis endorsing something will get me to pony up some bucks, well that’s not going to happen.

For those of you who don’t know who Norman Davis is let me introduce you. Davis is the leader of a coalition of groups called Take Back Kentucky.

A 2004 Kentucky Department of Justice Report - Hate Crime and Hate Incidents in the Commonwealth of Kentucky lists Take Back Kentucky as a Patriot Group.

Patriot groups define themselves as opposed to the “New World Order” or advocate or adhere to extreme anti-government or conspiratorial doctrines.

Now Take Back Kentucky has its’ supporters in the Legislature like Perry Clark.

“You are important; you have valid concerns; you make a difference,” Mr. Clark said inside a large tent with a Confederate flag next to it. “You'll disagree (with legislators) on some things, but they need to know your opinion.”

I was always told that you are known by who your friends are so I don’t think I’ll be giving any money to Kentucky Votes or the Bluegrass Institute. Maybe Perry Clark will empty his pockets.

If they go out of business it just means I do my research without their input, not that great a loss.

Political Will

I continue to be amazed at the general incompetence of the General Assembly and the Governor when it comes to putting together a budget.

This one sentence from Pol Watchers sums up the problem.

No new taxes were included in the budget, lawmakers said. About $85 million in savings would be assumed from government efficiencies created by not filling state jobs that open up later this year after an expected wave of retirements.

Here’s the problem, you have to believe that experienced state employees making $85 million during the budget cycle, are totally worthless. You have to believe that the state will be better off without them.

Now I will allow in some cases that’s true. But the truth is if that many people and their institutional memory go out the door then a lot of things government does will be done badly or not at all.

The mantra of shrink the government only works if you are willing to put up with shrinking the services government provides. Now it’s obvious the politicians are willing to balance the budget on the backs of state workers, teachers and the poor. There is nothing new in that formula.

The need to act like lemmings and follow Grover Norquist makes passing a tax of any sort nearly impossible.

Our honorable leaders have also refused to do any of the heavy legislative lifting on major issues. They seem to have a need to engage in pissing contests like the one between David Williams and Harry Moberly and one between Damon Thayer and Mike Cherry rather than do any real work.

Take for example their inability to address the mess at Kentucky Retirement Systems.

Decisions on how to restructure the state employees' underfunded pension plans could depend on how much money the state budget can put into them.

House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said Monday evening that the budget being hammered out now has little in the way of new revenue, leaving pension plan negotiators in the dark and far apart.

The longer they put off doing something the bigger the mess gets. The same goes for Medicaid funding and true comprehensive tax reform.

Every legislator and the Governor know what the problems are, and what the solutions are, but they lack the political will to do their jobs.

There is an answer. A Governor that could actually lead and manage a thoughtful legislative agenda would go a long way to solve the problems but that’s at least four years away.

A complete change in the leadership of the House and the Senate would be good too. Every year these guys prove that if they were all in giant paper bag they would try to walk out the closed end. Again I don’t see this happening anytime soon.

Nag Your Legislator

What Alan said:

By passing House Bill 415 our legislators can create a statewide colon cancer screening and treatment program that targets uninsured Kentuckians between the ages of 50 and 64. This can and will motivate thousands of Kentuckians to be screened for colon cancer, regardless of their insurance status.

Not only will the implementation of this statute save hundreds, if not thousands, of lives in Kentucky each year, it is a cost-saving measure that we really need in these days of budgetary and economic challenges.

When detected early through screening, medical intervention for colon cancer has an incredible 85-95 percent cure rate. For those Kentuckians who are detected early, the cost of treatment is about $30,000, but that cost goes up to more than $120,000 for patients with later stages of colon cancer.

Not having had colon cancer, but getting too close for comfort and having the scars to prove it, I can’t agree more with any OP-ED piece I’ve seen in a long time.

Nag your Legislator.

Tobacco Apologista

We have another OP-ED piece in the Herald-Leader from a shill for big tobacco. This one comes from Jim Waters, Director of Policy and Communications for the Bluegrass Institute.

First off let’s understand where the Bluegrass Institute stands. They are anti-union, pro big business, in favor of giving tax money for private schools; support Bush’s policies in Iraq, and in favor of tort reform. They pretty much follow the right wing Republican agenda.

Waters arguments on raising he cigarette tax are basically these:

Poor people smoke the most and can’t afford to pay the price of their addiction.

Can the poor afford to pay all of the costs of smoking, not just the price of a pack of cigarettes? Waters is just blowing smoke when he talks about costs. His argument just looks at the tip of the ice berg when it comes to cost.

If his argument was applied to the cost of having children, he would have us believe that the only cost associated with having children is the cost of bailing them out of the hospital after the birth and the next 18 to 21 years are free, he completely ignores long term issues.

Retailers will go under and lay off thousands of people.

True there may be some job losses, among farmers, cigarette factories workers, advertisers, and retailers. But the money that used to be spent on cigarettes does NOT disappear from the economy. When people cut back their smoking or quit, they spend the money they save on other things, this generates new jobs in other sectors. There is just as much of a possibility that increasing tobacco taxes could generate more jobs than it costs.

The essential fact here is not that people have quit spending money, but they buy something other than cigarettes.

Education works better than tax as a deterrent to smoking.

This makes as much sense as abstinence training stops teens from having sex. In 1994-95 a study of the effectiveness of Choosing the Best was conducted by Northwestern University Medical School 60% of students, who had had sex, indicated an intention to be abstinent.

The real deterrent to smoking is the cost of the product, the details are here.

Legislators will violate their no new tax pledge.

That would be a shocker, a legislator breaking a promise. The lemmings that follow Grover Norquist shouting the “No New Taxes” sound bite are really too stupid to be in the legislature. They limit their options and the options of the people they represent.

I don’t think every tax is a good tax, but to not consider the option shows me a legislator that has the capacity of viewing all their options from A to B.

Waters arguments are short sighted, largely unsupported by facts and rigidly doctrinaire in support of a right wing, consequence be damned philosophy.

Where's His Head?

Thanks Tom, this is a good piece of legislation forcing insurance companies to do what they should have been doing all along.


One note on who voted for this and who didn’t, there was one no vote David Floyd. Floyd owns Windsor Gardens Retirement Communities; I guess he was just trying to make sure he always has a few beds open.


There were two Representatives that didn’t bother to vote, Scott Alexander and Jim Gooch.


I guess this just proves that at least two other Representatives have their head as far up their butt as Jim Gooch.



SB 96/HM (BR 1437) - T. Buford

AN ACT relating to health insurance coverage for colorectal cancer detection. Create a new section of Subtitle 17A of KRS Chapter 304 to require health benefit plans to provide coverage for colorectal cancer screenings, effective January 1, 2009, in accordance with guidelines of the American Cancer Society.

SB 96 - AMENDMENTS

SFA (1, J. Denton) - Retain all provisions; make technical correction.

Jan 22-introduced in Senate
Jan 24-to Health & Welfare (S)
Feb 20-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
Feb 21-2nd reading, to Rules; floor amendment (1) filed
Feb 25-posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Feb 26-3rd reading, passed 34-1 with floor amendment (1)
Feb 27-received in House
Mar 3-to Banking & Insurance (H)
Mar 14-posted in committee
Mar 19-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
Mar 20-2nd reading, to Rules
Mar 26-posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Thursday, March 27, 2008
Mar 27-3rd reading, passed 97-1; received in Senate

Shame

Shame on you, you pandering, math challenged, pork barrel filling, weak kneed, self-serving, sorry excuses for leaders, shame on you!

May you never have to watch someone you love slowly die from cancer.

From the Herald-Leader:

After the meeting, House budget chairman Harry Moberly Jr., D-Richmond, said the House and Senate agreed on several ways to raise more money for the state.

He said both chambers think that $85 million a year could be found through early retirements this year from state government because of enhanced benefits.

But Moberly said the House plan to increase the state cigarette tax by 25 cents a pack "is off the table" for the Senate. That hike would generate $230 million over two years.

Without the cigarette tax hike, Moberly said, "we might be able to agree to a budget but without various projects."

Various projects! Projects!!

How about the project of reducing the number of kids smoking?

How about the project of reducing the cost to every tax payer in this state pays for the medical problems caused by smoking?

On never mind, this bunch of pathetic political hacks isn’t listening.

Good News, Bad News

This Herald-Leader story sums up the good news and the bad news about the Casino Gambling Amendment.

There will be no casinos in Kentucky anytime soon.

Gov. Steve Beshear conceded on Thursday that his plan to solve the state's budget woes with tax revenue from casino gambling has no chance of passage in the legislative session that ends April 15, killing casinos until at least 2010.

Good News – the bill is dead in this session.

Bad News – We get to do this all over again in 2010. The General Assembly will continue to hope for pain free way of raising revenue. When I say pain free, I mean to pain free in the sense that they won’t have to explain why they raised taxes.

Our honorable leaders will now have another way of avoiding, for years, any meaningful revamping of the taxes in the Commonwealth.

Of course the fun part of this is waiting to see how Brereton Jones and the needy horse farmers will screw up lobbying the legislature next time.

I'll Give You Two Bucks For It

Well at least I now know the most burning financial issue in the Commonwealth of Kentucky courtesy of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance and the Majority of Floor Leader of the Senate.

SB 195 (BR 2315) - T. Buford, D. Seum
AN ACT relating to pawnbrokers. Amend KRS 226.050 to reduce from 90 days to 60 days, the period of time required after maturity of the loan before the pawnbroker may sell a pawned article.

Small Pond, Small Fish

In the past I’ve taken Harry Moberly, chairman of the House Budget Committee, to task on a number of occasions. But night Moberly summed up the major problem with the Kentucky General Assembly.

From the Courier-Journal:

"We want to do these good things but we don't want to pay for them..." Moberly said

When the session recessed for the night leaders of both sides noted that the long day of work had produced little. "We're working hard, but we haven't made any difficult decisions yet," Moberly said.

In a nutshell, most of the politicians sitting in Frankfort unwilling to make any decision that would possibly give a future opponent any ammunition. Their self-interest is not enlightened, it is just a need to pretend to represent the voters and keep getting elected.

And in case anyone had any doubts President of the Senate David Williams is a smart ass.

The House has approved increasing tobacco taxes and applying the sales tax to some services. But the Senate has not approved any higher taxes this session.

"One of us is just being irresponsible about this," Moberly said.

Williams replied, "We're praying for you that you won't continue to be irresponsible."

Moberly answered, "Thank you Mr. President. I appreciate that. I appreciate your smart ass remarks."

Kentucky Homeownership Protection Center

Sometimes our legislators pass a bill that is designed to make it look like they are doing something when they are just hauling out the smoke and mirrors.

House bill 552 has that look:

The bill creates a new chunk of bureaucracy to help people who have made bad real estate deals, but here is the red flag for me.

This new agency is allowed solicit grants from the private sector, nonprofit entities, and the federal government. The agency can also contract out all of the services it offers.

Does that mean the agency will be funded by solicited money?

Is there and appropriation in the budget to fund this agency or is this just one of those places in state government where someone gets an Executive Director Title and pay but no funding or staff to do the job?

Is this a way of providing a nice state funded contract to someone?

Maybe I’m just missing the legislative brilliance of this bill, but I just don’t see how creating this agency is really going to help someone in the middle of foreclosure.

Here are the first few paragraphs of the bill:


(1) There may be established, as part of the borrower education initiatives established by or through the Kentucky Housing Corporation, a Kentucky Homeownership Protection Center.

(2) The purpose of the Kentucky Homeownership Protection Center shall be to:

(a) Provide a centralized location for information on public services made available by federal, state, or local government or community entities, to assist a homeowner who is in default, or in danger of default, on his or her home loan; and

(b) Attempt to assist, any homeowner who contacts the center without cost to the homeowner, with the goal of:

1. Providing a homeowner with information, including toll-free telephone numbers for public services, made available by federal, state, or local government or community entities, including programs such as NeighborWorks and Don't Borrow Trouble, mortgage assistance programs, home repair assistance programs, and utility assistance programs;

2. Determining if the homeowner has contacted his or her lender regarding any default or danger of default; and

3. Providing a homeowner with counseling agencies approved by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development that may be able to assist the homeowner.

(3) The Kentucky Homeownership Protection Center may enter into an agreement with any public or nonprofit entity to carry out any part of the mortgage foreclosure counseling and education program.

(4) The Kentucky Homeownership Protection Center may solicit contributions and grants from the private sector, nonprofit entities, and the federal government to assist in carrying out the purposes of this chapter.

Amateur Night

This has to be one of the dumbest political moves I seen lately. What was Jim Newberry thinking? Who told him this was a good idea?

If you are going try to do this sort of thing then you better have a majority of the Council behind you and the police and firefighters should at least be neutral to the idea.

You are never going to get our elected representatives to step out in front of an issue like this unless you have all the other ducks lined up.

Jim, I sorry Bud, but this was a dumb idea and makes you look like a political amateur.

Members of the Fayette County legislative delegation on Monday appeared opposed to Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry's proposal for the city to take control of the retirement benefits for police officers and firefighters hired after July 1.

Before a packed room of more than 110 current and retired Lexington police officers and firefighters, the lawmakers questioned the effect such a change would have on current employees and retirees, whether the Urban County Council supported the measure and whether police officers and firefighters were involved in the decision.

Legislators were most critical about the timing of the proposal -- brought to them with just eight days left in the session -- and the opposition of both the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Wet Noodle Anyone?

Steve Beshear steps up one more time for Brereton Jones and his coalition of needy horse farm owners.

House Democratic leaders have two days to whip up support for a casino amendment or go bust.

Gov. Steve Beshear met with House Democrats for less than 10 minutes Monday afternoon after launching his "final push" to get legislation to expand gambling on the November ballot….

The Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, compared the rally to "whipping a dead horse with a wet noodle."

You know I really can’t think of anything to add to Rev. Kemper’s comment, it says it all.

Racial Profiling in State Hiring

Update:


Senior moments are a bitch, so is screwing up and not completely researching a post. Both have happened here.

Inspite of a not so great summary that says nothing about foster and adoptive families, which is what this bill is about, let me do a mea culpa for not doing my homework and putting out a sloppy posting and even an apology to Stan Lee who appears to be one of the good guys here.



I’m sorry but this strikes me as a totally unnecessary addition to the state bureaucracy.

HB 666 (BR 1074) - D. Owens, R. Meeks
AN ACT relating to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 194A to establish the Office on Racial Disportionality within the cabinet secretary's office; specify duties of the office to include training, targeted recruitment and employment efforts, data collection, and strategic planning; require the department and its contractors to collect and analyze data by race, evaluate and implement a plan to address disportionality; require annual report to the Governor, Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare, and the public each year.

Before you start calling me a racist, I don’t care if you are black, brown, yellow, red, white or some combination of the above. I don’t care if you are male, female or transgender. I don’t care if you are Baptist, Catholic, Jew, or following the teachings of Islam. I don’t care if you are straight, gay or bisexual.

When it comes to hiring people to work for the state, I do care if you are competent. I do care if you are ethical, honest and trustworthy. I do care if you are the most qualified person for the job.

This bill seeks to institutionalize hiring based on skin color, not a good criterion for hiring and certainly not a good criterion for establishing another state agency.

Oh, and this thing passed the House 95 to 0, with 5 not voting.

Even Stan Lee voted for this thing. I wonder what his supporters think of this vote?

Senate Budget Plan

Some thoughts on the Senate Budget plan:

The Good:

A good start on Prison reform:

Removing 2,000 non-violent state inmates from county jails through home incarceration, saving an estimated $24 million a year. The House had proposed removing about 400 inmates.

Stealing from the Numbers Game:

Kentucky Lottery Corp. to contribute 35 percent of its revenue to the General Fund, up from 26 percent last year.

From the Lottery Post Kentucky Lottery has record revenues:

The Kentucky Lottery Corp. had a record $744 million in revenues, or total ticket sales, in the fiscal year ending June 30, according to year-end figures.

The Bad:

We rather pay for have kids smoke, pay for cancer related medical expenses, and screw the budget instead of raising a tax. Damn Grover Norquist.

…rejected the Democratic-controlled House's proposals to raise the cigarette tax from 30 cents to 55 cents per pack and to apply the state's 6 percent sales tax to a few services, such as chartered flights

Screw the employees, a time honored method of balancing the budget.

Raising the pay of all state workers, including teachers and court workers, by 1 percent in each year of the biennium. The House's budget had provided 2 percent annual raises for most state workers and a 1 percent raise for teachers in the first year, followed by a 3 percent raise in the second year.

They are only the most defenseless in society, who cares they don’t vote.

Providing $41 million less for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services than the House's proposed budget. The Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation was cut $9.4 million over the biennium, while the Department of Community Based Services, which includes social workers, lost $7 million

The Ugly:

Sucking up to the military vote:

Providing a tax rebate on military pay. Military members could apply for a refund of their state income tax, beginning later this year. The Senate appropriated $10 million to pay for the program, but recent legislative estimates have suggested the program could cost $18 million a year.

Counting on things that aren’t going to happen:

The Senate also adopted a proposal in the House's proposed budget that would eliminate nearly 10 percent of the state government work force through attrition, saving an estimated $85 million annually.

Where the hell are the rest of the Democrats in the Senate?

Democratic Sens. Ernesto Scorsone of Lexington and Julian Carroll of Frankfort voted against the bill.

Kill the Goose

In an op-ed piece published by the Herald-Leader, Thomas A. Briant, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets in Minneapolis, whines that “a tax increase of any kind is the last thing Kentuckians need right now”.

Of course he means tobacco tax increase. Briant continues:

Beshear and Kentucky's legislators need to look beyond the state's borders to understand that increasing the cigarette tax will likely result in killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

His argument is this:

The explanation for this phenomenon is quite simple. Smokers don't necessarily stop smoking, but they drive across the border to another state with lower taxes, order cigarettes online to escape any state cigarette tax or buy from black market dealers

His explanation is a lie. Briant sites no studies, no facts, no numbers his explanation is a total fabrication.

From the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids:

In every single state that has significantly raised its cigarette tax rate, pack sales have gone down sharply. While some of the decline in pack sales comes from interstate smuggling and from smokers avoiding in-state purchases and going to other lower-tax states or to the Internet to buy their cigarette, it is clear that reduced consumption from smokers quitting and cutting back plays a more powerful role. As shown in more detail, below, nationwide data – which counts both legal in-state purchases and the vast majority of packs purchased through cross-border, Internet, or smuggled sales – shows that overall packs sales go down as state cigarette tax increases push up the average national price.

Here is the real truth about raising the cigarette tax from Phillip Morris:

Of all the concerns, there is one - taxation - that alarms us the most. While marketing restrictions and public and passive smoking [restrictions] do depress volume, in our experience taxation depresses it much more severely. Our concern for taxation is, therefore, central to our thinking . . . .

You want to talk dollars and cents then try these numbers:

Annual health care costs in Kentucky directly caused by smoking - $1.50 billion

Portion covered by the state Medicaid program - $487 million

Residents' state & federal tax burden from smoking-caused government expenditures - $602 per household

Smoking-caused productivity losses in Kentucky - $2.13 billion

Unlike Mr. Briant who pulls generalities out of thin air, the information from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids is backed by research; here is the source information for most of it from the Center for Disease Control.

So I say kill the damn goose. Our kids, our health and our overtaxed wallets are going to be a lot better off when it’s dead.

Righteous Kill

Three cheers for Kathy Stein doing the right thing.

From the Courier-Journal:

The House Judiciary Committee chairwoman yesterday killed a controversial immigration-enforcement bill and has delayed action on a Senate abortion bill.

Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, announced that after an extensive series of hearings on House Bill 304, which would have Kentucky take over many of the federal government's immigration duties, she will not hold a vote on the bill.

Stein said she was particularly concerned by inflammatory rhetoric in e-mails from some citizens supporting a state immigration crackdown -- some of which she described as threatening, intimidating and disturbing.

Didn't Your Mother Teach You Anything?

If Sen. David Williams and Rep. Harry Moberly didn’t have so much power to screw things up then watching them in a pissing contest might be fun.

But given their behavior lately the voters should send both of them home.

A proposed overhaul of Kentucky's ethics laws has plunged two of the state's most powerful lawmakers into a quarrel that could bring havoc to upcoming negotiations over the state budget.

A flare-up between Senate President David Williams and House budget committee chairman Harry Moberly Jr. brought accusations of unethical activity and name-calling on Friday.

Both of these guys need to grow up and get over their over-inflated sense of self importance and actually do the jobs the people of Kentucky expect them to do.

Bada Bing

I once worked for a man, a Republican, at the Department of Financial Institutions that always referred to the payday loan industry as “snakes”. He was right. Yesterday the House tried to round up a few of the snakes.

From the Courier-Journal:

The House passed a bill yesterday to increase oversight of Kentucky's payday loan industry over objections of some lawmakers who argued it might hurt small lenders.

But Rep. Johnny Bell, D-Glasgow, the sponsor of House Bill 500, said it would place minimal restrictions on the flourishing industry that offers high-cost, short-term cash loans to borrowers.

"What I am trying to do is protect the consumers," said Bell, who fended off a last-minute amendment by Rep. Kenneth Upchurch, R-Monticello, to turn the bill into a study of the payday loan business.

Will this bill actually become law?

No, David Williams is going to kill it, again from the Courier-Journal:

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said yesterday he hadn't seen the bill and said the Senate was busy with other matters, including the budget.

"It's getting a little bit late in this session to pass very many House bills," he said.

Bell is trying to protect consumers from payday lenders that play loose with the law but he is also trying to protect consumers from themselves.

Though people aren't supposed to have more than two loans at a time, research shows some have multiple loans from different lenders and fall behind when they can't keep up with the payments, Bell said.

But the state now has no way to track that, and lenders say they rely on the word of their customers that they don't have more than two outstanding loans, he said.

The sad truth here is that regardless of how many limits are placed on this industry it is consumer driven and it will still victimize its’ customers. Whether some guy in a strip shopping center collects the money or two guys with no necks corner you in an alley the financial result is the same.

This is just another example of government cleaning up what is really a crime, making it look pretty and allowing it to take advantage of the citizens of the Commonwealth.

This payday loan industry is just Loan Sharking with a shell of acceptability just like the Lottery is the Numbers Game run by a state contractor.

Regardless of the limits put on this industry, even if it is made illegal in Kentucky, people will still seek out this service either in the shopping center or a back alley.

Of course if casino's are approved in Kentucky we could franchise out a payday loan operation at each location, think of the money the state would make.

I'm sure Davey would have used the service:

As a means of collecting the gambling debt Davey owes them, Tony and Richie Aprile have been overseeing the purchase of merchandise for Davey's sporting goods store -- and then taking the goods for themselves. The good news for Davey is that he will finally be free of Tony and Richie; the bad news is he'll lose the store, his savings and probably his family.

The Doctor is In The House

Sometimes a legislator will just make you smile, take first term Legislator, Rep. David Watkins for instance.

From the Courier-Journal:

The Health and Welfare Committee voted 9 to 6 to reject Senate Bill 112 -- but not before committee member David Watkins, D-Henderson, delivered a tongue-lashing to the bill's sponsor, Sen. Vernie McGaha, R-Russell Springs.

Watkins, a family physician, called the measure divisive and said the Senate is ignoring the state's biggest health problems, including smoking, obesity and a lack of adequate mental health services for its citizens.

"I am tired of the same petty issues coming before us when we've got major issues to address," he said.

Right On!

The good Doctor is also pushing for a 70 cent increase in the cigarette tax, has yet to show me anything I don’t like.

He is absolutely right that McGaha in the Senate and likes of Stan Lee in the House continue to push petty issues and not addressing the major issues. They are caught up in gay bashing and blaming Hispanics for the ills of the Commonwealth instead of dealing with real problems.

An Editorial in La Voz makes this true point about McGaha, Lee et al:

It is problematic when public offices are used to feed the fire and propagate the ideology of the extreme right that in no way represents the majority.

In fact, each and every politician that aligned his or her electoral campaign with those ideas was defeated. Let’s ask Ernie Fletcher and Stan Lee, who both were completely rejected by the Kentucky electorate when they played the anti-immigrant card.

I guess Vernie couldn’t believe that someone in the General Assembly would tell him the truth so he pulled out the sanctity of marriage argument. I’m still waiting to see the marriage that was saved by that constitutional amendment.

Again from the Courier-Journal:

McGaha said his concern is the "sanctity of marriage" and said he was offended by Watkins' comments.

"Dr. Watkins is totally off-base," McGaha said. "He is a disgrace to the process we have here."

I think Watkins is a credit to the Commonwealth and General Assembly, McGaha may think Watkins is a “disgrace to the process” but as near as I can tell he was just using my Duck rule.

If it sounds like a duck, looks like a duck and smells like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

All Politics are Personal

A well DUH moment from David Williams, from the Courier-Journal:

Senate President David Williams yesterday accused Rep. Harry Moberly of ramming Eastern Kentucky University projects into the state budget during closed-door conference committee meetings.

Moberly, D-Richmond, is the chairman of the House budget committee and a high-ranking official at EKU.

"I've been at the conference table in the conference many times when he has stood up to have things added for EKU in the budget," Williams, R-Burkesville, said in a session with reporters. "If he doesn't get what he wants in the budget nobody else is going to get what they want in the budget, or other people can't get things for UK or U of L if he doesn't get what he wants in the budget."

Who in their right mind would ever think that Harry Moberly, the most powerful person in relationship to the budget, wouldn’t have an agenda? Did you think EKU made him the Executive Director of Administration because of his good looks? Maybe his years of protecting his University had something to do with it. Of course Harry is going to take care of EKU.

Williams is whining because he doesn’t have total control of the budget. This is called compromise, you get some of what you want and I get some of what I want. Williams just doesn’t play well with others and wants to get back a Moberly for killing the Republican backed bill to eliminate the CATS test in public schools.

With Williams, all politics are personal.

Gutless in Frankfort

A couple of questions:

If 93 members of the House can pass this bill to limit kids smoking then why can’t they raise the cigarette tax by 70 cents to accomplish the same goal?

Is the answer they don’t have the guts to raise a tax but they can fine people for handing out cigarettes?

Is the answer that Democratic House Leadership owes so many favors to campaign contributors they get weak knees when it comes to protecting the health of our children?

And one other thing:

If Stan Lee and 5 others are so concerned about family values why couldn’t they bother to show up to vote? Maybe they were too busy at a convenience store on the Tennessee line handing out cigarettes to kids.

HB 474 (BR 1739) - J. Jenkins

AN ACT relating to tobacco products.

Amend KRS 438.313 to prohibit a person from purchasing on behalf of or giving tobacco products and cigarettes to persons under 18 years of age; establish a fine of $500 to $1000 for violations; amend 438.315 to prohibit a vending machine containing tobacco products to sell nontobacco products, except for matches.

Feb 6-introduced in House
Feb 7-to Licensing & Occupations (H)
Feb 28-posted in committee
Mar 5-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
Mar 6-2nd reading, to Rules
Mar 10-posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Mar 19-3rd reading, passed 93-0

Patronizing Veterans

This bill strikes me as just a bit patronizing and a little cheap. I think a night or two at a state camp ground is a pretty small thing to compensate a veteran for a permanent total disability. The bill limits the times the veteran can stay, don’t want to get in the way of the paying customer. One other thing, will the Department of Parks now have a Disability Determination Branch to make sure the veteran is really totally disabled?

How about looking at health care and education issues for the veteran and their family? If you are going to do something for vets then do something meaningful not this nickel and dime crap.

Maybe Siler will also give the totally disabled veteran a bucket of chicken to eat while they are at the state park.

HB 228 (BR 902) - C. Siler, C. Miller

AN ACT relating to Kentucky State Parks.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 148 to provide qualified Kentucky residents who are permanently and totally disabled veterans an exemption from the relevant overnight accommodations rate at any Kentucky State Park, Sunday through Thursday of each week; require the exemption to apply to a maximum of five overnight stays per calendar year at lodge rooms and campsites at any Kentucky State Park; require the Department of Parks to promulgate administrative regulations relating to the proof of eligibility for persons entitled to the exemption.

HB 228 - AMENDMENTS

HCS - Retain original provisions except amend the exemption to apply to a maximum of three overnight stays per calendar year; limit reservations during peak months to ten consecutive days; require the exemption to be subject to space availability.

Jan 9-introduced in House
Jan 11-to Seniors, Military Affairs, & Public Safety (H)
Mar 10-posted in committee
Mar 19-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar with Committee Substitute

Giving Milward the Business

Sometimes a little dry humor creeps into the legislative process. Take for example the bill offered by former Republican Milward Dedman relating to soliciting persons to be married. Kind of dull stuff really. The bill was originally titled “An Act relating to marriage”.

But I got a laugh out of Kathy Stein’s Committee amendment that changed the title.

New title: "AN ACT relating to economic development"

Who says Republican’s are the only ones to care about business in the Commonwealth?

HB 197 (BR 1031) - M. Dedman Jr

AN ACT relating to marriage. Repeal KRS 402.090, relating to soliciting persons to be married; amend KRS 402.990 to conform.

HB 197 - AMENDMENTS

HCA (1/Title, K. Stein) - Make title amendment.
Jan 8-introduced in House
Jan 11-to Judiciary (H)
Feb 27-posted in committee
Mar 7-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
Mar 10-2nd reading, to Rules
Mar 12-recommitted to Judiciary (H)
Mar 14-reported favorably, to Rules with committee amendment (1-title)
Mar 17-posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Mar 19-3rd reading, passed 98-0 with committee amendment (1-title)

Pass the Cole Slaw

I really don’t have an opinion on whether Tom Buford’s bill to save a couple of bucks has much merit or not, but I do have an opinion on some of the amendments.

It appears that Charles Siler and Richard Henderson don’t have a lot to do this session. They must have spring and picnics on their minds. I can’t see any other reason to waste time on amendments regarding quilts and fried chicken.

SB 127 (BR 1586) - T. Buford
AN ACT relating to historic properties. Amend KRS 42.019 to remove Henry Clay Law Office from the list of state-owned historic properties.

SB 127 - AMENDMENTS

HFA (1, R. Henderson) - Retain original provisions; add provision naming and designating "The Log Cabin" as the official quilt pattern of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

HFA (2/Title, R. Henderson) - Make title amendment.

HFA (3/P, C. Siler) - Retain the original provisions; attach the provisions of HB 331, which creates a new section of KRS Chapter 2 to designate the original recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken as the official picnic food of Kentucky.

HFA (4/Title, C. Siler) - Make title amendment.

Jan 31-introduced in Senate
Feb 8-to Economic Development, Tourism & Labor (S)
Feb 19-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Consent Calendar
Feb 20-2nd reading, to Rules
Feb 25-posted for passage in the Consent Orders of the Day for Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Feb 26-3rd reading, passed 35-0
Feb 27-received in House
Mar 3-to State Government (H)
Mar 4-posted in committee
Mar 6-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
Mar 7-2nd reading, to Rules
Mar 12-posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Thursday, March 13, 2008
Mar 17-floor amendments (1) and (2-title) filed
Mar 18-floor amendments (3) and (4-title) filed
Mar 19-3rd reading; floor amendment (3) ruled not germane ; passed 98-0

Collective Bargaining

Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labor is the future of America. – John L. Lewis

Alice Forgy Kerr, Tom Buford and Ernesto Scorsone want to extend collective bargaining to a selected group of public employees. Coming from a family where John L. Lewis was second only to Jesus Christ and slightly ahead of Franklin Roosevelt, I applaud their action.

My only problem with this bill is its’ limited scope. Why do these public employees deserve collective bargaining and others, like all state government employees, don’t deserve the right. Let’s see some of the pro-labor House members expand this bill.

By the way, if Scorsone sponsored the bill why didn’t he vote for it?

SB 106/LM (BR 1345) - A. Kerr, T. Buford, E. Scorsone

AN ACT relating to urban-county governments. Amend KRS 67A.6901 to create the new definition of "Dispatch communications personnel" and delete the definition of "Firefighter personnel"; amend KRS 67A.6902, 67A.6903, 67A.6904, 67A.6905, 67A.6906, 67A.6908, 67A.6909, and 67A.6910 to conform to the definition changes.

Jan 23-introduced in Senate
Jan 25-to State & Local Government (S)
Mar 6-reassigned to Judiciary (S)
Mar 13-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
Mar 14-2nd reading, to Rules
Mar 17-posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Mar 18-passed over and retained in the Orders of the Day
Mar 19-3rd reading, passed 31-4; received in House

Three Bags Full

Brad Montel and friend.

There are some things you just can’t make up. Like this bit of bipartisan legislation. How has Kentucky survived without this Council?

HB 131 (BR 287) - B. Montell
AN ACT relating to referendums. Amend KRS Sections 247.6901 to 247.6957 to allow sheep and goat producers to conduct referendums to vote on whether or not to levy assessments on the sale of their animals; to define "Association", "Caprine", and "Ovine"; to establish a Kentucky Sheep and Goat Council; to allow the council to determine how assessment funds shall be disbursed; to establish how assessments may be terminated; make technical corrections to conform.

(Prefiled by the sponsor(s).)

Jan 8-introduced in House

Jan 9-to Agriculture & Small Business (H)

Jan 11-posted in committee

Feb 13-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar

Feb 14-2nd reading, to Rules

Feb 21-posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Monday,

February 25, 2008

Mar 4-3rd reading, passed 97-0

Mar 5-received in Senate

Mar 7-to Agriculture & Natural Resources (S)

Mar 13-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Consent Calendar

Mar 14-2nd reading, to Rules

Mar 17-posted for passage in the Consent Orders of the Day for Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Mar 18-3rd reading, passed 37-0

Now can we move on to the budget, tobacco tax, substantial tax reform just to name a few other minor issues?

End Run

You always have to admire good ball handling even if the guards are working for the other team, which brings us this bit of ball handling.

Both Democrat (at least in name) Bob Damron and Republican Stan Lee have attached their bigoted bill, House Bill 304, which is quietly dying in Judiciary Committee as floor amendments to House Bill 553.

HFA (1/P, S. Lee) - Attach provisions of HB 304.

HFA (4, R. Damron) - Retain original provisions, with the following additions: amend the section relating to the crime of theft of identity to prohibit the use of additional identifying information; prohibit using another person's information for the purpose of obtaining employment or engaging in a violation of law; permit prosecution for theft of identity in addition to a forgery offense.

Hopefully when this comes up for a vote, Kathy Stein or someone else will point out that these amendments are not germane to the bill.

School Yard Bullies

Why are Bob Damron, Stan Lee, Bill Farmer, Rick Nelson, Kevin Bratcher, James Comer, Danny Ford, Russ Mobley, Lonnie Napier and David Osborne so damn scared of Hispanics? Was someone rude to them at the car wash, did they get the wrong change at the fast food drive thru, were the guys repairing their roof too noisy?

Since these guys managed a constitutional amendment to bash gays, maybe this bunch of school yard bullies, a just looking for another kid to beat up.

But I think the real reason that they want to beat up on Hispanics is that it takes our mind off of what eight years of conservative policies have brought us, a useless war that no one wants, $4.00 a gallon gasoline and an economy heading into the crapper.

Damron, Lee, et al are just trying to distract us from the fact that they have not served the citizens of the Commonwealth by taking on real issues like serious tax reform, pushing to allow felons that have served their time to vote again, or protecting the environment from the greed of coal companies.

They are just doing their part to maintain conservatism in Kentucky.

Kathy Stein is right in keeping this bill bottled up in committee.

HB 304/FN/LM (BR 1097) - R. Damron, R. Nelson, K. Bratcher, J. Comer Jr, B. Farmer, D. Ford, S. Lee, R. Mobley, L. Napier, D. Osborne

AN ACT relating to homeland security. Repeal, reenact, and amend KRS 514.160 relating to identity theft to increase the number of pieces of identifying information, include use of false identification to deprive a person of money, obtain employment, hide one's true identity, cause another person to suffer economic loss, defraud another person, or attempt, solicit, or conspire to commit identity theft; create a new section of KRS Chapter 441 to require pretrial release officers to obtain place of birth, citizenship, and related information from prisoners in jail and report the information to the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and Administrative Office of the Courts; create a new section of KRS Chapter 39G to expand the duties of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security with regard to immigration, customs, and other homeland security matters; create a new section of KRS 15.380 to 15.404 to permit local and state law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with the federal government for local enforcement of immigration and customs laws; create new sections of KRS Chapter 337 relating to employment to create definitions for an employee verification program; specify that the employee verification program applies only to businesses that contract or subcontract with government agencies and to government agencies; specify that an employer subject to the act shall verify citizenship, Social Security number, and other required information through the federal E-Verify program within the required time following employment to avoid hiring undocumented aliens; specify that an employer is not required to take any action that the employer believes would violate federal or state law; require an employer to utilize the federal Employment Eligibility Verification program beginning January 1, 2009; require the Department of Revenue to notify employers of the requirements of the employee verification law; create a new section of KRS Chapter 65 to require all local governments and local agencies to comply with the law and permit sharing of citizenship and immigration information as required by law and to prohibit local ordinances or other actions to violate the law; amend KRS 514.170 to conform

Winding Down

Some thoughts on the current legislative session as it winds down.

I don’t know if Governor Steve Beshear was thinking of the good old days when the Governor told the legislature what to do and they did it, or if he was trying to be too much of a nice guy and believing that they would all work together for the benefit of the Commonwealth when he was trying to get his agenda through the legislature.

Maybe a little of both, but this administration has been pretty inept at getting anything done during this legislative session.

Beshear has been consumed with pushing gambling down the throats of the citizens of this state. Let’s be honest there has been no great out cry for “Give Us Casinos” from the citizens of this state. The whole issue is being driven by a small number of horse farmers and casino owners trying to make a buck.

Any meaningful legislation like House Bill 70 to restore voting rights to felons that have served their time has taken a back seat to gambling. Beshear says he supports this legislation, I believe he does, but both restoring voting rights and legalizing gambling require a constitutional amendment.

Steve Beshear is not about to confuse the voters with two amendments on the same ballot, and casinos take precedence.

But the lack of meaningful legislation can’t be laid solely at the feet of Steve Beshear.

I have to think the Democratic House Leadership just doesn’t like Steve Beshear. They appear to have made a concerted effort to screw the Governor. Jody Richards and the House Democratic Caucus have one primary goal, to stay in office.

Why else do they stone wall on tax reform?

Why else do they refuse to raise the tobacco tax to at least the average nationwide?

Why else have they short changed the state retirement systems to fund pork barrel projects?

These guys are good at political infighting and handing out tax money, but when it comes to responsible leadership, they are sadly lacking.

Kick 'Em Before They Get Up

If you look at a single act by a legislator you can get pissed off. However, if you take a wide look at their total activities you can get really outraged.

I started by looking at the amendments attached to House Bill 70.

House Bill 70 would allow the voters of this state to decide if convicted felons that have served their time the right to vote.

AN ACT proposing an amendment to Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to persons entitled to vote.

Propose to amend Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky to exclude a convicted felon from the right to vote until expiration of probation or final discharge from parole or maximum expiration of sentence; submit to the voters for ratification or rejection.

However James Comer, who obviously pays no attention to groups like the League of Women Voters, wants to kill the bill with a poison pill amendment.

HFA (6, J. Comer Jr) - Retain original provisions and amend to require that before any felon may have voting rights restored the felon must reimburse the state for 25 percent of the cost of the felon's detention.

He can call this a reimbursement, but it’s really a poll tax or additional fine for having been in prison.

Kentucky's felon prison population in 2007 was 22,402. The taxpayers of Kentucky spent $454 million on corrections in 2007. To payback according to Comer’s amendment each prisoner will need to send the state $422.21 for every month served

So maybe Comer is just trying to ease the budget crisis by generating $113 million per year from former convicts. That would help balance the tax breaks he wants to pass out.

HB 532/FN (BR 966) - F. Nesler, H. Collins, E. Ballard, L. Belcher, S. Brinkman, J. Comer Jr, W. Coursey, R. Damron, M. Denham, J. Gooch Jr, D. Horlander, C. Miller, M. Rader, S. Rudy, J. Stacy, G. Stumbo, T. Thompson, T. Turner, J. Vincent, R. Wilkey, B. Yonts

AN ACT relating to tax credits for railroad infrastructure improvements.
Create new sections of KRS Chapter 141 to establish railroad infrastructure maintenance and improvement tax credit for Class II and III railroads; set credit at 50 percent of qualified expenditures, with a credit cap of $4,500 per mile of track, and allow credit to be assigned to a shipper using the rails who pays for the improvements; establish a railroad grade crossing improvement tax credit to improve existing rail crossings; set credit at 25 percent of expenditures, with a credit cap of $1,000,000 statewide each year; establish system of prorating credits among railroad companies if more than $1,000,000 of credits are sought; establish a railroad energy expansion tax credit for rail expansion or upgrade of rail facilities to transport fossil or biomass resources; set credit at 25 percent of expenditures, with a credit cap of $1,000,000 statewide each year; establish system of prorating credits among railroad companies if more than $1,000,000 of credits are sought; specify that an expenditure that qualifies for more than one of the tax credits established by the Act may only be claimed as a credit under one section; amend KRS 141.0205 to place the credits established under the Act in the tax credit priority list; provide that the provisions of the Act apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008.

In case you are wondering what a Class II and III railroad is, here is an example. The Paducah and Louisville Railroad is a Class II railroad in Kentucky. The President and CEO of the Paducah and Louisville railroad is A.V (Tony) Reck. Reck and his wife, according to the Registry of Election Finance, has given over $14,000.00 to political candidates, mostly Republican candidates like Ernie Fletcher and Stan Lee. Of course I’m sure that has nothing to do with this little tax break.

HB 333/FN (BR 1123) - D. Pasley, H. Moberly Jr, J. Comer Jr, C. Hoffman, T. McKee, F. Nesler, D. Osborne, S. Overly, T. Turner, R. Webb, B. Yonts

AN ACT relating to veterinarians and making an appropriation therefor.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 321 to establish a student loan forgiveness program for Kentucky residents who agree to serve as a veterinarian in large or mixed animal practice in an underserved area in Kentucky; establish loan forgiveness caps; establish eligibility requirements for loan forgiveness; create a Veterinary Student Loan Forgiveness Committee and establish duties of the committee; APPROPRIATION.

HB 341/FN/LM (BR 1181) - J. Bell, J. Comer Jr

AN ACT relating to taxes of cities and counties. Amend KRS 81A.450 to clarify that a city annexing an industrial park shall assume all debt associated with the development of the park, and shall be required to share future occupational tax revenues with the localities that developed the park

HB 418/FN (BR 1637) - B. Farmer, J. Hoover, S. Brinkman, D. Butler, J. Comer Jr, T. Couch, R. Crimm, B. DeWeese, M. Dossett, T. Edmonds, C. Embry Jr, J. Fischer, D. Ford, D. Graham, K. Hall, A. Koenig, S. Lee, R. Mobley, B. Montell, T. Moore, D. Osborne, M. Rader, T. Riner, S. Santoro, C. Siler, K. Upchurch, J. Vincent, A. Webb-Edgington, A. Wuchner

AN ACT relating to individual income tax. Amend KRS 141.010 to exempt any portion of a federal tax rebate included in federal adjusted gross income; apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2008.

Of course Comer doesn’t just believe in limiting the voting rights of former felons. We have this poison pill amendment to House Bill 138 that would permit early voting.

HFA (3, J. Comer Jr) - Amend KRS 117.086 to allow a county board of elections to require that one or more precinct election officers be present when in-person absentee voting is being conducted.

Comer, in addition to bashing released felons and passing out tax breaks, likes to join in with Stan Lee and beat up on Hispanics


HB 95/LM/CI (BR 283) - R. Nelson, J. Comer Jr, R. Damron, S. Lee
AN ACT relating to unauthorized aliens. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 15 to allow local law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with the federal government to enforce immigration law; create a new section of KRS Chapter 16 to require the State Police to enter into an agreement with the federal government to enforce immigration law and to form a Kentucky State Police Illegal Alien Task Force; Create several new sections of KRS Chapter 337 to prohibit employers from employee illegal aliens, to create a graduated loss of business license or charter scheme for those found to have done so after January 1, 2009, and to require utilization of a federal work authorization verification system; amend KRS 514.160 to include with the offense of identity theft the theft of identity by an unauthorized alien for the purpose of obtaining employment; create a noncodified section to create a Employer Sanctions Task Force to study the system of employer sanction relative to the employment of unauthorized aliens to operate during the 2008 legislative interim; create a noncodified section to name the act, "The Kentucky Legal Workers Act."

HB 304/FN/LM (BR 1097) - R. Damron, R. Nelson, K. Bratcher, J. Comer Jr, B. Farmer, D. Ford, S. Lee, R. Mobley, L. Napier, D. Osborne
AN ACT relating to homeland security. Repeal, reenact, and amend KRS 514.160 relating to identity theft to increase the number of pieces of identifying information, include use of false identification to deprive a person of money, obtain employment, hide one's true identity, cause another person to suffer economic loss, defraud another person, or attempt, solicit, or conspire to commit identity theft; create a new section of KRS Chapter 441 to require pretrial release officers to obtain place of birth, citizenship, and related information from prisoners in jail and report the information to the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and Administrative Office of the Courts; create a new section of KRS Chapter 39G to expand the duties of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security with regard to immigration, customs, and other homeland security matters; create a new section of KRS 15.380 to 15.404 to permit local and state law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with the federal government for local enforcement of immigration and customs laws; create new sections of KRS Chapter 337 relating to employment to create definitions for an employee verification program; specify that the employee verification program applies only to businesses that contract or subcontract with government agencies and to government agencies; specify that an employer subject to the act shall verify citizenship, Social Security number, and other required information through the federal E-Verify program within the required time following employment to avoid hiring undocumented aliens; specify that an employer is not required to take any action that the employer believes would violate federal or state law; require an employer to utilize the federal Employment Eligibility Verification program beginning January 1, 2009; require the Department of Revenue to notify employers of the requirements of the employee verification law; create a new section of KRS Chapter 65 to require all local governments and local agencies to comply with the law and permit sharing of citizenship and immigration information as required by law and to prohibit local ordinances or other actions to violate the law; amend KRS 514.170 to conform.

Of course he also feels a need to join Jim Gooch and make it harder for public assistance clients.

HB 190 (BR 318) - M. Henley, L. Napier, K. Bratcher, J. Comer Jr, J. Gooch Jr, B. Montell
AN ACT relating to public assistance. Amend KRS 205.200 to create a substance abuse screening program for recipients of public assistance.

Then there is his need for micro-management of teachers and attempting to do an end run around school prayer. I wonder if he supports a moment of silence for Allah.

HB 363 (BR 1416) - R. Nelson, C. Embry Jr, L. Belcher, T. Burch, D. Butler, M. Cherry, H. Collins, J. Comer Jr, T. Couch, T. Edmonds, R. Henderson, M. Henley, D. Keene, C. Miller, R. Mobley, F. Nesler, C. Siler, D. Sims, A. Smith, J. Stewart III

AN ACT relating to work hours for teachers. Amend KRS 158.070 to specify the number of hours a teacher must work per day, unless changed by the school-based decision-making council; amend KRS 158.649 to conform.

HB 460 (BR 27) - R. Adams, K. Hall, J. Comer Jr, R. Damron, T. Edmonds, C. Embry Jr, J. Higdon, M. Rader, J. Stewart III, A. Wuchner

AN ACT relating to schools. Amend KRS 158.175 to require a moment of silence or reflection not to exceed two minutes at the commencement of each school day.

But never fear he has a solution to higher education problems, bring a gun to school.

HB 114/LM/CI (BR 314) - R. Damron, R. Adams, J. Arnold Jr, E. Ballard, S. Baugh, L. Belcher, J. Bell, K. Bratcher, D. Butler, M. Cherry, H. Collins, L. Combs, J. Comer Jr, T. Couch, W. Coursey, J. DeCesare, M. Dedman Jr, M. Dossett, T. Edmonds, C. Embry Jr, B. Farmer, T. Firkins, J. Fischer, D. Floyd, D. Ford, J. Gooch Jr, J. Greer, K. Hall, M. Harmon, R. Henderson, M. Henley, J. Higdon, D. Horlander, D. Keene, T. Kerr, A. Koenig, S. Lee, Ji. Lee, R. Mobley, B. Montell, L. Napier, R. Nelson, F. Nesler, D. Osborne, T. Pullin, M. Rader, R. Rand, S. Rudy, S. Santoro, C. Siler, D. Sims, A. Smith, B. Smith, J. Stacy, J. Stewart III, G. Stumbo, T. Thompson, J. Tilley, T. Turner, J. Vincent, R. Webb, A. Webb-Edgington, R. Weston, A. Wuchner

AN ACT relating to deadly weapons. Amend KRS 237.115, relating to government control of carrying of concealed deadly weapons, to require universities, colleges, and postsecondary institutions to comply with the provisions of KRS 237.106 and 237.110(17)(b) to ensure that persons may keep firearms in vehicles on university property if they do not remove the firearm from the vehicle; amend KRS 237.110 to conform.

Like I said earlier you have to take a look at the complete body of work to get a feel for a legislator.

Camel Feed

And now for the Good, the Bad, the Undecided:

Harry Moberly has shown some leadership, something usually missing in the House of Representatives. He is trying an end run around Jim Gooch.

A maverick legislative move by one of the state's most powerful lawmakers will probably force a committee vote Wednesday on a three-year-old bill that would stop coal mine operators from filling valleys and creek beds with potentially toxic excess waste.

Despised by the coal industry and championed by environmentalists, the so-called "stream saver" bill was inserted Tuesday by Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, into a decoy measure that would have given tax breaks for camel feed.

Now if we could just get the House Democratic Leadership to remove the Coal Industry Representative Jim Gooch from being the Chairman of the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee and replace him with someone not tied hand and foot to the coal industry.

The replacement doesn’t have to be a total tree hugger, just some one that doesn’t believe the world is flat and the coal industry never does any harm.

Kudos to Governor Steve Beshear for doing the right thing by easing the requirements for restoring voting rights to felons.

Felons who complete their sentences can get their voting rights restored more easily under changes to the pardon process announced Tuesday by Gov. Steve Beshear.

Beshear said he will drop requirements for an essay and three character references, both imposed by previous Gov. Ernie Fletcher. He also will revoke a $2 fee.

Under the "barriers" placed by Fletcher, the number of felons whose voting rights were restored shrank from more than 600 a year to about 250 a year.

"This disenfranchisement makes no sense," Beshear said……….

Beshear said he favors House Bill 70, a proposed constitutional amendment that would automatically restore the right to vote to most felons. But he stopped short of saying he would throw the weight of the governor's office behind it. HB 70 has waited on the House floor for weeks while House leaders debate casino gambling and the budget.

Now if Steve will just take one more step, show a little leadership and actually push House Bill 70, he could bring Kentucky in line with 47 other states on restoring felon rights.

And finally the Herald-Leader has took its’ own head count on the Casino Amendment and found it lacking the votes to pass. Among those undecided are Fayette County Representatives Bill Farmer, Ruth Ann Palumbo, Kathy Stein, and Susan Westrom.

Come on ladies, you know this is a bad bill. I mean really, any one of the three of you have more balls than Bill Farmer. Do you really need to weasel around this issue?

And speaking of weaseling around this issue how about Jesse Crenshaw being coquettish and just not saying where he stands. And, heavy sigh here, Jim Wayne taking the ultimate weasel stance of abstaining. I guess everyone has to go back to work after the silly season ends in Frankfort.

Walking Dead

There are some things that look to be dead or maybe they just smell bad.

Hillary Clinton’s Campaign - Dead
Hopefully for the Democratic Party this dies tonight. Doing the political math, I don’t see any way can Hillary get the nomination?

Bruce Lunsford’s Campaign - Dead
Do not give money to this man. There is no way on God’s Green Earth that this DINO is going to beat Mitch McConnell. If Lunsford thought Ben Chandler was mean to him in the Governor’s race four years ago, then he is going to be stunned when his good buddy Mitch turns the dogs loose in this election.


Casino Gambling Amendment – Near Dead
If the so called Democratic Leadership in House of Representatives manages to get this thing to the Senate it will be a miracle. Put these guys in a paper bag and they would try to walk out the closed end. Assuming the bill gets to the Senate, I don’t see that Republican controlled body letting it go further. And if by some miracle, the amendment actually goes to the voters, I don’t see it passing.

Now I hope it gets to the voters for one simple reason. If this thing isn’t killed by the voters it will be back from the dead next session.


A Workable Budget - Near Dead
There are three things working against a common sense budget. First, the false promise of painless money from the casinos. Second, there is the inability of the legislature to do math and enact sensible tax policy. And third, David Williams, wanting to inflict as much pain on the Beshear administration as possible, will make the budget as lean as possible.


Democratic Party Leadership – Smells Bad
Jennifer Moore, Chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, picking up the lunch tab for twenty or so high rolling lobbyists. The Governor picks the Chairman of the Party. Looks like Beshear has a talent for picking individuals sensitive to the appearance of their actions.

Official Car Cruise Capital

Sometimes I think every Senator in the Commonwealth is an idiot. This bill passed unanimously.

SB 103 (BR 1394) - V. McGaha
AN ACT designating the City of Somerset as the official car cruise capital of Kentucky. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 2 to designate the City of Somerset as the car cruise capital of Kentucky.

Jan 23-introduced in Senate
Jan 25-to Economic Development, Tourism & Labor (S)
Feb 19-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Consent Calendar
Feb 20-2nd reading, to Rules
Feb 25-posted for passage in the Consent Orders of the Day for Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Feb 26-3rd reading, passed 35-0
Feb 27-received in House

Decreasing Pension Benefits

A few more thoughts on the bill decreasing pension benefits for new employees.

First up, I think the bill should be called “decreasing pension benefits for new employees and existing retirees” bill. After all if the legislature makes a decision that retirees don’t need to keep up with the cost of living then isn’t that reduction of benefits?

Second, why is this piece of legislation a separate bill and not an amendment to the bill decreasing pension benefits for new employees? Why would Greg Stumbo make this a standalone bill? Stumbo, a master of legislative process, must have a reason.

AN ACT relating to retirement. Amend KRS 61.510 and 78.510 to extend the high-three final compensation window set to expire January 1, 2009, for the remaining term of office of an elected official who is eligible to retire and receive the benefit as of January 1, 2009; amend KRS 61.595 to extend the 2.2 percent benefit factor window set to expire January 31, 2009, for the remaining term of office of an elected official who is eligible to retire and receive the benefit as of January 1, 2009.

And third, speaking of amendments to the bill decreasing pension benefits for new employees, Jim Wayne comes through again. The Public Pension Advisory Commission must be as insulated as possible from the money interests current making obscene profits from the retirement systems.

HFA (8, J. Wayne) - Require all members of the Kentucky Public Pension Financing Advisory Commission to comply with the Executive Branch Code of Ethics established in KRS Chapter 11A; prohibit any member from having any direct or indirect interest in commission findings or recommendations that puts the member's personal interest in conflict with his duties on the commission; require any investment advisor contracted by the commission to abide by the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct; prohibit any investment advisor from serving simultaneously as an investment advisor to the commission and one of the state-administered retirement systems; amend KRS 11A.010 of the Executive Branch Ethics Code to include the members of the Kentucky Public Pension Financing Commission in the definition of "officer," thereby applying the code guidelines and financial disclosure requirements to the commission members.

Show Me The Money

Mark Hebert and Al Cross stated a basic truth about the House Democratic Caucus on last week’s Comment on Kentucky.

The House Democratic Caucus has one and only one goal – reelect incumbent Democrats and maintain power in the House of Representatives. Power comes before anything else.

Truthfully, I find it hard to feel a lot of sympathy for Brereton Jones and the gamblers being shaken down by Jody Richards and his crew. After all, Jones is not pushing casinos to pay for education, or pension plans or Medicaid. He and KEEP are pushing casinos so they can line their own pockets.

But I do find it disgusting that the Democrats would do anything possible to keep clowns like Jim Gooch in office.

Below is the exchange on Comment on Kentucky.

Tinker's Dam

"Tinker's-dam - a wall of dough raised around a place which a plumber desires to flood with a coat of solder. The material can be but once used; being consequently thrown away as worthless."

In today’s Herald-Leader Larry Dale Keeling points a major flaw in Steve Beshear’s proposed pension reform plan.

What's missing, though, is money.

Don't take that as a criticism of Beshear's opposition to giving the plans a one-time infusion of cash by issuing pension bonds. In the current economy, the risk of bonding may well exceed the reward.

The missing money in question is the difference between the state contribution to the systems proposed in Beshear's budget and the actuarially recommended amount that would keep the unfunded liability from increasing during the next biennium.

Although the rising cost of health care is the major force that has driven this crisis of unfunded liability, governors and lawmakers have exacerbated the problem by underfunding the systems to the tune of $1.5 billion in recent years.

This governor and the current group of legislators are preparing to do it again.

Once again our so called leaders in Frankfort demonstrate their ability to see as far as the next election. This like other issues could be dealt with if the Governor and General Assembly had the vision and intestinal fortitude to actually address the nineteenth century tax laws the Commonwealth currently operates under.

Like Ernie Fletcher’s tinkering with tax reform, Steve Beshear is tinkering with pension reform.

Help For Horse Farms

I always enjoy reading Larry Dale Keeling in the Herald-Leader and I have to agree with his take on Steve Beshear’s paying his debt to the horse and gambling industry.

FRANKFORT --Kentucky's horse industry played a significant role in electing Gov. Steve Beshear. So, Beshear no doubt felt an obligation to propose casino gambling legislation in keeping with the wishes of the industry.

OK. Fine. Beshear's obligation has been met. The industry's bill has been introduced. Now, let's all prepare for the return trip to the real world.

As might be expected from an industry that has never been able to get its act together on expanded gambling -- and please, let's call it gambling, not gaming -- the legislation Beshear unveiled Thursday is unrealistic, over the top, bizarre even.

Perhaps Beshear and the General Assembly could benefit from those with more experience in writing this kind of law. Below is an example from Nevada.

NRS 244.345 Dancing halls, escort services, entertainment by referral services and gambling games or devices; limitation on licensing of houses of prostitution.

1. Every natural person wishing to be employed as an entertainer for an entertainment by referral service and every natural person, firm, association of persons or corporation wishing to engage in the business of conducting a dancing hall, escort service, entertainment by referral service or gambling game or device permitted by law, outside of an incorporated city, must:

(a) Make application to the license board of the county in which the employment or business is to be engaged in, for a county license of the kind desired. The application must be in a form prescribed by the regulations of the license board.

(b) File the application with the required license fee with the county license collector, as provided in chapter 364 of NRS, who shall present the application to the license board at its next regular meeting.

The board, in counties whose population is less than 400,000, may refer the petition to the sheriff, who shall report upon it at the following regular meeting of the board. In counties whose population is 400,000 or more, the board shall refer the petition to the metropolitan police department. The department shall conduct an investigation relating to the petition and report its findings to the board at the next regular meeting of the board. The board shall at that meeting grant or refuse the license prayed for or enter any other order consistent with its regulations. Except in the case of an application for a license to conduct a gambling game or device, the county license collector may grant a temporary permit to an applicant, valid only until the next regular meeting of the board. In unincorporated towns and cities governed pursuant to the provisions of chapter 269 of NRS, the license board has the exclusive power to license and regulate the employment and businesses mentioned in this subsection.

2. The board of county commissioners, and in a county whose population is less than 400,000, the sheriff of that county constitute the license board, and the county clerk or other person designated by the license board is the clerk thereof, in the respective counties of this state.

3. The license board may, without further compensation to the board or its clerk:

(a) Fix, impose and collect license fees upon the employment and businesses mentioned in this section.

(b) Grant or deny applications for licenses and impose conditions, limitations and restrictions upon the licensee.

(c) Adopt, amend and repeal regulations relating to licenses and licensees.

(d) Restrict, revoke or suspend licenses for cause after hearing. In an emergency the board may issue an order for immediate suspension or limitation of a license, but the order must state the reason for suspension or limitation and afford the licensee a hearing.

4. The license board shall hold a hearing before adopting proposed regulations, before adopting amendments to regulations, and before repealing regulations relating to the control or the licensing of the employment or businesses mentioned in this section. Notice of the hearing must be published in a newspaper published and having general circulation in the county at least once a week for 2 weeks before the hearing.

5. Upon adoption of new regulations the board shall designate their effective date, which may not be earlier than 15 days after their adoption. Immediately after adoption a copy of any new regulations must be available for public inspection during regular business hours at the office of the county clerk.

6. Except as otherwise provided in NRS 241.0355, a majority of the members constitutes a quorum for the transaction of business.

7. Any natural person, firm, association of persons or corporation who engages in the employment of any of the businesses mentioned in this section without first having obtained the license and paid the license fee as provided in this section is guilty of a misdemeanor.

8. In a county whose population is 400,000 or more, the license board shall not grant any license to a petitioner for the purpose of operating a house of ill fame or repute or any other business employing any person for the purpose of prostitution.

9. As used in this section:

(a) “Entertainer for an entertainment by referral service” means a natural person who is sent or referred for a fee to a hotel or motel room, home or other accommodation by an entertainment by referral service for the purpose of entertaining the person located in the hotel or motel room, home or other accommodation.

(b) “Entertainment by referral service” means a person or group of persons who send or refer another person to a hotel or motel room, home or other accommodation for a fee in response to a telephone or other request for the purpose of entertaining the person located in the hotel or motel room, home or other accommodation.

[1:50:1923; NCL § 2037] + [2:50:1923; NCL § 2038] + [3:50:1923; NCL § 2039] + [4:50:1923; NCL § 2040]—(NRS A 1959, 838; 1961, 364; 1971, 11; 1973, 923; 1975, 562; 1979, 20, 305, 511, 728, 730, 732, 733; 1989, 1899; 1991, 166; 2001, 1124)

If our Kentucky legislators followed this model, think of all the new business and extra income folks at KEEP like Brereton Jones and his Airdrie Stud could generate.

Like ranching in Nevada, this kind of law would bring a whole new meaning to the term Stud Farm in Kentucky.

How to Kill a Casino

Want to know how to kill a Casino?

Let people who have to live next door to the casino vote on whether they want it built on their street. The perfect example was given by Greg Stumbo.

From the Herald-Leader:

(Rep. Greg) Stumbo, for instance, said he opposes allowing Thunder Ridge Racetrack in Prestonsburg to have a casino.

"In an area like Floyd County and surrounding counties in the same situation where many people live right at or below the poverty level, that might lure them to spend their dollars," he said. "So I can't be for it."

Fat Cats in Turkey

"I think it makes us more sensitive ... and I think it's very educational to broaden people's perspectives," (Senator David) Williams said.

I am so damn happy the tax payers of Kentucky paid almost $4,000 to broaden David Williams’ and Senator Dan Kelly’s perspective. There is nothing like being wined and dined, touring palaces with representatives of big tobacco and mega drug companies to make you more sensitive.

Lord knows, these guys must now be in touch with their inner selves after a cruise on the Bosphorus, a tour of the Suleyman Mosque and a two-hour visit to the silk market and Grand Bazaar.

What a benefit to the Commonwealth.

Fluffy and Inconsistent

Sometimes being able to focus on the moment is a good thing for a politician. However, there needs to be a little consistency from moment to moment.

The Herald-Leader has a story on Kathy Stein’s bill to reduce over-crowding of our jails.

Misdemeanor criminals would see their jail sentences deeply cut under a bill filed this week by the chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, on Wednesday said she hasn't decided how aggressively she will push House Bill 513, which would reduce the maximum penalty for Class A misdemeanors from 12 to 6 months and for Class B misdemeanors from 90 to 30 days.

The cost of overcrowded jails and prisons is bankrupting the state, which lawmakers now realize as they struggle to pass a balanced budget, Stein said.

This is a good idea and should be supported. Let’s hope Stein aggressively pushes the bill. In the story is this comment by Attorney General Jack Conway.

Facing steep cuts, Attorney General Jack Conway said he's likely to kill a $400,000 program that provides crime victim advocates, and he might lay off some of his 230 employees. Conway said he is so poorly funded already that he has only one employee working part-time to enforce environmental laws.

Now on the same page of the paper we have Conway commenting on “cypersafety legislation”.

Besides the cybersafety legislation, Conway said, he will create an Internet crimes unit to investigate crimes committed online, from scams to solicitation of a minor. It is expected to be operational this spring.

Does anyone see a disconnect here? Conway is looking at possible layoffs and is creating a new unit at the same time. What other part of the office is going to be short staffed along with environmental law enforcement?

And while we’re on the topic of cyber crimes, Conway’s bill addresses the following areas:

The bill allows police to use specially trained or non-sworn personnel for online stings. It also prohibits registered sex offenders from using social-networking Web sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Conway said the bill will allow Kentucky prosecutors to criminally charge sex offenders removed from such sites. Since last May, he said, MySpace has removed the profiles of 40,000 sex offenders, 350 of them from Kentucky.

The legislation also requires sex offenders to update their e-mail addresses and online identifiers with the state registry of sex offenders as they update their home addresses.

Other provisions of HB 367 call for amending Kentucky's stalking laws to include cyberstalking, clarifies that it is a crime for persons to transmit live sexually explicit images of themselves to minors over the Internet and allows police to seize personal property, such as a computer or car used in online sexual offenses against children.

The headline for the story refers to the bill as “Icing on the cake”, and that is exactly what it is. This bill is the fluff covering the cake; it’s not the main course. There are things Conway must do if he wants to be effective in fighting cyber crime the starting list is here.

This is a nice fluffy start, but I’m still waiting for the main course.

Spinmeister

The Herald-Leader has this story on Steve Beshear pushing casino gambling, Beshear has new spin on casinos.

FRANKFORT --
Casino gambling legislation that Gov. Steve Beshear plans to release next week could produce several hundred million dollars in licensing fees that would boost his anemic two-year budget proposal, the governor said Friday.

He declined to provide details, but said "the license fees that can be produced by this are significant."……

Beshear's declaration reverses his prior position against counting on casino money to bolster the budget that takes effect July 1.

"It's not financially responsible for me to do," he told the Herald-Leader on Jan. 13. "I'm going to go ahead and propose my budget based on what these (General Fund revenue) projections really are."

New spin my Aunt Fannie.

This is the same fiscally irresponsible crap dished by the Fletcher administration in a new wrapper.

Beshear acknowledged that the spending of one-time money from license fees could worsen the "structural balance" of the budget.

For several years, lawmakers have been spending more money than the state's General Fund has produced. It's called a structural imbalance -- lawmakers use money that won't be available in the future to pay for programs that will continue to cost money.

Folks this is like having maxed out a dozen credit cards and getting a new one to solve the problem.

What is it going to take for these guys to get some guts and do the right thing?

You cannot provide revenue sources for long term commitments with one time band-aid answers like casino gambling. It doesn’t work. The credit card eventually maxes out and someone has to pay it off.

This is not leadership. Steve Beshear is paying off political debts by providing a simple, easy to understand wrong answer to a complicated problem. Steve Beshear was right the first time, this is irresponsible.

There are practical alternatives:

HB 443 (BR 838) - D. Watkins, M. Marzian, T. Burch, J. Crenshaw, J. Jenkins, R. Meeks, C. Miller, H. Moberly Jr, D. Owens, R. Palumbo, C. Rollins II, K. Stein, J. Wayne, S. Westrom

AN ACT relating to a cigarette surtax and declaring an emergency. Amend various sections of KRS Chapter 138 to create an additional cigarette surtax of 70 cents; increase the tax rates for other tobacco products and snuff; impose a floor stock tax as of July 31, 2008; EMERGENCY.

Feb 1-introduced in House
Feb 4-to Appropriations & Revenue (H)

HB 262/FN (BR 911) - J. Wayne, J. Jenkins, L. Belcher, T. Burch, L. Combs, K. Hall, R. Henderson, M. Marzian, R. Meeks, T. Riner, K. Stein

AN ACT relating to taxation. Amend KRS 141.020 to increase the tax rate on income over $75,000; amend KRS 141.066 to establish a refundable earned income tax credit at 15 percent of the federal credit; amend KRS 140.130 to decouple from the federal estate tax phase-out; amend KRS 139.120, 139.200, and 139.480 to include a list of selected services as subject to sales tax; amend KRS 141.0205 to recognize changes to income tax credits; make income tax provisions effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2008, make estate tax provisions effective for deaths on or after August 1, 2008; make sales tax provisions effective for billings on or after August 1, 2008.

Jan 10-introduced in House
Jan 15-to Appropriations & Revenue (H)


This is a financial management problem Beshear and most of the General Assembly, Republicans and Democrats, refuse to address. This is a financial management problem that will eventually be solved on the backs of Kentucky taxpayers.

The current actions of the Governor and General Assemby are at best irresponsible.

Civics Review

You have to love the legislative tactic of filing amendments just to gut a bill. Take for example House Bill 70, to voting rights to felons that have served their time.

Kentucky is one of three states (including Florida and Virginia) that do not automatically restore an ex-felon's voting rights. Florida appears to be in the process of leaving this small group.

(Florida Governor Charlie) Crist pushed through a change to that state's practice of denying former felons the right to vote, serve on juries and obtain state-issued licenses. After some compromising, he got two of his three colleagues on the board of executive clemency to approve a new policy that allows most felons to automatically regain these rights after serving their sentence and paying court-ordered restitution. Convicted murderers, sexual predators and people classified as violent career criminals still will have to undergo a protracted process before they can vote again……..

"I did it because it's the right thing to do," Crist told me of the change. "Political consequences are not a concern of mine. This is absolutely the right thing to do."

Now in Kentucky, Jeff Hoover has introduced a series of amendments to limit the restoration of rights freed felons, unlike Florida none of which seem to deal with violent criminals of sexual predators.

Hoover seems to be more concerned with pimps and drug dealers, which tells us he really isn’t about making a bill better, but more about gutting a bill before it gets passed.

I’m sure Jeff sees some fine line distinction between a pimp and a rapist, but isn’t the bottom line this?

The courts have passed a sentence for a crime. The person does the time. It’s wrong to add additional penalties after the fact.

These amendments are targeted to keep a disproportionately poor and black population from voting.

Here are the amendments:

HFA (1, J. Hoover) - Amend to add felons convicted of manslaughter in the first degree to the category of felons that would only have voting rights restored by executive pardon.

HFA (2, J. Hoover) - Amend to add felons convicted of promoting prostitution in the first degree or in the second degree trafficking to the category of felons that would only have voting rights restored by executive pardon.

HFA (3, J. Hoover) - Amend to add felons convicted of trafficking in a controlled substance within 1000 yards of a school to the category of felons that would only have voting rights restored by executive pardon.

HFA (4, J. Hoover) - Amend to add felons convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine to the category of felons that would only have voting rights restored by executive pardon.

HFA (5, A. Wuchner) - Amend to add to certain requirements that convicted felons receive a certificate of completion of a civics review course before the restoration of their voting rights.

Oh, and let us not forget HFA 5 from light weight Addia Wuchner, I really think this would be more appropriate as an additional requirement for filing to run for the General Assembly.

Note to JIm

A note to Rep. Jim Gooch, (D – Coal Interests):

Jim,

There is a difference between character assassination and pointing out that someone is in the pocket of special interests and a dumb ass at the same time. Trying to kill the messengers won’t change reality.

From the Herald-Leader:

A lawmaker ridiculed in editorials and cartoons last year for his positions on environmental legislation is pushing a bill that would curtail the presence of the journalists he blames the most.

Rep. Jim Gooch, a Democrat who is chairman of the state House Natural Resources and Environment Committee, was the subject of critical editorials and cartoons when he attempted to quash a coal mine safety bill and claimed global warming was a hoax. One editorial cartoon showed Gooch in a hot tub with King Coal.

I Feel Your Pain

Steve Beshear is willing to suffer a little pain to get additional cash flow (Casinos) into state government. However most of the pain Steve is willing to suffer is on the backs of those that are least able to defend themselves.

Medicaid

FRANKFORT --
Although Gov. Steve Beshear's proposed budget would give Medicaid $166.4 million more from the state's General Fund over the next two years, current projections suggest the program will still fall short by about $61 million each year.

"The Medicaid program is not fully funded," said Janie Miller, secretary of the Health and Family Services Cabinet.

Public Advocacy

The state's chief public defender says Gov. Steve Beshear's proposed budget cuts may force public defenders to withdraw from some cases, potentially placing thousands of cases in limbo.

Justice

FRANKFORT --
Kentucky would keep packing felons into its prisons and jails, and the Corrections Department would suck money from the rest of the justice system -- including Kentucky State Police, prosecutors and public defenders -- in Gov. Steve Beshear's two-year budget proposal.

Higher Education

University of Kentucky President Lee Todd implemented a hiring freeze and ordered about $10 million in cuts Wednesday to comply with Gov. Steve Beshear's directive to reduce the university's budget by 3 percent.

Beshear Comments

Here is a partial transcript of comments made Monday by Gov. Steve Beshear about potential cuts in the next two-year state budget.....

Q: Are you just trying to push casinos?

A: The numbers speak for themselves. We have a half-billion dollar hole. I won't be proposing a budget to be balanced on some speculative income off of casinos. That would not be responsible and I'm not going to do that.

One of the options that this commonwealth does have to create additional revenue is to allow limited expanded gaming. But that issue is hopefully to be addressed in this General Assembly and we won't know where that's going until April 15.

Q: Do you oppose a cigarette tax increase?

A: I don't favor any kind of increase of taxes at this time. I think Kentuckians are taxed enough, particularly in these hard economic costs. ...

Now I realize Steve made a deal with the devil. He was willing to sell out to the gambling interests to be Governor. But he doesn’t want to look like he sold out. So instead of doing the right thing he’ll let the weakest of Kentuckians take the hit.

If the man had any cohones, he would tell the Casinos and Horse Breeders thanks for the bucks but now I’m going to actually lead Kentucky. He would back two bills that would address the immediate problems and start addressing state government revenue stream.

Rep. Jim Wayne, (here is a guy I would like to see be Governor) talks about the long term fixes.

The Consensus Forecasting Group anticipates that Kentucky is facing a staggering $900 million shortfall in the next biennium. The ramifications for our citizens living with this financial hole in our budget are too unpleasant to imagine.

But imagine we must. This problem will not drift into the shadows. Our citizens are concerned and raising their voices to make sure we, the leaders with the power, act to protect our children, our sick, our college students, our elderly, our transportation systems, our prisons, our law enforcement officers, our environment and our citizens with mental retardation, addictions and mental illnesses, as well as other areas of our lives touched by the state budget.

Rep. David Watkins gives us the short term answer with raising the cigarette tax.

FRANKFORT --
A proposed law filed Friday would increase the state's tax on a pack of cigarettes to $1.
The 70-cent increase would raise more than $200 million for the cash-strapped state while decreasing the smoking rate, which is tops in the nation, said Rep. David Watkins, D-Henderson.

Maybe Watkins would make a good Lt. Governor for Wayne.

Fiscally Irresponsible

In the middle of a budget crisis here is what any fiscally irresponsible Republican would do. I guess Bill figures that this will help his tax business.

HB 418 (BR 1637) - B. Farmer, J. Hoover, S. Brinkman, D. Butler, J. Comer Jr, T. Couch, R. Crimm, B. DeWeese, M. Dossett, T. Edmonds, C. Embry Jr, J. Fischer, D. Ford, K. Hall, A. Koenig, S. Lee, R. Mobley, T. Moore, D. Osborne, M. Rader, T. Riner, S. Santoro, C. Siler, K. Upchurch, J. Vincent, A. Webb-Edgington, A. Wuchner

AN ACT relating to individual income tax. Amend KRS 141.010 to exempt any portion of a federal tax rebate included in federal adjusted gross income; apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2008.

Jan 30-introduced in House
Jan 31-to Appropriations & Revenue (H)

Gutless in Frankfort

Let’s start with a few of truths.

1. Cigarettes are bad for you. This product kills people.
2. The majority of Kentuckians would support a tax increase on tobacco.
3. Due to the fact that our elected leaders are generally gutless, they have been unable to come up with a true tax reform package that will pay of state government services.
4. Raising the tobacco tax would reduce the number of smokers and raise revenue for state government.

So today’s story in the Herald-Leader clearly shows that we have a group of wimps pretending to be public servants.

Let’s start at the top and work our way down.

Governor Steve Beshear:

Beshear favors raising revenue with casino gambling over higher taxes.

Now I’m sure that Steve Beshear would not mind an increase in the cigarette tax as long has he doesn’t have to do any of the heavy lifting. Beshear will take the money as long as he can still claim he never raised taxes, the evil legislature raised the taxes. Steve remembers Louis Nunn and Nunn’s Nickel and he sure as hell isn’t about to put his neck on the line to raise a tax.

Speaker of the House Jody Richards:

But legislators are finding increased cigarette taxes more palatable as polls show widespread support for some level of increase…….Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, expressed reluctance to join that list.

Jody has repeatedly shown that the only thing he truly cares about is being the Speaker of the House. God forbid Jody actually takes a stand for the people of Kentucky.

House Democratic Caucus Chair Charlie Hoffman:

Kentucky's cigarette taxes would more than triple, to $1 a pack, under a proposal likely to be filed Friday……Rep. Charlie Hoffman of Georgetown, House Democratic caucus chair, said a 30-cent hike is "about as high as we could attain at this time."

Good Ole Charlie is following Jody’s lead.

Senate President David Williams:

David Williams is passing the buck back to the Governor. We couldn’t have a Republican take a stand for the people.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said he doesn't know what kind of support a $1-a-pack cigarette tax would have.

"The governor obviously is the person who is running the train on all tax increases down there," Williams said. "The governor will give the speaker (Jody Richards) and Sen. Worley the marching orders on tax increases and will be the phantom operator of that operation."

But of all of these self serving political hypocrites that claim to be leaders the saddest example is House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover. Here is a guy that knows in gut and in his heart he should do the right thing, but is so politically screwed up he can’t bring himself to do what he should.

But Hoover said the issue has become a very difficult and very personal one for him since his 70-year-old mother, Mae, was diagnosed with recurring lung cancer. "She was given three to six months to live at the end of October. She's been smoking since she was 14," Hoover said.

"I'm not inclined to support a tax increase but, to be honest, it's hard to see somebody who's a victim of 55 years of smoking ... and not think about what this might mean down the road," he said.

Collectively if these guys were in a paper bag they would never get out. Because even when they found the open end of the bag, none of them would have guts enough to step through first.

Bad Ideas

Here are a couple of gems from the Republican side of the state Senate.

You can always count on Vernie when you need someone to bash gays. This bill is not about health insurance, it’s about keeping health insurance for only right thinking people.

SB 112/LM (BR 1242) - V. McGaha, G. Tapp, C. Borders, C. Gibson, B. Leeper, D. Roeding, D. Thayer, K. Winters
AN ACT relating to public employee insurance plans. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 61 to define a "public agency" as any agency participating in a state-administered retirement system or plan, any agency participating in the state health insurance plan, or any public institution subject to the provisions of KRS Chapter 164; define "family member" as the employee's spouse, natural or adopted children, stepchildren, children for whom legal guardianship has been awarded, children for whom the employee or employee's spouse has a legal obligation to provide for health-care expenses, and children, parents, grandparents, brothers, or sisters claimed as dependent's on the employee's federal tax return; require public agencies to allow the employee to only select health insurance coverage for the employee and family members of the employee.
Jan 28-introduced in Senate; taken from Committee on Committees; 1st reading; returned to Committee on Committees (S)

In the middle of a budget crisis here is another example of great Republican ideas. This one is from Elizabeth Tori. She wants to create more bureaucracy so five guys or their surrogates can have lunch twice a year and moan about military base closings, at state expense. Oh, and it’s an emergency.

SB 111 (BR 953) - E. Tori, C. Gibson, D. Kelly, J. Pendleton, D. Roeding, G. Tapp
AN ACT relating to Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC), making an appropriation therefor, and declaring an emergency. Establish Subchapter 60 of KRS Chapter 154 and create new sections thereof to establish the BRAC Economic Development Commission; create the BRAC economic development fund; appropriate debt service and authorize BRAC economic development fund bonds; EMERGENCY.
Jan 28-introduced in Senate; taken from Committee on Committees; 1st reading; returned to Committee on Committees (S)


* Yes Ms. Wright (7th grade English Teacher), I have fixed my error.

Enlightened Self Interest

I am in favor of letting universities issue bonds for construction projects. It streamlines the process. It makes sense. But when you are talking about this kind of money it’s always good to know who is really going to make a buck.

From PolWatchers:

The state House, for the fourth year running, passed a measure allowing public universities to sell bonds for constructing campus projects without those moves counting against the state government's total debt.

While the bill -- sponsored by Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville -- passed the chamber unanimously by a 91-0 vote, it only sailed through after a lengthy debate over the concept of prevailing wage.

Rep. Tim Moore, R-Elizabethtown, said on the floor that he considered attaching an amendment to Damron's university bonding bill that would repeal prevailing wage, which sets a minimum pay rate for construction workers on public projects.

By rolling back prevailing wage, Moore argued, that would save 20 percent at a time when universities are having to cut back over budget concerns.

"Because of the 20 percent premium attached onto every university project, universities in this state this year will lay off faculty, universities this year will raise tuition," Moore said.

He described it as an "unnecessary burden that I think is shameful," which prompted a smattering of applause from mostly Republican lawmakers.

I am not going to talk about prevailing wage. Let’s just say the Tim Moore is an idiot and leave it at that.

However, let’s follow the money.

According to their own claims RossSinclair is the number one Investment Banker in Kentucky advising cities, counties and school districts. Who do you think has the best chance for making millions from University Bond Issues?

Now guess who is one of the leading investment bankers for this firm?

Robert Damron -mailto:rdamron@rsanet.com

Robert (Bob) Damron joined RSA in 1997 with experience in commercial lending and risk analysis. Mr. Damron has extensive knowledge of and experience with cash flow analysis, budget preparation, financial statement analysis and is an expert in matching clients needs with innovative solutions. As Vice President of RSA's South Carolina Division, he maintains daily contact with many RSA clients and provides excellent customer service. Mr. Damron routinely assists RSA clients in their decision-making process to seek financial advisory services. He has served his home state of Kentucky as a State Representative in the Legislature since 1993 and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. Mr. Damron brings a unique perspective to local political subdivisions' complex funding problems and has devised many unique solutions. Mr. Damron holds both a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Kentucky, and the National Association of Securities Dealers designations as General Securities Representative (Series 7) and Uniform Securities Agent (Series 63).

Yes the same Bob Damron that has been trying to get this bill passed for four years.

Damron’s "official" focus is the South Carolina market, although Kentucky makes up the bulk of RossSinclair business and I’m sure in the four years he has been working on this he never considered how much money his company was going to make should this bill become law.

I’m sure Bob Damron and RossSinclair will take the ethical route and abstain from being involved with any University Bond Issues.

Moving Right Along

I’ve still have to wonder why. But this thing seems to be moving right along.

HB 112 (BR 83) - R. Damron
AN ACT relating to the purchase of real property by the Commonwealth. Amend KRS 45A.045, regarding the purchase of real property by the Commonwealth, to eliminate the requirement that the Governor approve the purchase of real property from a state employee; retain requirement that the Secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet approve such a purchase.

(Prefiled by the sponsor(s).)
Jan 8-introduced in House
Jan 10-to State Government (H)
Jan 15-posted in committee
Jan 24-reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar

Guns

HB 352/LM/CI (BR 420) - J. Jenkins, M. Marzian

AN ACT relating to persons subject to a domestic violence order. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 527, relating to firearms and weapons, to prohibit a person who is subject to a domestic violence order from possessing or attempting to possess a firearm; establish possession of a firearm by a person subject to a domestic violence order as a Class D felony.

Jan 23-introduced in House

HB 353/LM (BR 421) - J. Jenkins

AN ACT relating to prohibiting the possession of firearms in domestic violence orders. Amend KRS 403.750 to provide that the court, in a domestic violence order, may prohibit a respondent from possessing firearm while the order is in effect; provide for confiscation of firearms in possession of the defendant and for confiscated firearms to be turned over to the office of the sheriff for custody; provide for return of firearms or alternate disposition of firearms upon expiration or vacation of the domestic violence order.

Jan 23-introduced in House

I wonder if Bob Damron and crew will support Jenkins’ bills?

HB 114/LM/CI (BR 314) - R. Damron, R. Adams, J. Arnold Jr, E. Ballard, S. Baugh, L. Belcher, J. Bell, K. Bratcher, D. Butler, M. Cherry, H. Collins, L. Combs, J. Comer Jr, T. Couch, J. DeCesare, M. Dedman Jr, M. Dossett, T. Edmonds, C. Embry Jr, B. Farmer, T. Firkins, J. Fischer, D. Floyd, D. Ford, J. Gooch Jr, J. Greer, K. Hall, M. Harmon, R. Henderson, M. Henley, J. Higdon, D. Horlander, D. Keene, T. Kerr, A. Koenig, S. Lee, R. Mobley, B. Montell, L. Napier, R. Nelson, F. Nesler, D. Osborne, T. Pullin, M. Rader, R. Rand, S. Rudy, S. Santoro, C. Siler, D. Sims, A. Smith, B. Smith, J. Stacy, J. Stewart III, T. Thompson, J. Tilley, T. Turner, J. Vincent, R. Webb, A. Webb-Edgington, R. Weston, A. Wuchner, B. Yonts

AN ACT relating to deadly weapons. Amend KRS 237.115, relating to government control of carrying of concealed deadly weapons, to require universities, colleges, and postsecondary institutions to comply with the provisions of KRS 237.106 and 237.110(17)(b) to ensure that persons may keep firearms in vehicles on university property if they do not remove the firearm from the vehicle; amend KRS 237.110 to conform.

(Prefiled by the sponsor(s).)

Micro-Managing Local Government

Alice Forgy Kerr has introduced a bill to extend collective bargaining rights to Dispatch Communications Personnel.

My question is if she believes in collective bargaining, why does she not offer a bill to provide collective bargaining rights to all public employees? Is this a special favor to a friend?

SB 106/LM (BR 1345) - A. Kerr
AN ACT relating to urban-county governments. Amend KRS 67A.6901 to create the new definition of "Dispatch communications personnel" and delete the definition of "Firefighter personnel"; amend KRS 67A.6902, 67A.6903, 67A.6904, 67A.6905, 67A.6906, 67A.6908, 67A.6909, and 67A.6910 to conform to the definition changes.
Jan 23-introduced in Senate

Cruising

How have we survived without this piece of legislation?

SB 103 (BR 1394) - V. McGaha
AN ACT designating the City of Somerset as the official car cruise capital of Kentucky. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 2 to designate the City of Somerset as the car cruise capital of Kentucky.
Jan 23-introduced in Senate

Boys are Back In Town

Guess who just got back today?

Them wild-eyed boys that had been away

Haven't changed, haven't much to say

But man, I still think them cats are crazy

They were asking if you were aroundHow you was, where you could be found

Told them you were living downtownDriving all the old men crazy

Ernie Fletcher and his administration screwing up was the main reason Steve Beshear is governor. If Gatewood Galbraith had been the democratic candidate in the General Election he would be governor now.

So I continue to be amazed at the inability of this administration to understand that perception is as important as reality. In less than six weeks of this administration we already have had:

A move to put the Ethics Commission under the Finance Cabinet,

A bill to lessen the Governor’s responsibility in contracting,

The first act of an efficiency effort is to hire a guy at a salary of at least $73,000 per year,

Hiring Ben Chandler’s wife, I won’t even go into some of the Bozo’s they have hired to work for her. Allow me to translate, Executive Assistant equals political payoff for services rendered.

Killing the Jonathan Miller / Brooke Parker investigation,

Reinstalling all of the good ‘ole boys and girls,

And on the political side, encouraging Bruce Lunsford.

And that doesn't even take into account pimping for the Casinos.

And now this from the Herald Leader:

FRANKFORT --
After Gov. Steve Beshear ran a successful election campaign promising government reforms to "earn the trust" of Kentuckians, one of the administration's first moves was to install non-essential turn arrows at a stoplight in the new Transportation Cabinet secretary's neighborhood.

I had hopes for this administration but I have to agree with Ronnie Ellis:

There was a sense during the campaign that Steve Beshear might bring some fresh new faces to Frankfort, but some of his appointments have a fairly familiar look. While he promised to return competent, ethical leadership to Frankfort, three of his appointments appeared to have conflicts of interest, although they were given qualified clearance by the ethics commission – while another was involved in a personnel board hearing over a hiring question in his previous position.

This boys are back in town but they appear to be as clueless as the bunch that just left.

Same Song, Different Band

Sometimes I just don’t understand why bureaucrats in Frankfort can’t understand that appearance is reality.

Take for example Steve Beshear’s call to state workers to be more efficient. The call has been made by previous Governors. From John Y. Brown’s “Run it like a business” to Ernie Fletcher’s “Waste, Fraud and Abuse” the words change but the meaning is the same. This is nothing new, it is a repeat of the old “Do more with less”.





One of Steve Beshear’s first actions to create Innovation, Economy and Efficiency was to hire Joe Graviss as the Executive Director of the Governor’s Office of Innovation, Economy and Efficiency (GOIEE). An Executive Director’s base salary is $73,255.68; however they usually state this level of employee at $97,050.72. It’s hard to get good help for less.

Graviss ran a close primary race for the Senate seat now occupied by former Governor Julian Carroll. He supports education and is a successful business man. He served on Beshear’s transition team.

From left, Joe Graviss, Versailles;
and KCTCS President Michael B. McCall.

As a community leader and chairman of the Woodford County Economic Development Authority, Joseph A. Graviss, owner of Graviss McDonald’s Restaurants, understands the value of education and job training as it relates to economic development. His company made a substantial commitment to support the Versailles Building Fund initiative which has focused on transforming the KCTCS System Office into a statewide resource for companies, government agencies and other organizations. The gift will be used to enhance telecommunications and teleconferencing in the System Office conference center. An area of the System Office building will be named in Graviss’ honor.

Graviss McDonald’s Restaurants, led by Joe Graviss of Versailles, has initiated a McDonald’s-based GED promotion currently underway in Franklin and Woodford counties. For five weeks, more than 180,000 McDonald’s customers in three restaurants will see motivational tray liners and/or bag stuffers that profile successful Kentucky GED graduates with the theme, “GED: Prove Yourself.” Franklin and Woodford County Adult Education Programs have coordinated adult education public service announcements that will air on local radio stations in correspondence with the campaign. KYAE plans to replicate this project in other Kentucky communities using the same series of materials.

But here is the bottom line.

GOIEE is a public relation exercise. GOIEE will not make a substantial difference in the budget of the Commonwealth. If the administration really wants to deal with the ongoing financial mess they will support substantial changes to the tax laws shifting the tax burden to the the more affluent and the service sector of the economy.

Graviss appears to be a nice guy with good intentions and political ambitions but he probably doesn’t have a clue about how infighting works in state agencies. He will probably be stonewalled at every turn.

For instance he will have to deal with the Commonwealth’s Office of Technology. This agency was deeply politicized by the Fletcher administration and currently does not have a Commissioner in place.

Do you really believe that all of the emails surrounding the Merit System investigation just accidently disappeared?

Until Steve Beshear and Jonathan Miller take a broom to this agency they will be obstacle to progress.

So Joe Gravis has a steep learning curve to climb to make this public relations exercise work and to justify his salary.

And one other thing GOIEE as an acronym sounds like some kind of growth that needs to be removed.

Remember Joe, appearance is everything.

Voodoo Economics Honored

Now a bill that I know everyone in my District has been clamoring for, from my state senator Alice Forgy Kerr.

SR 10 (BR 1140) - A. Kerr, J. Denton Declare February 6, 2008, "Ronald Reagan Day" in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Jan 8-introduced in Senate
Jan 9-to Senate Floor

I can salute this only if all state offices are closed in honor of what Voodoo Economics has produced in this state and country.

Plausible Deniability

Here is a bill I don’t understand.

HB 112 (BR 83) - R. Damron
AN ACT relating to the purchase of real property by the Commonwealth. Amend KRS 45A.045, regarding the purchase of real property by the Commonwealth, to eliminate the requirement that the Governor approve the purchase of real property from a state employee; retain requirement that the Secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet approve such a purchase.

The actual sentence, I use the term loosely, being changed is below. My Senior English teacher Miss Virginia Neptune would have a few caustic comments about the inability to write a coherent sentence, but that is another rant.

Subject to the provisions of this code, real property or any interest therein may be purchased, leased, or otherwise acquired from any officer or employee of any agency of the state upon a finding by the Finance and Administration Cabinet, based upon a written application by the head of the agency requesting the purchase, and approved by the secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet[ and the Governor], that the employee has not either himself or herself, or through any other person, influenced or attempted to influence either the agency requesting the acquisition of the property or the Finance and Administration Cabinet in connection with such acquisition.

So, is the problem the Governor is overwhelmed with the number of purchases of property owned by state employees or is this too trivial a matter to the Governor’s attention?

Or maybe, it just provides a governor with the veil of plausible deniability.

Who's Your Daddy?

I think it helps to understand the legislative process, if you know who legislators are afraid to piss off.

Take for example this quote in today’s Herald-Leader from Sen. Ed Worley:

"The majority of the people in Kentucky will feel that way; You wait until the classroom teachers and people start seeing what the governor proposes on the 29th," he said. "I'll take my chances with the voters any day standing beside teachers instead of worrying about the increase on taxes on cigarettes."

It’s good to know that Ed is more scared of the teachers’ union than he is of big tobacco.

I find it sad that he and lot of other legislators don’t have the guts to do the right thing, just because it’s the right thing to do.

The only possible reason for wimping out on a major increase in the tobacco tax is to stay in office.

By the way Ed and the rest of the legislature should take a look at the Herald-Leader poll.

Muzzle That Watchdog

Sometimes you hear something that sets off alarm bells. Take for instance the changes being considered for the Executive Branch Ethics Commission. Most of the changes are probably for the best, will generate some more paperwork for bureaucrats and be generally ignored unless someone does something incredibly stupid.

But one line got my attention.

The commission shall be attached to the Finance and Administration Cabinet for administrative purposes only.

This is the kind of thing that makes the hair rise on the back of my neck and makes me utter a Jon Stewart “WTF” at 7:30 in the morning.

So what does “for administrative purposes only” mean. According to Kentucky Revised Statues (KRS) there are already seven agencies attached to the Finance and Administration for “administrative purposes”.

42.016 Corporate bodies and instrumentalities attached to Office of Secretary.

The following corporate bodies and instrumentalities of the Commonwealth shall be attached to the Office of the Secretary for administrative purposes and staff services:
(1) State Property and Buildings Commission;
(2) Kentucky Savings Bond Authority;
(3) Kentucky Turnpike Authority;
(4) State Investment Commission;
(5) Kentucky Housing Corporation;
(6) Kentucky Tobacco Settlement Trust Corporation; and
(7) Kentucky River Authority.

(There is not a link for the Kentucky Savings Bond Authority because I couldn’t find one. This looks like a do nothing board for spreading a little political patronage. If anyone has any information on this agency let me know.)

And the above list can be modified by the Governor at anytime with an Executive Order like this one from Ernie Fletcher.

Finance and Administration Cabinet
The following organizational units are attached to the Finance and Administration Cabinet: Office of Financial Management, Office of the Controller, Department for Administration, Department of Facilities Management, State Property and Buildings Commission, Kentucky Pollution Abatement Authority, Kentucky Savings Bond Authority, Deferred Compensation Systems, Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Contract Compliance, Office of Capital Plaza Tower Operations, County Officials Compensation Board, Kentucky Employees Retirement System, Commonwealth Credit Union, State Investment Commission, Kentucky Housing Corporation, Governmental Services Center, Kentucky Local Correctional Facilities Construction Authority, Kentucky Turnpike Authority, Historic Properties Advisory Commission, Kentucky Tobacco Settlement Trust Corporation, Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center Corporation, State Board for Proprietary Education, the Governor's Office of Technology, Department of Property Valuation, Department of Tax Administration, Office of Financial and Administrative Services, Department of Law, and Department of Information Ombudsmen.

Jonathan Miller is the Secretary of the Finance Cabinet. According to KRS the Secretary of Finance is the chief financial officer.

42.012 Secretary as state's chief financial officer.
The secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet shall be the chief financial officer of the state and the adviser of the Governor and the General Assembly in financial matters, and shall at all times protect the financial interests of the state.

Here is the question:

If the Ethics Commission is attached for “administrative purposes” will it be treated like the other agencies that are attached for “administrative purposes”, and more importantly just what does “administrative purposes” mean?

Is the answer, depends on the agency and how much control we want to exercise.

We would hope that Secretary of Finance’s involvement with the Executive Ethics Commission would be minimal but looking at what the other attached agencies do and how they function the Secretary’s involvement doesn’t appear to minimal.

For instance:

The December 2007 Monthly Investment Report of the State Investment Commission prominently displays Miller’s name on the cover of the report. The report details the monthly status of billions of state dollars. One would think the chief financial officer would be deeply involved with an agency that manages billions of dollars.

The June 30, 2007 audit of the Kentucky Housing Corporation shows the following:

Net assets of the Corporation’s governmental activities increased from $7.0 million to $8.2 million. All assets of the Corporation’s governmental activities are restricted for program purposes. Assets subject to immediate disbursement are classified as current liabilities and remaining assets are classified as restricted net assets (fund balances). The increase in net assets indicates that revenues received from other governments exceeded program grants, operating expenditures and transfers.

The net assets of the Corporation’s business-type activities increased from $249.9 million to $253.2 million. The Corporation’s primary business-type activity is the bond-financed loan program.

So we are not talking billions here, just hundreds of millions. Again, would the chief financial officer limit his involvement in how this money is managed?

Of course if the Secretary of Finance isn’t interested in billions, then a few hundred million in highway debt or another few hundred million in property debt would hardly be a blip on the radar.

Does it make any sense to put a watch dog agency like the Executive Ethics Commission under the same roof as the people that manage multiple billions of dollars?

Where do you think the biggest opportunity to be unethical is at? With a line worker in a county office of some agency or with people managing billions of dollars.

Packing Heat

Bob Damron is trying to micromanage the Universities with a bill to allow the paranoid the right to pack heat on campus.

As the rhetoric in Frankfort rolled to a boil, Kentucky's public universities expressed solid opposition Wednesday to a bill that would allow people to bring firearms onto campuses as long as the weapons remained in vehicles.

Bullitt Bob Damron strikes again with another gun bill. The question that occurs to me why is he doing this?

Here’s one possible answer.

Bob Damron’s district includes some precincts on the south side of Fayette County. Stan Lee, the House Republican Whip, lives a few precincts away on the Fayette – Jessamine County borders. The Democratic Party has written off running anyone against Lee because of the demographics of the District.

So if you are the Democrats how do you get rid of Stan Lee? In a word gerrymandering, or in politically correct speak redistricting. So if Lee’s District gets sliced and diced where does he end up? Bob and Stan end up running in the same district.

House Democratic Leadership will probably not help Bob. Remember Damron used to be part of leadership and isn’t anymore. When your own party votes you out of leadership, you’re not feeling the love.

So even if this bill goes nowhere, Bob Damron once again establishes his right wing gun nut credentials with the sizeable voting block of gun toting right wingers that inhabit his district.

Tax Bills in the General Assembly

Below is a list of 35 bills relating to taxes that are currently before the General Assembly. Of the 35 bills 23 contain some reference to exemptions, deductions, credits, refunds, holiday, or exclusions. I am particularly appalled by the breaks for TV station owners and Horse Farm Owners.

HB 277/LM (BR 1149) - R. Webb, J. Tilley, L. Belcher, S. Westrom

AN ACT relating to a property tax exemption for broadcasting equipment.

Amend KRS 132.200 to clarify the local property tax exemption for radio and television equipment and to exempt broadcast towers and weather equipment; apply to assessments made on and after January 1, 2009.
Jan 10-introduced in House

And,

HB 249 (BR 256) - R. Adams, S. Westrom, R. Adkins, J. Arnold Jr, E. Ballard, S. Baugh, S. Brinkman, D. Butler, M. Cherry, L. Clark, L. Combs, T. Couch, R. Damron, M. Dedman Jr, M. Denham, T. Edmonds, D. Floyd, D. Ford, J. Gooch Jr, J. Greer, K. Hall, R. Henderson, M. Henley, C. Hoffman, J. Hoover, S. Lee, T. McKee, H. Moberly Jr, B. Montell, L. Napier, R. Nelson, D. Osborne, R. Palumbo, D. Pasley, M. Rader, R. Rand, J. Richards, T. Riner, C. Rollins II, S. Rudy, S. Santoro, D. Sims, A. Smith, J. Stacy, J. Stewart III, T. Thompson, J. Tilley, T. Turner, J. Vincent, R. Webb, R. Wilkey, A. Wuchner

AN ACT relating to sales and use taxes.

Amend KRS 139.531 to exempt hay, feed, feed additives, water and waterer systems, wormer, fly repellents, equine grooming supplies, straw and other bedding supplies, and seed and commercial fertilizer to be applied on land, the products from which ordinarily constitute feed for equine if these items are purchased for equine; and amend KRS 139.470 to conform; EFFECTIVE August 1, 2008.


In other words,23 of the 35 bills intentionally reduce revenue to state government in some form. Given the current mess the state budget is in, largely the responsibility of the Legislature, it becomes obvious these guys just can’t do math or are too busy wrapping themselves in the flag or taking care of campaign contributors to actually think about good tax policy.

However there are always the exceptions to the rule. There are two bills that have some merit. Increasing the tax rate of those most capable to pay and shining a little light on where the money goes are both good things.

HB 262 (BR 911) - J. Wayne, J. Jenkins, L. Belcher, T. Burch, L. Combs, K. Hall, M. Marzian, R. Meeks, K. Stein

AN ACT relating to taxation.

Amend KRS 141.020 to increase the tax rate on income over $75,000; amend KRS 141.066 to establish a refundable earned income tax credit at 15 percent of the federal credit; amend KRS 140.130 to decouple from the federal estate tax phase-out; amend KRS 139.120, 139.200, and 139.480 to include a list of selected services as subject to sales tax; amend KRS 141.0205 to recognize changes to income tax credits; make income tax provisions effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2008, make estate tax provisions effective for deaths on or after August 1, 2008; make sales tax provisions effective for billings on or after August 1, 2008.

HB 105 (BR 393) - J. DeCesare, D. Floyd, S. Lee

AN ACT relating to accounting for the expenditure of state funds.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 42 to require the Finance and Administration Cabinet to create a searchable Web site to provide certain information on the expenditure of state funds; provide that the new sections shall be known as the "Taxpayer Transparency Act of 2008."

The list of tax bills:

• Broadcast radio and television towers, exemption from property tax - HB 277
• Compulsive gamblers awareness and treatment fund, funding for - HB 137
• Corporate Income tax, community rehabilitation tax credit - HB 21
• Corporation apportionment, sales factor - HB 258
• Education savings plan trust, allow tax deduction for contributions to - HB 263
• Estate tax, federal estate tax phase-out, decoupling of - HB 262
• Federally documented vessels, exempt from local property tax - SB 77
• Gasoline and special fuels, allocation of - HB 80
• Income tax deduction for volunteer firefighters - HB 75
• Income tax, diesel engine conversion tax credit, established - HB 214
• Income tax, educational scholarship tax credit, family tax credit, established - HB 160
• Individual income tax, refundable earned income tax credit, establishment of - HB 262
• Individual income tax, tax rate on income over $75,000, increase of - HB 262
• Limited liability entity tax, repeal of - HB 26
• Live organ donation, tax credit for - SB 35; HB 234
• Local occupational tax return, clarify what must be filed with - HB 198
• Military pay, tax deduction for - HB 43
• Military pay, tax exemption for - HB 163
• Motor fuels taxes, refund for volunteer fire departments - HB 76
• Motor vehicle usage tax, exempt 100 percent disabled veterans - SB 18
• Multistate Tax Compact, adoption - HB 256
• Problem gambling awareness and treatment fund, funding for - SB 38
• Property tax, constitutional amendment, increase homestead exemption - HB 238
• Refunds, rebates or credits, searchable Web site - HB 105
• Sales and use tax exemption, horse farm purchases - HB 249
• Sales and use tax holiday - HB 101
• Sales and use tax, exempt church sales for fundraising events - HB 169
• Sales and use tax, exempt delivery charges - HB 143
• Sales and use tax, exempt straw, wood shavings, sawdust - HB 60
• Sales tax holiday for clothing, computers, computer supplies and school supplies - HB 115
• Sales tax, exclude transient room taxes from taxable amount - HB 195
• Small business tax credit, creation of - HB 38
• Special fuel definition, vegetable oil and waste vegetable oil excluded - HB 214
• Statewide utility gross receipts tax for schools, imposition of - HB 257

Bozo's In The Annex

The Sunday Courier-Journal had a good article on the budget from Tom Loftus.

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The budget crisis Kentucky now faces was not merely predictable back in April 2006, when the General Assembly approved the current spending plan.

It was actually predicted.

Just after the 2006-08 budget was passed, then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his staff said it used surplus money and other budgetary devices to prop up spending that could not be sustained in the year that followed the budget.

If this message gets repeated enough, maybe the voters will do something about the bunch of Bozo’s currently inhabiting office space in the Capitol Annex.

We Need a Little Tolerance

The Sunday Herald-Leader has a story about over-crowding in Kentucky jails. The story details how the prison system in Kentucky is close to breaking down.

The real problem and the solution lie in the Kentucky General Assembly.

Politicians like to sound like they are tough on crime. The mantra of “No Tolerance” is taken to heart by a majority of Kentucky legislators.

From the Herald-Leader:

(Gov. Steve) Beshear and the legislature now face two choices, observers say: Build more prisons or reform the sentencing laws, particularly for drug crimes.

The Corrections Department has asked for $75 million to expand its prisons and add 1,500 to 2,000 beds, said Commissioner John Rees. The request almost certainly won't be granted, given the state's current fiscal crisis.

That leaves what Lawson, the UK professor, considers the wiser solution, which is revising the laws he wrote a generation ago to put fewer people behind bars for drugs or other non-violent crimes. Better to funnel even a fraction of that money into drug and alcohol treatment, he said.

"We've been fighting an intensive war on drugs for more than 30 years, and I swear to God, the drug problem seems about as bad today as it ever has," Lawson said.

A growing number of lawmakers are ready to consider sentencing-reform legislation, including Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee. Another Democrat, Rep. Leslie Combs of Pikeville, said politicians are scared of looking soft on crime. But she challenges her colleagues to offer better ideas "if they have any."

"We've got our jails crowded from people shoplifting $300, which is just enough to be a felony. Is there a reason these people can't be at home with an ankle bracelet?" Combs asked. "Jails are there to protect us from violent criminals, from bad people who are going to hurt us if they're free. We can't just put everyone in jail."

So the real question is whether our Legislators can do the math and have a little common sense when it comes to justice verses producing election sound bites. Their track record has not been good in either area.

Annoy Charlie Hoffman

Here’s a half baked idea from Rep. Charlie Hoffman.

HB 281/LM (BR 278) - C. Hoffman
AN ACT relating to crimes and punishments.
Amend KRS 525.080 relating to harassing communications to add communications via the internet and increase penalty for subsequent offenses to a Class A misdemeanor.

Full text of the proposed changes is below.

AN ACT relating to crimes and punishments.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

Section 1. KRS 525.080 is amended to read as follows:
(1) A person is guilty of harassing communications when with intent to harass, annoy or alarm another person he:
(a) Communicates with a person, anonymously or otherwise, by telephone, internet, telegraph, mail or any other form of electronic or written communication in a manner which causes annoyance or alarm and serves no purpose of legitimate communication; or
(b) Makes a telephone call, whether or not conversation ensues, with no purpose of legitimate communication.
(2) Harassing communications is a Class B misdemeanor for the first offense and a Class A misdemeanor for each subsequent offense.


Charlie wants to make harassing communications via the internet illegal. What he probably wanted to do was to limit harassing email. Not a bad idea, except that it is totally unenforceable.

How Charlie expects to prosecute someone with an anonymous email account from the Pacific Rim for a misdemeanor in Kentucky is a mystery to me.

But wait a minute; Charlie wants to make annoying communications via the Internet illegal. Maybe Charlie is really talking about criticism of politicians on the Internet.

Well I hope this qualifies.

I hope Charlie is annoyed when I point out this is a communication via the Internet and an exercise of my First Amendment Rights under the Constitution of the United States. I hope he is annoyed when I say that he or whoever drafted this piece of crap didn’t do their homework and need a few remedial civics classes.

From the Cornell Law School:

The most basic component of freedom of expression is the right of freedom of speech. The right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves without interference or constraint by the government. The Supreme Court requires the government to provide substantial justification for the interference with the right of free speech where it attempts to regulate the content of the speech. A less stringent test is applied for content-neutral legislation. The Supreme Court has also recognized that the government may prohibit some speech that may cause a breach of the peace or cause violence. The right to free speech includes other mediums of expression that communicates a message.

MediaCzech and Stan Lee

Joe Sonka (MediaCzech) at BlueGrassRoots wants someone to run against Stan Lee.

As he points out I’ve been there, done that, and have the Stan Lee mailers full of half truths and innuendos. But he does make some valid points.

One, the Democratic Party has written off this District. There is absolutely no intention by the party to field a candidate, nor is there any intention to support some fool that comes forward. They believe this is a lost cause. Given past results they may have a point.

But Sonka is right, the mood of the country is changing. This election will not produce a Republican in the White House nor will be have a wedge issue, like gay marriage, on the ballot in Kentucky.

He also makes one other point that the more people know about Stan Lee the more they see this right wing-nut for what he is and what he represents.

So if there is a fool out there that wants to take Stan on, send me an email, I’ll be glad to help.

How not to Raise a Cigarette Tax

Yesterday’s Herald-Leader had a story about raising the cigarette tax.

The story reveals three unsurprising facts:

The American Lung Association of Kentucky is organizing a coalition to push for a cigarette tax increase of as much as 75 cents a pack.

One, the coalition pushing for a cigarette tax knows nothing about the process of wheeling and dealing. When the average cigarette tax in this country is over a dollar their starting point is asking for an increase of up to 75 cents.

Guys, if you get everything you want, and that’s not likely, then you barely get above the average, go for the New Jersey rate of $2.75 per pack. Surely some of you have bought cars before, the process is called dealing.

"The biggest hurdle, plain and simple, is political will," said Mike Kuntz, director of advocacy for the American Lung Association of Kentucky.

Two, the Kentucky General Assembly is populated by a bunch of gutless wonders too scared of not being reelected for doing the right thing. The only time this group shows is a political will is when they head for the nearest lobbyists free buffet. This was demonstrated yesterday in a hearing on Casino Gambling.

Anti-casino advocates got short shrift Thursday, as legislators cut the hearing short so lawmakers could make Frankfort's annual round of receptions and dinners.

And Three, leadership only occurs in Frankfort when a politician thinks he know which way the mob is headed so he can jump in front of it and claim he is leading until then they remain pretty spineless.

Beshear, a Democrat, has publicly said he will not support a cigarette tax. "He feels Kentuckians are taxed enough right now as it is," said Vicki Glass, Beshear's press secretary.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, who also opposes an increase, said Wednesday that there was "little sentiment" for a tax increase in the Senate.

House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, did not rule out an increase Wednesday, saying he was waiting to see Beshear's budget proposal. "It's premature to consider that issue," Richards said. In the past Richards has said he would not support an increase.

Social Agenda

You have to admire a bill that reduces voter control over the taxes they pay, gives a tax break to corporations and sets bad educational policy.

Here’s the bill:

BR 200 - Representative Mike Harmon (12/14/07)
AN ACT relating to the enhancement of educational opportunities for all students in Kentucky. Create various new sections of KRS Chapter 141 to establish a nonrefundable educational scholarship tax credit program for corporations, limited liability pass-through entities, estates, trusts, or fiduciaries that contribute to scholarship organizations that provide educational scholarships to eligible students, establish a family education tax credit program for individuals who directly pay for tuition and other educational expenses of eligible students who are dependents of the individual; define terms; establish maximum credit amounts; direct the Department of Revenue to promulgate regulations and publish lists; amend KRS 141.010 to exempt amounts received as scholarship grants from "adjusted gross income"; amend KRS 141.0205 to establish the order in which the nonrefundable family education tax credit and the educational scholarship tax credit is applied against tax imposed by KRS 141.020,141.040, and 141.0401; apply the credit beginning with the 2008 tax year; and create a new section of KRS 157.611 to 157.665 to authorize local school districts to levy a nonrecallable nickle for debt service and new facilities if student population decreases.

This is a backdoor approach to school vouchers. Here is a conservative view of school vouchers and a liberal view. Neither side seems to be real excited about the idea.

While the Commonwealth is strapped for bucks, which may include school districts, Harmon wants give away up to $60,000,000.00 per year with an automatic 5% increase every year.

(a) An educational scholarship tax credit program is hereby established.

(b) For tax years beginning after December 31, 2007, and before January 1, 2009, the total aggregate amount of all tax credits provided under this section shall not exceed sixty million dollars ($60,000,000) per fiscal year.

(c) For tax years beginning after December 31, 2008, the cap established in paragraph (b) of this subsection shall be increased by five percent (5%) each fiscal year.

But Harmon is crafty; he wants to remove the objections of the Educational Establishment to this back door approach to school vouchers so he allows districts to raise taxes without the taxpayers having any input or recourse.

Local school districts that have experienced a decrease in student population during a five (5) year period may levy an additional tax on real property of five cents ($0.05) per one hundred dollars ($100) of assessed value for debt service and new facilities in addition to the five cents ($0.05) levied under the school construction funding program provided in KRS 157.620. The tax rate levied by the district under this provision shall not be subject to a recall vote as provided in KRS 160.470(8) and shall not be equalized by state funding.

The main purpose of the bill is not to create an educational opportunity but rather to funnel public money to private and home schools. The bill is more about pushing a social agenda than educating children and it’s bad legislation.

No Cohones

I’m going to separate one of the Herald-Leader’s legislative issues out to talk about.

LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW: Issue 5: Immigration

Foes of illegal immigration are hoping that the high-profile attention the issue has gotten in the U.S. presidential race will translate into legislative victories in the upcoming General Assembly session…….

State Rep. Rick Nelson, D-Middlesboro, said the presidential race has kept the illegal immigration issue in the news. He said a growing number of people want the state to curb illegal immigration.

"I feel a growing concern and anger among the citizens," Nelson said. "I feel like there is a growing concern that they're about to get overwhelmed with illegals. I think the cork is about to pop off the bottle."……..

But Nelson acknowledges that his bill is not likely to pass. He said he has not received the support of House Democratic leaders, and he expects the measure to be controversial among urban lawmakers.

This bill makes Rick Nelson look like the same kind of pandering, self-serving xenophobe as Stan Lee. Notice in the quotes the key words are “I feel”, it’s all about Rick, not immigration. The “growing concern that they're about to get overwhelmed with illegals” makes great fodder for politicians who lack the cohones to take on the real issues facing the state.

Immigration is a national issue, the only purpose for Nelson’s bill, which he agrees won’t pass, is to play to the bigotry of his constituents. Rick gets to look tough by beating up on Latinos.

What a waste of time and effort not to mention our tax dollars when a legislator does this kind of grand standing.

Legislative Preview

The Herald-Leader has been running a series of articles about the upcoming legislative session.

Links to the articles are below.

Steve Beshear promised a lot of things when he was running for governor; every candidate does the same thing. While Beshear was promising a brighter future Ernie Fletcher was spending state money like a drunken sailor on shore leave trying to buy the election. Beshear won Fletcher lost.

But the responsibility for the current, and ongoing budget mess, lies with the General Assembly. In the last budget cycle the rocket scientists in the legislature approved spending about $9.4 billion dollars this year. This caused a structural imbalance in the budget. They used one time money they won’t have again to pay recurring costs.

Let’s make an analogy here. Suppose I buy a new house with a 30 year mortgage. The house payment is a thousand dollars a month and the only way I can make the payments is to use money in a savings account. The savings account will be empty in a year, but I have a plan.

Here’s the plan:

I get a better job making more money, (the Kentucky economy will get better and taxes will increase) or a rich uncle will die (Casino Gambling), or maybe I can cut back on things like food (slash and burn the existing programs to make up the short fall).

So what’s going to happen?

First, Beshear will balance the rest of the current fiscal year short fall, from now till the end of June, on the backs of the state workers. He may carry this on into the next biennium, but he doesn’t really have a choice, most of the expenses of state government go to personnel costs. Since he has already exempted the educational establishment from the pain, no one will really give a damn if state workers get screwed again.

To be fair to Steve Beshear, this is the traditional method of coming up with money. Previous governors and legislatures have repeatedly used this method of revenue enhancement and it is one of the reasons that the Kentucky Retirement Systems is in the mess it’s in today.

Second, the Universities will increase tuition. That little tax on students and their families will pay for their part of the short fall.

Third, forget all the campaign promises, at least for this legislative session, there is no money to pay for the major promises.

Fourth, an amendment to approve Casino gambling will be on the ballot. If it passes, Casino gambling will at best be a temporary band-aid to stop the financial bleeding. Casino gambling will not solve the problems but it will postpone them for a few years. Since most of the members of the General Assembly have a two year point of view that’s good enough.

Links to some of the Herald-Leader articles:

LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW: First in a series

If forecasts are correct, taxpayers and cigarette makers will plunk about $9 billion into the state's main piggy bank in the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1.
Even though that's a $250 million increase over this year, Kentucky's checkbook will still be a bugger to balance, according to those who will dole out the proceeds for education, prisons, pensions and hundreds of other uses in a legislative session that begins Jan. 8.

LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW Issue 3: Health and welfare

One or more unlikely things must happen before Gov. Steve Beshear can honor his campaign pledge to extend health insurance to tens of thousands of Kentuckians.

The national and state economies must improve so much that extra tax revenue gushes into Frankfort. Or Congress must overcome President Bush's repeated vetoes of an expanded State Children's Health Insurance Program. Or Beshear must not only cover the state's current Medicaid deficit -- $389 million for the rest of this fiscal year -- but he must find money on top of that so he can afford to add people to the program.

LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW: Issue 4: Pensions

Senate President David Williams uses scary words like "crisis" and "quandary" in talking about money problems of pension funds for state retirees and teachers. If the problems are not solved, he says, the operative word that will strike fear in the hearts of state retirees will be "bankrupt."

Kentucky has an estimated $18 billion shortfall in the retirement systems that affect 432,000 state employees, teachers and retirees.

LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW: Issue 6: Transportation

Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley bristled when he learned in 2006 that money for the Louisville bridges project would mean considerably less for other state road projects, especially in rural areas.

The Richmond Democrat said he did not think the Louisville bridges are so important that the rest of the state is driving on "red-dog roads."

Such hard sentiments are typical between urban and rural legislators when big-ticket projects in the cities take huge chunks of available transportation dollars from the state's coffers and leave rural areas wanting.

LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW: Issue 7: Ethics

As a candidate for governor, Steve Beshear repeatedly pledged to lead an effort to pass a constitutional amendment limiting a governor's pardoning powers.
Now that he has won the election, Beshear might not even mention the issue when the 2008 General Assembly convenes Jan.

No Guts

The Herald-Leader has a group of stories on the Kentucky state budget. Links to the stories can be found at PolWatchers.

The bottom line is that Kentuckians are unlikely to see their taxes go up; schools and the Medicaid program will be spared any budget slashing; and universities will scramble to offer a counter-proposal to Beshear to perhaps avoid deeper cuts.....

Beshear said the presentation of gloomy numbers was not a ploy to build support for his casino proposal, which he says could eventually bring $500 million in revenue to the state per year.

The other part of the bottom line is that the Kentucky General Assembly will continue to wimp out when it comes to serious budget reform. The interests of millionaires will continue to be pushed by the Governor and some members of the legislature.

Here are two things that they should do:

One, raise the cigarette tax:

In 2005, the legislature raised the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 3 to 30 cents. Although it's still among the nation's lowest -- the average is $1.07 a pack -- Kentucky's tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products is expected to bring the state $182 million this fiscal year, up from about $17 million under the old rate.

So what would happen if the tax was raised to the average of $1.07 per pack?

We could reasonably expect the revenue to increase by at least another $200 million and we might even reduce the number of smokers which would then eventually reduce the drain on Medicaid.

But, that would take more than two years which is the visionary limit of most of the legislature.

Two, bring a little sanity to the current system.

This doesn’t even come close to a comprehensive tax reform but it would make a very good first step. In the 2007 General Assembly, Rep. Jim Wayne introduced this bill that died in committee. Wayne says he intends to introduce this bill in the 2008 session.

Last year's version of the bill, which died in committee, would have raised up to $400 million a year, Wayne said.

HB 411/FN (BR 1777) - J. Wayne
AN ACT relating to taxation. Amend KRS 141.020 to increase the tax rate on income over $75,000; amend KRS 141.066 to establish a refundable earned income tax credit at 15 percent of the federal credit; amend KRS 140.130 to decouple from the federal estate tax phase-out; amend KRS 139.200 to include a list of selected services as subject to sales tax; amend KRS 141.0205 to recognize changes to income tax credits; make income tax provisions effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2006, make estate tax provisions effective for deaths on or after August 1, 2006; make sales tax provisions effective for billings on or after August 1, 2006.

Among the things the bill would have done the following:

Increase to the income tax to seven percent (7%) of the amount of net income over seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) and up to ninety thousand dollars ($90,000); and eight percent (8%) of the amount of net income over ninety thousand dollars ($90,000).

According to the U. S. Census Bureau the estimated average median family income, adjusted for inflation, in Kentucky in 2006 was:

Total: -----------------------48,726
2-person families ------------42,278
3-person families ------------50,663
4-person families ------------60,202
5-person families ------------58,556
6-person families ------------59,437
7-or-more-person families --55,390

So this tax increase doesn't even get close to touching most Kentucky families.

Wayne also wants to tax the sale of admissions, including golf course greens fees and membership fees in private golf or country clubs.

The bill would also have taxed services on janitorial services, including carpet, upholstery, and window cleaning, garment alteration and repair services, non-coin-operated laundry and dry-cleaning services, armored car services, security services, exterminating and pest-control services, chartered air flight services if a pilot is furnished, including hot air balloon flights, landscaping services excluding lawn-care services, non-coin-operated automotive washing services and waxing services, commercial linen services, excluding commercial uniform services and commercial linen services provided to hospitals and nursing homes and limousine services if a driver is included.

So Wayne’s bill was directly aimed at the most affluent in Kentucky.

He wants to tax luxury services. The impact on the average Kentucky household would have been minimal.

Yes, the taxes would have been passed back to the consumer. And he wants to raise by a couple of points the tax on the net income, not gross income, of the wealthiest in the Commonwealth.

Do you really think the guy making a 6 figure income is going to quibble about a service tax when he is taking a limo to his country club?

So the other part of the bottom line is that we could produce more money with a little sane tax reform and without casino gambling.

The main ingredient lacking is a little intestinal fortitude by our leaders.

Electronic Health Record Systems

How do you start to lower the costs of medical care?

If you have ever had to deal with any insurance company and a group of medical providers you know they have about 10 different forms for everything and they don’t really like talking to each other. So here is a simple concept let’s all speak the same language.

Everyone in the medical professions must use the same method of record keeping. This includes all doctors, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, government agencies, universities, insurance companies and employers. Now to really work well this should be national, but let’s just talk about Kentucky.

There needs to be a mandated uniform electronic health record system (EHR) in Kentucky. The biggest single, and currently growing, EHR system is used by the Veteran’s Administration. This works.

What is the up side?

The actual benefits can be summarized as follows:

EHR Systems

• It is estimated that over 5 years, EHR benefits will be $86,400 per provider and the benefits will be accrued by several stakeholders such as physician practices, ancillary services, pharmacies and most importantly patients
• Ohio State University Health System reduced the time for getting medication to patients by 65 percent from 5.28 hours to 1.51 hours. They also reduced Radiology turnaround from 7.37 hours to 4.21 hours
• Maimonides Medical Center reported 30.4 percent reduction in average length of stay from 7.26 to 5.05 days. They also realized organizational efficiencies by preventing duplicate ancillary tests
• Heritage Behavioral Health experienced 70 percent reduction in cost of clinical documentation with EHR
• University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center gained significant benefits in reallocation of nursing time from manual documentation to direct care - estimated to be $1.2 million

e-Prescriptions

• Many errors occur because of handwritten prescriptions that can be easily misunderstood and can result in adverse drug events or complications. More than 3 billion prescriptions are written annually and according to an eHI report, medication errors account for 1 out 131 ambulatory care deaths and many deaths in acute care are also attributed to medication error.
• Studies indicate that the national savings from universal adoption could be as high as $27 billion annually

Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE)

• The Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL) estimates that implementing advanced ambulatory CPOE systems would eliminate over 2 million drug events per year; avoid nearly 13 million physician visits, 190,000 admissions and over 130,000 life-threatening adverse drug events per year and save $44 billion per year.
• Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston reported 55 percent reduction in serious medication errors and 17 percent reduction in preventable Adverse Drug Events (ADE) - average cost of an ADE was $2,595, resulting in projected savings of $480,000 per year. They estimated net savings from $5 million to $10 million per year.
• Maimonides Medical Center in New York realized 55 percent decrease in medication discrepancies and 58 percent reduction in problem medication orders. They also eliminated pharmacy transcription errors.
• Children's Hospital of Pittsburg has eradicated handwriting transcription errors completely and cut harmful medication errors by 75 percent.
  
  Will this be easy to do?
  
  No, there will be a lot of foot dragging, complaining, ego problems from the medical profession and actual computer glitches that would slow the implementation of such a system. But the real impediments to do this are greedy health providers and their lobbyists and the severe lack of a spine in most of our state legislators.

Saw Dust and Art Supplies

According to the Herald Leader the piggy bank in Frankfort is empty.

Gov. Steve Beshear issued a dire warning Thursday about the state's budget; saying Kentucky's "financial house is in serious disarray."

"Merely saying that information still coming to us is alarming would be an understatement," Beshear said in a statement.

While you have to blame Ernie Fletcher with a large part of this problem, a major contributing factor to the bank being empty has been the legislature’s inability to structure a comprehensive revenue package. They seem to be contented to handing out tax breaks, like a break on selling saw dust (how has the Commonwealth survived without that).

There are also those that adopt the Chicken Little approach and sign the no new tax pledge. A list of these brave legislators is at the bottom of this post.

Here is some of the current proposed tax break legislation for the next session.

BR 498 - Representative Joseph M. Fischer (12/13/07)
AN ACT relating to sales and use tax on delivery charges. Amend KRS 139.050 to exempt delivery charges from sales and use tax; EFFECTIVE August 1, 2008.

BR 142 - Representative Jim Glenn (11/29/07)
AN ACT relating to sales and use tax holidays and declaring an emergency. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 139 to provide a sales tax holiday for the first week in August each year to exempt school supplies, school art supplies, and clothing with a sales price of less than $100 per item; EFFECTIVE May 1, 2008

BR 461 - Representative Tommy Thompson (12/14/07)
AN ACT relating to sales and use tax. Amend KRS 139.495 to exempt sales by churches for charitable fundraising events from sales and use taxes; amend 139.496 to comply; EFFECTIVE August 1, 2008.

BR 114 - Representative Tanya Pullin, Representative Eddie Ballard, Representative Sheldon E. Baugh, Representative Larry Belcher, Representative Larry Clark, Representative Leslie Combs, Representative Jim DeCesare, Representative C. B. Embry Jr, Representative Tim Firkins, Representative Melvin B. Henley, Representative Tom McKee, Representative Charles Miller, Representative Russ Mobley, Representative Fred Nesler, Representative Steve Riggs, Representative Carl Rollins II, Representative Sal Santoro, Representative Charles Siler, Representative Dottie Sims, Representative Tommy Thompson, Representative Robin L. Webb, Representative Ron Weston, Representative Addia Wuchner, Representative Brent Yonts (08/24/07)
AN ACT relating to income tax credits for small businesses. Create new sections of KRS Chapters 141 and 154 and amend KRS 141.0205 to establish a small business tax credit.

BR 876 - Representative Mike Denham (11/30/07)
AN ACT relating to sales and use tax. Amend KRS 139.480 to exempt straw, wood shavings, and sawdust from the sales and use tax when used in agricultural or equine pursuits; EFFECTIVE August 1, 2008.

BR 466 - Representative Robert R. Damron (12/10/07)
AN ACT relating to sales and use tax holidays and declaring an emergency. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 139 to exempt the sale or purchase of clothing with a sales price of less than one hundred fifty dollars ($150) per item, computers and computer supplies with a sales price of less than one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) per item, and school supplies; define terms; outline procedures; amend KRS 139.210, 139.220, and l39.340 to allow retailers to absorb the tax on other items sold during the sales tax holiday and advertise accordingly; EMERGENCY; EFFECTIVE MAY 1, 2008.

There is one bill on taxes that I do like. The bill comes from Jim DeCesare, once again proving that even a blind and sometimes bigoted hog finds an acorn.

BR 393 - Representative Jim DeCesare (12/05/07)
AN ACT relating to accounting for the expenditure of state funds. Create new sections of KRS Chapter 42 to require the Finance and Administration Cabinet to create a searchable Web site to provide certain information on the expenditure of state funds; provide that the new sections shall be known as the "Taxpayer Transparency Act of 2008."

Of the bill listed above, guess which one has the least chance of passing.

No new tax pledge signers as of Thursday, September 13, 2007, 2:28 PM from Americans for Tax Reform.

16 Senators of 38 (42%)
Walter Blevins (S-27)
Charlie Borders (S-18)
Tom Buford (S-22)
Julie Rose Denton (S-36)
Carroll Gibson (S-5)
Brett Guthrie (S-32)
Ernie Harris (S-26)
Dan Kelly (S-14)
Vernie McGaha (S-15)
Richard Roeding (S-11)
Richard Sanders (S-9)
Katie Kratz Stine (S-24)
Robert Stivers (S-25)
Gary Tapp (S-20)
Elizabeth Tori (S-10)
Jack Westwood (S-23)
27 House members of 100 (27%)
Royce Adams (H-61)
Sheldon Baugh (H-16)
Kevin Bratcher (H-29)
James Comer (H-53)
Tim Couch (H-90)
Ron Crimm (H-33)
Robert Damron (H-39)
Jim DeCesare (H-21) - Taxpayer Protection Caucus Chair
Bob DeWeese (H-48)
C.B. Embry, Jr. (H-17)
Joseph Fischer (H-68)
Danny Ford (H-80)
Jim Gooch (H-12)
W. Keith Hall (H-93)
Melvin B. Henley (H-5)
Jimmy Higdon (H-24)
Jeff Hoover (H-83)
Thomas Kerr (H-64)
Stan Lee (H-45)
Russ Mobley (H-51)
Brad Montell (H-58)
Lonnie Napier (H-36)
Marie Rader (H-89)
James Stewart III (H-86)
Tommy Turner (H-85)
Ken Upchurch (H-52)
John Vincent (H-100)

Bozos on The Bus

I see the pandering redneck micro-managers are back once more in the General Assembly. This time the charge is being led by two so called Democrats.

Instead of actually addressing some of the major issues facing the Commonwealth, like the Medicaid crisis, the problems at Kentucky Retirement Systems, or comprehensive tax reform, Ancel Smith and Richard Henderson need to bash some gays for the home folks.

From the Herald Leader:

Democratic Reps. Ancel Smith of Leburn along with Richard Henderson of Jeffersonville are dredging up a controversial proposal to block public universities in Kentucky from extending health benefits to unmarried, live-in partners of employees………

Both Henderson and Smith said they've received pressure from constituents to block universities that receive public funding from offering such domestic partnership benefits.

"I live in an ultraconservative district with 150 churches," Henderson said. "Between 1,200 and 1,500 of my constituents have called, not requesting but directing me to do this."……

"Whether or not we're subsidizing directly their health care plans, we are, in fact, subsidizing their construction and overall operations of the universities," said Henderson. "I am not out for political gain, I just feel like a public institution that draws money from the state coffers is at the will of the people.

Between 1,200 and 1,500 people have called Henderson telling him to do this ---- bullshit.

According to the Board of Elections in the 2006 general election Henderson received 8,868 votes in Montgomery, Powell, and Wolfe counties. Henderson expects us to believe that between 14% to 17% of all the people that voted him, called him on this one issue.

Again ----- bullshit.

These two guys are self serving, pandering political hacks.

And let’s not forget the other self-serving politicians that have signed on to this bill:

Representative Royce W. Adams
Representative John A. Arnold Jr.
Representative Eddie Ballard
Representative Larry Belcher
Representative Mike Cherry
Representative Hubert Collins
Representative Leslie Combs
Representative Robert R. Damron
Representative Jim Gooch Jr.
Representative J. R. Gray
Representative Keith Hall
Representative Melvin B. Henley
Representative Rick G. Nelson
Representative Fred Nesler
Representative Rick Rand
Representative Dottie Sims
Representative Brandon Spencer
Representative Tommy Thompson
Representative Brent Yonts

I remember an album I listened to in college, I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus, it certainly applies to this group.

Hired Guns and Drugs

I’m going to spend a few posts on the Kentucky Legislature and the lobbyists that attempt to influence the laws of the Commonwealth.

I really don’t think all lobbyists are evil, some work for noble causes with a minimum of compensation.

However, most fall into the category of hired guns for big money concerns protecting their profit margin.

So let’s look at the drug companies first.

Say you felt that drug prices were out of control and wanted the Kentucky General Assembly to do something about it like the AARP plan:

Having the state merge the existing programs with the new Medicare Rx coverage to provide greater assistance to more people.

Pass laws extending the state purchasing and bargaining power via bulk purchasing.

Support reform of the drug companies’ questionable marketing practices to curb the undue influence they have on the drugs physicians prescribe.

The AARP does have a lobbyist in Frankfort named Phil Peters.

What’s Mr. Peters up against?

According to the Legislative Ethics Commission the following drug companies currently have hired guns on the payroll to watch and influence the Kentucky General Assembly.

Abbott Laboratories, Inc. – Dale R. Johnson
Amgen - Kathy Feegel
Amylin Pharmaceuticals - Robin Stanley
Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals – Christine Barnett
Bayer Corporation – Sandra Oliver
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company – John G. Ryan
Eli Lilly And Company – Todd A. Bledsoe
Glaxo Smithkline - T. Gary Blalack

I may have missed a few lobbyists in the list above but here’s the bottom line.

These companies make billions of dollars in net profits. You can check the financials here. They make so much money they can afford lobbyists for Kentucky. The General Assembly spends so much time on things like bashing gays or coming up with the Official State Fossil they are not very likely to make an impact on the drug industry in this state.

So why are there still eight drug companies with registered lobbyists in Kentucky?

Simple, the follow the basic rule that you need to kill any idea or plan that may harm the company profits before it grows. You do it with money and influence.

Let’s look at Glaxo Smithkline as an example. In addition to having someone monitoring legislation and walking the halls in Frankfort Glaxo Smithkline has made a small number of political contributions.


Glaxo Smithkline, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, has contributed $7,250.00 to various Kentucky Candidates.

The candidates receiving contributions include Ernie Fletcher, Daniel Mongiardo, and Steve Beshear. The Democratic Senate Caucus and the Democratic House Caucus also received contributions. The Caucus funds are slush funds to insure the reelection of members of the respective houses.

Now, $7,250.00 is really not much money spread over multiple candidates and I am not suggesting that this kind of money buys special favors.

But couple the money spent by the drug companies with the rest of the health care industries and you start making an impact, particularly if you have multiple people, with connections to campaign contributions, walking the halls in Frankfort and bending the ears or legislators.

In a fight to change the way the drug companies do business Phil Peters and the AARP are outgunned eight to one, and that’s just the drug companies.

Silly Season 2008

As Silly Season (The Kentucky General Assembly in session) here are a few of the good, the bad, and the stupid and unnecessary legislation before the 2008 Session.

First up, some good ideas:

I’m a political person, but robo-calling drives me nuts. I hate it. I don’t give Jimmy Higdon’s bill much chance of passage, but we have to thank him for at least trying.

BR 484 - Representative Jimmy Higdon (11/26/07)
AN ACT relating to automated or recorded political telephone messages. Prohibit use of automated calling equipment or recorded political telephone messages from or by a political party or campaign; make use of such equipment for communicating political messages by a political party or campaign a Class B misdemeanor; each such automated call or recorded political message shall be punishable by a fine not to exceed fifty (50) dollars, with a maximum fine for such violations not to exceed one thousand (1000) dollars.

Melvin Henley’s bill is good idea. If some SOB tortures and animal they should have to pay for its’ care. Let’s hope the veterinarians out there over bill.

BR 470 - Representative Melvin B. Henley (11/08/07)
AN ACT relating to animal cruelty. Amend KRS 525.125, 525.130, and 525.135 to require the offender to pay reasonable and necessary maintenance expenses for care of animals involved in cruelty and torture cases; amend KRS 436.605 to require a court, upon petition, to conduct forfeiture hearing and, except for good cause, require defendant to post surety for expenses related to animals care or forfeit animal.

Jim Glenn wants to dial down the caffeine at schools. Good idea.

BR 95 - Representative Jim Glenn (11/07/07)
AN ACT relating to healthy children. Amend KRS 158.854 to prohibit caffeine-stoked energy drinks in the schools.

Get the kids off the caffeine high and maybe they can pay attention if Mary Lou Marzian’s bill passes. Let’s home the curricula would include some comparisons to the current government policies in this country.

BR 302 - Representative Mary Lou Marzian (10/09/07)
A JOINT RESOLUTION relating to the inclusion of the Holocaust in the school curriculum. Direct the commissioner of education to convene a work group to review Holocaust curricula developed by other states and review the Kentucky core content to determine places where the study of the Holocaust may be included; require the work group to develop a curriculum guide that teachers may use to teach the history of the Holocaust; require the work group to submit a final report and curriculum guide to the commissioner of education and the Kentucky Board of Education no later than March 1, 2009; require the changes to the Kentucky core content be disseminated to local schools to be incorporated into the school curriculum for the 2009-2010 school year; specify that the Department of Education shall disseminate the final report and the curriculum guide to local districts and schools prior to the 2009-2010 school year.

Damon Thayer has a good idea (I never thought I would say that), but it doesn’t go far enough. We should also abolish the other two do nothing constitutional offices – Commissioner of Agriculture and Secretary of State. But wait, those offices are occupied by Republicans like Thayer.

BR 192 - Senator Damon Thayer (10/12/07)
AN ACT proposing to amend Sections 53, 91, 93, 95, and 245 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to the Treasurer. Propose to amend Sections 153, 91, 93, and 245 of the Constitution of Kentucky to abolish the office of Treasurer; submit to voters for approval or disapproval.

With the possibility of Casinos in Kentucky Jim Wayne and Charles Siler are taking a step in the right direction.

BR 49 - Representative Jim Wayne, Representative Charles Siler (10/09/07)
AN ACT relating to compulsive gambling and making an appropriation therefor. Create new sections of KRS Chapter 222 to create the compulsive gamblers awareness and treatment fund; limit administrative costs to $50,000 per year; establish the Gamblers Awareness and Treatment Fund Advisory Council; establish limits on funding amounts per fiscal year; assign responsibility to the director of the Division of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, in collaboration with the advisory council, to develop standards, evaluate requests for funding, recommend payment mechanisms, certify disbursement of funds, and report annually; amend KRS 138.510 to provide funding from the excise tax on horse racing based upon a percentage of the total amount wagered; amend KRS 154A.130 to provide funding from a percentage of the gross revenue of the lottery corporation; amend KRS 238.570 to provide funding from a percentage of the fee imposed on charitable gaming; amend KRS 164.7871 to conform.

Now for the bad ideas:

Ok, Rick how are you going to pay for this? Law enforcement can’t deal with the drug problems in this state, now Rick Nelson wants us become the border police. These sounds like a Stan Lee bash the Hispanics bill. By the way, Stan must be worn out from getting his rear end kicked by Jack Conway. Stan doesn’t have a single pre-filed bill.

BR 283 - Representative Rick G. Nelson (11/27/07)
AN ACT relating to unauthorized aliens. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 15 to allow local law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with the federal government to enforce immigration law; create a new section of KRS Chapter 16 to require the State Police to enter into an agreement with the federal government to enforce immigration law and to form a Kentucky State Police Illegal Alien Task Force; Create several new sections of KRS Chapter 337 to prohibit employers from employee illegal aliens, to create a graduated loss of business license or charter scheme for those found to have done so after January 1, 2009, and to require utilization of a federal work authorization verification system; amend KRS 514.160 to include with the offense of identity theft the theft of identity by an unauthorized alien for the purpose of obtaining employment; create a noncodified section to create a Employer Sanctions Task Force to study the system of employer sanction relative to the employment of unauthorized aliens to operate during the 2008 legislative interim; create a noncodified section to name the act, "The Kentucky Legal Workers Act."

Gambling - Bad Idea – Period.

BR 18 - Senator David E. Boswell (11/07/07)
AN ACT proposing to create a new section of the Constitution of Kentucky and amend Section 226 of the Constitution of Kentucky, relating to casinos. Propose a new section of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to casinos; allow the General Assembly to permit the operation of casinos, which may include casinos at horse racing tracks; provide, if General Assembly authorizes casino gaming, for agency of state government to be created to regulate casinos by special law notwithstanding Section 59 or 60 of the Constitution, establish qualifications of individuals and entities authorized to operate casinos, limit number and location of casinos, define types of lotteries, gift enterprises and gambling games to be permitted, provide for other standards to ensure honest operation of casinos; define casino and casino-style gaming; restrict operation of casinos until the state agency shall have first approved the conduct of casinos and the governing body of the county, urban-county, charter county, or consolidated local government has approved the operation; propose to amend Section 226 of the Kentucky Constitution to provide that the new section is an exception to the prohibition against lotteries and gift enterprises; submit to voters; provide ballot language.

BR 38 - Senator David E. Boswell (11/07/07)
AN ACT relating to gaming and making an appropriation therefor. Establish KRS Chapter 239 to authorize gambling at horse racing tracks and casinos

Ok, so Mike Cherry, Derrick Graham and Julian Carroll don’t read this blog. If they do they have not been paying attention. The two bills below are exactly the kind of near sighted, dim witted legislation that got the retirement systems in the mess they are today. If these guys wanted to do something for employees, teachers and retirees, then they would be overhauling the entire system.

BR 381 - Representative Mike Cherry, Representative Derrick Graham (10/10/07)
AN ACT relating to retirement. Amend KRS 61.510 to extend the high-three final compensation window set to expire January 1, 2009, for those state employees eligible for the benefit based upon service credit as of December 31, 2008; amend KRS 61.595 to extend the 2.2 percent benefit factor window set to expire January 31, 2009, for those state employees eligible for the benefit based upon service credit as of December 31, 2008; amend KRS 78.510 to extend the high-three final compensation window set to expire January 1, 2009, for those county employees eligible for the benefit based upon service credit as of December 31, 2008

BR 334 - Senator Julian M. Carroll (10/04/07)
AN ACT relating to teacher retirement. Amend KRS 161.550 to provide that the state contribution to the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System shall not be less than the amount necessary to maintain the medical insurance program at a level equal to the medical insurance coverage for active teachers.

Now for one that I didn’t know was problem. I really didn’t know that unpasteurized goat milk was a problem the needed legislative action.

BR 351 - Representative David Osborne (11/15/07)
AN ACT relating to unpasteurized goat milk. Create new sections of KRS Chapter 217C to define "producer", to require permits to sell unpasteurized goat milk or goat milk products, to require that sales records be kept, to require sampling and testing of unpasteurized goat milk and goat milk products and establish criteria that must be met, to establish sanitary guidelines for milking areas, to establish sanitary guidelines for dairy goats, to require warning labels on containers of unpasteurized goat milk and goat milk products, and to prohibit local governments from enacting legislation relating to unpasteurized goat milk or goat milk products.

The next three lumped together demands the following question:

If you are not driving down The Purple Heart Trail in your Corvette eating Burgoo, do you really care about these bills?

BR 163 - Representative Jim Glenn (11/07/07)
AN ACT designating burgoo as the state dish. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 2 naming and designating burgoo as the state dish.

BR 225 - Representative C. B. Embry Jr (10/08/07)
AN ACT designating the Corvette as the official state sports car of Kentucky. Designate the Corvette as the official state sports car of Kentucky.

BR 329 - Senator Elizabeth Tori, Senator Joey Pendleton (10/26/07)
A JOINT RESOLUTION directing the Transportation Cabinet to extend "The Purple Heart Trail" past Fort Knox and Fort Campbell. Extend "The Purple Heart Trail" pass Fort Knox and Fort Campbell

And finally a bill that goes beyond time wasting to just plain stupid. I like to urge Jim DeCesare, to get the urge, to urgently do some real work in Frankfort. We urgently need a less posturing in Frankfort.

BR 261 - Representative Jim DeCesare (10/08/07)
A RESOLUTION urging each local school board to seek input from parents, teachers, community members, and other stakeholders prior to the approval of the local school calendar. Urge local school boards to seek input from interested stakeholders before approving the school calendar.

Remedial Math for Legislators

We need to require remedial math for all members of the Kentucky General Assembly.

From the Herald-Leader:

Speaker Jody Richards said yesterday that he will create a "work group" to study allowing casinos in Kentucky -- a signal that lawmakers are bracing for an extensive debate on the issue in 2008.

So here’s my dilemma.

From a fiscal statement prepared for the 2002 General Assembly. The legalizing of Gambling in Kentucky would produce Net General Fund Revenues of $194.1 million.

From a report prepared by Gabriel Roeder Smith & Company to the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission dealing with fully funding the actuarially required contributions:

“To move (and keep) all plans at a 7.75% discount rate (fully funded), the KRS (Kentucky Retirement System) increase would be $315 million and the KTRS (Kentucky Teachers Retirement System) increase would be $213 million, for a total of $528 million.”

Ok, I know that an estimate from 2002 on gambling income and a 2007 estimate on retirement contributions suffer some variation due to time lag. But, I don’t think that gambling is going to suddenly produce another $330 million.

While the legislature spends time in an extensive debate on gambling they will be doing their best to ignore the major problem facing the budget in the upcoming session.

And let’s not forget that after the extensive debate, a change to the Kentucky Constitution can only be done with the support of three-fifths of both legislative chambers and approval of a majority of Kentucky voters.

Let me put this as simply as possible for the math challenged in the legislature.

A $528 million existing shortfall is more important than a possible $194 increase in revenue.

Incest with The Coal Industry

I really believe that the Democratic Party is the political party that best represents the citizens of Kentucky and the United States.

The Democratic Party has a big tent, everyone is welcome.

The problem with everyone being welcomed is that sometimes the smell coming from some individuals on the on the other side of the tent makes you want to puke.

Take for example State Representative Jim Gooch, D-Providence, I hope this guy is just greedy and is not really this stupid.

From Page One of the Herald-Leader:

Chairman Jim Gooch, D-Providence, a longtime ally of the coal industry, said he purposefully did not invite anyone who believes in global warming to testify.

"You can only hear that the sky is falling so many times," said Gooch, whose post makes him the House Democrats' chief environmental strategist. "We hear it every day from the news media, from the colleges, from Hollywood.”

Gooch doesn’t seem to care who gets hurt as long as the money flows into his pockets. From the Richmond Register:

Widows of miners killed in coal mine accidents, miners, and the president of the state AFL-CIO Wednesday accused Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence, of scuttling a mine safety bill because of conflicts of interest from his business dealings with the coal industry. But Gooch denied the accusations and said he will call the bill if some things in it can be improved.

Bill Londrigan and several widows of miners gathered in the Capitol Rotunda while supporters shouted “Gooch must go.” Londrigan said the group wants “action now” on House Bill 207, sponsored by Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, and hopes their calls for action will force House leaders either to bring the bill to a vote or move it to another committee – even if necessary to remove Gooch as chairman of the Natural Resources and Environment Committee…….

Londrigan said Gooch has received $25,000 in campaign contributions from coal interests since 1999 and that “omissions in (Gooch’s financial disclosure) statement that warrants serious review.” He said the information will be shared with House leaders.

He said Gooch has “an incestuous relationship at best” with the coal industry and Gooch is standing in the way of passage of a bill which would save miners’ lives.

Of course he doesn’t appear to be alone in shilling for coal in the General Assembly.

From the Editorial Page of the Herald-Leader:

Some members of the state Interim Joint Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources applauded loudly after the viscount told them not to worry about climate change…..

It says a lot that Gooch, whose family's business manufactures coal-mining machinery, would take up the committee's time with Monckton and another speaker from a think tank funded by Exxon Mobile, without scheduling anyone from the other side.

And they wonder why the public doesn’t trust the legislature.

Legal Defense Funds

Here is a pre-filed piece of legislation I hope gets some legs in the 2008 General Assembly.

BR 327 - Representative Darryl T. Owens (10/02/07)

AN ACT relating to legal defense trust funds.

Amend KRS 11A.010 to define "legal defense trust" and "trustee"; create a new section of KRS Chapter 11A to require reporting requirements for a legal defense trust; amend KRS 11A.040 to prohibit a public servant or officer from accepting donations to a legal defense trust from any person or business who does business with the state; amend KRS 11A.050 to establish when financial disclosure statements are to be filed by a trustee of a legal defense trust; amend KRS 11A.990 to establish that violation of the donor limitations or filing requirements constitutes a Class D felony and the forfeiture of employment or constitutional or statutory office.

Marriage: God's Way

The shills for the Family Foundation are back in Frankfort.

From the Herald-Leader:

“Children holding signs that read "Marriage: God's Way" and senior citizens in wheelchairs with stickers demanding protection of marriage joined a crowd that filled the Capitol Rotunda yesterday protesting domestic-partner benefits……..

Either way, Rep. Danny Ford, R-Mount Vernon, asked the crowd to line the steps as protesters did in 2004 in support of a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman.”

I’m still waiting for Danny Ford or Martin Cothran or any member of the Family Foundation to trot out the family whose marriage was saved by the constitutional amendment. I want to see just one man and woman stand up and say their marriage was saved by this constitutional amendment.

The only thing this group wants to do is to limit availability of health insurance to a group of people that they don’t understand or like.

Bigotry, even when it’s institutionalized is still bigotry.

A Better Breed of Politician

I would like to thing that the Commonwealth Kentucky has a better breed of politician than other governments.

For instance, there are the politicians involved with the San Diego pension system, that is under funded by $2 billion dollars, or the Baltimore City Retirement System that is heading the wrong way. Then there is Illinois Teachers Plan sinking almost a billion bucks in the hedge funds.

Of course let us not forget the Ohio public pension and workers' compensation funds public pension and workers' compensation funds investing $215 million in a Bermuda hedge fund.

For a general guide to what’s wrong with pension funds take a look at Speech by Edward Siedle at Florida Atlantic University, School of Accounting, “Issues in IT and Compliance”.

But let’s take a look at the Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS) and the legislature.

First, KRS with $16 billion in assets generates nearly $50 million a year in fees paid to money managers, brokers, lawyers & consultants.

Second, the House Democratic Caucus only reports donations from Registered Lobbyists. The Democratic Caucus is a PAC whose sole purpose is to insure the re-election of member of the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Third, in 1993 KRS procured an ethics opinion which gave them a legal license to for money managers and attorneys to give to the House Democratic Caucus.

…..you wish to know whether persons and companies who hold personal service contracts with the Kentucky Retirement Systems to advise the Systems' Board of Trustees are considered executive agency lobbyists. These individuals or companies may be hearing officers, investment advisors, actuaries, outside legal counsel, real estate managers, medical examiners, and others. Secondly, you ask whether entities who contact the Retirement Systems in order to be considered for providing investment or other services are considered executive agency lobbyists. ……..

The Commission believes that individuals and companies who hold personal service contracts with the state and are advising the Retirement Systems under the terms of their contract are not engaged in executive agency lobbying activity and thus, are not executive agency lobbyists.

Now I guess we could assume that the $50 million in fees goes to companies that never give to the House Democratic Caucus, but we really don’t know. It is equally possible that there is a major funding source for the House Democratic Caucus from lobbyists that is totally and legally hidden from view.

We've already established that the Legislature has abdicated oversight of the Kentucky Retirement Systems, so maybe it really doesn't matter how much money these non-lobbyists give to the Democratic Caucus.

But the bottom line is we just don’t know what is going on. The issue here again is transparency in government.

Like I said at the beginning, maybe Kentucky politicians are a better breed than those in other locations, but on the other hand we could just be watching natural selection in progress.

The stupid ones are getting culled from the herd, while those in Kentucky are still ahead of the regulatory lions.

Ethically Challenged Bipartisanship

Once again we have an example of why no one trusts the Kentucky General Assembly.

From the Herald-Leader:

“FRANKFORT - As lawmakers gathered last week for the first of two mandatory ethics training seminars, the Senate's top Republican and Democratic lawmakers weren't around to hear noted campaign finance reformer Norman Ornstein speak……

In all, more than a third of Kentucky's 38 senators skipped at least one of two 90-minute ethics seminars Wednesday and Thursday morning even though a state law created in the wake of a 1992 bribery scandal makes attendance mandatory”

Ok, I understand the sessions are boring and legislators should already have a clue about what is ethical and what is not. But what part of mandatory do they not understand.

They give themselves this out for not attending:

“To avoid a potential charge of ethical misconduct, absent lawmakers are allowed to certify that they have watched a video of the sessions, said Tony Wilhoit, executive director of the Legislative Ethics Commission.”

For people in the public eye, the behavior of these legislators is incomprehensible. Once again they demonstrate the arrogance and stupidity that we have all come to expect from our representatives.

Granted the Legislative Ethics Commission is a toothless lion. All roar and no bite. And members still rely on "I didn’t know it was illegal" as a defense.

But the fact that we still regularly see stories, like the one about Sen. Daniel Mongiardo and his involvement with at PAC, speaks to how little the General Assembly values ethics or fears the wrath of the Legislative Ethics Commission and how much they need the training.

"If we find out that someone did not turn in a certificate of attendance, then I will talk to them personally and tell them to watch the tape," he (Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville) said.

Boy now there is something to be scared of………