Kentucky Club for Growth releases 2007 General Assembly Scorecard

The Kentucky Club for Growth has just released its 2007 General Assembly scorecard. The scorecard ranks legislators based on their support of economic growth issues. Unfortunately, only two legislators, Stan Lee and Jim DeCesare, scored high enough to receive the Kentucky Defender of Economic Freedom Award. Hopefully, this scorecard will make Kentuckians more aware about how their Senators and Representatives vote on important fiscal issues.

A vast right wing conspiracy in Kentucky?

During tonight's KET Democrat gubernatorial debate, Jody Richards dismissed the Senate's pension overhaul plan as a right wing ploy by Grover Norquist and ALEC. Ok, Speaker Richards, how exactly to you propose that the state reforms its pension system? I have heard no feasible solution whatsoever come out of Speaker Richards' mouth. Pumping more money into a overly generous pension system will not result in a better system. If something is not done soon, then, eventually all Kentuckians will have to pay higher taxes in order to pay for state employee and legislator pensions. Here's a fine question: How much do legislators receive in pensions? Unfortunately, no one knows the answer since those records are protected under the Kentucky Retirements System. That info should be public.

Disappointing answers from Gubernatorial Candidates

This week's Lexington Herald's weekly gubernatorial cyber debate focuses on the effectiveness of Kentucky's economic development incentives. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, none of the candidates propose that these economic incentives records to open to public scrutiny. Currently, the Economic Development Cabinet keeps such records under tight lock and key. Taxpayers should know how their money is being spent and how much of a return on investment they get when the money is spent on economic development. Taxpayers may be surprised to find out that their ROE is dismal. Currently, some other states allow these records to be public. What is Kentucky trying to hide?

Jody Richards: Friend of the KEA and Enemy of the Taxpayer

The Lexington Herald-Leader's Pol Watchers blog reports that KEA President Frances Steenbergen has bestowed House Speaker and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jody Richards as a "friend of the KEA."

KEA President Frances Steenbergen presented the award to Richards, citing him for his work in the legislature, specifically Richards' resistance to a plan offered by the state Senate that would have changed the state employees retirement system.

"At no other time in my tenure as president has another legislator been out on a limb for you and me and other employees," Steenbergen said.

Hello? The Senate's retirement overhaul plan WOULD NOT affect current or retired state employees. Shouldn't Frances and her fellow union cronies support an overhaul that would help secure their future retirement benefits? Speaker Richards proved that he is an enemy of the taxpayer because he refused to even sit down and discuss a proposed pension overhaul with Senate leaders. So, being a "friend of the KEA" isn't saying much.

KET GOP Debate: Where's Ernie Fletcher's balls?

Tonight, the GOP gubernatorial candidate debate aired on KET. In my opinion, Anne Northup and Billy Harper had some decent ideas and weren't afraid to try cost saving options such as privatization. Incumbent Ernie Fletcher seemed to dodge a lot of questions. Fletcher's default response seemed to be "we spent money on this, we came up with a program for that." He wasn't even man enough to admit his some of his mistakes on tax modernization and call for a repeal of the AMC tax. Of course, some of these candidates' rhetoric may sound good, but there is no way of know how successful they will be until they take office. Fletcher had his chance and performed poorly. Why does anyone think he will be any better if he is in office for another four years?

Why is the state paying this guy a six-figure salary?

According to the Courier-Journal, Bill Hanes, head of the Kentucky Retirement Systems, will retire June 1. He is currently making $170,000 a year and is estimated to draw an annual $127,000 pension when he retires. Hanes was an outspoken opponent of the Senate's plan to overhaul Kentucky's struggling pension system that is saddled with long-term debt. But, I guess it was time for him to leave. Hanes offered no solutions to the pensions system's woes, even though he is the head of KRS. Shouldn't he had been the one that researched a way to reform pensions? What was the state paying him for?

"I think it is appropriate we have some new leadership in that organization," Williams said yesterday. "He was not prepared to discuss the need to change the benefit structure. And rather than trying to advance the discussions early on, it appeared he tried to give the House cover on the issue."

Hanes said the controversy had nothing to do with his decision to retire and that he felt obliged to urge lawmakers to take care in changing benefits.

"I was going to retire six years ago when I took this job. But I stayed here to accommodate the board and because I've got a very strong interest in protecting (the retirement systems)," Hanes said.

"I don't have any hard feelings against David Williams. I seem to be in the way, and I was raising issues of making sure when you make a dramatic change in our retirement plan that those issues are discussed in an open forum, that stakeholders have an opportunity to talk," Hanes said.

Good riddance, I guess. Hopefully they will hire someone that isn't afraid to tackle new ideas.

Unbridled Spending on Unbridled Spirit

Every time Kentucky gets a new governor the Commonwealth gets a new slogan. Before the current Unbridled Spirit slogan it was Education Pays. I don't understand why Kentucky needs a slogan to begin with because, in my opinion, it's just another waste of money. State Auditor Crit Luallen's just released annual audit has found that $75,000 of federal money designated for things such as a summer food service program for children was spent on Unbridled Spirit.

The Fletcherite Kentucky Progress blog dismisses the Auditor's report as a Democrat conspiracy and defends the Unbridled Spirit campaign. However, Kentucky would be much better off if people demanded government stay out of the advertising business to begin with, that's what private tourism is for. No one if going to come to Kentucky just because they see "Unbridled Spirit" on a billboard.

Lunford-Stumbo Report steals Bluegrass Institute Trademark

The Bruce Lunsford-Greg Stumbo campaign has just released it's platform piece, Blueprint for Change. On pg. 21 of the document, the Bluegrass Institute's porky parody of Kentucky's Unbridled Spirit slogan, from the 2006 Kentucky Piglet Book, makes an appearance without any type of attribution to the Bluegrass Institute. This doesn't exactly bode well because Stumbo is currently Attorney General of Kentucky. Stumbo, of all people, should know that stealing other organizations' trademarks is illegal.

I'm still here

I don't know what happened. Looks like blogger, for some reason, has lost all my posts for the past week of so.

Your tax dollars at work.

The USPS is going hog wild with their Star Wars promotion. Just go to www.usps.gov and you'll understand. Maybe they think that it'll make us all feel better when first-class postage stamps rise to 41 cents a couple of weeks before the unveiling of the Star Wars stamps. But, why does the USPS need to spend millions on marketing campaigns? They're a government monopoly.

USPS was a good idea to begin with, however, why not open up the mail business to competition? Businesses now have the assets and technology available to deliver mail better than the USPS.

By the way, in my opinion, the best book that shows the ineptitude of the postal service is Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Check it out sometime.