Rotary Club of Paducah, Kentucky

VOL. 71, NO. 26- February 10, 2010
(215-360)

Published weekly except, Labor Day, New Years, Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Quilt Show

"A View of Kentucky's Legislature"

by Bill Bartleman

Today the club welcomed Paducah Sun Editor Bill Bartleman as its keynote speaker. Bill has reported on behalf of the Paducah Sun since 1972 and has reported on government and state assembly activities since 1975. He updated Rotarians today on a number of activities happening within Kentucky's government affairs.

According to Bartleman, the Kentucky state budget is $1 billion out of balance. Bartleman is critical of what he refers to as one time funding. Examples of one time funding include the use of revenue raised for an identified purpose in the budget to cover general budget expenses rather than the activity for which the funds were supposed to cover. Another example includes last year's federal stimulus dollars. These funds were used to balance the budget during the period of time the fund were received, but only temporarily solves the problem. . To correct Kentucky's budget shortage, focus must be put not on generating additional funding, but rather eliminating unnecessary expenses. Bartleman calls for zero-based budgeting which would require the state budget to be managed like a traditional business budget. Zero-based budgeting would require a review of all expenditures eliminating those that are inefficient or unnecessary rather than continuing to raise funds for unnecessary expenditures.

Governor Beshear wants gambling activities to offset the budget shortfall in Kentucky, but Bartleman warns that using funds from gambling activities would only be a short term fix and would likely not be as large of a revenue generator as is estimated. Governor Beshear has estimated the annual revenue earned from gambling at $500 - $600 million dollars per year. Revenue of $500 million would require Kentuckians to spend $1.5 billion on gambling. These estimates were generated without regard for the competition that Kentucky faces with regard to gambling. Bartleman reports that there are four or five surrounding states that offer full casino gambling activities. Would Kentuckians invest $1.5 billion per year in gambling at slot machines at race tracks when they can travel close by for full casino gambling? If Kentuckians were to desire this sort of gambling activities within the state, where would households come up with this level of entertainment dollars? In all likelihood, Kentuckians who do partake in this sort of gambling would have to reduce expenditures elsewhere in order to do so, therefore the revenue gain in gambling would be offset by revenue losses elsewhere.

Bartleman also spoke about the impact that vote bartering has upon the budget. He referred the 1990 Education Reform Act. At that time $1 billion was pledged to special projects in exchange for votes toward the Education Reform Act. Had the gambling legislation passed last year, all the revenue gained from the measure would have gone to fund special projects leveraged for votes toward the measure. As a result, Kentucky's budget would have still had the shortfall it has today as none of the revenue raised would have been available to cover this year's expenditures.

Bartleman spoke further about Kentucky's need for tax modernization. Our current tax structure was adopted in the 1950's and 1960's. It is generally agreed that reform is needed, but how is the unknown factor. Legislators have explored changes to the sales tax structure. Suggestions have been made that the sales tax structure be modified to add services such as legal services and accounting and tax services as items subject to sales tax. It has been further proposed that if these sales tax adjustments are made that Kentucky eliminate its corporate and personal income tax and earn its revenue strictly off of sales tax. There are currently no unbiased plans in place - just ideas generated.

Kentucky's Six Year Road Plan was another topic of discussion today. This plan was developed 25 - 30 years ago to identify road priorities across the state. McCracken County currently has $41 million in projects on than projected for the next two years. Bartleman warns us not to be too excited about that plan, after all the McCracken County Outer Loop project has been on the six year plan for fifteen years now and is not expected to begin for at least another five due to lack of financial resources.

Bartleman provided an update on some of the issues being discussed at the legislative session. The first he discussed was the measure that would allow voter registered as independents to vote in Democrat and Republican primaries. This was approved at the Senate level with Republican Support. Democrats oppose this measure out of concern that opening the primaries to outside parties would result in skewed election results (i.e. independents voting in weak candidates in order to assure a loss by the party).

Another topic that is being debated is the current ban that exists on nuclear power plants within the state of Kentucky. The current ban states that there is to be no nuclear power plants in the state until there is also disposal facility available within the state. The ban is favored by the coal industry which has concern that the emergence of a nuclear plant would threaten the viability of a coal plant. Lifting the ban could lead to great opportunities for the state. Paducah is on the master plans for a number of nuclear plant developments that are in process for the future

There are thirty-five days remaining in this legislative session. In addition to several important issues before our legislators, Bartleman filled us in on a number of humorous bills that are before legislators in the current session. Bills such as one that would outlaw text messaging while driving. Bartleman asks, "do we need a bill to enforce common sense?" Other bills include a measure to name the City of Somerset the "cruise capital of Kentucky", a measure to name the Chevrolet Corvette the "official sports car of Kentucky," a bill that would name burgoo the "official dish of Kentucky," and a bill that would increase the distance that a person can drive a golf cart on a highway when leaving a golf course. To conclude Bartleman pondered - why is our legislature deciding this stuff?