For those politics and policy junkies, Stateline.org has a rundown of the upcoming State of the State speeches, or in the case of Kentucky, the State of the Commonwealth address.
The governors of most states begin each year with a speech to legislators and the public about the accomplishments of the previous year, and what lies ahead in the year that’s just begun.
Gov. Steve Beshear is set to deliver his speech, which will take place in the state House chambers, on Jan. 6.
As Stateline notes, 36 governors will head into their speeches looking to close budget gaps in the current year while looking at shortfalls for the next fiscal year. Beshear and Kentucky are included in that list.
So head to Stateline.org to take a look at some of the issues other states are dealing with, and when those governors will lay out their plans.
Courier-Journal political reporter Joe Gerth has a goo d column this morning recounting the times in the past that former Lt. Gov. Steve Henry has tried to shift the blame away from himself.
The most recent came when Henry entered an Alford plea in Franklin Circuit Court in response to election finance charges against him from his 2007 gubernatorial run. Under an Alford plea, Henry doesn’t admit guilt, but acknowledges there was enough evidence against him to secure a conviction.
But then Henry left the courtroom after receiving a $500 fine and a one-year suspended jail sentence and denied there was enough evidence, dismissing the action as a political witch hunt.
Take a look at Gerth’s column from today to see the pattern of incidents, both politically and professionally, that have had Henry pointing the finger elsewhere.
Reporter Ronnie Ellis with CNHI News Service notes in his weekly column today that the blame for the culture of excessive spending at the Kentucky League of Cities falls on more than just those doing the spending.
Ellis has some questions for those on the KLC board, along with those other board overseeing groups that have recently been exposed for their exorbitant and profligate spending, including the Kentucky Association of Counties.
From Ellis’s column -
Where have board members been and what were they thinking? Why don’t people on important boards with significant financial responsibility ask the chief executive or school superintendent hard, probing questions?
State Auditor Crit Luallen laid the blame on the backs of the board members to some extent in her audit of KLC, with the first finding directed at the KLC board.
From the audit report -
Finding 1: The KLC Executive Board did not provide effective leadership and governance over its financial resources to the ultimate benefit of its member cities.
That should be the primary conclusion of the audit itself – that the board at KLC, and the boards at other groups that have mismanaged public dollars, have shirked the responsibility they accepted by becoming a board member.
Ellis doesn’t let them off the hook, either.
From his column -
Yes, they’re busy people. Yes, KLC has grown dramatically and generates most of its revenue not from city dues but from its insurance business. Clearly they were – and some remain – impressed with the staff’s management of that growth. But, as Luallen said, surely in times of recession when public anger about government is on display everywhere those mayors and city managers should have taken their oversight responsibilities more seriously.
These tales of squandered public dollars should hit home and affect real changes among members of the KLC and KACo boards, given that they are all members of local governments that are no doubt struggling to make ends meet.
But that remains to be seen. As Linda Blackford with the Herald-Leader, which has exposed much of these free-spending ways, noted in her article today -
On Thursday, a devastating state audit detailed a culture of excessive and wasteful spending at the Kentucky League of Cities.
On Friday, the group is holding its annual Christmas party at the Mansion at Griffin Gate, complete with a reception, dancing and karaoke. The party’s budget is almost $10,000.
So much for lessons learned.
After approving slot machines more than five years ago, Pennsylvania is preparing for another expansion of gambling.
The state House has passed a measure that will allow slot parlors to become full-blown casinos with table games, and is expected to bring in another $250 million to state coffers next year, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports today.
From the article -
The sweeping bill (S.B. 711), hundreds of pages long, sets rates for taxing and licensing, and toughens the existing gambling law governing political donations by casino owners. In a move highly criticized for its appearance of political favoritism, the bill also sets aside a percentage of local gambling revenue for certain hospitals, community colleges, and libraries.
The bill also includes a controversial measure to allow casinos to extend credit lines to gamblers and gives the Gaming Control Board the authority to extend casino opening deadlines for licensees.
It’s not much of a stretch to see Kentucky following Pennsylvania’s lead if lawmakers approve slots at tracks here.
Kentucky’s tracks say they need slots to remain competitive with tracks in other states that have expanded gambling. If slots here are approved, the lobbying efforts to allow table games at Kentucky tracks – in the name of competition – wouldn’t be far behind.
Reporter Ronnie Ellis with CNHI News Service takes a look at the other factors at work this week in the special election to fill Kentucky’s 14th District seat in the state Senate.
Republican Jimmy Higdon, who had been serving in the state House, beat Democrat Jodie Haydon despite being outspent in a district that leans heavily toward Democrats in terms of registration. Higdon will fill the seat vacated by Senate Majority Floor Leader Dan Kelly, the Republican who was recent appointed judge by Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat.
Supporters on the winning and losing sides are both crediting the nationalization of the campaign, with ads attacking Obama and Nancy Pelosi from the Republican side, in a strategy crafted in part by Sen. Robert Stivers, a Manchester Republican and new majority floor leader who advised the Higdon campaign. Ellis notes that there was more at work.
From the column -
But it was also about Beshear. Beshear’s poll numbers had already dipped to 39 percent before the election. As Stivers said, some in the district resented how the election came about with Beshear appointing a Republican, Sen. Dan Kelly, to the bench. As Higdon said, some in the district resented the enormous amount of money spent on behalf of his opponent, former Democratic legislator Jody Haydon. Stivers thinks the total may reach $1.9 million when outside interests’ contributions are calculated. (One has to ask how Beshear and Democrats can’t win a 24 percent turnout election with that kind of money.)
“If money can buy an election, then this one is bought and paid for by outside interests,” Higdon said before the election. “But people see through that,” he added.
Ellis also correctly notes that the loss is damaging for Beshear and for his prospects of delivering a slots bill for the horse industry.
Nationalizing the race proved to be smart strategy and it obviously played a part in Higdon’s win. But, as Stivers said, no one issue decides such races. It’s in McConnell’s and Beshear’s interests to credit the national issues exclusively for Higdon’s win. But even Beshear’s political advisors can see the governor – and prospects for slots at the tracks – are weaker in the aftermath.
We’ll be weighing in with an editorial about the race and its impact on the push for expanded gambling in Monday’s Messenger-Inquirer.
Anyone see anything different about how this election played out or the implications going forward?
Another victim in the fight against painkiller addiction was claimed this week, this time violently.
Dr. Dennis Sandlin was gunned down while working in his Perry County clinic, and police have charged a man they said shot Sandlin because he refused to write a prescription for pain pills.
The Lexington Herald-Leader puts it well in its editorial today -
For almost 30 years now we’ve heard about the war on drugs. Some areas of Eastern Kentucky have the nation’s highest per capita consumption of prescription painkillers. Drugs are also waging war on the population.
Sandlin is both a casualty and hero in that war. His loss will be felt not just by his family and friends but also by hundreds of patients who trusted and relied on him.
It’s often said that no family, no matter how well educated or upstanding, is escaping Eastern Kentucky’s painkiller scourge. The loss of Sandlin proves that.
The best way to honor his memory is to redouble efforts to heal the sickness that spawns so much violence and neglect, and to identify and punish those who are profiting from it.
Just ask ProPublica.org, the online nonprofit newsroom that has done a diligent job of tracking stimulus dollars.
It’s now possible to see county-level data for stimulus spending, as well as nationwide and state totals.
For instance, Daviess County has or will receive about $59 million in stimulus funds, which amounts to $633 per capita, according to ProPublica’s database.
Check out the full database at http://projects.propublica.org/recovery.
With its decision not to challenge a Kentucky Supreme Court ruling, the state will put a momentary hold on death penalty executions to certify the process it uses for lethal injection.
Kentucky will be conducting a series of public hearings about its lethal injection protocol after that protocol was challenged in court. The hearings won’t challenge the method the state uses to kill inmates on death row, but is primarily an administrative task that wasn’t properly undertaken in the past, and therefore didn’t comply with state law. The court ruled that executions must be put on hold until the protocol is properly adopted.
And so far, the governor and many state leaders haven’t lent an ear to the pleas of those who want Kentucky to put an end to the death penalty, or at least put any executions on hold pending the results of an American Bar Association study of the how the state implements the death penalty. Five lawmakers asked Gov. Steve Beshear to hold off on appointing execution dates for three death row inmates that have exhausted their appeals.
But while Kentucky takes this momentary pause with the death penalty, executions are going ahead in the states that surround it. This Friday, inmate Matthew Eric Wrinkles is slated to be put to death in Michigan City, Ind., at the Indiana State Prison.
An article in today’s Courier-Press notes that the gap of more than two years between executions in Indiana is the longest since a nine-year gap spanning the late 1980s and early 1990s.
And to Kentucky’s northeast, Ohio executed an inmate Tuesday using a new, one-drug cocktail that differs from the three drugs Kentucky uses in its lethal injection method. Ohio overhauled its injection method after a stuggle spanning several hours to find a suitable vein in what was a failed attempt to execute the inmate, Romell Broom. Broom is now challenging his execution in court based upon the failed attempt.
The experiences in Ohio and Indiana show that the appeals will always run out, and the state can always find a new and innovative way to execute prisoners.
But the delay in Kentucky, though based on procedural challenges, should present an opportunity to take a deep breath and determine whether this state wants to continue killing in the name of justice.
As a victim’s relative said following this week’s execution in Ohio after seeing the inmate breath his last breath, “That was too easy.”
The death penalty is too easy. It’s too easy to think that executions will bring justice for society or closure for victims.
It’s too easy for the wrong person to be prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death, only to find out too late that the wrong man was put to death. Just ask the state of Mississippi, which is now being required to compensate people who have been wrongfully convicted of crimes, including former death row inmates, as reported by the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.
Unfortunately, it appears it will be hard for the lawmakers in this state to back away from the death penalty, despite the mounting reasons why it is bad policy.
Gov. Steve Beshear and other legislative leaders have said tax increases are not likely during the 2010 legislative session.
But that wasn’t the case earlier this year when the Kentucky General Assembly increased the state’s tobacco and alcohol taxes to help offset slumping revenue numbers.
Kentucky wasn’t alone this year in turning to tax increases to help fill quickly depleted state coffers, as Stateline.org’s Daniel Vock reports today.
From the Stateline article -
Twenty-nine states raised taxes or fees this year, bringing in an estimated $23.9 billion — the highest increase since at least 1979, according to data released this week. The reliance on so much new revenue is sudden, to say the least. In the previous year, tax and fee hikes totaled $1.5 billion.
That’s the word from the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers, which together issued a state-by-state tally of actions taken to close ever-expanding budget gaps and balance state spending plans.
A PDF of the report offers a state-by-state analysis of changes in tax law for the current fiscal year.
Among the other interesting findings -
Forty-three states reduced their enacted budgets in fiscal 2009 by $31.3 billion while 36 states cut their fiscal 2010 expenditures by $55.7 billion.
These cuts are in stark contrast to the thirteen states that had to reduce their enacted budgets in fiscal 2008 and the three states that reduced their enacted budgets during 2007.
During the last fiscal downturn, the peak years of reductions to enacted budgets occurred in fiscal 2002 and fiscal 2003, well after the national recession had ended and only totaled $14 billion and $12 billion, respectively.
Owensboro Rep. Jim Glenn will be one of the guest on KET’s Kentucky Tonight program hosted by Bill Goodman and airing Monday night at 7 Central.
Glenn, a Democrat, will be joined by Rep. James Comer, a Tompkinsville Republican, Rep. Tanya Pullin, a South Shore Democrat, and Rep. Alecia Webb-Edgington, a Ft. Wright Republican, to talk about the upcoming 2010 legislative session.
Be sure to tune in, and remember that viewers with questions can send them by e-mail to kytonight@ket.org.
