Special session looks at old problems

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June 13, 2009

By RONNIE ELLIS The Glasgow Daily Times Sat Jun 13, 2009, 03:01 PM CDT

FRANKFORT — Lawmakers will be back in special session Monday to consider how the state can buy jobs through tax incentives. Every governor does it. Nearly ever session of the General Assembly does it.

It’s hard to find fault with trying to provide jobs for people. But it doesn’t seem to work. An analysis a few years ago by the Lexington Herald-Leader indicated Kentucky got little from billions of tax incentives. Some companies which benefited from state giveaways later packed up and left the state in search of lower wages in other states or countries.

Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposal seeks to streamline and coordinate a myriad of incentives and to focus on keeping jobs already in Kentucky. But it could cost the state as much as $50 million annually. The same state that has cut three successive budgets and faces – according to Beshear and the Consensus Forecasting Group – a $1 billion shortfall in next year’s budget. Meanwhile, Beshear placed the measure on the special session agenda while saying proposals for comprehensive tax reform – some versions of which would lighten the load on lower-income families – need more study. (They’ve been talking about it for 10 years or so.)

Instead, Beshear and legislative leaders say the state must tighten its belt. But that belt seems to grip the young, the elderly, and the poor more tightly while lawmakers try to accommodate some of the more affluent in our society. That’s not their goal. The goal is to provide jobs. Of course jobs – even low-paying ones like call centers – make for nice resumes for politicians seeking re-election.

The simultaneously amusing and sad part of these debates is contrasting speeches about paying people to come to or stay in Kentucky with all the rhetoric about free markets.

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Attorney General Jack Conway said he will issue an opinion before the special session begins Monday on whether Beshear’s legislation to allow video lottery terminals – electronic slots – at race tracks requires a constitutional amendment. By the time you read this, he may have already done so.

He’s in a ticklish situation. His job is to follow the law, as he puts it, not the political breezes. But Conway is running for the U.S. Senate and while there are areas where the proposal is popular, mostly in urban areas, there are parts of rural Kentucky that are strongly opposed. And Conway’s father is on the racing commission, created by Beshear, which has endorsed the proposal.

The people of Kentucky have been conditioned to expect a referendum. During the 2007 campaign for governor, Beshear repeatedly said all he wanted to do was give voters the chance to decide the issue. (He says now that he meant a vote on full-fledged casinos, not electronic slots at tracks where legalized gambling already exists.)

Some polling indicates a majority of Kentuckians believe they should have the opportunity to vote on any kind of expanded gambling. Even some who oppose gambling want the question put before the public. Conway could issue an opinion that is right on the law but wrong on the politics. Lawmakers who cast votes on Beshear’s proposal in the special session face the same dilemma.

———

Congratulations to Lt. Gov. and U.S. Senate candidate Daniel Mongiardo and his wife, Allison. They’re expecting their first baby in December. So are Conway and his wife, Elizabeth, are expecting their first child in May. Congratulations to them as well.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.

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