Our view: Legislators pulled wrong plug

Opinion

Discussion

July 4, 2010

Anonymous Glasgow Daily Times The Glasgow Daily Times Sun Jul 04, 2010, 06:54 AM CDT

GLASGOW — “Come hither, sir. Though it be honest, it is never good to bring bad news,”

— William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra

Imagine the scene: A member of the state legislature, flanked by cohorts, sitting high upon the dais motioning to the director of the Kentucky Long-Term Research Center. The director steps forward and the politician says the words above.

That’s not how the center’s 18-year run came to an end, but the way it happened smacks of just such an execution. On the front page of the center’s website is a note on the end of the its run that came Wednesday.

“The Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center was created by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1992 during an era of remarkable progress. … Over the subsequent 18 years, a modest budget would enable a staff of no more than six people to compile a remarkable body of work and use groundbreaking communications tools to inform policymakers and the public about their findings.

“However, during the 2010 session, the Kentucky General Assembly suspended all funding for the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center.”

The legislature suspended the center’s operation by cutting the $500,000 allocated from the budget. Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, told Kentucky Public Radio’s Tony McVeigh that in the age of the Internet, there's no shortage of research material for lawmakers to study.

“It just became redundant in a very difficult economy,” said Thayer. “And I think the taxpayers of Kentucky expected us to look at ways to trim all branches of government and this was one way that we chose to do that.”

Sounds like sound reasoning by Sen. Thayer, but the $1.1 million dollars cut from the biennial budget of more than $17 billion is less than a 10th of a percent of the total budget. By comparison, the special legislative session in May called by Gov. Steve Beshear in order for lawmakers to pass that budget cost the state approximately $378,000.

It’s that kind of inability to do the job that has brought the state to where it is today. Kentucky’s policymakers are banking the future on making small cuts in hopes the state will survive the present economic down turn without them having to make tough decisions.

That being the case, they certainly do not want to hear from a group that has no political allegiances and whose purpose it is to provide information without icing on top.

It seems more and more like our state’s policymakers need the guidance the center’s research provided. Instead of seeking it, they opted to “suspend” it until the economic times are better. We hope they fund it with the next budget cycle because it was an invaluable resource.

Text Only

Opinion

Americans need to change attitudes
There’s something inherently wrong with this country’s societal standards when a mother is harassed and humiliated for breastfeeding her child in public, while any partial or complete display of the same woman’s breasts in the media or on the street for the purpose of sexual objectification would seem acceptable to many Americans, male and female alike.

February 10, 2012
Near miss on super prediction
Let’s take a step into the past my seven faithful readers and review some predictions made in this space in early September. (Too bad it wasn’t late September and we could borrow the line “should be back in school.”)

February 4, 2012
Redistricting plans equally indefensible
I don’t know how Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd will rule in the re-districting case. Nor am I a constitutional attorney, so I can’t say with any authority the maps drawn by the Democratic controlled House to benefit Democrats or the one drawn by the Republican Senate to benefit Republicans are constitutional.

February 4, 2012
Comer sets good example
Newly elected Ag Commissioner Jamie Comer, a Gamaliel Republican, requested an audit of the department upon his taking the position earlier this month.

January 14, 2012
Fortis will be good partner
I put shoulder to the wheel in search of photos Thursday morning. First, there was an ancient bread van parked amongst some saplings on the side of which there was a woman’s name painted in white, puffy letters. Whose van might that be and I wonder if it comes with the for sale property?

January 7, 2012
Farewell to Gatewood
As word spread of Gatewood Galbraith’s passing, the same phrase was heard repeatedly: “Gatewood was a colorful character.”

January 7, 2012
Computers should make records easier to get
The digital revolution was supposed to make record-keeping easier and less costly for companies. Therefore it should make things simpler for the public or news outlets seeking open records to find them.

December 31, 2011
Resolutions for the new year
New Year’s is the time for resolutions, a lot of which won’t last until spring.

December 31, 2011
Things to rejoice this Christmas
The year that will soon lapse has been tough. It has been a year of immovable politics; a year of contentious state elections; a year of absurd gesticulations by certain fiscal court members.

December 24, 2011
YOUR VIEWS: Remember Christ’s birth
December 23, 2011
More Opinion Headlines

Opinion

Search Results

Discussion

Our view: Legislators pulled wrong plug

Site Map