It depends on who you are and who you ask.
This past week’s stories in two major Kentucky papers emphasize the tone deaf quality of our leaders in Frankfort. Spewing money out of one pocket while turning the other inside out to show taxpayers and President Elect Obama the pitifully poor state of the Commonwealth is an activity shared by both the executive and legislative branch.
Last Sunday, the Lexington Herald Leader reported that the state would have a whopping $1.3 billion dollars shortfall over the next year and a half. Between December and June, the gap will be $456 million. The downturn in the economy means fewer taxes and more demands on the state budget. By law, Kentucky cannot run a deficit like the federal government.
The Governor immediately asked state agencies to plan for a 4% cut in spending. Depending on in which end of the Capitol they served, legislators reacted by saying “spend less” or “raise more ”. It looks like Medicaid will take a cut. The judicial branch will get less and is looking to have fewer employees in local courthouses. Fewer state dollars will send the pain cascading down through county and municipal budgets.
Within three days of the budget shortfall story, the Herald published a story on new hires in the Department of Homeland Security. Ralph Coldiron, a Lexington resident and longtime friend of the Governor, will get $20,000 more to do a job his predecessor did for $80,000. Coldiron isn't the only new employee in Homeland Security. See Gov's Pal Gets Big Raise
On their own investigative track, the Courier Journal looked into travel by legislators in a story posted on November 30th. It seems that our elected officials have been busy going bye-bye in the car-car to the tune of $1.3 million dollars between January 1, 2006 and October 30, 2008. Legislators bill 1.3 million for travel- CJ
To quote the lead sentence of Tom Loftus’ story, “State Senator Tom Buford was one of at least seven legislators who got word of the state’s $456 million dollar revenue shortfall while attending a convention of lawmakers in Duck Key, Fla., at taxpayers’ expense.”
The problem is that elected officials pretty much get to do what they want to do. Hire their friends at big salaries. Take expensive junkets to warm climates in winter months. Criticism may hurt their feelings, but it does not get them defeated. As we found out after the past election, incumbents have a 95% chance of staying incumbents. Last summer's tempest over Senate President David Williams' plan to renovate the Senate offices is a fading memory, probably because he is not the only politician to spend the public's money like grandma's trust fund.
The shortfall will mean that teachers, police officers, clerks and merit employees will take a salary hit. After all, they did get a whopping 1% raise out of the last budget. Those who can least afford to be hurt will get hit: the elderly, disabled, children, the poor and the ill. As the cuts go deeper to the bone, the song of sorrow will grow louder.
Too bad the Governor and the Kentucky Legislature are tone deaf. |
