Kentucky State Workers Should Pay More into Their Own Pensions

We keep on hearing how difficult it is to find funding from the pensions of state workers, but as Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin knows, all you have to do is have the workers themselves increase contributions and the problems is largely solved.

Kentucky lawmakers and Governor Steve Beshear don't have the courage to take the right steps, so they continue to flounder about to add some spare change to a situation that needs a full-blown adjustment.

For example, today we hear that a sales tax on lottery tickets will be used to pay down yearly retirement contributions.

As usual, Democrats like House Speaker Greg Stumbo, can only think of taxes as the way to solve things, rather than, as mentioned, state workers themselves being made to pay their fair share of their own benefits and pensions. There's your funding source, not the taxpayers of Kentucky.

Thankfully, Kentucky Republicans in the Senate are fighting against higher taxes.

Kentucky House Democrats Looking to Sin Tax to Fund Government Pensions

Kentucky lawmakers continue to ignore the real issue surrounding the unsustainable pensions being paid out to government workers, which is taxpayers can't afford the "generosity" given to them at our expense, and which the private sector doesn't come close to receiving.

So instead of making government workers pay more for their own pensions, House Democrats are going the "sin" tax route, starting with taxing cigarettes to raise retirement contributions.

While most of us don't like cigarettes, why should smokers be forced to pay for government workers? They're already paying more for them than they should have to already.

At this time the proposed tax would be a 40-cent increase over the already high tax imposed on cigarettes. That would raise about $110 million in the first year, although over time, the weakness of the proposal is it would be a short-term fix because expectations are there will be less cigarette sales going forward, which would lower the revenue stream in the years ahead.

Over the next 20 years or so, the tax would generate about $100 million annually before dropping in revenue.

None of this will matter or will work until the over-compensated government workers are made to pay more into their own plan. The refusal to do this is cowardly and irresponsible, but has been shown to work by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Kentucky taxpayers shouldn't and won't put up with this outrage, where the government extracts from their wages in order to pay extravagant benefits to its own.

Kentucky General Fund Revenues Jump 3.8 Percent over Last January

State Budget Director Jane Driskell said tax revenues for the Kentucky General Fund climbed 3.8 percent in January over January 2012.

For the first seven months of the fiscal year, revenue growth for the General Fund has grown at the same 3.8 percent that January grew at. Allegedly the current budget requires a growth rate of 2.4 percent to be kept in balance.

Driskell said, “January receipts are consistent with the latest internal revenue projections.”

The state income tax itself, which is the largest source of revenue, has soared 8.8 percent in the first seven months of the fiscal year.

Unsurprisingly, the revenues from the Road Fund grew at a 2.1 percent rate in January, as higher gas prices kept travelers closer to home. The road fund could fall short if it continues at the 3.2 percent pace it's at for the first seven months of the fiscal year, as projections are it needs about 3.9 percent growth to meet project demands. Of course that's not hard to deal with as all that has to be done is for the projects to be put on hold if the money isn't there.

Also related to the economy are the weaker sales and use tax receipts, which are flat so far this year.

These numbers are somewhat disingenuous because of the refusal of Kentucky lawmakers to require government employees, who are paid and given benefits far above the market and private sector, to pay more into their own pensions and benefit packages. Until that happens, it won't matter what pace the tax revenues grow at, which are already too high.

Kentucky House Passes Bill to Audit Districts

After a bill to boost oversight of the over 1,200 local taxing district overwhelmingly by a 96-1 vote in the House, it now goes on to the Senate.

What the legislation entails is putting a system together for auditing the various tax districts around the state of Kentucky. Together they spend approximately $2.7 billion for running the local libraries, airports, fire departments and sanitation.

Once it's set up, taxpayers could then go on the Internet to check out the financial reports from each individual district.

The funding is the result of taxes and fees, along with government grants and donations from private sources.

Fairview School Board Under Suspicion of Tax Manipulation

The school board of Fairview school district in Kentucky are under suspicion for allegedly using robocalls to residents in the area, which a number of voters say are attempts to manipulate voters into accepting a proposed 3 percent sales tax on a number of services in the area.

For some unknown reason school board chairman John Burke wouldn't say one way or the other whether or not members of the school board initiated the calls, which according to some voters in the area of which recorded the calls, said appeared to originate from Atlanta, Ga.

Instead Burke attempted to dismiss the question. “We, as a board, are assessing the support for continuing operations of our school system through a 3 percent utilities tax,” Burke said.

A committee in the area is heading up an anti-tax campaign. One member of the committee, Joe Weis, said the poll isn't a poll at all, but is an attempt to sway the opinion of voters.

“Under the guise of taking a poll, they are saying things like ‘are you aware that if the utility tax is not passed, your child may have to be driven long distances to other county schools.’” 

This is the third attempt by the school board to force this on area residents. The prior two were rejected.

What it entails would a 3 percent tax on electric, gas, water, sewer, cable and electric bills. Imagine how much that would add to the monthly bills of residents if enacted.

Opponents are working to collect enough signatures for a special election which would be used to eliminate the tax. They already succeeded, but the school board sued them over a language technicality in the petition, and so the petition must be circulated a second time to ensure more than enough signatures to eliminate the hefty tax.

The proposed use of the funds would be to build an new middle-school wing and major restoration of the high school.

Beshear, Democrats: "Increase Taxes"

Democratic Kentucky governor Steve Beshear, is throwing his support behind an effort to empower counties around the state to have the option of raising taxes beyond the already-high 6 percent sales tax residents of Kentucky already have to pay.

This is of course spearheaded by metro-area mayors of Louisville and Lexington - Greg Fischer and Jim Gray. Fischer said an increase in tax of 1-cent would result in an additional $90 million for the government coffers. That's all we need, even larger government than we already have.

“With all the needs we have with our roads and sidewalks and infrastructure, that could take care of it pretty quickly because our general fund cannot,” Fischer said. “So the governor’s voice in this effort is really big.”

What's the problem with all of this? What's wrong with improving infrastructure? The problem is you won't hear about the need to cut government spending. Slashing out-of-control government spending is the answer, not raising taxes on the citizens of Kentucky.

Speaking at a chamber of commerce event organized by Greater Louisville Inc., Beshear said he he traveled to Oklahoma City to see how the concept work, and the tired and unproductive old idea of revitalizing downtown areas was proffered as an example of success. I'm not kidding. Beshear actually said that.

Anyone that has looked into the arena strategy will find they're a disaster, and require and constant stream of taxpayer funds to survive. Once they start to wear out, there is another arena requested which the taxpayers have to fund as well, resulting in a perpetual funding requirement for the people of the respective state.

Kathy Stein, a Democratic senator from Lexington, initiated what is called Senate Bill 30, which would provide the legal backing for what is identified as an amendment to the Kentucky constitution called the "local-option sales tax amendment."

It is time for citizens of the Commonwealth to rethink the Democratic party in Kentucky, as also evidenced by John Yarmouth joining Obama in trashing the 2nd Amendment.

Democrats in Kentucky look like they're joining the Obama bandwagon, which is far afield from the values people in Kentucky hold dear.

For the quest for higher taxes in Kentucky, all Beshear could say was, “It makes sense.” No Governor Beshear, it doesn't make sense.

Contact your representatives and be sure to let them know you oppose the ability for local governments to tax people even more.