Kentucky Government Pressing for Gambling Revenue

With the government of Kentucky, overall, refusing to make the tough decisions associated with
spending far more than it takes in, there is a growing move to make it legal for casinos to operate in the state.

Co-chairman of Kentucky Wins, a proponent of Kentucky gambling, Bill Robinson, says, “Statisticians, people that study these things, estimate over $500 million a year is leaving Kentucky going to surrounding states because of gambling in surrounding states. We need the money to stay home. We need the money to benefit Kentucky’s citizens.”

Concerns are the introduction of gambling would lead to government corruption, gambling addiction, and an increase in crime.

One bill has already been filed that would allow casino gambling to be placed on the November 2014 ballot. It would require a constitutional amendment to make gambling legal in Kentucky. This particular bill would require any casino to be operate in only counties bordering other states. There are plans for another bill to be introduced as well.

As usual, the major problem isn't addressed, which is out-of-control government spending, much of which is allocated to the pensions government workers who are paid benefits far above the private sector.

This is the real issue that must be addressed. With the government, if new revenues are found and spent, it will still do nothing to cut back on spending unless it's forced to.

Let's see cutbacks in outrageous government employee benefits so the rest of us don't have to continue to pay for them.

Keno Approved in Kentucky by Ky. Lottery Corp. Board

 

The board of the Kentucky Lottery Corp. voted to include keno as part of its offerings in order to boost the revenue of the state to pay for the unsustainable pensions of government workers in the commonwealth.

According to state Treasurer Todd Hollenbach IV, after about a decade the revenues for the state would increase by over $80 million annually.

Along with keno, online ticketing will be part of the revenue increase.

Lottery president and CEO Arch Gleason said keno across the state should be played as of January 2014. Internet ticket sales for scratch-off tickets, keno, and games played on the computer will launch in the early part of 2015.

If the changes are put into effect, there will be a new network put in place, which would involve the usual convenient store outlets, as well as new places such as bars, restaurants and bowling alleys. Retail outlets in Kentucky for the lottery now stand at about 450.

Martin Cothran of the Family Foundation of Kentucky said the online ticket sales and keno “is going beyond what the people were told was going to be included in the lottery” when it was passed in 1988 via a statewide referendum.

Cothran added that games of chance like Internet keno tickets, gaming tickets and online lottery sales, hurt the poor who are not able to afford to play the games. He added that it is the state legislature that should make decisions concerning games, not “some government agency.”

In other words, unelected officials are being used as government proxies for politicians to hide behind.

The real problem is nobody is talking about the real problem, which is pensions of government employees are far above that of the private sector, and there is no explanation as to why they shouldn't pay more into it, rather than attempts made to employ socially-costly gimmicks to raise money to fund the above-market pensions the private sector has been paying for.

If it goes forward, Cothran says the Family Foundation hasn't ruled out filing a lawsuit to stop it.

Two Kentucky Pension Bills Pass in House

A press release from the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission said the two bills aimed at solving the pension problem in Kentucky - Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 416 - were both passed by the House.

The next step is for the Kentucky Senate to take them up.

Unfunded liabilities for the pensions of over-compensated state workers has soared to approximately $30 billion, and that may be an underestimate of the underfunded pension.

Per the two bills, the state or local government workers would be required to pay the actuarial required contribution to the public pension systems administered by the Kentucky Retirement Systems, starting in fiscal 2014.

The annual cost to the state of Kentucky will be $100 million a year.

Funding for the pension would come from instant racing games offered at racetracks and newly instituted Keno lottery games.
 
Lawmakers expect it to take anywhere from about 5 to 10 years for the funding to mature, and from there it'll take care of itself.

This is just another kicking of the can down the road, as the number of state employees entering retirement will continue to rise, and it's likely to face a bigger crisis several years from now.

Politicians refuse to do the right thing, which would be to make state workers pay more into their own pensions.

Kentucky State Workers: Pay More of Your Own Benefits

The lack of will by lawmakers to deal with the out-of-control benefits and pensions for Kentucky state workers shows a lack of leadership and ultimate in denial concerning the obvious thing that must be done to solve the problem.

How hard is it to follow what has wonderfully worked in Wisconsin when the bold Scott Walker made the government workers pay more for their own benefits. That's the only answer to the problem, and looking to gambling as the way to generate money to pay for the bloated government worker benefits is ridiculous.

The next scheme is to attempt to create new lottery games in order to generate approximately $25 million a year to pay for the pensions of workers the state can't afford.

Proposed legislation would also target Instant Racing machines for taxation, which would be for the sole purpose of paying the already too-high pensions of Kentucky state workers.

Some lawmakers think this would eventually raise about $100 million annually for government pensions.

What about paying their own way don't lawmakers in Kentucky understand? The pensions are unsustainably high, and so let the rest of the state workers and the retirees raise the amount they pay into it. Period.

Just because there would be some whining is irrelevant. Kentucky state pensions are promises that were made that can't be kept. Now if the state workers want those types of benefits, they are the ones that need to start paying for them; not the people of Kentucky in the private sector.

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.

Ky. Child Care Advocates Clueless on Economics

If you were to listen indiscriminately to so-called child advocates in Kentucky, you would think there's a conspiracy to keep funds away from child care for the poor. But like Greece, the reality is quickly setting in that when a government makes promises it can't sustainably keep, ultimately those that were socialized into government dependence are suddenly thrown out into the cold when the funds are no longer available. That's what has happened with the child care program in Kentucky, and there is no way to simply conjure up funds that don't exist.

It's not a matter of whether it's good or bad for the state to help with child care, that's a separate issue, the point is these programs and others like them will find out that there never was a chance for them to be sustained over the long term, which is why we must go back to lower taxes and smaller government so the free market can do the job of taking care of these things, rather than a state that can no longer tax people and businesses, as they can't support the unproductive any longer.

This is why there is a growing and gigantic shortfall in the pension plans of government employees. The same thing has happened. When you give away the farm with no way, over time, to pay for it, all you're left with are broken promises and a disillusioned people who unfortunately and unwisely made the state their healer and provider, rather than placing faith in God and their own productivity.

As to the child care program, starting in April, there will be no new applicants that will be allowed to receive subsidies for child care. In July, new restrictions will be put in place which will lower the income guidelines for recipients of the care.

At that time a family of four must be at or below $22,050 to receive the subsidy. It was formerly at$33,075. Estimates are approximately 8,700 families will lose the government stipend.

About $57.8 million will be saved because of the budget tightening. Even that won't be enough to close the entire amount of the projected shortfall of $86.6 million from the program in the coming fiscal year.

Kentucky, as well as other states, need to quickly face, understand, and respond to the fact that federal funding of many projects are going to dry up. There simply is not more money to go around, and there hasn't been for a long time. That's why we're running debts of trillions of dollars.

Funding for child care has come almost solely from the Federal government, and those funds have been depleted.

The usual parading out of the people that could be hurt by the cuts in an attempt to generate sympathy was made, but that is no longer a reasonable or viable strategy.

This has nothing to do with whether or not people should or should not be helped, it's entirely an economic issue, one where the promises made by the government are not able to be met. This is the cruelty of government promises, liberal agendas, and faulty economics.

For advocates to think this is an advocacy problem rather than an economic one, means there is going to be a lot of pain going forward for those who believe it's business as usual in Washington. Those days are now behind us, and we must look to ourselves and our communities outside of government to find answers.

Those who don't will find themselves continually surprised and caught off guard by the fact that the U.S. government is bankrupt. The only reason money is available is because the Federal Reserve continues to print money, and foreign governments buy it.

The ability for Americans to support the lavish promises and promises by the government are long gone.

Kentucky Casino Legislation Won't Happen in 2013, Says Beshear

For proponents and opponents of licensing casinos in Kentucky, they'll have to wait another year, according to Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, who said in a radio address Tuesday that thee will be no legislation to attempt to authorize the casinos in 2013.

If it was to happen this year, legislation would have had to have been introduced by last week. That time has passed, and so will have to wait until 2014 to see where it goes.

Beshear has said in the past that he will support a bill that would authorize up to seven casinos in Kentucky. The problem which has diminished support is the prospective bill wouldn't guarantee existing racetracks that they would be the recipients of the licenses, taking away the impetus behind supporting the casino bill.

The reasoning behind the casino bill is weak anyway, as it's looking to be the savior of the government pension plan, which needs to be adjusted so the beneficiaries of the pension should have to pay more into it on their own, while taking the burden off of the taxpayers.

Allowing casinos into the state in order to simply prop up the outrageous pensions public employees get is a waste of revenue.

Kentucky Lawmakers Seek Pension Opt-Out

State Rep. Diane St. Onge, R-Lakeside Park, has introduced a bill which would allow lawmakers to opt out of the state pension system, a move made to set an example for others and help some to make good on promises made during campaigns.

While the new legislators had the integrity and will to follow through on their promises to opt out of the state pension plan, current Kentucky law forbids them from doing so.

The bill would prevent anyone elected after July 1 of 2013 from entering the state pension system, while offering a provision for incumbents to remain in the plan if they choose to.

“It sets an example,” St. Onge said. “We can’t be asking other employees of government, whether on the local or state level, to cut back if we’re not willing to. At least you set the groundwork on some moral framework in which to ask someone else to cut back.”

Kentucky currently has a $30 billion pension shortfall, one which is having nothing done at this time to deal with it.

The only real answer if for those in the pension system to start paying for more of their benefit, which is far above the private sector. At this time there is no will to do so, but hopefully a bill like this, if passed, would be a step in that direction.

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 Pension Issue Easy to Solve

Opinion

Most of the politicians in Kentucky are acting as if the pension system in Kentucky is difficult to solve. It's not. All that needs to be done is have the government pensioners pay more into their own fund. Problem solved.

Some will say this is naive, but it isn't. Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin has already shown the way. All that happened there, contrary to media and union lies, was he made them pay their fair share into their own pensions. What's so controversial about that? Nothing. It should have been happening all along.

Government workers are paid notorious benefits, far beyond what the free and private sector offers, which is why the pension is in the condition it's in.

Many Kentucky Democrats, as usual, only can think of terms of raising taxes to pay for these outrageous pension liabilities, rather than do the right thing, which is to make the beneficiaries of the pensions pay more into them.

Calling it tax reform, all that will be presented is a tax raise. We don't need anymore taxes, we need more responsibility for overpaid government workers and retirees to pay more into their retirement accounts.

This is why Europe has come under enormous economic pressure, as the many countries there have offered government workers unsustainable benefit packages the the private sector can't afford to pay for. And why should they?

We that work for a living outside of government have no mandate from God or anyone else to pay this types of benefits to very unproductive government workers who drain our finances to the detriment of our own children and families. It's time for government workers to pay more of their own way, not the rest of us.