Special Session to Waste $60,000 a Day on Issues That Can Wait
The rumbling grows louder that a special session of the General Assembly will be called in the next couple of weeks. Earlier we wrote about how useless a special session would be:
The 2009 legislative session should be characterized as nothing less than a disaster. The cooperation they are so proud of is nothing less than a mutual agreement to abscond without action or responsibility...As the rhetoric rises and the chimes sound for the next wasteful special session, remember this dismal record and tell your legislators: "No thanks!"
Pat Crowley recently ran through the list of discussed topics for a special session. Not one of them demand immediate action that justifies spending $60,000 tax dollars a day. Here's Cowley's list interspersed with the KyCFG's rebuttal of their immediacy:
Interviews with lawmakers, lobbyists and others indicate these issues are likely to appear on a special session agenda:
Legislation to allow Kentucky's race tracks, including Florence-based Turfway Park, to operate casinos with video slots known as Video Lottery Terminals, or VLTs. Track operators say they need slots to compete with states like Indiana and Pennsylvania that use money from slots to increase purses and breeder incentives.
Leaving aside the discussions of the necessity or impact of expanded gambling, there is an ongoing dispute about the constitutionality of VLTs that will forestall progress in letting the licenses and make it impossible for immediate financial impact. If a vote turns out to be required, it can not take place until 2010. There is no reason this issue must be acted upon prior to the January 2010 Regular Session.
Tax incentives for the Kentucky Speedway in Gallatin County to expand. Speedway owners say the expansion is needed to attract a premier NASCAR Sprint Race to the track, and the expansion isn't feasible without the incentives.
We've discussed the problem with tax incentives, but tax incentives are just as applicable in January as they are in July.
Tax incentives for others, including small businesses and the film industry, would also be considered as would an adjustment to incentives already approved for the Ovation, a planned $800 million residential, office and entertainment development planned near the Ohio River in Newport.
Tax incentives again. While the effort to create a small business tax credit is an admission of the way Kentucky's tax system burdens job creation in the state, tax giveaways to Hollywood and some condos hardly justify a special meeting of Kentucky's legislature.
Legislation establishing bridge authorities between Kentucky and Indiana do build new Ohio River bridges in Louisville and Henderson in west Kentucky. The bill would not immediately affect the planned replacement of the Brent Spence Bridge between Covington and Cincinnati. But it is being closely watched by Northern Kentucky legislators, who have said tolling allowed by the authorities could set a precedent for how to pay for the Brent Spence project. Tolling is largely opposed by Northern Kentucky legislators and local officials, though no other plan to pay for the state's portion of the project has been offered.
Again, plans that can easily wait until January. If the Governor and the Legislature are confident they can create this new commuter-tax, they can go ahead and start planning.
A plan to cut the state budget, possibly by giving Gov. Steve Beshear's administration broad authority in targeting and making the cuts.
The Governor was granted authority to make cuts for FY09 in RS09 HB 143. The best way to address the spending baseline for the following year is to make reductions immediately. If he were to reduce immediate spending (for the next three months to end the fiscal year) by $50 million, it would have a theoretical impact of $250 million ($50 million over the next five quarters). Beshear should act now to limit spending to live within the state's means, and doesn't need the legislature to do so.
As Crowley concludes:
Special sessions cost taxpayers about $60,000 a day.
Let's not waste additional money dealing with matters that can wait until the legislature is constitutionally scheduled to meet.
