Senate Passes Bill with Budget, Incentives and Tolls
UPDATED: The Kentucky Senate has passed HB 3 by a vote of 32-0-1. The bill contains provisions of a budget, tolling authority assistance for the equine industry, and a smorgasbord of tax exemptions.
Sen. RJ Palmer abstained due to a conflict of interest. Sen. Kathy Stein passed because she felt she did not have adequate time to examine the legislation, or the opportunity to offer amendment.
There is no greater admission that Kentucky's tax code is unattractive to business than the accumulation of tax exemptions contained in this bill. Picking winners and losers by carving out tax relief for favored industry is not a way to make Kentucky attractive to new business.
This sort of effort only perpetuates Kentucky's problems by emphasizing our political system's greatest faults. Instead of providing a level playing field for competitive industry in a free market, this sort of tax relief puts the focus on being granted specific relief from the government.
It becomes more important to invest in a good lobbyist than to invest in a good business plan.
The result is a system increasingly focused on maintaining relationships with politicians rather than holding politicians accountable for creating good policy. These relationships increase the barriers to new investment as new companies don't have the established relationships of their competitors. A lobbying industry is created and maintained as existing relationships become a necessary requirement of doing business.
The bill also contained provisions to allow tolls for "megaprojects", and new taxes on gambling to improve purses for horse racing, both items the Kentucky Club for Growth is concerned about. On the other hand, the Senate managed to address all of the items of the session's call while the House has not.
And so Kentucky remains the same as it always has been...
