Session Will Not Address Real Problems
We wrote recently about the fact that nothing put forward in the special session demands the sort of urgency that would require a special session, and we stand by that analysis.
Jacob at Page One Kentucky shares the feeling that this session will be a waste of $300,000:
It really is like Groundhog Day. Same factors of 2008 are in play today. Our economic outlook is way more bleak but the push for expanded gambling is hardly stronger. But the big thing? Greg Stumbo and the rest of House leadership will blame someone else when failure is upon us.
And Kentucky is left in a rut. But we're ready to flush $60,000 per day down the toilet for a special session.
Want would be a better use of our legislator's time and our money? David Adams has a list of more pressing concerns:
Kentucky's unemployment benefits deficit of over $207 million is getting bigger every week. This isn't a smoke-and-mirrors "shortfall" game. This money will have to be paid back to the federal government in the next state budget.
Continuing to throw up across-the-board spending cuts as Gov. Steve Beshear does won't solve the problem of solve the persistent problems in jobless benefits, Medicaid, or public employee benefits.
Eliminating programs that don't work and improving spending accountability provide opportunities we can't continue to ignore. We should begin with stopping corporate welfare, repealing prevailing wage, ending certificate of need, and move quickly toward justifying every dollar of K-12 education spending. Also still waiting for Gov. Steve Beshear's promised spending efficiency study, transparency web site, and a serious approach to the $30 billion public employee benefits underfunding.
