What Frankfort's Up to Today - March 11, 2010 - Part I
Two-Parter today because we're busy.
Legislative Day 46
House
Energy Price Hike Mandates
Likely KEY VOTE: HB 3 will be heard in the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment. The Kentucky House must think President Obama and Nancy Pelosi are doing things right. Yesterday, they created a debt-based stimulus program for Kentucky. Today, they're creating energy portfolio mandates and their own sort of Cap and Trade program. This is a convoluted bill, full of new energy bureaucracy that will increase energy prices for all Kentuckians.
Kentucky's Own Housing Bubble Generator
The House Committee on Economic Development will seek to put taxpayers on the hook to pay back banks if construction loans fail in HB 553. Imagine what would have happened to the state if this program had been in place before the financial crisis hit!
Unionizing State Employees
KEY VOTE: The House Committee on Labor and Labor will hear HB 493 allowing state employees to enter collective bargaining. This idea will only serve to make it more difficult to set more realistic benefits for state employees, and generally violates the principle that the government should be responsible to the taxpayers.
