Lexington and Louisville Chambers Conspire on New Tax
Government-funded entities Commerce Lexington and Greater Louisville Inc (GLI) recently took a trip to Pittsburgh and vowed to make the trip into more than just a junket.
Tom Eblen reports
The trip went well. But the big question was this: Would there be any follow-up?
Commerce Lexington's trips are sometimes criticized as junkets because the travelers come home, go on summer vacation and never get around to following up on most of the city-improvement ideas they gathered.
Lexington and Louisville officials said they are determined that that won't happen this time. Last Thursday, summer vacation ended, and it was time to get to work. A Commerce Lexington/GLI steering committee met all day and, that evening, announced follow-up plans to the trip's participants at a reception in Louisville's 21C Museum Hotel. The attendees included both cities' mayors.
So the mayors and others traveled and then spent all day in a meeting. What are the possible results of this now non-junket? To cooperate to advocate new spending projects and a new tax!
Top priorities include exploring the feasibility of light passenger rail between Lexington and Louisville...
...and to pursue legislation that would allow the cities to have a local-option sales tax.
The Chamber presidents at least have realistic expectations about these proposals.
Presidents Bob Quick of Commerce Lexington and Joe Reagan of GLI said afterward that such taxing authority probably would have to be done in the context of overall state tax reform, which is long overdue. "Some of these things will take some time to build the right coalitions," Reagan said.
But it's clear that these are the ideas of agents of the government, not business interests.
