GETTING FISCALLY FIT IN KENTUCKY: EXERCISES IN FUTILITY

When in trouble, when in doubt-Run in circles, scream and shout! Army maxim

Tuesday’s (March 25th) edition of the Appalachian News-Express featured a remarkable
series of stories that somehow all seemed to be related, all, coincidentally, close to my heart. These stories concerned the dire financial straits that the Commonwealth now finds itself in, for whatever reason, the machinations now under way by government officials designed to rectify the situation, the difference of opinions among those responsible for finalizing a state budget, including a wide disagreement on by just how much, or even whether, to raise the state cigarette tax, a plan from the Senate that would free those in state prisons convicted on drug offenses, and send them to treatment centers, and, for an added dose of irony, a story about a new tactic in the battle against cancer, that is, including the truly exorbitant costs for treatment as a “side effect” of this disease.

In the “Battle of the Budget”, there are as many sides and sidelines as a professional wrestling match would have. Even those elements that a normal, sane person would assume are natural allies, the Governor and the State House of Representatives, the former a Democrat and the latter controlled by Democrats, have somehow found ways to oppose each other. The one predictable scenario in the whole shebang is the State Senate. Under the control of Republican David Williams, it has its own priorities, and none of the jibe with anything the other two players want. All of which should lead the Commonwealth’s citizenry to wonder if this group will ever be able to hammer out a budget at all.

We are in these financial doldrums, thanks largely to the declining national economy. Like people with the flu in flu season, we are not alone in this. Most other states are also going through hard times. To combat this on a national level, to “jumpstart” the economy, so to speak, L’ll George and the Congress (sounds like a '70's rock group, don't it?) have directed the IRS to send out “stimulus payments” of from $300.00 to $600.00, depending on how many wage earners are in the household, I suppose. Presumably, the recipients of this “windfall” will go straight out and spend it all, thus the verb “jumpstart” and the adjective, or noun, or whatever “stimulus”.

A story on CNN, however, is questioning just how much good this will actually do for the economy. I suspect that if any one segment of the economy will be enriched by it, it will be the oil companies. (Surprise! Surprise!) I, for one, will cash my $300.00 check, then go straight to a gas station, where I hope it will be enough to fill up my tank.

But I digress. To the Democratic elements in this melodrama: Democratic Governor Steve Beshear has a two-pronged approach to getting a budget out with sufficient revenue. His first approach was to ask the State Assembly for a 70-cent increase in the cigarette tax. Secondly, he wants to amend the state constitution to allow gambling. He seems to be failing in both endeavors. For its part, the Democratic-controlled House will support only a 25-cent increase on cigarettes. And the Republican-controlled Senate will suffer no increase on our state fruit, and neither the House nor the Senate seem eager to come up with any amendments to put before the voter regarding anything like gambling.

The Governor and I are of like minds when it comes to increasing the tax on Kentucky’s favorite consumable: It must be at least 70 cents. A 25 cent increase will be easily offset by the tobacco companies, which will make it completely ineffective. It will not provide the state with anything like an adequate increase in revenue, and it will have a minimal effect on the number of smokers in the state. This will guarantee that teen-agers will continue to take up the habit en masse, and this in turn will see more teen-agers turn to illegal drug use, cigarettes being a very effective gateway drug, and this insures a more-than-adequate supply of potential state prisoners, then inhabitants of the various halfway houses around Kentucky. Too, with as many people as ever smoking, the crises in Medicaid funding will continue to be a conundrum for state governments for many years to come. And, of course, that ties in with the prospect of telling cancer victims that perhaps that treatment they were counting on to give them a little additional life, might be just a “little too rich” for their blood.

But as for the prospect of bringing gambling to the state, I have long been opposed to the idea. No gambling establishment anywhere has ever been, uh, established, with the idea of enriching anyone but the owners of the, uh, establishment. I must say that I would reconsider my vote on this topic, however, but only under one condition: If the gamblers are allowed to go into the casinos, play black jack and count cards while doing so, I will vote for this controversial amendment. I foresee a situation wherein I would buy that VCR tape I saw in The Pawn Shop (that’s its name, so far as I know) on Russell Street in Elkhorn City, learn this system inside and out, then go into a casino downstate somewhere with a five dollar bill, and emerge many hours later a comparatively wealthy man. Of course this ain’t gonna happen. So, guess what? They ain’t gonna get my vote! (Hah! In the words of a slightly drunk Barney Fife-“Put that in your smipe and poke it!”)

So it looks as though it will be business as usual for the foreseeable future here in the Bluegrass State. The Commonwealth of Kentucky will continue to stagger from crises to crises in every conceivable area of state government. It would be wise, for instance, for the state to put the brakes on its addiction to subsidizing tobacco. Tobacco, after all, is responsible for many of our ills. Too, it repays our largess by killing off many of our citizens, but not before their medical treatment bankrupts Medicaid. One speaker said that the cost of tobacco is like a 600 dollar per year tax on every individual in Kentucky. And if that is the case, then that $600 dollar stimulus payment will be spent before anyone here even gets it. Another good idea shot straight to h-e-double hockey sticks.

Oh, well! Back to the drawing board.