Kentucky's future can't afford divisive leadership or politics as usual in 2013!
Divisive leadership renders us incapable of addressing crucial state problems; it turns us against ourselves and causes Kentuckians to hate their institutions of state government.Politics as usual destroys the credibility of state government at a time when state government leadership is desperately needed to meet every increasing current and future responsibility.
Kentucky needs a Legislature who has a vision on how to successfully deal with the budget crisis at hand and can translate this vision into reality, then communicate the information to everyone, i.e., general public, law and policy makers, state and local administrators, thus making them part of the future success.
It must be a plan incorporating “all for one…one for all!
The Legislature must all join arms to work together to, first uniting Kentucky and communicating the severity of the budget crisis faced by Kentucky and, secondly, identifying and implementing solutions to solve Kentucky's current budget problems. This will allow Kentucky to be competitive in the 21st Century.
The legislative body should develop “an intensive strategic planning effort through having a soul searching examination of state government and a re-examination of state government's mission. The goal of strategic planning is to improve the quality of the decisions made today, in light of future uncertain developments.
Kentucky cannot compete effectively in the global economy unless Kentucky's legacy of poverty is broken providing adequate personal income and opportunity for all Kentuckians. In the late 1990s, the income of the wealthiest 20% of families was 11.1 times that of the poorest 20% of families. By comparison, in the late 1980s, the wealthiest 20% of families had 9.1 times the income of the poorest 20% of families.
The poverty rate in Kentucky fell during the 1990s, from 16.9% in 1988-89 to 14.7% in 1997-98. However, the poverty rate in Kentucky in the late 1990s was higher than the national rate (13.0% in 1997-98).
The common perception is that poverty is an Eastern Kentucky problem because some Eastern Kentucky counties have poverty rates among the highest in the nation. However, in terms of numbers, poverty in Kentucky is both a rural and urban phenomenon.
One-third of the 234,000 poor children in Kentucky (families of four with incomes under $12,675 in 1989) lived in Lexington, Louisville or Northern Kentucky. The 14 block groups (census designations of about 1,000 people) with the highest levels of poverty (over 80%) are all in Louisville. Of the state's 3,507 block groups, only 64 had no residents living in poverty.
For example, Owsley County has the highest poverty rate in the state (52.1%), but ranks 85th out of 120 counties in the number of poor people (2,570). Jefferson County, meanwhile ranks 109th in poverty rate (13.7%, five points below the state average, but is first in the number of poor (33,147).
“The single greatest difference between adults living with children who are in poverty and (those) who are not in poverty is the work behavior of the adults,” concluded the analyst.
One adult working was working full time through out the year in 62% of the non-poor families.
Nearly 31% of the children living in poor families had no one working during the previous year while only 1% of non-poor children lived in families where no one worked.
Education predicts income.
The largest single group of adults living with children is white, rural, married men with less than a high school education.
Many of Kentucky's families live in abject poverty, and many more teeter on the edge of poverty.
In 2013 our federal government is back into deficit mode and the County is in a deep recession. This economic reality breeds more families teetering on the edge of poverty.
To be able to win over poverty, this legislature must think outside the box, so to speak. That means establishing a time frame to address tax reform while significantly reducing state government expenditures; i.e., like the 1994 Commission On Quality and Efficiency suggested---cut a $1 billion dollars of state expenditures over a 5 year period of time while reforming state taxes under a revenue neutral tax policy. This approach was defined in the 1995 Kentucky Commission on Tax Policy.
Suggest cutting state expenditures by $350 million:
Suggest cutting corporate tax shelters $400 million;
Suggest reviewing & eliminating $100 million of non-merit (political appointees) jobs;
Suggest reviewing & eliminating $40 million of property tax & educational personnel expenses;
✔ significantly reduce Legislative staffing;
✔ significantly reduce AOC staffing;
✔ Review & reduce executive branch non-merit & merit employee payroll
✔ Review & reduce judicial & legislative branches of merit & non-merit payroll
✔ Review and change ways the highway paving contract are bid
✔ Significantly reduce personal service contracts
✔ Require all Cabinets to develop and implement strategic plans
✔ Reform obsolete property tax staffing;
SET UP 17 REGIONS (eliminating 103 PVA positions) saving estimated $12 million annually;REDUCE total deputy PVA pay $11 million;
REGION REGIONAL PVA COUNTY
2009 PVA COST
2009 DEPUTY
PVA PER PARCEL Cost
per
parcel
2009 pva
per parcel
#Region
parcels
PURCHASE MCcracken $125,710 $3,333,940.00 $26.86 $6.45 128800
Pennyrile Daviess $126,085 $2,645,353.00 $25.05 $6.75 110617
EEN RIVER Christian $107,702 $3,273,166.00 $27.16 $7.39 124476
BARREN R Warren $126,085 $4,094,344.00 $27.90 $6.95 151229
LINCOLN TR Hardin $119,454 $3,909,568.00 $28.43 $5.43 141716
JEFFERSON Jefferon $132,404 $4,947,531.00 $17.93 $0.47 283291
KIPDA Oldham $120,420 $3,021,685.00 $33.34 $7.92 94237
NORTH KY Kenton $131,184 $4,937,174.00 $28.59 $4.60 177265
BGRASS 2 Franklin $115,193 $5,181,785.00 $34.58 $8.76 149842
BGRASS 1 Fayette $112,711 $3,241,157.00 $20.11 $7.23 166766
CUMBLND L. Pulaski
CUMBLND V Laurel $119,605 $3,221,942.00 $25.93 $6.60 130599
KY RIVER Perry $112,391 $5,255,504.00 $37.65 $15.07 51183
BIG SANDY Pike $128,545 $2,213,392.00 $22.75 $5.61 97298
FICO Greenup $112,391 $2,062,133.00 $26.85 $6.91 76799
GATEWY Montmy $106,072 $1,570,942.00 $36.28 $11.75 43298
BUFF TRACE Mason $97,645 $1,294,523.00 $68.72 $10.65 30296
Direct Revenue Cabinet to equalize tax assessments and collections among all classes of property owners
Direct Transportation STATE POLICE DIVISION OF COMMERCIAL ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS to implement statewide compliance AS JUNE, 1994 KY SUPREME COURT RULING DICTATED of estimated 200,000 motor vehicle tax evaders!
Eliminate Ky truck weight-distances taxes employing "revenue neutral" tax strategy;
Eliminate the non-merit position of “assistant principal” position relocating all such employees to merit positions;
Establish partnerships between State Government and Kentucky big business to create more jobs for Kentuckians
Establish a partnership between State Government and organizations like Project Parent Program to significantly reduce teenage pregnancy
Raise taxes on a pack of cigarettes from 3 cents to $1.00 to reduce high incidence of death and disease from smoking
“If you drew a circle around Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and the western part of Virginia, you'd probably get a third of all cases [of pancreatitis gene mutation] in the United States” said Dr. Albert Lowenfel. Lawmakers
Develop Kentucky's Wood Industry
Address tax reform of Kentucky's tax base by developing "consensus tax reform legislation from debating Farmer/Wayne tax reform legislation;
Kentucky's current obsolete tax base relies heavily on Sales, Income, Corporate and Property taxes, which are based on wages, salaries and consumption have been made partially obsolete by economic and demographic changes due to an increasing number of business transactions crossing state lines via computers, mail order companies, national conglomerates, national franchises replacing mom-and-pop operations.
Trend toward producing and consuming more services and fewer manufactured goods is adversely affecting Kentucky's positive flow of tax revenues and will likely continue, unless addressed by Ky lawmakers.
The economic activity in the United States is steadily shifting away from the production of tangible goods to services.
The 2013 Legislators must develop a budget plan that is fair, competitive, stable, consistent to totally fund state's benefits and services---that recognizes as primary education of Kentuckians that brings good paying jobs to Kentucky's economy that will underwrite our plans for improved education at all levels, job training and posturing Kentucky to attract the kinds of jobs needed.
To do this the 2013 Legislators must eliminate $1.050 BILLION of state tax expenses and simultaneously passing “consensus tax reform legislation” from debating Farmer/Wayne tax reform legislation.
Regards,
Bill Huff
113 N. East St
Harrodsburg, Ky. 40330-1244
859.734.2228
huff9983@roadrunner.com
