FRANKFORT —
Cheers to Sen. Bob Leeper, I-Paducah, for filing a bill limiting Kentucky General Assembly sessions to every other year instead of annually.
Before voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing annual sessions in 2000, the legislature met only in even-numbered years for 60 day sessions.
Unfortunately, Kentuckians were convinced by big-government types that allowing politicians to gather annually would result in the people’s work getting done on time and limit the need for special sessions, which drive up the cost of government.
“The way it was was better,” Leeper told the Senate State and Local Government Committee.
Way better.
Counting all days in regularly scheduled and special sessions, the legislature spent 505 days meeting between 2001 and 2010, compared to only 423 days during the previous decade, and only 392 days during the decade of the 1980s.
Government has grown at every level, including Kentucky’s state government. And, as 19th century Tammany Hall Democrat Judge Gideon J. Tucker keenly observed: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”
What apparently is safe while the 2013 Kentucky Legislature meets is the state’s out-of control spending on pension benefits.
And for that, we send the loudest jeers to the leadership of both parties.
When this session began, there was bipartisan agreement that significant steps were needed to address the state’s public pension crisis.
Apparently, the House’s understanding of “significant” means relying exclusively on anticipated proceeds from expanded gambling opportunities in the commonwealth.
And that’s despite the fact that the Kentucky Supreme Court has yet to rule on the legality of at least one source of those planned revenues – instant racing games at horse tracks.
Still, the House’s pension-funding legislation sent to the Senate includes expectations that about $100 million could be raised through such schemes.
House leaders are justified, though, in chastising the Senate for sending them a pension bill that proposes placing future workers in a hybrid 401k-style retirement plan in which the state would offer a guaranteed minimum return on investments without determining how to fund it.
This bill would replace the current and antiquated defined-benefit plan where the state pays a fixed amount regardless of its financial status or returns earned on invested funds.
While Senate Bill 2 moves in the right direction by setting up a retirement plan that better reflects the private-sector’s approach, failing to map out a funding path is a failure to acknowledge the upfront cost associated with the change.
Still, the Senate’s irresponsibility has been dwarfed by the House’s unconstitutional shenanigans.
When voters permitted annual sessions in 2000, they approved a measure that included this text: “the General Assembly may consider any issue except that the General Assembly shall be prohibited from passing any bill raising revenue or appropriating funds unless agreed to by three-fifths of all members elected to each house.”
But House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, thinks he has found a way to mute the voice of the people with some obscure 1892 court ruling, which he claims can limit the three-fifths rule only to final votes on funding bills.
Clearly, a very weak argument.
It’s certainly not what voters agreed to in 2000. They said “any bill raising revenue or appropriating funds” must reach the three-fifths threshold – which means 60 legislators must vote for it.
Any bill – final, preliminary or otherwise.
Because only 52 representatives voted for the House’s sorry version of pension reform, it’s unconstitutional.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-London, rightly predicts that if the Senate were to pass this legislation, it would only open the door to a frequent flood of funding bills from the House that don’t reach this constitutional requirement.
Another special session to straighten all of this out, anyone?
Jim Waters is president of the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank. Reach him at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com. Read previously published columns at www.freedomkentucky.org/bluegrassbeacon.
Viewpoints
Related Photos
-
Jim Waters Bluegrass institute
More jeers than cheers for pension-reform shenanigans
- Viewpoints
-
-
Graduation Day
It is that time of year again.
Some years ago, I was invited to speak at the graduation ceremonies of a liberal arts college. Later, many in the audience told me they expected a very political speech. Some of them were relieved; others were disappointed. I don't do politics at graduation.
Graduation is about life.
My high school graduation was OK. I gave a speech. My family was there, intact, probably as happy as they ever were (But did I know?). We went out for Chinese food afterward. -
Coal problem worth tackling in Washington and Frankfort
Despite hysterical cries from radical environmentalists, neither Sen. Rand Paul’s Defense of Environment and Property Act nor Sen. Mitch McConnell’s Coal Jobs Protection Act would allow activities that bring harm to Kentucky’s wildlife or waterways for the sake of propping up the coal industry.
-
Peter Perlman — Life lessons from a lawyer’s lawyer
One of the great moments of my life was sitting next to legendary Louisville attorney Frank Haddad at a luncheon when he learned he had received the first Peter Perlman Outstanding Trial Lawyer award from the Kentucky Academy of Trial Lawyers.
As they started his bio, the surprised Frank started crying like a baby. A sudden heart attack took him less than a year later. Winning the Perlman award was the crowning achievement of his career. -
Credit score insanity
Frequently, people stop me and ask me personal finance questions.
The most common is how to improve their credit history score.
If you need to improve your credit score, it means you have lousy credit. Before fixing the score, people need to ask how their credit got so bad to begin with. -
‘Tells’ about who will blow their money
Kentucky Derby week is one where gambling takes a forefront in my life. Along with the non-stop activities in my home state, I am speaking at a dinner for the Society of Settlement Professionals in Las Vegas and a film crew from Italy is flying in from Rome to interview me for a documentary about lottery winners.
-
Viewpoints change when critics gain power
Scandals like those roiling Washington often look more or less nefarious as time and facts unfold. After all, what at first looked like a third-rate burglary turned into Watergate.
I doubt the scandals around Benghazi, the IRS and subpoenas of Associated Press phone records reach Watergate status — but we must await more information and time to know. -
Trouble’s last ride
When announcing my retirement, I made reference to letting “Trouble” having one last ride.
-
Going from school to work requires preparation, faith
(Editor’s Note: After graduating from EKU on Saturday, Seth Littrell came to work Monday at the Richmond Register as a reporter/photographer.)
This past Saturday weekend I graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with my bachelor’s in journalism.
It was the single goal I had been working toward for the past four years, and as I walked across that stage I realized I was the first person in my family to do so. -
Report on former EKU Center for the Arts director called 'biased, unfair'
I am writing in response to the Richmond Register’s May 3, 2013, article concerning the former Executive Director of the EKU Center for the Arts. The article I reference appeared on the front page of your newspaper with the headline “Sexual harassment, other offenses alleged in Hoskin’s records in 740 pages of documents.”
-
Recognizing those who provide care
How fitting it is that the beginning of National Nursing Home Week is Mother’s Day, May 12.
- More Viewpoints Headlines
-
Sheriff: No Sign Killing of 2 Kids Was Planned
Obama Defends Drone Strikes, With Limits
Raw: Jurors Deadlock on Jodi Arias Penalty
Boy Scouts Decision "First Step" Say Activists
Raw: Utah Teen Arrested in Death of His Brothers
Closer Look at Okla. School Where Children Died
Two Suspects in Murder Known to London Police
Boy Scouts Mom Supports Gay Inclusiveness
"Be Ready": NOAA Warns of Busy Hurricane Season
SeaWorld: Penguins Are Coolest Thing in Florida
Obama Renews Call to Close Gitmo
Obama Offers Drone Strike Defense
Raw: Heckler Interrupts Obama on Guantanamo
A Slice of Apple History Up for Grabs
