And in News from Frankfort -- More Cuts! (Surprised?)

Boy, I sure am glad we've got a governor and legislators that are so focused on being proactive about revenue that they had a special session to deal with it! Of course, the special session itself cost over $300,000 -- but that's okay, because they did what needed to be done to deal with our billion-dollar shortfall, right? Right?

Oh, wait ...

From WFPL and Kentucky Public Radio's Tony McVeigh:

Some state agencies in Kentucky may see budget cuts of three-to-four percent this fiscal year.

That’s the message in a letter mailed Friday by State Budget Director Mary Lassiter and obtained by Kentucky Public Radio. Lassiter says these are NOT across-the-board cuts.

“Most of the priority areas of government were protected from additional cuts – you know, the SEEK calculation or funding for post-secondary education, Medicaid, corrections,” says Lassiter. “A very large percentage of the dollars in the General Fund aren’t subject to cuts. The original 2.6% proposal was versus ’09 spending levels for kind of the rest of government beyond most of the agencies that I mentioned.”

Lassiter says agencies receiving the letter have until July 22nd to respond. She says the bigger cuts are necessary because tax credits lawmakers approved during the June special session will further reduce state revenue receipts.

Boy, those are some fine financial folks we've got in Frankfort. The Gov calls a special session to deal with a BILLION DOLLAR shortfall, which induces suitable panic across the Commonwealth. Once everyone is paying attention, does he propose the long-needed overhaul of our dysfunctional revenue system?

Nope, it's a bait-and-switch -- he changes the topic to horses and slots. That shortfall? Oh, we had the Federal stimulus money in our back pocket all along. Of course, it's a one-time solution ... but we'll deal with that some other time, because by God, it's time to talk about horses and slots!

Then along comes our wonderful General Assembly. Do THEY ask about the shortfall? No, they want to play horsey as well ... only this time David Williams gets to be the owner, trainer, AND jockey. As expected, the leges spend a week yelling at the wind about slots, only to have Williams throw the whole thing out at the end of the session.

All this is bad enough. But, the crowd in Frankfor is not satisfied with just injury; they decide to add insult by making the situation worse by taking money OUT of the revenue stream.

Do I have a problem with waiving income tax for active duty personnel? Of course not -- should have happened a long time ago. My problem is with a governor who refuses to LEAD, who refuses to address the underlying problem when he has a chance, and with legislators who only know how to obstruct or make things worse. Jim Wayne's bill should have gotten a hearing. The revenue system needs an overhaul. The eastern part of the state is falling into greater and greater poverty and despair, and the rest of the state ain't doing so hot either. But all we get out of Frankfort is rearranging of the lawn chairs in the infield, and even that not successfully.

So now we get to cut some more, and cut some more, and gripe about David Williams, and diddle away our state's future. It's like the poster from Despair.com says:

Leaders are like Eagles.
We don't have either of them here.