KyKurmudgeon

Tone-deaf flights of fancy

Today's column:

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear has gone tone-deaf in a big way about his 13-stop listening tour of the state (after which he hopes to hear that his lowly approval ratings have risen).

At a time when state services are being slashed and state workers face the prospect of potential layoffs, blowing thousands of tax dollars to fly key administration personnel to various stops on the tour creates a public-perception disaster for him.

At a time of high fuel costs, flying those aides around wastes even more tax dollars than usual.

And at a time when he and state lawmakers are stepping on one another’s toes trying to position themselves as the greenest politician in Kentucky, particularly in regard to energy conservation, sucking up the extra fuel that flying requires makes him look like a hypocrite of the first order.

While a defensible argument can be made for flying the governor to some tour stops (and filling up that one plane with some members of his staff), no such argument justifies piling everyone into three planes for these trips.

But Beshear insists that he will continue flying his staff to some cities. And he defends that decision with rationalizations that miss the point on multiple levels.

“I guarantee you this: The cost is a lot less to take them with me than it costs to take 400 Pike Countians down to Frankfort and back,” Beshear said in a speech this week.

Well, duh, yeah. But excuse me, Governor, that comparison is lame, bogus and just plain irrelevant.

The proper comparison is the cost of taking government to the people of Pike County in three planes (one of which was chartered for $4,474) versus the cost of taking government to the people of Pike County in, say, three state-owned vans.

Does anyone need a calculator to figure out which of those two options is cheaper?

(If the vans don’t appeal to this administration, well, past occupants of Beshear’s office took government to the people by loading everyone on a bus.)

A statement issued by the governor’s office offered a different defense of the Pikeville airlift, saying it “saved 100 hours of work time, if not more” for Beshear and the 15 aides who accompanied him.

Uh, excuse me again, but not!

In the first place, the Pikeville tour stop began at 6 p.m. That’s an 1½ hours after the normal close of business for state government.

So, at most, driving would have cost Beshear and his aides a couple of hours each of normal office time. And since the planes took off from Capitol Airport between 4:09 and 4:44 p.m., some of them missed a bit of normal office time anyway.

But that’s beside the point because there really is no reason for van-pooling to cause lost work time.

Being away from the office doesn’t equate to being away from the job in this wireless world. So, Beshear and his people could be taking care of business during a van ride. And if they hit a couple of dead zones along the way, well, a bit of paperwork carried along in briefcases could keep everyone gainfully occupied.

Bottom line: Beshear promised better than this same old, same old waste of tax dollars. He hasn’t delivered. Until he does, Kentuckians are going to be scratching their heads and wondering how they managed to re-elect Ernie Fletcher.

Wasting tax dollars in this fashion is no way for Beshear to lift his approval ratings. On the contrary, if he continues his multi-plane flyovers of Kentucky, his approval ratings could easily worsen.

Instead of stubbornly insisting on these wasteful flights, Beshear should admit his mistake and move on. His predecessor had trouble learning that lesson and became a one-term governor as a result.

Another Stevie Wandering moment

Sunday's column:

FRANKFORT — This and that as Gov. Steve Beshear’s “Please Help Me My Ratings Have Fallen” tour gets underway:

OK, it’s officially the “Beshear About Kentucky” tour. But by whatever name, it will be coming soon to a town near you.

Counting Thursday night’s kickoff in Pikeville, Beshear will make 13 stops over the next six weeks  to hear what Kentuckians have to say about how the state can do more with less.

My first suggestion would be to stop taking three planes full of aides on this tour.

After limping through his first legislative session with little success, Beshear rebounded a bit by staring down the Council on Postsecondary Education on the selection of a new president, by getting lawmakers to come together on pension reform and by using the power of the pen on executive orders to reorganize the executive branch and set some new policies for it to follow.

(In that regard, the quick response of his newly reconstituted Kentucky Horse Racing Authority in addressing controversies in the racing industry has been particularly noteworthy and encouraging.)

Then, toward the end of a week in which energy conservation was a major topic around the Capitol, including his own press conference encouraging state employees to carpool and work flex time where possible, the governor blows a wad of tax dollars and a few tanks of fuel to make Kentucky’s carbon footprint even larger by flying staffers to Pikeville and back.

Surely, someone in the administration heard the dumb meter go off before this tone-deaf flight of fancy occurred.

It’s bad enough that this tour is all too reminiscent of the “Tell Me How to Spend a Surplus That Doesn’t Exist” tour of the state former Gov. Ernie Fletcher took in an unsuccessful attempt to win re-election. By kicking it off with a three-plane flyover of the state, Beshear just added to the list of what I have come to think of as his Stevie Wandering missteps – as in, where the heck was his mind wandering when he decided that was a bright idea?

                                                       * * *

Even before the aerial circus, Beshear’s recent positive accomplishments were being undermined by his administration’s lack of adequate vetting of James F. Sullivan, who was recently appointed to the Crime Victim Compensation Board and the Board of Claims.

Sullivan was convicted of a misdemeanor in 1990 for attempted jury tampering in former state Rep. Jerry Lundergan’s 1989 trial. That’s a rather unusual qualification for a member of these panels to have.

                                                      * * *

State Rep. Kathy Stein’s decision to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Ernesto Scorsone will leave the House in need of a new Judiciary Committee chairman come January. No doubt there will be more than one applicant pleading their case with the Democratic leadership.

But Judiciary is the traditional cemetery for bad bills and, therefore, demands a certain skill set of its chairman. To keep such legislation “resting peacefully,” as the late Rep. Gross Clay Lindsay used to say when he chaired the committee, it is best to have a chairman with a relatively safe seat and a strong spinal column.

I don’t know if he wants the job, but Rep. Darryl Owens of Louisville fits those characteristics.

A few quickies

Catching up on a few items:

1. For the first time in 20 years, there will not be a Bush or a Clinton at the top of a major party's' presidential ticket. The times really are a-changin', as Dylan might say.

2. Former Gov. Paul Patton deserves a seat on the Council on Postsecondary Education. He wrote the book on higher education reform in Kentucky, proposing the legislation enacted during a 1997 special session and using the force of his political will to overcome opposition from some entrenched higher education interests. He would be an excellent addition to a panel that has seen a bit of turmoil lately. His knowledge and insight might be particularly beneficial in evaluating applicants during the search for a new permanent president.

3. Former Gov. Ernie Fletcher added insult to injury when he chose Diversity Day in 2006 to sign an order removing a ban on discrimination due to sexual orientation that Patton had implemented in state government. Gov. Steve Beshear did the right thing Monday when he issued an executive order reinstating anti-discrimination protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender state workers. They deserve the same respect afforded to other employees.

4. It's too bad the state can't figure out a way to repo Education Commissioner John Draud's costly ride, the one pimped out with $13,000 worth of extras that he now remembers he did know about. But then, that's small change compared to the $448,997 low bid submitted for the next round of pimping out the Senate's digs. And that doesn't include the $400,000 in rent the state will pay to house the agencies kicked out of the Capitol Annex so none of our senators will have to suffer the indignity of being stuck in that "rather small office" Senate President David Williams mentioned recently.

Ethics reform by executive order?

Gov. Steve Beshear could not win legislative approval of his proposal for executive branch ethics reform, but he has called a press conference at 2 p.m. Tuesday at which he is expected to announce that he will implement some or all of his proposed reforms by executive order.

Among other things, his initial proposal would have required more frequent disclosure of contributions to any legal defense fund established by an executive branch official. Former Gov. Ernie Fletcher formed a legal defense fund to help pay the legal costs he accrued as a result of the BlackBerry Jam investigation into his administration's hiring practices, an investigation that led to his indictment on misdemeanor charges. Fletcher later cut a deal with former Attorney General Greg Stumbo's office to get those charges dropped. The current reporting requirements for a legal defense fund allowed Fletcher to keep the names of donors and the amounts they donated secret until after he left office.

In addition, Beshear's original ethics proposal called for the governor, the attorney general and the state auditor to select nominees for the Executive Branch Ethics Commission on a rotating basis. Currently, the governor has sole authority for appointing the panel's members.

Other changes in the governor's original proposal would expand the scope of the ethics commission to cover more executive branch officials and strengthen the rules on conflicts of interests and the acceptance of gifts.

Quickies, legislative and otherwise

1. After losing to challenger Brandon Smith in the 2000 84th District House race, former Rep. Scott Alexander tried three times to get back to the General Assembly. On the third try, he succeeded (if only temporarily), winning back his old House seat in a March 18 special election to fill the vacancy created by Smith’s election to the Senate’s 30th District seat in an earlier special election. But a couple of days after being sworn in, Alexander took off on a trip to Costa Rica, acting as a chaperone for his daughter’s (and Smith’s son’s) high school Spanish, which caused him to miss most of this session’s closing days and crucial votes on such issues as the budget. This is the guy Gov. Steve Beshear chose to back in a losing cause in that 30th District Senate race. Geez, talk about throwing away all your momentum and political capital for nothing. (By the way, since both chambers of the General Assembly routinely excuse absent members, Alexander was drawing his normal legislative pay every day he was on the trip, including weekends. He was also receiving his normal expenses for legislative sessions.)

2. During this session, Senate Republicans proposed that the Kentucky Lottery Corp. return more of its profits to the General Fund and that the prison population be reduced by putting some non-violent in rehabilitation programs or on house arrest. That led some wags to opine that the Senate R’s wanted to balance the budget by relying on expanded gambling and putting convicts back on the street. The joke is a gross oversimplification, but there is a certain irony to this year’s proposals by a party that has long been tough on crime and opposed to expanded gambling.

3. We all know who’s behind the FBI investigation into Transportation Cabinet activities during former Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration. It has to be that partisan rogue Attorney General Greg Stumbo conducting another political witch hunt. But wait, Stumbo is back in his old House seat. And even if he were still AG, the FBI answers to the Justice Department, now run by appointees of a Republican president. So if this investigation turns up evidence of misdeeds, how are the Fletcher apologists going to explain it away?

Efficiency Fairy still hanging at the Capitol

Sunday's column:

FRANKFORT — Former Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s little buddy, the Efficiency Fairy, didn’t vacate the state Capitol when his master did. He hung around and found new friends on both sides of the aisle in the General Assembly.

Wednesday night, the little fellow’s legislative buds assigned him quite a task when they approved a budget that assumes tens of millions of dollars in annual savings from unspecified efficiencies that Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration must implement over the next two years.

To “balance” this budget, lawmakers relied on other shaky assumptions as well, such as the estimated $85 million in annual savings from not filling 3,400 vacancies created by eligible state workers making a mass exodus before the “high-three window” of enhanced retirement benefits closes Jan. 1.

This assumption ignores the possibility that a slew of these expected retirees look at the prospect of $4-a-gallon gas and a tanked economy that offers minimal opportunities for a second career and say to themselves, “You know, job security is a good thing.”

And if 3,400 retirement vacancies don’t materialize, well, the Efficiency Fairy may have to resort to layoffs and/or the suspension of certain amenities provided by the state in non-critical areas such as parks.

Assumptions of savings from efficiencies and retirement are just part of the problem with this budget. It also relies on restructuring debt that generates $50 million in the short term but increases the debt and extends payments on it in the long term. The title of The Moody Blues’ classic album To Our Children’s Children’s Children comes to mind in regard to this shifting of the debt burden.

Even with all the assumed savings and the cash withdrawal charged to the state’s credit card, this is such a nasty, pain-inflicting spending plan that it might have been voted down in the House had it not been for a separate package of projects cobbled together with a big assist from Senate President David Williams, who knows how to exploit the projects addiction that is as strong as a crack habit for many House members.

But the emergence of a projects package in a year when an austere budget stomps all over education and human services with old-fashioned metal golf spikes led to a weird, even bizarre, set of circumstances on the House floor.

Rep. Harry Moberly, the Richmond Democrat who chairs the Appropriations and Revenue Committee, voted against a budget for the first time in his 28-year career. He called the projects package “a diabolical deal with the devil” and said those who voted for the budget were “selling out the children of this state and the teachers of this state for water and sewer projects.”

The job of making a positive case for the budget, normally handled by Moberly, fell to Rep. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, the first vice chair of A&R.

To put it politely, Webb’s defense of the budget often lacked enthusiasm. It seemed a struggle for her to find good things to say about it. And at times, she didn’t even try. “This is a hard vote for me,” she told her colleagues

Although Moberly’s speech got the most coverage, as it should because of his position, Rep. Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, gave one of the more impassioned speeches.
“My state employees and my teachers are getting shafted,” he said. “But I’m standing up today because I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired (of) the way this budgetary process is taking place. It’s dysfunctional, it’s undemocratic and it’s dishonest.”

But it sure keeps the Efficiency Fairy busy.

One misstep after another, right off the cliff

Sunday's column:

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear and Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo put their young administration’s political capital on the line backing a two-time loser in the 30th District senatorial race.

Now, Scott Alexander is a three-time loser, and the Beshear-Mongiardo team knows what it feels like to wake up the morning after being on the receiving end of an old-fashioned butt-kicking.

Oh, well, that can happen when a governor forgets why he got elected and starts to think he’s back in an era when strong governors dominated Kentucky politics.

Beshear forgot what his predecessor forgot. He forgot that he was elected not because of who he is or what he promised voters. He was elected solely because of the scandals that plagued the previous administration. The only mandate voters gave him was the mandate to be anyone but Ernie Fletcher.

So far, Beshear is failing to fulfill that mandate. One of the constant themes in the hallway discussions around the Capitol and Capitol Annex these days is that we’re experiencing Ernie Fletcher II.

Same dumb mistakes. Same inability to learn from them. And if it continues down that path, the same one-term failure as a governor.

Another firing controversy with evolving excuses is the most recent example.

Let’s say the latest excuse — that there was just cause to can Fletcher holdover Eric Landis after his return from Air National Guard training  because he failed to keep appointments or submit a résumé for the administration’s review — is 100 percent accurate.

It doesn’t matter.

Whether or not the Beshear folks are on the side of the angels, this is another no-win situation for them. There is no upside to digging in their heels.

This is one of those times when you fess up to a mistake (even if you didn’t make one) and do whatever it takes to put it behind you. Otherwise, you not only evoke comparisons to Fletcher, you also look unpatriotic.

During last week’s hallway discussions, I heard one explanation for the 30th District fiasco that went something like this:

You think you’ve got an election that can be won. You think Mongiardo’s popularity in the district and Beshear’s kick-butt victory last fall can make all the difference in a tight race.

You take the first step and the second and the third. By the time you realize you were wrong, by the time you realize one person’s popularity can’t be transferred to another person, you’ve gone so far that turning back would be meaningless.

So, you keep moving forward until you walk right off the cliff. But that’s OK. If you learn from your mistake, you can still recover and have success.

I see some wisdom in turning around and walking away before taking that last step into thin air. But even if you buy this explanation, the key element is learning a lesson from your free fall.

I’m waiting for evidence that the Beshear folks are learning from their mistakes. I didn’t find it in the way they handled the Landis affair last week.

But now that the special election is over, Beshear needs to forget politics for a while and focus his full attention on policy – specifically, the policy issues being debated in the General Assembly.

Good policy decisions can help make people forget about one bad political decision. Besides, if he gets the policy thing right, the politics may be more likely to break his way in the future.

Ernie Fletcher: Gone but not forgotten

Even though he lost his bid for re-election, former Gov. Ernie Fletcher has a presence in this year's General Assembly. It takes the form of legislation that would make it more difficult or impossible for future governors to repeat some his more egregious abuses of power.

For instance, House Bill 5 proposes to amend the state constitution to bar a governor from issuing the kind of blanket pardon Fletcher granted to all members of his administration during the BlackBerry Jam hiring scandal. It would also prohibit a governor from pardoning himself.

House Bill 134 would expand the state Personnel Board from seven members to nine by adding two additional classified (merit) employees. It would also require that any changes in the selection method for job classifications be approved by the board.

House Bill 250 is a comprehensive reform of the executive branch ethics law. Among other things, it would give the state auditor and attorney general a say in who gets appointed to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission. It would also require any official who sets up a legal defense fund to file regular reports with the commission. (Reporting requirements for legal defense funds are also addressed separately in House Bill 47.)

Then, there is House Bill 446, which would prohibit an administration from spending more than half of the highway contingency fund in the first six months of a fiscal that begins during a gubernatorial election year. That is in response to the Fletcher administration spending all but $307,000 of the $65 million budgeted for this fiscal year before leaving office in mid-December.

Beshear's lose, lose, lose trap

Sunday's column:

FRANKFORT — Grants seemingly awarded to influence an election. Jobs that appear to have been exchanged for political favors. The state plane used for a trip that was partially political.

This is not the kind of government Ernie Fletcher promised Kentuckians he would deliver. He vowed to do better than his scandal-plagued predecessor.

Wow. Did I just type Ernie Fletcher’s name in that last paragraph? I guess this feeling of deja vu all over again I’m experiencing confused me for a moment. I meant to say this is not the kind of government Steve Beshear promised to deliver when he vowed to do better than his scandal-plagued predecessor.

But here we go again, folks. And this time, it can’t be attributed to inexperienced youth dominating a governor’s inner circle.

Heck, no. Beshear brought in so many old hands (a term defined as being within shooting distance of my advanced years) that kiddie wouldn’t even come up in the nickname conversation. Geriatric might. Or geezer. But certainly not kiddie.

Maybe that explains how Beshear stumbled into a mess of his own making in the special election for the 30th District Senate seat, which was vacated when Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo was inaugurated. Maybe all those old hands think they’re still living in a bygone era of old school politics. Or maybe they just suffered a collective senior moment.

Whatever the reason, the Beshear administration’s attempts at dictating the outcome of the Senate race have been clumsy, heavy-handed and embarrassing to watch from the outset.

Rigging the system to ensure that former Rep. Scott Alexander got the nomination over former Rep. Roger Noe alienated some of the district’s Democrats and made this a more difficult race to win.

Making the perception problem created by the rigging job worse, the administration gave Bell County Democratic Chairman Leo Haggerty a state job just days after he helped make Alexander the nominee.

Dumb is the most polite way of describing that decision. Truly dumb.

If there was no tradeoff, it’s dumb to create the perception that there was. And if there was a tradeoff, you wait until after the election to give the guy a job. You don’t do it before the election and give the angry members of your own party more reason to scream.

With the district’s Democrats united, the numbers would favor their candidate. Now, though, the election is such a tossup that Beshear has brought the power of the governor’s office into play, bringing handouts to the district Thursday in an attempt to tilt the race Alexander’s way.

Clumsy, heavy-handed, embarrassing.

Frankly, other than the symbolism of keeping Mongiardo’s seat in Democratic hands, I can’t see the gain that offsets the risk Beshear ran by getting so heavily involved in a political race so early in his term.

Sure, Beshear and his fellow Democrats want to retake the Senate. But this one election won’t get them there.

And as far as his own political capital is concerned, it appears to me that Beshear has walked into a lose, lose, lose trap in the 30th District.

Even if Alexander wins, it will come at the cost of the moral high ground Beshear occupied after beating Fletcher. It has been eroded by the raw use of power in this race.

If Alexander loses after getting so much help from the administration, Beshear will appear weak and ineffective, perhaps to the point of becoming the earliest lame duck governor in the history of Kentucky.

Then, there is that third possibility. Eastern Kentucky politics being Eastern Kentucky politics, if the Democrats try any shenanigans that attract the eyes of some people who report to superiors in Washington, D.C., the possibilities for a perception of “guilt by association” are limitless for a governor who’s taken such an active role in the race.

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That “non-endorsement” endorsement Beshear gave Bruce Lunsford in the Senate primary was also a mistake.  Lunsford’s wealth makes him the instant favorite in the race. All Beshear’s statement did was needlessly alienate supporters of other D candidates.

Campaigning on the public dime

During an update briefing on the status of the Road Fund Thursday, Transportation Cabinet officials showed a legislative subcommittee a chart of monthly spending from the highway construction contingency account from July 2001 through December 2007. Between July 2001 and April 2007 the spending topped $10 million in only one month, April 2004, when it reached $11.8 million.

But in May 2007, former Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration $12.3 million from the account. In September, they topped that by spending $12.8 million. They nearly doubled that in October, spending $25.3 million.

In May, Fletcher faced a contested Republican primary against former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup and Paducah businessman Billy Harper. In September and October, he was trailing Democratic challenger Steve Beshear by a wide margin in the polls.

A total of $65 million was budget to the account for this fiscal year, which began July 1. Transportation Secretary told the committee there was $307,000 left when he arrived in December.