Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated statewide newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute’s website after being released to and published by newspapers statewide. This year’s election turned a promised blue wave nationally into something akin to a blue slosh or purple puddle – pick your metaphor – as progressives’ hopes for…
Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated statewide newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute’s website after being released to and published by newspapers statewide. Progressives never count themselves satisfied with expanding government a single time in one lone area. Grotesque growth by government in one area like health insurance never stops do-gooders…
Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated statewide newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute’s website after being released to and published by newspapers statewide. I’ve been considering adding “witness a 50-percent turnout at Kentucky polls in a midterm election” to my bucket list. We may get close reaching that turnout number on…
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) — The Bluegrass Institute released the bipartisan list of candidates for Kentucky House and Senate seats in the 2018 General Election who publicly and courageously expressed support prior to Election Day for making the commonwealth’s public pension benefits subject to the Open Records Act by signing the organization’s Pension Transparency Pledge. “Taxpayers have…
On Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6, citizens will vote on whether to amend our Kentucky State Constitution. The proposed amendment is known as Marsy’s Law. The Marsy’s Law campaign originated in California after a woman was tragically killed by her former boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend was released from jail on bond and proceeded to confront her…
Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated statewide newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute’s website after being released to and published by newspapers statewide. A consistent charge leveled against reformers who want to adjust the benefit structure of the commonwealth’s Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) is that we overstate the generosity of those…
Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated statewide newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute’s website after being released to and published by newspapers statewide. Opponents of reforming Kentucky’s public pension system and addressing its $60 billion worth of liabilities are attacking the process by which pension-reform legislation was passed during this year’s…
For Immediate Release: Friday, October 5, 2018 (FRANKFORT, Ky.) — A recent legal victory for the Bluegrass Institute Center for Open Government affirms that a closed-door meeting of the Kentucky House of Representatives last year to discuss public-pension reform violated the Open Meetings Act. House leaders attempted to avoid transparency requirements by characterizing the closed-door…
For Immediate Release: Friday, September 28, 2018 (FRANKFORT, Ky.) – The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky’s first and only free-market think tank, is asking all candidates campaigning for General Assembly seats during this fall’s election to pledge support for bringing a greater level of transparency to Kentucky’s troubled public pension system. The Institute…
Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated statewide newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute’s website after being released to and published by newspapers statewide. The frustration expressed by Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer following Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s decision to strike down a pension-reform law cobbled together originally as Senate Bill…