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Gov. Steve Beshear said via press release this morning that he wants taxpayers to send him government cost-saving ideas.

Here goes: Repeal prevailing wage to lower public construction project costs. Repeal certificate of need to lower healthcare costs. End the practice of doling out corporate welfare “economic development” deals. Stop requiring government agencies to buy newspaper advertising for public notices. Stop allowing legislators to transfer pension credits to higher-paying jobs elsewhere in state government. Require the Kentucky Department of Education to post each of its expenditures online so taxpayers can help them waste less money. Devote less money to need-based higher education financial aid to lower college costs. Stop trying to raise taxes and stop borrowing money we don’t have.

Those are a few of mine. Take a minute and click here to give him some of yours.

Massachusetts’ government healthcare program keeps blowing through budget projection after budget projection, while lack of money is keeping Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear from attempting the same thing.

Score one for letting government have less money.

Fresh off his effort to sign up more Kentuckians for unsustainable government health insurance plans, Gov. Steve Beshear is now promoting federal tax credits as powerful poverty fighters:

“”The EITC is one of our best anti-poverty tools, and I want to make sure every eligible Kentuckian takes advantage of it and gets the money they deserve,” Gov. Beshear said.”

Education is a far better anti-poverty tool. And given Kentucky’s long and sad record of poorly-run schools, it would certainly be more inspiring and effective if he were to join in a bipartisan effort to improve the state on that front.

In a shocker that has important implications in Kentucky, the Washington Post today announced that DC’s schools’ leader, Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, is dropping district support for teachers seeking certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Rhee cites a lack of evidence that this expensive and time-consuming program produces better student achievement.

The Post also says Cheryl Krehbiel, Rhee’s top deputy for professional development and a NBPTS certified teacher, admits links between NBPTS certification and student performance are weak.

The reason this is important to Kentucky is that taxpayers here provide extra stipends for teachers who have NBPTS certification, and Kentucky also supports those teachers getting certified.

In this time of fiscal austerity, if the NBPTS program isn’t providing much, or any, bang for the buck, as DC educators allege, we need to investigate that right away.

The Beshear Administration has finally released its government spending transparency web site.

Let’s just say it needs some work.

One glaring error is the statement that Kentucky Retirement Systems doesn’t use tax dollars (click the image below to read it):

The legislature just met back in June and agreed to dump billions of dollars into KRS from now until 2025. Where do they think that money is coming from, the tooth fairy?

We clearly have a long way to go before government in Kentucky is transparent to the taxpayers.

Speaking Sunday on ABC’s This Week program, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell suggested giving federal tax money to states may not be the best idea. Instead, he said the feds might loan the money:

“It might make sense to lend the money to the states that will make them spend it more wisely,” he said, “If the money were lent rather than just granted, states would, I think, spend it wisely and the states that didn’t need it at all wouldn’t take any.”

Does differentiating between gifted money to be blown and borrowed money to be spent judiciously really sound like part of the thought process in Kentucky’s state government?

That rationale didn’t do much to protect taxpayers forced to bail out bad-risk home “buyers” who borrowed money rather than have it given to them.