In Burton and Anita Folsom’s new book, FDR Goes to War, the following quote appears … [A]ll of us owe the government; we owe it for everything we have—and that is the basis of obligation—and the government can take everything we have if the government needs it. . . . The government can assert its…
A new audit on operations in the Jefferson County School District’s central office, “Final Report of a Study of the ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CENTRAL OFFICE STAFFING, FUNCTIONS, AND OPERATIONS,” says on page 28 that “Transportation services were found to be very expensive, amounting to $54,648,585 in 2008-09, $57,085,703 in 2009-10, and $62,544,974 in 2010-11.” That’s…
Last year the Bluegrass Institute sent a records request to obtain the Kenton County Fiscal Court check registers for 2005-2011. Those results have been uploaded to our transparency site FreedomKentucky.org – View them here. Ideally these documents would be made available proactively by government agencies. Until that happens, Bluegrass Institute will do its part to…
Join Jim Waters, vice president for communications, as he discusses the Bluegrass Institute’s latest report on Kentucky’s public pension crisis today (Tuesday, Jan. 10) on radio shows across the commonwealth. Read the report here. Waters will be on the Sue Wylie Show on News Talk 590 WVLK-AM in Lexington at 10 a.m. eastern (listen live here), followed by…
For Immediate Release: Contact: Jim Waters Thur., Jan. 5, 2012 270-782-2140 Future Shock: Legislators stoking the coals on Kentucky’s runaway pension train (right-click & save target as…) A failure to meet pension-payment requirements 11 of the last 15 years leads to a 3,000 percent increase in the Bluegrass State’s unfunded liability since 2000 (FRANKFORT, Ky.) –…
During this year’s legislative session, the Kentucky General Assembly must develop a budget. Even though creating a budget is in fact the General Assembly’s sole constitutional duty, the budget process is rife with problems. Most notably, there is a glaring lack of transparency in the process. Legislators often have less than 48 hours to review…
A new group has put some serious energy behind a push for charter schools in Kentucky. The group, Kentuckians Advocating Reform in Education, hopes that Kentucky will cease to be one of a small number of states with no broad-based charter school law. Here’s the ad the group has been running around the commonwealth. This…
Along with the new year comes the hope that the Kentucky General Assembly and other governing bodies around the state will make decisions that can be aligned with the defense of Kentuckian’s personal freedoms. This year, I would like to see Kentucky’s leaders at all levels (city councils, counties, school districts, state government, etc…) address…
Over the weekend, the Lexington Herald-Leader published a list of issues to watch for in the upcoming 2012 legislative session. The list is not even close to being complete but does provide a nice overview of what is expected to be the focus of the session. View the list here. Two issues that were not…
USA Today has a package of stories on public pensions. Specifically, the stories explain how the purchase of “air time,” a method of pension spiking, contributes to pension funding problems. In short, “air time” is credit for work not performed. Workers can pay for this extra service credit as a share of their current salary.…