Jim Waters in Danville for the Vice Presidential Debate from Bluegrass Institute on Vimeo. Our questions for the V.P. candidates When it was announced that the Vice Presidential debate for this election cycle would be held at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, we at the Bluegrass Institute immediately began day-dreaming about being able to craft the…
We are counting down the top 30 reasons to donate $17.92 each month to the Bluegrass Institute as part of our 1792: Never Out of Date campaign. Reason #21 to donate: Bluegrass Bullets and facts you can use! One of our goals is to break down complex issues to their most important elements and provide…
In a recent cn|2 Pure Politics interview, Sen. Dennis Parrett of Elizabethtown revealed that he wants to end the special pension perks granted to Kentucky state legislators. He speaks specifically about the added benefits from 2005’s HB 299. These perks should absolutely be repealed. Frankly though, the senator doesn’t go nearly as far as he should.…
Tuesday evening, Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute appeared on cn|2’s Pure Politics to discuss the commonwealth’s pension system crisis. Watch the discussion below. One of the take-away points is that if steps are not taken to deal with this pension mess, other services provided by the government will be crowded out of funding. We…
Bluegrass Institute president Jim Waters will appear on cn|2’s Pure Politics with Ryan Alessi to discuss the shape of Kentucky’s public pension system. This comes on the heels of the recently released Future Shock: Kentucky Politicians’ Opulent Pensions Have Become a Modern Day Gold Rush which outlines how Kentucky’s elected representatives have legislated themselves into…
Jim Waters joined WHAS’ Mandy Connell on Monday morning and much of the discussion was focused on tax and budget reform. You can hear the podcast here: In August we armed Kentuckians with a few key questions to ask their legislators about the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Tax Reform. These questions are below and…
How many businesses would borrow money to meet pension obligations? Yet this approach appears attractive to Kentucky politicians looking to do anything but make the tough choices regarding Kentucky’s $34 billion unfunded pension liability. I’ve heard no one from the many groups testifying on this issue — including the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce or the…
Recently the Institute for Truth in Accounting (ITA) released an updated Financial State of the States report. Unfortunately, Kentucky has ranked near the bottom with regards to state debt and taxpayer burden. I can’t be the only person growing weary of low rankings for the Commonwealth. The ITA points out that a lack of transparency and…
In a recent press release, state representative David Floyd, R-Bardstown made it known that he has prefiled legislation for the 2013 General Assembly session that would end the practice of bestowing lucrative public pension benefits to Kentucky’s part-time legislators. That is certainly one way to attack the state’s egregious unfunded public pension liability. The proposed…
We are counting down the top 30 reasons to donate $17.92 each month to the Bluegrass Institute as part of our 1792: Never Out of Date campaign. Reason #25 to donate: You want to see a transparent budget process in the Kentucky General Assembly. Kentucky taxpayer money is spent behind closed doors. General Assembly Budget…