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A Conservative's Experience of the Kentucky State Fair

By William Hardy (8-27-01)

    Our commonwealth has a spectacular state fair that lasts eleven days through the middle portion of August.  State Fair goers can partake in a variety of evening concerts, thrilling rides on the midway and Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom.  The variety of entertainment choices from the world champion horse show to thrill rides gave everything a person might wish for.  Kentuckians and visitors across the states Indiana, Tennessee and others could spend all day just participating in the festive culture.  This portion of this state fair experience can join all of us in the commonwealth together no matter what religious or political differences we may have.

    Aside from the entertainment, inside of the fair there was a conflicting tone in the South Wing. In the South Wing of the Fair and Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky an entire different experience was unfolding.  Every Governmental entity from Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms on the national level to over a dozen state agencies were promoting itself.  Promotion of government agencies across the commonwealth is not new at the state fair or any other festive event.  State agencies such as the Department of Workforce Development, to agencies relating the watersheds, engulfed the South Wing.  I have renamed the South Wing of the State Fair the “Government Self-Promotion Wing.”

    Some of the expenses that the Kentucky taxpayer will have to fund are payment of the booth which is $600.00 per 10x10 area, cost to pay for workers to cover the booth, and the cost to construct some to the booth's equipment.  For example, a third of the Government Self-Promotion Wing was turned into an inside park that individuals or families could walk through.  This landscape was very well crafted, but all came at the expense of taxpayer dollars.  If the government agency whether for land or water conservation wanted to display a backdrop of trees and pretty scenery, all they had to do was set the booth outside.

    The whole problem is not that government agencies are out promoting themselves, but that these agencies do their promotion at the expense of Kentucky's taxpayers.  Do you want to pay taxes so your not so favorite government agency can promote itself to find a reason to increase funding the next year in the state budget?  It is time for the taxpayers of this state, who have been silent for thirty years on this subject, to voice their opinion.  I urge Take Back Kentucky in the upcoming legislative session in 2002 to draft legislation in a bill that states, "State Agencies shall not promote themselves at expense of the Kentucky taxpayer across the commonwealth at any fair, show, or any event related activity."  If we allow this kind of self-promotion to continue, we will have a state budget that spends taxpayer dollars for any frivolous activity.

William Hardy,                                                                                Louisville, Kentucky 40118

CP Candidate for Council