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Where Do Our Taxes Go? —A Legislative Proposal

By Pat Pending

Governor Patton has begun his scare tactics to frighten Kentuckians into thinking that the world will come to an end unless we raise taxes.  However, according to the Cato Institute’s Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors, http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-391es.html  Governor Patton has been one of the five worst governors in the country with respect to spending restraint.  In other words, Patton has done a superior job of increasing spending during his tenure.  Now that Governor Patton is not spending his time with Tina Conner or running for the Senate, he should use his time wisely, figuring out how to decrease spending – not figuring out how to scare us into increasing taxes. 

One of the problems for regular citizens is that it is very difficult to find out where the state’s money really comes from and where it really goes.  How can voters and elected officials make good decisions if we do not have good information?  The state legislature would be doing us a great favor if it required the state to post on the Internet its income and expenses, broken down in an easy-to-find and user-friendly manner, so citizens can make some sense of it all.  It also should post a comparison with other states and with other alternatives.  Since a large portion of our budget goes for education, we ought to be looking carefully for places to save money in education.  For example, what portion of our K-12 education budget goes to highly-paid managers in Frankfort, who just push paper around and create red tape for teachers but do not teach any students?  Also, how do our education costs compare with the costs of private schools?  What money comes in from the lottery, and where does it go?  Another area with large expenditures and plenty of corruption is road-building.  Where does the money go?  What are our costs per mile to build a road or highway, and how do they compare among various parts of the state and with other states? If this information is being made available to state legislators, there is no reason it should not also be posted on the Internet and made available to all the citizens.  If it is not being made available to state legislators, it should be. 

It is time for Kentucky to post its books in a clear, user-friendly fashion for public scrutiny so we can figure out what cuts should be made.  Kentucky workers and their employers are taxed enough already.  Raising taxes would only put a greater burden on workers and the businesses that employ them, crippling our state instead of allowing it to grow and prosper.

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