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New Kentucky Think Tank “Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions”

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

Chris Derry, a recently retired asset management advisor residing in Bowling Green, Kentucky, has recently founded the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions (BIPPS), an independent, non-profit think tank that will analyze Kentucky’s state and local government programs, taxation, and regulations and offer policy options in accordance with the founding ideas of America:  individual liberty, economic freedom, personal responsibility, and respect for the property and lives of others.   On September 8, Derry gave a presentation to Louisville’s Sunrise East Rotary Club and described for them his motivation for founding BIPPS and what he expects this organization will do in order to make Kentucky a better place.

Derry was raised in Van Wert, Ohio, where his father was active in politics and held elected office.  Derry said politics were often discussed around the dinner table, and his father told him that, while it was important to be involved in influencing public policy, he didn’t recommend running for elected office.  He said you go into politics with good intentions, but the system has a way of changing you.  He advised Chris to find another way to influence policy.  Chris Derry says that founding BIPPS is the way he has now chosen. 

Derry is a 1973 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and earned an MBA in 1986 from Vanderbilt University.  He has spent his career in the financial services field, beginning with Edward Jones in 1979.  He moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1982 to open a branch office for the firm.  Later, he opened and managed his own consulting firm, coaching people and organizations.  He sold that firm in 1996, and, since that time, has represented three asset management firms, two in New York, and one, National Asset Management, in Louisville.  He retired on August 1, 2003, and currently lives on a small farm near Bowling Green with his wife, Nancy.  His presentation was entitled “Ideas Have Consequences”.

Derry began his talk by asking, “What keeps you awake at night?”  And he suggested numerous issues that might be of concern to people, such as the quality of your children’s or grandchildren’s education; whether you will be able to take home enough money after taxes to take care of your family, and so forth.  He said many of the things that keep us awake at night involve government policies.  Derry said Governor Patton wants to raise taxes, but you can’t “bleed a sick man well.”  In February, in Bowling Green, there was a 33% tax increase.  Derry said he approached the local council trying to convince them to cut costs rather than raising taxes, but nobody wanted to listen to him.  He was very disappointed, because these were people he had known and been friendly with for many years.  He noted that other states have institutes that help provide ideas for cutting costs and serve as helpful resources for legislators, but Kentucky did not have such an institute.  The Bowling Green tax increase inspired him to begin such an institute for Kentucky. 

Derry, together with Lawrence W. Reed, has written a paper entitled “Seven Principles of Sound Public Policy for Kentucky”, which sets out some of the economic principles that will be considered by BIPPS as it makes its analyses of public policy options, and he described a few of those principles in his talk.  For example:

1.       If you encourage something, you get more of it, and if you discourage something, you get less of it.  He reminded the Rotarians of the luxury tax that had been placed on cars, boats and jewelry several years ago.  It was supposed to be a tax on the rich to raise more revenue.  What happened instead was that people bought fewer of these luxury items, and the government ended up losing money, because it took in less in taxes and paid out more in unemployment benefits to workers who lost their jobs due to reduced demand for these products.

BIPPS will study how to anticipate these unintended consequences and will predict the real outcome of policy proposals. 

2.       Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.

Derry wants government spending to be made more visible, which will make it more efficient.  He gave the example of the Mackinac Center in Michigan, which studied the finances of a government-owned ski slope and compared it to private slopes, making the inefficiencies and losses of the government slopes clearly visible.  As a result, the state began looking for a private operator to run its slopes. 

Derry pointed out that Kentucky is 37^th on the “efficiency” list, which rates how efficient states are at getting things done.  He hopes that BIPPS will help move Kentucky higher up on that list.

3.       Government has nothing to give except what it first takes, and a government that’s big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you’ve got. 

Derry said that government now consumes 42% of everything we produce in America.  In 1900, it only consumed 6-7%.  He asked, “To what degree are we entitled to the fruits of our labor? “

Derry will be holding organizational meetings around Kentucky in the next couple of months to gather financial support and organizational support for BIPPS.  The meeting in Louisville will be September 23.  For more information, call 270-782-2140 or go to the web site http://www.bipps.org.

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