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Kentucky – Time For a Choice

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

The Kentucky legislature is in a tough spot.  Its income simply does not meet its outgo, and there is no solution that will be politically popular. 

There are demands on tax dollars from every direction, and Kentucky already is taxing its residents at rates higher than its neighbors, tending to drive residents and businesses out of the state, so raising taxes would only make the situation worse.  Teachers have threatened to strike if their insurance benefits are not increased.  In addition, the cities are noting that they are paying the lion’s share of the taxes, subsidizing rural areas, while their own needs go wanting.  Clearly, it is time for serious change.  If the legislature can summon the political will to make the right kinds of changes, it can put the state in a position to be very successful in the future. 

First, the state should make changes that would treat people with greater respect, giving them greater freedom, choice, and control over their lives and property.  For example, the health insurance program should be changed to provide a high deductible major medical insurance coupled with a health savings account.  This would give government employees much more control over their health care and would give them an incentive to keep their medical costs down, since doing so would allow them to accumulate money in their health savings accounts.  When employees have an incentive to keep costs down, the state will also recognize savings over the long term.  The state also should institute an education tax credit program, which would enable people to put their education tax dollars into scholarships for K-12 students from low income families.  This would result in reduced expenses for the state and a far better educated population, as families take advantage of the scholarships, send their children to schools that are more successful at educating their children, and put less demand on the government schools. 

Other helpful changes would be those that would more closely tie state expenditures to user fees, for example, spending gasoline taxes on road improvements and maintenance in the same counties where the taxes are paid, since that clearly is where the drivers are driving.  Enforcing load limits on trucks also would go a long way toward saving money on road maintenance. 

Privatizing the operation of state parks and other state operations also would stop the bleeding while providing improved service. 

In short, there are many improvements that can be made to put the state in good shape, if only there is the political will to carry them out.

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