You can't beat up on the job creators

Where are the jobs? That's the question on many people's minds as the economy sputters, D.C. politicians agree on almost nothing and here in Kentucky, questions abound about how the state will pay a coming interest payment on the nearly $1 billion it has borrowed from Uncle Sam to pay unemployment claims. And, yes it's true. Some companies, perhaps many, enjoy big profits and are not hiring.

I've seen liberal columnists like Robert Reich essentially "demand" that U.S. companies with rich cash reserves start hiring. Those same people who blame companies for not hiring are many times also the first to support policies that have a chilling effect on hiring. Let me count three examples:

1) Healthcare reform: Out of the news for the most part lately, but implementation dates of the plan in the next few years still have business and industry nervous. Starting in 2014, businesses with 50+ employees must provide healthcare coverage or pay fines. I know of at least one business with 47 employees in two locations who'd like to open a third but won't because of this predicament.

2) Continued EPA advocacy: Coal-fired power plants in the midwest are in the crosshairs of the EPA. This promises increased electric rates for much of the country. For industry, it will cost millions.

3) Union activities: President Obama was not able to get legislation designed to make it easier to unionize America through Congress. Now, the National Labor Relations Board is proposing changes that are clearly designed to handcuff business and industry's ability to communicate with its own employees during a union organizing effort.

It's no different than refusing to water a garden but expecting a bumper crop. You can't beat up on the job creators and expect them to go on a hiring frenzy. Taxes are always an issue to business and industry, but regulation and red tape is strangling American enterprise and job creation. It's that simple.

Environmental bulls eye squarely on Kentucky

Wow, just when you think there might be enough U.S. senators to realize that the proposed cap and trade issue is a bad idea, the EPA declares carbon dioxide a health hazard and says it will regulate its emissions. That thud you hear is a collective groan from economic development leaders in Kentucky.

Earlier this year, the U.S. House barely passed the controversial cap and trade legislation that would have the effect of raising electric rates for states like Kentucky, where more than 90% of electricity is generated by the Commonwealth's abundance of coal. We've enjoyed electric rates that are about half of most of the U.S. and that clearly has been our state's biggest asset to luring and keeping manufacturing. Today, smelters in the Owensboro area produce nearly 20% of the world's aluminum. Aluminum jobs are high-paying with good benefits and also have a high job multiplier effect. If electric rates go up dramatically, those plants are in jeopardy.

At the same time, the EPA is starting to clamp down on sewer agencies like that in Owensboro where sewage and storm water are in the same pipes. Many communities around the country have decades-old combined systems, and the EPA wants sewage and storm water separated. That's another idea—like clean air—that sounds good but costs millions and millions to accomplish. Owensboro's sewer agency has been working with the EPA for a long time on a plan to mitigate this, and I'm told that EPA officials have essentially told the agency that because local sewer rates are much less than the national average, there is "room for rates to grow."

Room for rates to grow? Try telling that to a citizenry that is struggling to pay their current bills, perhaps scared of a losing their job or facing the expense of sending a child to college. Growing utility bills are also no solution for struggling business and industry slowed by the economy. Kentucky stands to be a big overall loser in the name of environmental stewardship.