Downtown plan fallout fails to materialize in election

Bruce Kunze, John Kazlauskas and David Johnson all voted for the insurance premium tax increase in February of 2009 that will fund Owensboro's downtown improvements. In fact, they were the only three who voted for the increase who were on Tuesday's local ballot. They all survived quite nicely and will be on the November ballot despite opposition from several newcomers.

Kunze stepped up to the judge executive race and easily won the Democrat nomination. Kazlauskas finished third and Johnson fifth in the 12-way battle to choose the top eight candidates for four spots in November. What may be more telling is that those most vocal in their opposition to the downtown plan were soundly defeated. In the GOP primary for judge executive, former city commissioner Al Mattingly trounced his two opponents--both very vocal opponents of the insurance tax increase. Mattingly didn't campaign against the downtown plan. Neither did the two top vote-getters in the city commission race, Pamela Smith-Wright or Roger Stacy.

Surely, there's been many vocal opponents of the tax increase and the downtown plan. Everyone seems to have an opinion, and many of us who supported the plan have wondered if it was simply a loud minority or majority. Tuesday's results would seem to indicate that there are in fact many "quiet" supporters of it.

Downtown Owensboro has a long way to go to be all its supporters envision. Tuesday night, however, those who predicted a "complete sweep" of local government should be disappointed. More appropriately, those who support the downtown plan should be heartened.

There's no substitute for hard work

I had the fortune last week to speak to honor students at my alma mater, Gibson Southern High School near Ft. Branch IN. The first night I spoke to 6th through 12th graders and on the second night it was 1st through 5th graders. I must admit that I was a little nervous. I hadn't been in my high school gym since graduating 26 years ago this month, and there were a handful of my classmates there probably questioning if I was worth their time.

I took the opportunity to talk about the value of working hard, looking for opportunities to stand out from the crowd and getting outside one's "comfort zone" to learn something different. I told the 6th through 12th graders that their parents give them advice and responsibility based on many more years of experience; they, in turn, are best served listening to them and not questioning when they heard the dreaded word: "no."

That is a summary of my life experiences and I have my parents to thank. Both of mine were hard-working, dedicated and headstrong. My dad was a truck driver and my mother worked at home and later in a furniture factory. They put "first things first" and somewhere along the way, it rubbed off on me. Little did I know that their example was being engraved in me and how much the adage to "work hard" would play out in my life.

Today, many students don't have that example at home. Modern America's staggering divorce rates and other struggles leave us with many single-parent homes and lost opportunities to instill sustaining values in kids' minds. I, myself, split custody of my two teenage sons with their mother and I try to make up for that lost time by purposely looking for chances to make points and teach them lessons that will hopefully make them successful adults.

I've found hard work will overcome many obstacles. There are no shortcuts. The same goes for good parenting.

The Chamber brand has never been stronger (and more important)

As the president of one of the larger "local" chambers of commerce in the state, I'm fortunate to be included as an ex-officio director of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. The state chamber celebrated the opening of its office expansion/renovation this week in Frankfort with its quarterly board meeting which included a teleconference with U.S. Chamber President Tom Donahue.

Under Donahue's leadership, the U.S. Chamber has become a pro-business juggernaut; it has been very successful in defending free enterprise and is a genuine thorn in the side of the Obama White House. The group spent more than $144 million on lobbying activities in 2009 and under its political director, Bill Miller, is becoming adept at grass-roots organizing around the U.S. Donahue left little doubt during his call on Wednesday that the U.S. Chamber plans to play a major role in working to elect pro-business candidates and defeat others this fall.

In Frankfort, Kentucky Chamber President Dave Adkisson has been very fittingly added to the U.S. Chamber's board of directors. Since returning to his native Kentucky in 2005, Adkisson has taken a sleepy state organization that was losing members at an alarming rate and turned it into a juggernaut of its own. The Chamber's "Leaky Bucket" campaign the past year shed light on the unsustainable growing expenditures on state employee pension and healthcare, corrections and Medicaid. It gained attention across Kentucky and, more importantly, with legislative leaders. Its work with metro chambers across the state also helped defeat House plans to tap business for enough funding the next two years to bond a new construction program. The Kentucky Chamber is also ramping up its PAC with plans to become more involved in legislative races.

Under Adkisson's charge, the state chamber has also forged a better relationship with local chambers. As a recent president of the statewide chamber executives group, I've seen this work firsthand and am helping to create a web-based system for allowing business leaders to convey their thoughts about important legislation to Frankfort leaders.

With the Obama regime talking job creation on one hand and cranking out policies on the other that will strangle job growth, now is the time for chambers of commerce to flex their muscle. Leaders like Donahue and Adkisson are leading the way.

Charter schools = competition

I've been someone who until recently thought the Daviess County and Owensboro school districts should strongly consider merging. During one of our Emerge Owensboro leadership classes last fall, however, a local school administrator made the point that there's a healthy "competition" between the districts that keeps both of them striving to do better. He went on to say that merging them would take away that incentive. I agree.

The Kentucky Senate has passed a bill that would bring charter schools to Kentucky. With the opposition of the KEA established, the House is not likely to approve the bill before the session ends on April 15th. The charter school issue went from nowhere to the front seat in recent weeks as Kentucky competed for--and lost--nationwide competition for federal Race to the Top funds. The state lost several points because charter schools are not currently allowed.

I'd like to see more discussion of charter schools in the legislature before they're approved because the issue is too important to not be thoroughly examined. That can come in a special session or during the 2011 General Assembly, but I believe more "competition" in public schools would be a good option. We're blessed in Owensboro-Daviess County and other areas of Kentucky to have good public schools, but education is too important to not always be looking for new and better ways.

Critics say charter schools are not always successful, but with many states having them, Kentucky is in good position to examine what works and what doesn't and design them accordingly. Kentucky's kids deserve no less.

Meanwhile, KY's legal climate worsens

Tort reform—comprehensive changes to lessen the practice of "defensive medicine"—is nowhere to be found in the healthcare reform package passed by the U.S. House yesterday. There is no doubt that defensive medicine is a driver of healthcare costs. Too add insult to injury, there are no malpractice caps in Kentucky, which means physicians in the state pay very high malpractice insurance premiums.

Today, the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform issued its annual state-by-state rating of how reasonable and balanced the states' tort liability systems are perceived to be by U.S. business. It found that Kentucky has fallen from the 29th worst to 40th. This is not good news; it's not good for attracting business and industry to Kentucky, and it's not positive for businesses to expand operations.

What are the numbers? According to the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts, the number of civil lawsuits filed in the state’s circuit courts, which decide civil cases seeking over $4,000, surged from 39,439 in 2002 to 63,958 in 2009, a jump of 60%.2. Kentucky’s district courts, which hear civil cases seeking less than $4,000 and small claims, experienced a similar surge of civil suits from 97,871 in 2002 to 138,982 in 2009, a 42% rise.

Meanwhile, Indiana is ranked much better at 5th on the list. Tennessee, to our south, is ranked 19th. See the whole report here:
http://www.instituteforlegalreform.com/lawsuit-climate.html