Julian Carroll helped launch McConnell’s career

Reprinted from Kentucky Roll Call newsletter, Aug. 15, 2013.

From 1974 to 1980, Roy Stevens served as a chief aide to Gov. Julian Carroll and to Gov. John Y. Brown Jr. In a memoir, Grass Roots, released this summer, Stevens recounts how Carroll subtly helped launch Mitch McConnell’s political career. It happened as follows: In the 1975 governor’s race, Gov. Carroll was running for a full term, after ascending to the office from lieutenant governor when Gov. Wendell Ford resigned to go to the U.S. Senate.  Jefferson County Judge (judge-executive now) Todd Hollenbach Sr., on the basis of his strength in the state’s largest county, filed to run in the Democratic primary against Carroll. Hollenbach carried Jefferson County by more than 5,000 votes, but Carroll handily won the race.

Stevens writes, “Hollenbach did himself no favors by running for governor in 1975. In 1977, Julian had an opportunity to send that message and underscore that point when Hollenbach was running for re-election as Jefferson County Judge. Hollenbach’s 1977 opponent was a lesser known Republican lawyer named Mitch McConnell. Julian, the Governor and titular head of the Kentucky Democratic Party, was asked about McConnell’s candidacy. Julian’s response was to publicly compliment McConnell, in effect, telling Democratic loyalists in Jefferson County they should feel comfortable supporting a Republican in that particular race. After holding a 44 point lead in early polling, Hollenbach was defeated by McConnell. ... The election launched a winning streak by McConnell, who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and is now the Senate Republican Floor Leader.”

[Editor's note: A copy of Roy's memoir, Grass Roots, is available, as the limited the supply lasts, to individuals who donate $20 or more to the Princeton Animal League (PAL), 1300 South Jefferson, Princeton, KY 42445. He may be reached via e-mail at rstevens40@att.net.]

Private-sector workers get government pensions

The following is an editorial from The Kentucky Gazette, Aug. 14, 2013. Reprinted with permission.

It might surprise you to know that the employees of 1,169 entities participate in Kentucky’s County Employees Retirement System. That came to 47,452 retirees and 94,636 employees as of June 2012. Could be more now; could be less.

   Most of these employees are government employees – they work for the water districts and counties, school districts and cities – and they have earned a government pension.

   But some of these people are employees of “instrumentalities” of government; that is, they aren’t true government employees. For this reason, they should not be allowed in CERS.

   We’re certainly not suggesting that the employees of instrumentalities don’t deserve pensions. Rather, we’re suggesting that the pensions shouldn’t be provided at taxpayer expense.

   As we know, most of the revenue in the pension funds is derived from investments (65 percent to 70 percent), and the employees pay into the fund as well (5 percent or 6 percent, depending on their hire date). But, according to Reuters, roughly 20 percent of Kentucky’s pension fund revenue comes from the taxpayer. Depending on the national economic climate and returns on investment, this could be more, could be less. Either way, citizens write the checks to cover the difference.

   CERS, which is one of the three systems under the umbrella Kentucky Retirement Systems had, as of June 2012, an unfunded liability of $3.59 billion in its pension plan for employees in non-hazardous occupations, and a $1.26 billion liability in its plan for employees in hazardous jobs, a total of about $4.85 billion. These obligations mean the plans do not have enough money to fully cover retirees, who’ve earned full benefits, and current employees, who’ve earned partial benefits. The non-hazardous plan had 60.7 percent and the hazardous plan had 58.1 percent of the money the plans need to pay pension benefits, according to the 2012 KRS Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the most recent available.

   Twenty percent of the $4.85 billion comes to $970 million that individuals, business owners and consumers must redirect from other spending preferences to pay for pensions, and part of that covers people who aren’t government employees.

   Apparently, a number of these entities work under contract with the local governments or exist to provide services to government entities. Take the Kentucky League of Cities, for example, and the Kentucky Association of Counties. It’s been said here before that these two entities, which both own for-profit insurance companies that make millions of dollars a year, should not be part of the public pension system.

 Let’s add to the list the Kentucky Magistrates and Commissioners Association, the Kentucky Judge-Executive Association, the Riverpark Center, and Housing Oriented Ministries, to pick out a few.

    As near as we can tell, Hous-ing Oriented Ministries, a non-profit corporation based in Whitesburg, is a program of the United Church of Christ. Also a non-profit corporation, the Riverpark Center is an entertainment venue that hosts Broadway shows, among other programs. And the magistrates and judge-executive associations should be dropped from CERS because they simply are not government entities.

   To be fair to current employees, those in the system should be able to continue and accept the pension promise that’s been made to them. Going forward, though, lawmakers need to amend KRS 78.510 (3), which gives broad authority to the Kentucky Retirement Systems board to determine which entities can participate in CERS: 

   “(I)f the (retirement systems) board is willing to accept the agency, organization, or corporation, the board being hereby granted the authority to determine the eligibility of the agency to participate.”

   After Kentucky’s General Assembly sets CERS right, then members can start on the Kentucky Employees Retirement System, which has the same problem. KERS participants include Commonwealth Credit Union, the Kentucky Bar Association, Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency of the Bluegrass Inc., Judi’s Place for Kids … You get the picture.

Laura Cullen Glasscock, editor and publisher

Book by Steve Nunn’s ex-wife coming soon

Tracey Damron married state Rep. Steve Nunn, the son of former Gov. Louie Nunn, in 1996. They became one of Frankfort’s best known and liked power couples. But they divorced in 2006. And three years later, Steve Nunn murdered Amanda Ross, his ex-fiancée. He pleaded guilty to the crime in 2011, and is now in prison for life with no possibility of parole.

Damron has written A Trail of Feathers, a book about her life and her marriage to Nunn, and has scheduled a news conference to discuss the book with reporters at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday, Aug. 7, on the Capitol steps in Frankfort.

Kentucky Educational Television host Bill Goodman will interview Damron, about the book and her marriage to Nunn, on his One-to-One show, which airs at the following times.

KETKY  Sunday, July 21 at 9:30 am EDT
KET  Sunday, July 21 at 1:00 pm EDT
KET  Monday, July 22 at 12:30 am EDT
KET2  Tuesday, July 23 at 7:30 pm EDT
KET2  Wednesday, July 24 at 7:30 am EDT
KETKY  Thursday, July 25 at 8:00 am EDT 
KETKY  Thursday, July 25 at 6:00 am EDT
 

Before she married Nunn, Damron was married to now Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott. Both Scott and Damron are Pikeville natives.

A promo on the draft front cover of the book reads, “A true story about one woman’s journey of love, death, murder, political power, deception, the supernatural and consciousness.”

Special elections may break D and R tie

Going into tomorrow’s special election to fill the vacant seat in House District 56, the Democrats hold 68 of the 138 seats in the Kentucky General Assembly — 54 in the House of Representatives, 14 in the Senate. And the Republicans hold 68 seats as well — 45 in the House, 23 in the Senate. There's one independent.

That the two parties are dead even in total representation is interesting but not as significant as it might appear to the legislative untutored, because the Democrats control the House and the Republicans control the Senate, and ruling a chamber is the important thing.

However, the overall tie is very significant for its symbolism. For 20 years now, Kentucky has been a competitive two-party state, in terms of state-house politics (election of governor, constitutional officers and the General Assembly). Local and federal races are different, but that’s a story for another day.

All three candidates in tomorrow’s election reside in Versailles (Woodford County). A win by Democrat James Kay would suck some the wind out of the sails of the Republicans, who have high hopes of capturing control of the House in 2014. On the other hand, if R’s nominee, Lyen Crews, get a victory, watch out for the dancing pachyderms.

But in a small turnout special election — about 25 percent is expected — the outcome is even more unpredictable. Independent candidate, John-Mark Hack, has visions of pulling off a Wallace Wilkinson-style surprise. Older readers will recall the 1987 governor’s race, where, in the Democratic primary, John Y. Brown Jr. and Steve Beshear went head-to-head with so much negativity, Wilkinson (creating a wave with the lottery) surfed in the back door. Conditions seem ripe for Hack to do well, despite not being able to compete financially in this race.

Below is a profile of the current Kentucky General Assembly from Who’s What In Kentucky 2013-2014, the biennial legislative directory produced and published by Kentucky Roll Call. Click here to review the book. 

Nearly half of legislators now on Twitter

It’s said the nightingale cannot perform unless it first hears a few notes from another nightingale. Somewhere in that observation lies a lesson from Nature relative to the growing amount of tweets by members of the Kentucky General Assembly on the new-found social media Twitter. 

Now, 45.9 percent of the commonwealth's state lawmakers are on Twitter. And the number of Republicans who are using this social media far outnumber the Democrats. In the state Senate a majority of the members, 20 of 38 (52.6%), are tweeting — 14 Rs and 6 Ds.  In the House of Representatives slightly fewer than a majority, 43 of 99 (44.4%), are tweeting — 27 Rs and 16 Ds. [There is one vacancy in the House.]

All these legislators tweeting provide a significant opportunity for lobbyists and for anyone else following the development of public policy in the state. Because in every tweet, the legislator provides at least a hint, intentionally or not, of where his or her mind is on subjects of personal interest and public policy. It has long been my view that the best lobbyist will study each legislator like an astronomer studies the stars. And now all of these legislators are singing like nightingales — well, maybe some of them. 

The following is a list of state legislators on Twitter as of mid-May 2013.  The source is Who's What in Kentucky Government 2013-2014, now available at Kentuckyrollcallbooks.com.