Beshear goes on the road

Ronnie Ellis
CNHI News Service

FRANKFORT, Ky. July 18, 2008 09:50 am

— Some call it an “image tour,” designed to portray Gov. Steve Beshear as a vigorous leader and increase his favorability ratings. Beshear calls it a “listening tour.”

He started Thursday in Pikeville, telling about 400 people he doesn’t think expanded gambling is dead. There are 12 more scheduled “Beshear About Kentucky Tour” stops. Beshear will visit Somerset on Monday, Winchester (July 24), Ashland (July 28), Madisonville (July 31), Shepherdsville (Aug. 5), Bowling Green (Aug. 6), Owensboro (Aug. 11), Hazard (Aug. 12), Northern Kentucky (Aug. 13), Henderson (Aug. 18), Murray (Aug. 19) and Paducah (Aug. 20).

Whether the tour is to boost his political fortunes or a genuine desire to listen to voters’ concerns, it’s a good opportunity for voters to size up their new governor and question him about where – and how – he plans to lead the state. Voters should have plenty of questions of their own. But here are a few suggestions based on statements by Beshear during last year’s campaign.

Candidate Beshear was repeatedly asked if he had a backup plan should expanded gambling fail. It did – at least in his first legislative session. (He said plan B was to make sure it passed.) He also said, “I will not be proposing any new taxes on Kentuckians,” including a cigarette tax increase. But he did and it, too, failed. So, Governor, how do you propose to deal with Kentucky’s fiscal problems?

Candidate Beshear said rising college tuition costs are directly tied to “insufficient state funding.” Governor Beshear proposed to cut higher education funding by 12 percent – after a 3 percent cut in a budget reduction plan. The legislature trimmed the cut back to 9 percent. Tuition rates in Kentucky now exceed the national average. Governor, do you have a plan to stem the increase?

Candidate Beshear said early childhood education – not expanded gambling – would be his first legislative priority. But he spent the first two-thirds of the session working almost exclusively on a gambling amendment. Candidate Beshear promised to insure 81,000 uninsured Kentucky children. When will you address those issues, Governor?

When he was running for election, Beshear said Kentucky must lead the nation in clean-coal technology while maintaining coal production levels, but he also said “most of us realize things like CO2 emissions are harming our atmosphere.” Wednesday, he called for a strategic energy plan including converting enough coal to liquid fuel to replace the 2 billion gallons of gas Kentucky uses while doing it in an environmentally friendly way. How?

Beshear railed against “rank partisanship,” but he also promised to take back control of the state Senate from Republicans and he couldn’t keep House Democrats from squabbling. He promised to work with Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, but they hardly spoke and Beshear was unable to prevent the regular session from crashing over partisan differences. Now he claims credit for the bi-partisan pension reform passed in special session. How will you build on that, Governor, and are you willing to give as well as take during negotiations with legislators?

Candidate Beshear promised to return “ethical, competent leadership to Frankfort,” but a lot of familiar faces from the past are in his administration and he couldn’t control the agenda during the regular legislative session. His top legislative proposal failed. He’s changed chiefs of staff and communications directors. Governor, what grade do you give yourself for your first eight months in office?

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort, Ky. He may be contacted at rellis@cnhi.com.

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