Summary of recent Kentucky newspaper editorials:
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March 16
Lexington Herald-Leader on failed pension overhaul:
Kentucky Republicans frustrated by their stymied pension overhaul should flip back through 30 years of the legislature’s greatest hits.
Successful reforms enlisted stakeholders from the beginning - not just as tokens, but deeply, to identify priorities, build consensus, hammer out details.
None of that happened with Senate Bill 1, the 289-page plan to fix ailing pensions by cutting billions in benefits. Unveiled halfway through this session, it was recently declared all but dead by Senate President Robert Stivers after failing to earn enough support even among Republicans to risk a vote.
SB 1 was hatched in secret by, well, we’re not exactly sure who. At this point no amount of robo-calling by dark money groups or insult-hurling by Gov. Matt Bevin can make up for the trust deficit spawned by that lockout of stakeholders and the public.
What could work is starting over with all the affected groups at the table and all concerns laid out for the world to see.
Teachers and public employees are willing to sacrifice to make their pension plans solvent, contrary to Bevin’s invective. But they have to know that their sacrifices will produce the promised results.
The demand to “Find Funding First” - seen on signs hoisted by teachers thronging the Capitol - is spot on. The only thing that will end the huge unfunded liabilities in Kentucky’s pension systems is money to make up for years of intentional underfunding by governors and lawmakers.
To their credit, Bevin’s budget and the House budget adequately fund pensions for the next two years.
If other more fundamental changes and cutbacks are needed, as Sen. Joe Bowen, the Senate’s pension expert, insists, then lay them out, let everyone be heard and, if they can, offer better alternatives.
We’ve already seen public employees sacrifice to shore up their pension systems in 2013 when the legislature moved state and local employees from defined benefit into the hybrid cash balance plans that the Senate also wants for newly hired teachers. Also, in Lexington in 2013, police and firefighters agreed to pay more to restore their pensions to sound footing in exchange for the city promising the same.
Bevin, who poisoned the well by demonizing teachers last fall, was at it again March 13, lobbing ill-informed insults at teachers and lawmakers on the radio in Campbellsville.
Whether Bevin’s ego would let him participate in multi-stakeholder negotiations is questionable.
But that approach has succeeded in the past - from the education and solid-waste reforms of the 1990s to the pension reforms of 2013 to last year’s juvenile justice reforms and this year’s improvements in foster care and adoption.
Tough problems get solved when stakeholders are at the table and the work starts in the interim between sessions. The more complicated - and it doesn’t get more complicated than pensions - the more critical it is to engage those with the most on the line.
The best that can come from this session now is full pension funding for the next two years and relief for local governments, school districts, universities, libraries and quasi-government agencies from huge new pension costs imposed by Bevin’s pension board. Also, a promise from legislative leaders to involve stakeholders in any new plan that might be considered in a special session or next year’s legislature.
Online: http://www.kentucky.com/
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March 18
The State Journal on potential political misuse of Crime Stoppers:
Frankfort Crime Stoppers is a critically important tool for getting bad guys off the streets and keeping our community safe.
That makes it imperative for the program’s handlers to avoid even the slightest hint of politics.
In response to a reader’s question submitted for the popular “You Asked” feature in our Friday editions, Managing Editor Josh Bergeron found that Crime Stoppers ads, prominently featuring Franklin County sheriff candidate Chris Quire, suddenly reappeared on Frankfort Plant Board cable channels last month after a two-year hiatus.
From Feb. 10 to Feb. 25, at least 66 30-second ads ran on ESPN, A&E, CNN, HGTV, Fox News and TNT, according to a Plant Board official, with more scheduled for this month. No Crime Stoppers ads aired in 2016 or 2017.
The aim of the increased advertisements is to boost exposure for a program that solicits and accepts anonymous tips on unsolved crimes, said Police Chief Travis Ellis.
Perhaps, but it’s hard to ignore the timing of the ads, which are running just months before the Democratic primary for sheriff, in which Quire, the police department’s public information officer, is challenging incumbent Pat Melton.
When asked why the ads hadn’t run previously, Ellis said he couldn’t speak for decisions by prior police chiefs.
Perhaps the timing is just coincidental, but the fact that the ads prominently feature Quire puts a cloud of suspicion over the program that is unnecessary. The ads could be just as effective without using Quire’s name or image.
Quire is an impressive young lawman who is waging a formidable campaign against a vulnerable, longtime incumbent. Melton’s odd response to felony criminal charges against his chief deputy - first suspending him, then reinstating him days later with full pay and benefits while he supposedly performed only administrative duties - raises serious questions that the sheriff has not adequately answered. A recent high-speed, multicounty chase of a misdemeanor suspect while the sheriff’s wife was along for the ride also demonstrated poor judgment unbecoming of a veteran lawman.
Quire, who has Melton on the defensive, can run an effective campaign without the help of free publicity from a Crime Stoppers program that should rise above partisanship.
Online: https://www.state-journal.com/
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March 19
The Daily Independent of Ashland on how a balloon popping at a middle school dance indicates the lack of sense of safety in schools:
The rash of school violence in this country has students nervous and on the brink of panicking at a moment’s notice. We need no more evidence of this than the reaction of students attending a dance at West Jessamine Middle School. With students on edge about guns in schools, the sound of a balloon popping caused middle school students to run from the dance at the school near Nicholasville a little more than a week ago.
Near the end of the Spring Fling formal dance, a rumor circulated that a student had a gun, police and school officials said. A school resource officer who was working at the dance “dealt with the situation and found that there was no weapon,” Nicholasville police said in a Facebook post.
Then, as the dance was ending and students were being dismissed, the sound of a popped balloon frightened several students, causing them to run outside in a panic. Nicholasville police and school officials shared information about the incident on social media, saying there was never any danger, and everyone went home safely.
How sad it is that there have been so many incidents of school violence that all it takes a false rumor and a popping balloon to frighten students. Or maybe just the common sound of a balloon popping in a room where there were many balloons was enough to cause students to panic. How we long for the days when students felt safe in school because they were safe.
Online: http://www.dailyindependent.com/
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