Happy LOST day. Here’s some stuff to read while you think about the terrible climate for business in Kentucky.
Today Governor Steve Beshear announced that the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet would install crossover cable barriers at the site of 12 crossover collisions on I-75 in Rockcastle. The $1.25 million for 9.1 miles of median cable will apparently help stop tons of accidents and unnecessary deaths on the interstate. [Press Release]
Former President Bill Clinton has joined the national board of trustees that will promote the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. While not up our usual Kentucky tourism alley, we’ve gotta encourage you to stop at the memorial and museum if you’re ever driving through Oklahoma. One of the most powerful memorials we’ve ever visited. [H-L]
Maybe it’s time to actually do something about gas price gouging? We’d love to stop talking about it but we’ve yet to see anything substantial happen. [WAVE3]
Cathy Bailey has FINALLY admitted it. She is considering a run for Jim Bunning’s U.S. Senate seat. In other words, she’s drying up Bunning’s fundraising in Louisville to further Trey Grayson’s candidacy. [McClatchy]
Watch Greg Stumbo and David Williams stump in favor of mountaintop removal at a town hall meeting last night. You know how it is. That good, flat land sure creates thousands of jobs and saves the environment. [WKYT]
Come on, Kentucky officials, let’s quit it with the child pornography. Please. Georgetown’s captain of emergency management and Office of Homeland Security was charged with eight counts of possession of matter portraying the sexual performance of a minor younger than 13. [H-L]
We’re puzzled by it, but Site Selection magazine ranked Kentucky 5th in the nation in its 2008 Annual Competitiveness Award. The benchmark measures state economic development agencies’ competitiveness and their ability to attract capital investment and expand economic activity in the state. [Site Selection]
10 responses so far ↓
1 David Adams // May 6, 2009 at 6:47 pm
There is no reason to be puzzled by the Site Selection corporate welfare listing. It’s a listing of “competitiveness” of “economic development agencies,” not states. With Kentucky’s lack of economic competitiveness, the state has to depend very heavily on tax incentive packages to attract investment. The fact that we have to do so much of it speaks to our lack of competitiveness and is nothing to be proud of, much less reason for self-congratulatory press releases.
2 James P. Benassi // May 6, 2009 at 7:51 pm
David Adams is right. Also, this “competitiveness” is the cause of Ky’s budget deficit. What Ky does not give away thru the tax code it gives away thru the Ky Econ Develop Cab which is run by private groups.
Look at the median family incomes of Site Selections Top Ten States http://www.statemaster.com/graph/eco_med_fam_inc-economy-median-family-income :
Above average (barely):
Michigan 19
Below average
Pennsylvania 22
Indiana 26
Ohio 27
Texas 37
South Carolina 39
Tennessee 40
North Carolina 41
Alabama 43
Kentucky 46
Kentucky cannot afford this kind of “competitiveness.”
3 Mike // May 6, 2009 at 8:02 pm
I was in Missouri Monday on I55 around Hayti gas was $1.76 when i got back to Ky the gas was $2.16. shouldn’t be $.40 cents higher ,what gives
4 Biff Horowitz // May 6, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Our gas is special, Mike. It’s blue grass filtered, quality checked by unicorns and then Richie Farmer’s cousins taste test it every three years or so.
5 JasonL // May 6, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Doesn’t matter if there’s an investigation on gas prices. Nothing will come of it. Nothing ever does. Any fines assessed will just be a small portion of the profits the companies are getting.
Just pay and thank them for the reaming you’re getting.
It’s beginning to be ri-goddamn-diculous
6 Bruce Maples // May 6, 2009 at 9:01 pm
If this state took the money it gives away in tax incentives and put it into college scholarships, we’d be able to raise our standard of living AND our tax base within a decade.
We throw money at companies with no hope of getting it back. As long as we’re going to use bribery, we at least ought to demand something in return.
7 TJ // May 6, 2009 at 10:42 pm
If Cathy Bailey is trying to dry up Bunning’s fundraising, why did she co-sponsor his Louisville fundraiser? I’m so confused.
8 Thunder Storm // May 6, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Biff – Have you noticed Richie Farmer has removed the date from the fuel pump inspection sticker. It used to have the moths and year listed and the month part was punched when that pump was inspected. Not there now.
It’s because they are supposed to inspect them annually but don’t even get close to it. More of the ineptness from Richie Farmer and the Agriculture Dept.
9 Thunder Storm // May 6, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Jake – Did you notice Jerry Johnson in the Williams Stumbo WYMT video. Its at the 1:14 mark. I wonder if he is stumping for his wife to get a big job in the Beshear administration. I forget, he doesn’t have to, she already has it.
10 Conservative // May 7, 2009 at 8:58 am
The problem is not gouging, it’s collusion. When every station in a certain area has the same price, or the prices are within a penny or two of each other … and more importantly, when one raises its price all the rest follow suit in a matter of minutes … then something is fishy. Not all these companies are buying gas from the same supplier. And not all the suppliers are buying oil from the same sources. I’m not a fan of Jack Conway, I think he’s a lightweight, but I’d be more impressed with him if he’d quit talking about gouging and do an honest investigation into collusion. Or at least someone give a reasonable, honest and believeable explanation of why all the gas stations on one strip have nearly-identical prices, and all raise them at practically the same time.
C’mon, Jack, here’s your chance to impress a Republican who probably won’t vote for his party’s Senate nominee next fall, be it Bunning, Grayson or Paul.
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