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Today's News for April 27, 2006System NewsState News National News Legislative Update 3 Democrats compete for 98th House District Writer: MIKE JAMES 4/27/2006 Ashland Daily Independent GREENUP The incumbent, a political novice and a perennial candidate are competing for votes in the Democratic primary for the Kentucky House of Representatives 98th District. The primary will decide the race; no Republican has filed, so the primary winner will run unopposed in November. Incumbent Tanya Pullin has represented the district, which includes Greenup County and part of Boyd County, since first elected in 2000. Her challengers include Walter Callihan, who has never held office but has run for several, and Danny Ray Elkins, who is launching his first run for office. Pullin, who first went to Frankfort as the economy began its slide from the dot-com peak, said northeast Kentucky is poised for recovery. "A lot of the work I've been doing with others in the last few years is beginning to become a reality. For example, the state budget just finalized included a number of new state jobs for the area as well as some new construction projects. "Considering the job losses across America our area has held on a little bit better," Pullin said. Greenup County likely will be the focal point of a burst of economic activity in the near term, Pullin said. There is money in the state budget for the second and third buildings at Ashland Community and Technical College's campus at the EastPark industrial park; the budget also includes site preparation money for a veterans cemetery to be built off the Industrial Parkway, she said. Pullin thinks the $9 million federally funded veterans cemetery could kick-start the transformation of the parkway from a sparsely populated shortcut between the river and I-64 to a busy commercial artery. "With the building at ACTC and the cemetery completed, I think we'll see a real change in the amount of activity and action on the industrial parkway," she said. Pullin said she'd worked on landing the cemetery project for four years. "Projects like these are big projects that take a long time and now we're seeing them take shape." Pullin also hopes to focus more on the energy industry in Kentucky. "Kentucky has a lot to offer in getting out from control of foreign countries on crude oil," she said. Among energy options Kentucky has to offer are agricultural fuels like ethanol and clean coal technologies, she said. Coal technology can be a boon to Northeast Kentucky because the mineral is central to rail traffic, power generation and other local industries. "Greenup County runs a lot on coal, so if Kentucky resources are used, railroaders and other workers will be working." Education also is among her priorities, Pullin said. She has worked to raise the pay of school employees to match rates in surrounding states. The new state budget brings Kentucky's teachers closer to that goal she said. She also has worked to bring more opportunities for state Governor's Scholars scholarships to area students, she said. "The number of local kids has been up the last couple of years." Elkins wants more jobs in the area to keep people from having to relocate. During his carpentry career, Elkins spent many of his work weeks out of the area because that's where he was sent on jobs. "If people could get good jobs with benefits, they wouldn't have to travel. When people have to travel to work, their money doesn't always stay home." Elkins thinks area resources are underutilized and would change that with incentives to new businesses, including local entrepreneurs. Courting new businesses will take incentives, working with unions and developing a strong workforce, he said. Also, the state needs to continue pushing for a connector between U.S. 23 and U.S. 52, he said. Incentives to bring in new industry have to be matched with safeguards so businesses uphold their end of the bargain, he said. He strongly opposes gun control, legalized abortion and same-sex marriage. As a union member, Elkins opposes right-to-work laws. "They talk about bargaining power with right to work, but how do you have bargaining power without a union," he said. Callihan refused an interview with The Independent. "I feel you're biased against me ... you people are evil," he said. Callihan has run at least twice for Greenup County judge-executive. BIG SANDY CONCERT 4/26/2006 Lexington Herald-Leader The Big Sandy Singers, featuring the Big Sandy Community and Technical College Community Choir, will host their annual spring concert Friday at 7 p.m. in Gearhart Auditorium in the Pike Building on the Prestonsburg Campus. The concert will feature pop, country, gospel, and show tunes. The Big Sandy Singers' new album, Down to the River to Pray, also will be featured. Admission is $3 or a donation. All proceeds benefit the BSCTC Music and Drama Club. Tickets will be sold at the door, and open seating begins at 6:30 p.m. Call Laura Ford Hall at (606) 886-3863, Ext. 67227. Cast, crew hope to encourage tolerance Writer: MIKE JAMES 4/21/2006 Ashland Daily Independent ASHLAND Lounging outside the stage door before rehearsal, cast and crew members of Ashland Community and Technical College's latest theater production mulled over their hopes for the show. To be sure, they want to entertain their audience. Applause is not their chief goal, however. Instead, insight, understanding and tolerance are the qualities they hope to leave with viewers after the lights come back up and the seats are empty. This is not the typical musical fare theatergoers are accustomed to at ACTC. Theater director Edward Figgins has chosen "The Laramie Project," a stark, harsh and sometimes brutal portrait of a Wyoming town thrust into the national spotlight after the murder of a gay college student. Matthew Shepard was robbed, beaten severely and left tied to a fence after two men picked him up at a Laramie bar in October 1998; he died from his injuries. "It's a show I've wanted to do for some time," Figgins said. The eight cast members each portray 10 characters, making it an interesting project and a good acting experience for his students, Figgins said. The town of Laramie emerges as a vital character in its own right. "The play is more about the town and how it was affected by the death of Matthew Shepard," Figgins said. That Shepard was gay is a key facet in how his death affected the town, a truth winnowed out through scores of interviews with residents by the theater troupe that wrote the play. The Tectonic Theater Project made six trips to Laramie to meet and interview both people connected with the case and other townspeople, Figgins said. The play was written from the interviews and employs a bare-bones staging in which the eight players are seated on upright chairs in front of a backdrop of staggered two by fours. There's a screen suspended at the center of the stage on which are projected occasional images from the town and surrounding countryside. The characters introduce each other as the story unfolds; their words are taken from the actual interviews. Cast and crew insist that while Matthew Shepard's sexual orientation is central to the story, it remains just one part of a larger issue. "People are going to assume it's a big gay event, but it's not," said cast member Sara Stapleton, a graduate of Fairview High School. "It's a show. We're not doing it to be controversial." "We're hoping to give people an insight into how many hate crimes there are in our country," said back stage manager Missy Cooper, a sophomore. "Every day on the news, you hear something about a hate crime." The real-life interviews that were the genesis of the play transform it into more than a chronicle of one town's trauma. "It's not just about Laramie. It's about everybody everywhere," said Kory Helmick, a freshman who intends to major in drama and theater. "What it boils down to is that everybody's different. The play really looks at differences as a good thing." That's how Figgins hopes audiences will receive it. "I hope the audience will be affected. Differences are not something to be scoffed at." A member of the Ashland Human Rights Commission, Figgins is familiar with bigotry. The commission deals frequently with allegations of racial discrimination. "We put up with this all the time." The chief message of the play "is what hate can do," said Travis Clark, a sophomore theater and art major. "A man in the prime of his life was taken away, a waste of a good human being." ACTC will present "The Laramie Project" at 8 p.m. Thursday through next Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. April 30. Tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more. College to host job fair May 4 Writer: Tom Doty 4/23/2006 Floyd County Times (Prestonsburg) Area job seekers will have a local job fair to look forward to which will bring together area employers and prospective workers this May at the Big Sandy Community and Technical College campus in Prestonsburg. The fair will be held on Thursday, May 4, at the Post-Secondary Education Building from 3 to 7 p.m. is being planned by the Big Sandy Area Community Action Program. Fast food workers and seasonal staff jobs will be headlining the fair, though there are still spots open for employers. Businesses and interested parties can still reserve space at the fair by contracting Joyce Wilcox at 789-3641 or Bill Breeding at 889-1772. HCC commencement set for May 5 4/27/2006 Hopkinsville New Era Hopkinsville Community College's 40th commencement ceremony is slated for 7 p.m. May 5 at the James E. Bruce Convention Center, 303 Conference Center Drive. According to HCC Registrar, Ruth Ann Rettie, 390 HCC students have applied for 626 credentials, 341 two year degrees, 262 certificates and 23 diplomas. Speakers will include Shante Randolph, student government president, Dr. Ken Casey, HCC's 2005-2006 outstanding faculty member, and 1978 HCC graduate Marcella Sue Hartigan Favre, who will be an honored guest at the graduation. Presiding at the ceremony will be Acting HCC President/CEO Dr. James E. Selbe, who will also present graduation credentials to the class of 2006. Acting Dean of Academic Affairs Alissa Young will introduce the faculty speaker, and Dean of Student Affairs Jason D. Warren will serve as master of ceremonies and present the candidates for graduation. HCC Board Chairman Bonnie Lynch will also provide brief remarks to the graduating class. Other graduation-related events include a practical nursing ceremony at 1 p.m. May 5 and a pinning ceremony for the college's associate degree nursing program at 4 p.m. May 5, both in the HCC auditorium. HCC newspaper third in contest 4/27/2006 Henderson Gleaner Henderson Community College's student newspaper, The Hill, finished third in the overall standings in the 37th annual KCTCS newspaper contest. The competition was open to student newspapers from any of the 16 districts in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and included newspapers published from the fall of 2004 and the spring and fall of 2005. Somerset won the competition with a total of 27 points, Elizabethtown was second with 26 points and The Hill finished third with 25 points. "Once again our students did a great job producing the paper and covering our campus. I am always proud of the work they do and the effort they put into making The Hill a great newspaper and an asset to HCC," said adviser Tony Strawn. The Hill earned 19 awards, including six firsts, two seconds, two thirds and nine honorable mentions. The paper has won this competition 10 out of the last 11 years. Receiving first-place awards were Bryan Blake for sports column, sports story and critical review; Tim Braden for cartoon strip; Chip Veatch for sports photo; and the staff from the fall of 2005 earned the top honor for overall page layout. Second-place awards went to Alli Willingham for signed column and Todd Strawn for sports photo. Third-place awards were presented to Scott Taylor for advertising and Strawn for photo essay. Students receiving honorable mentions were Kim McGan for critical reviews and feature photo; Kiara Fernandez for news photo and feature photo; Zach Stone for critical review; Elizabeth Ahmadi for photo essay; Britney Blanford for photo essay; Taylor for editorial; and Blake for advertising. HCC summer term deadlines set 4/25/2006 Henderson Gleaner Planning on enrolling in Henderson Community College's summer session? If so, you must submit an admissions application to the HCC Admissions and Records Office no later than Friday, May 19. No summer applications will be accepted after that date. Those submitting an admissions application no later than May 1 will have an opportunity to complete all admissions requirements prior to the first day of registration, which is Tuesday, May 23, from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Registration continues May 24 from 4-6 p.m. For more details, call 831-9610 or 800-696-9958 or visit the HCC website at www.hencc.kctcs.edu New on Arts Council 4/26/2006 Lexington Herald-Leader Governor Ernie Fletcher has appointed four new members to the 16-member Kentucky Arts Council. They are: * Jean M. Dorton, of Paintsville, the community and legislative liaison for the Big Sandy Community and Technical College and a member of the Morehead State University Board of Regents and the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, and chair of Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment (PRIDE). * H. Dean Jones II, of Owensboro, an executive for Texas Gas Transmission, LLC. member of the board of directors for the Owensboro Museum of Fine Arts and Junior Achievement. * K. Gail Russell, of Louisville, an attorney for Goldberg and Simpson, P.S.C. and a member of the Kiwanis Club of Louisville, Junior League of Louisville, Kentucky Opera Guild, Fillies Inc. and Jefferson Club Executive Women's Council. Russell is also on the board of directors of the Louisville Deaf Oral School Foundation, Kentuckiana Girl Scout Development Advisory Board, Louisville Bar Association and Kentucky Bar Association. * Wilma Brown, of Danville, is founder and executive director of the Community Arts Center in Danville. She is a founding member of the Gathering Artists of Danville and the Arts Commission of Danville/Boyle County. SCC academic honor society named "Most Distinguished" in the region 4/25/2006 Somerset Commonwealth-Journal Somerset Community College's Omicron Zeta Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa was recently awarded the "Most Distinguished Chapter of the Year" at the 2006 Kentucky Regional Phi Theta Kappa Convention in Louisville, KY held on March 10-11. The Somerset chapter competed against 18 chapters from across the state. Phi Theta Kappa is the international honor society for the two-year colleges. Dr. Jo Marshall, President and CEO of Somerset Community College expressed her happiness the recognition of SCC's Omicron Zeta Chapter, "In order to win so many distinguished awards, our Phi Theta Kappa chapter put in many long hours. I am so very proud of them. I also want to thank Johnna Atkinson-Bigelow, their faculty advisor, and Alena Morrow, their staff advisor, for their dedication to the Phi Theta Kappa hallmarks." Phi Theta Kappa's programs revolve around the four Hallmarks of Phi Theta Kappa: Scholarship, Leadership, Service and Fellowship. Some of the innovative programs implemented by Omicron Zeta included hosting a "National Cancer Survivor's Day" in London, KY and a "Civic Engagement Summit" in Frankfort, KY. Omicron Zeta's President Heather Warren was recognized for her service to the chapter. She was awarded title of "Distinguished Chapter President". Treasurer Susan Gray was recognized as a "Distinguished Chapter Officer." Omicron Zeta Chapter member Ashley Hansel was honored as a "Distinguished Chapter Member." SCC Omicron Zeta member, Roxanne Miller was also recognized for "Distinguished Regional Officer" and presented the "Bert T. Combs Award" for outstanding service to Phi Theta Kappa at the local, regional and international level. SCC's Omicron Zeta Chapter also received the "Outstanding Banner Award" for their banner made by member, Pam Bray. Omicron Zeta Co-advisors, Johnna Atkinson-Bigelow and Alena Morrow were also presented with "Distinguished Chapter Advisor" awards. Students learn about college at 'senior day' Writer: Kathy J. Prater 4/23/2006 Floyd County Times (Prestonsburg) Floyd County Schools and Big Sandy Community and Technical College joined together this week to present the first "Senior Seminar - A Day Just for Seniors" event, held Friday, on the BSCTC Prestonsburg campus. "This is our first year for this event," said Beverly Crisman, community educator for Floyd County Schools. "We hope to continue in the years to come and we feel that we got off to a really good start today." Senior students from Prestonsburg High School, South Floyd High School, Allen Central High School and Opportunities Unlimited convened upon the BSCTC Campus to attend workshops on leadership training, personal finance management, substance abuse prevention, post-secondary education opportunities, healthy personal relationships, and job placement information. The focus of the day out event was to assist students in making decisions in regard to post-secondary education/career opportunities following their graduation from high school. "We hope to encourage the students, mostly, to continue on to college," Crisman said. BSCTC instructor Laura Ford Hall, who is also the director of the Big Sandy Singers, a musical group comprised of students from the BSCTC campuses, addressed the students to inform them of the opportunities available through participation in the singing ensemble. Students selected for participation each receive a $1,200 scholarship and the opportunity to record a solo CD, free of charge. "We have many opportunities available on our campuses," Hall said. "You can stay home, get your core classes and find that you can have a lot of fun while doing it. " Rev. Daniel Newman, a leading expert in the field of AIDS prevention, substance abuse prevention and issues of self-esteem, served as keynote speaker at the event. "He had a lot of really good things to say," said PHS student, Laura Ford. "There's really a lot to think about. " "The college has just been super," said Crisman. "This has really proved to be an outstanding partnering event with everyone involved really coming together to bring it all of and create a great day for these students." In addition to Rev. Newman, others involved in the day of workshop sessions included Henry Webb, director of instruction for Floyd County Schools; Pam Butcher, vice president-retail, Kim Dalton, marketing officer, and Sharon Vanhoose, collector, from Citizens National Bank; Leighann Wells, prevention specialist, Mountain Regional Prevention Center; Scott Walker, director of substance abuse services, Mountain Comprehensive Car Center; Jim Stewart, manager, Pike County JobSight; and Dr. Charles Johnson, associate professor, Morehead State University Prestonsburg campus. The Senior Seminar - A Day Just for Seniors event was sponsored by Floyd County Schools, Big Sandy Community and Technical College, Floyd County Schools Food Service, Allen Central High School Youth Service Center, and Prestonsburg High School Youth Service Center Students attending the event received gift items and were treated to free pizza. WKCTC to fete three retirees 4/26/2006 Paducah Sun Three West Kentucky Community and Technical College employees will be honored at a retirement reception beginning at 1 p.m. May 10 in the College Bistro, first floor of the Anderson Technical Building. Gail C. Ridgeway, counselor and disability resource officer, Ann Sullivan, assistant registrar, and George Washburn, associate professor of electronics technology, have nearly 60 years of combined service to the college. 200 Jobs Coming to KY County Writer: Jonathan Hardison 4/26/2006 WFIE (Evansville) A new company, coming to Muhlenberg County, will bring badly needed jobs and investment to the local economy. Governor Fletcher was on hand in Greenville Tuesday morning to announce Gourmet Dining's move to the city. The frozen foods company will open a new distribution center in the old Supervalue facility, creating 200 new jobs! Rodney Kirtley, Muhlenberg County Judge-Executive, says, "Every time I drive by the building, see it sitting there empty, I just hate to see this. Now, to have it full and have the lights back on, it's gonna mean a lot to our county." The facility's expected to come online within the next several months. A focus on the arts 4/26/2006 Kentucky Enquirer (Covington) The banner event on Northern Kentucky University's campus this past weekend was the appearance of acclaimed nature writer Rick Bass, who has written 18 books, many set in Montana where he lives in the remote Yaak Valley among a few dozen neighbors and the American West's array of predators and preys. He read to a rapt audience in the Otto M. Budig Theater his "The Hermit's Story'' - a tale that took the audience far away from a rainy evening in Highland Heights. Bass had his listeners walking beneath the ice of a frozen Canadian lake where the water had subsided, leaving 8 feet of space between a crust of ice above and solid ground below. Little streams of methane gas from the earth's bellow would ignite, bathing this bizarre frozen world in impulses of light that looked almost electrical, as if synapses were firing under magnification. The Bass reading was just one slice of the weekend's activity at NKU. Those who came to see him walked on their way in past Greaves Hall with its stately concert stage, where classical music is performed, and its catacomb of classrooms, where tomorrow's orchestral players - the Northern Kentucky Youth Strings - practice. Some of this raw, young musical talent was leaving as Bass was arriving, loading their bassoons and oboes and cellos into their parents' mini-vans. Bass's audience walked, too, past the NKU Corbett Theater, which was hosting performances of "The Elephant Man." The painfully eloquent cries of John Merrick ("I am not an animal. I am a human being. I am a man.'') bled in muted sound waves from the theater's stone walls. Those same walls teemed with displays of student art: here, the angular image of a nude, rendered more as impression than reality; there, penciled portraits of faces, apparently the most recent assignment of an art class. Outside, color photographs that looked to be from a Third World country were posted in mural scale to announce an opening exhibit. Walking on to the University Center, every stairwell was testimony to the vibrancy of the arts at NKU. One poster mentioned voice lessons. Another promoted a coming concert. It's easy to forget how little time NKU has been around and how quickly it has grown up. State funding - the latest dose coming this month from the newly approved state budget - has nourished the growth. But NKU has matured, too, because it embraced the arts from Day One. The university began with a core of excellence in its theater department and, over time, built that same quality into its music department. It was challenging to pull this off in Greater Cincinnati, where the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music, its nationally known College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning and the Cincinnati Art Academy already had a franchise for arts education. What's happened, delightfully, is that NKU fed off the reputation already here, and in so feeding did not consume anyone else's territory. It instead enlarged the territory. It's no coincidence, for example, that a stalwart of the Queen City's literary culture, the Mercantile Library, promoted NKU's Rick Bass reading. The attitude is the more art the merrier. The Bass reading was an especially fine example of this because it was the inaugural night of a new literary series by the Friends of Steely Library, the support group for NKU's library. The idea, says incoming Friends president Ron Ellis, is to encourage writers and writing by hosting notable writers. "We believe the university should be a literary center of the region,'' said Ellis, himself an author in the mold of Bass. Back in 1968, when NKU was started, everyone dreamt big. But this big? The campus itself has become impressive, with an ever-expanding compound of buildings. The recent push to improve lighting and landscaping have softened the school's harsh look - "New Brutalism,'' if you want to properly name it from an architectural text. More structures are going up, most obviously the student center expansion. The $60 million Bank of Kentucky Arena won't be far behind. Other yardsticks measure NKU's success, too: Enrollment is up. The university took a leading role in developing the Vision 2015 plan, which will guide Northern Kentucky growth. A new major in entrepreneurship highlights its ties to the business community. Respect in the halls of the state Capitol was obvious in the legislative session that just ended, with funding for a new building to house its College of Informatics. We salute all of it, but a yardstick that impresses us equally is NKU's long-established and still expanding commitment to the arts. Alliance plans new Union Co. coalmine Writer: Leigh Ann Tipton 4/26/2006 Union County Advocate Just days after announcing plans for a new coal mine in Union County, officials from Alliance Resource Partners visited with county officials and civic groups to introduce the proposed project. The news of a new coal mine - which Alliance says may employ up to 300 and bring nearly $27 million worth of wages a year into the county - has officials and citizens alike brimming with optimism. "It's great news " said County Judge-Executive Frank Eiter. "I hope it comes true, and the sooner the better." Alliance Senior Vice-President Charles Wesley, a Sturgis native, said the Union County project is among four new operations the company hopes to launch in the next three to four years. The company has already purchased the rights to approximately 99.3 million tons of high sulfur coal reserves in the County, and has set a projected opening date for 2008 or 2009. Wesley said the local project is in direct competition with a planned mining operation in southern Indiana, which he noted doesn't require a coal severance tax. The new mine would be located near the site of the old Ohio No. 11 mine near Uniontown. According to a press release from the company, Alliance gained control of approximately 89.7 million tons of coal by lease and approximately 9.6 million tons of coal through direct ownership in the Kentucky No. 7, No. 9 and No. 11 coal seams, along with related surface properties and other assets. Wesley said the company may use some infrastructure previously used by Ohio 11, such as the slope to the river, but that it will most likely construct a a new elevator and changing room. The company expects to invest $120 million in development capital and spend up to 42.9 million annually on materials, maintenance and supplies. It would also contribute $6 million a year in severance taxes. Wesley said the Union County project would be known as River View, and would provide as many as 300 jobs that would pay from $20 to $23 an hour,plus full benefits. Alliance is the leading coal producer in Kentucky and among the top five nationally. It operates eight mining complexes in four states - Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland and West Virginia. Among its mines is Dotiki in Webster County - the largest mine in Kentucky and the largest underground continuous miner operation in the United States. Eiter said Alliance has considered two other sites but that Union County's river access was its greatest asset. Union County also has several direct ties to the company. Wesley has been Senior Vice-President of Operations for Alliance since August 1996. James Ricketts, a Henshaw resident, is Vice-President of Operations for the six Alliance Mines in the Illinois Basin. Ricketts and Heath Lovell attended the Morganfield Lions' Club luncheon Friday to share news of the project and ask for community support. "We need your help in securing tax help, tax incentives, road upgrades, or whatever it will be," Ricketts said, noting it was too early to know specific needs. In addition to local ties in upper management, Ricketts said there were 167 Union County residents already employed at mining operations owned by Alliance. "And they're good coal miners, the best of the best," he said. "You take those 167 coal miners, and you have a nice coal mine right off the bat." He said the company won't be able to transfer all of them to Union County, but it hopes to allow many of them the opportunity to work at home. Some, he said, commute as far away as the company's Gibson North mine near Princeton, Ind. Circuit judge injured in fall from ladder 4/27/2006 Louisville Courier-Journal A judge in Western Kentucky is recovering from injuries he suffered in a 15-foot fall. Circuit Judge Bill Cunningham suffered three fractured ribs and a punctured lung when he fell from a ladder Saturday while cleaning his gutters, said Dr. James O'Rourke. He is expected to be released today from Western Baptist Hospital, according to Michael Fortney, who is managing Cunningham's campaign for a seat on the state Supreme Court. Cunningham is a circuit judge for Lyon, Livingston, Caldwell and Trigg counties. He is facing Court of Appeals Judge Rick Johnson of Symsonia in the nonpartisan race for the 1st District seat. New Jobs Coming to Muhlenberg County Writer: Lori Mitchell 4/26/2006 WBKO (Bowling Green) Gourmet Express LLC will move its manufacturing facility from Gridley, Illinois to Muhlenberg County, creating up to 200 new jobs. The company, which has been looking to relocate in Kentucky for several months, will move into the old Super-Value building in Greenville. The company packages gourmet meals that are sold in major supermarkets nationwide. The operation should be up and running within the year. Roadside bomb kills Lexington soldier in Iraq Writer: Jillian Ogawa 4/27/2006 Lexington Herald-Leader A Kentucky soldier was among three from the Army's 4th Infantry Division killed in a roadside bombing in Iraq, the Army said yesterday. Sgt. Robert W. Ehney, 26, of Lexington, was killed Sunday when an improvised explosive device detonated near his Humvee near Taji, Iraq. Ehney was serving his second tour of duty, which started in December, his father, Harry Ehney, said last night. "I am very proud of the man he became," Mary Beth Ehney said of her son last night. "He was proud of being a good soldier, he was a good father, he was a good son, a good brother." Mary Beth Ehney said family members were told about their son Sunday evening. Robert Ehney moved to Lexington six years ago with his parents, who relocated from Casper, Wyo. He had been in the Army for three years. When he was in Lexington, Robert liked to ride motorcycles and golf, his mother said. His parents described Ehney as a caring person, especially for the soldiers he led. "He told my wife and I that he was concerned about the young guys," said Harry Ehney, who works for Federal Express. "He wanted to be all macho on the outside but a marshmallow on the inside," Mary Beth Ehney said. "He was just a kind person." Robert proposed to his fiancee, Amanda Applegate of Maysville, while home in October and planned to be married after he finished his deployment. Family members were able to speak with Ehney over the phone once or twice a week in the past few months, Harry Ehney said. "He always had a dry sense of humor," Harry Ehney said. "That's the thing we try to remember the most about him." Killed in the same attack were Cpl. Jason B. Daniel, 21, of Fort Worth, Texas; and Cpl. Shawn T. Lasswell Jr., 21, of Reno, Nev. All three soldiers were assigned to the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team based at Fort Hood, Texas. Funeral arrangements for Ehney are being made at Kerr Brothers Funeral Home on Harrodsburg Road. Ehney is survived by a son, William Jacob Ehney, 4, who lives with his mother, Caroline Ehney Purnell, in Lexington; and sister Casey Ehney of Lexington. Ehney is the fourth Lexington soldier to be killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. * Marine Lance Cpl. Chase Comley, 21, was killed Aug. 6. * Marine Lance Cpl. Sean Michael Langley, 20, died Nov. 7, 2004. * Marine Cpl. Nicholas Dieruf, 21, was killed April 8, 2004. Yum sees flu fears easing Writer: David Goetz 4/26/2006 Louisville Courier-Journal While researchers puzzle out ways to stop the spread of avian flu, Yum! Brands Inc. Chairman David Novak is close to declaring a cure for the impact of the potentially deadly virus on the company's international business. "The truth is on our side, and we're fully prepared to handle anything that comes up as it relates to avian flu," Novak told analysts and investors during a conference call yesterday. "We have weathered the storm very well as avian flu has moved across the globe." A 35 percent gain in sales for March and store profit margins back above 20 percent at KFC outlets in China show the effectiveness of company efforts to convince people that fully cooked chicken is safe to eat, Novak said. China sales sank near the end of 2005 as avian flu fears had consumers switching from chicken wings to french fries. Stable KFC sales in England, even as the first cases of avian flu in birds were being reported there, suggest the impact in Western countries will be mild, Novak added. "We know a lot more today than we knew back in November and I think our first quarter shows we can weather a pretty significant news storm and do fairly well." Investors sent Yum stock up more than 3 percent yesterday following Yum's Monday report of a $170 million profit in the first quarter -- driven by improved performance in China and strong same-store sales in the United States. Bear Sterns analyst Joseph Buckley said in a research report that China is Yum's best growth vehicle and the March results "show its China business is back on track." The company maintained its equivalent of a buy recommendation. Prudential Equity Group's Larry Miller kept the company's hold rating but found himself "comforted by the improvement in China business trends and thus the longer-term investment case for Yum." The World Health Organization says there's no evidence the flu can be spread to humans through cooked chicken or other poultry. While humans have caught the disease after contact with infected birds, it also hasn't been spread from one person to another. Novak answered a few questions about Pizza Hut's negative U.S. sales trends. The Dallas-based pizza maker hasn't found the right way to convince consumers it's a good value, Novak said, particularly important following Hurricane Katrina and today's soaring gasoline prices. Domino's has hurt Pizza Hut with its $5 pizza offerings. Papa John's introduced its pan pizza as Pizza Hut was starting a promotion for its pan pizza, Novak said. Novak said he won't get into a price war that will improve sales at the expense of profits. 2 College Presidents From New Orleans Appeal to House Committee for Katrina Relief Writers: KATHERINE S. MANGAN and JEFFREY SELINGO 4/27/2006 The Chronicle of Higher Education In testimony before the education committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, the presidents of two New Orleans universities called on the federal government to establish a loan program to help hurricane-damaged institutions with expenses while waiting for disaster-relief checks and insurance money. The comments -- by Scott S. Cowen, president of Tulane University, and Marvalene Hughes, president of Dillard University -- came after Democrats on the Committee on Education and the Workforce issued a scathing report that said the Bush administration "bears partial responsibility" for the fact that the education system and colleges in the Gulf Coast region "remain in crisis," eight months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. The report calls for the federal government to take a number of steps, including appointing an education-recovery czar at the Education Department; shifting responsibility for ensuring the revitalization of educational institutions in the region, from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Education Department; and providing federal funds to colleges to rebuild their campuses and cover the cost of operations and recruiting students, professors, and staff members. Rep. George Miller, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a written statement that the Bush administration was treating the aftermath of Katrina like other disasters. "It is not just any disaster," said Mr. Miller, who visited New Orleans with other Democratic lawmakers last month. "The magnitude of the destruction we saw was so great that we need to throw out the old disaster playbook and come up with newer, better, and more flexible ways of meeting the old challenges faced by the Gulf Coast." At the hearing, Mr. Cowen said the loan program would provide desperately needed help to colleges that have lost tuition and other revenues. Tulane's campuses suffered more than $150-million in physical damage, he said. "In order to reopen in January, we borrowed $150-million and countless more in lost research and library assets, which maxed out our borrowing capacity," he told the committee. "To this date, we have seen no money at all from FEMA and little relief from private insurance." A reorganization plan that Tulane announced in December (The Chronicle, December 16, 2005) will save $50-million, "but we still face a $100-million budget deficit this year as well as a $25-million deficit next year," Mr. Cowen said. "Attracting and retaining top-tier students and faculty to New Orleans remains difficult despite our best efforts because of the lingering doubts about the ability of the city itself to fully recover." That recovery hinges, in large part, on the recovery of the city's colleges and universities, he said. "When Tulane and the other 14 public and private colleges and universities in New Orleans reopened in January, it represented a significant step in our city's recovery," he said. "Of the more than 84,000 college students enrolled in our institutions prior to Katrina, more than 55,000 of them returned," including 88 percent of Tulane's students. Higher education also provides about 20,000 jobs in New Orleans, Mr. Cowen said. Ms. Hughes echoed Mr. Cowen's appeal for higher-education loans, which would help Dillard rebuild its campus and recruit students and faculty members. The reimbursements Dillard hopes to receive from FEMA and insurers will not come close to covering the hundreds of millions of dollars of losses caused by Katrina, she said. The campus of the 137-year-old historically black university, which was submerged in up to 10 feet of water for nearly a month, suffered some of the area's worst damage in the storm's aftermath. Students and faculty members have been living and holding classes in a Hilton Hotel this spring, while the slow process of gutting and rebuilding campus buildings continues (The Chronicle, April 28). For the most part, lawmakers on the panel listened to the testimony of the two presidents with few comments of their own. None of the committee members publicly pledged support for the idea of a loan program. The chairman of the panel, Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, a Republican from California, said the focus of the committee's work should be learning lessons in the aftermath of Katrina, and not simply on leveling criticism. "We must be cautious not to concentrate solely on what went wrong after the hurricanes," Mr. McKeon said. "Rather, we should balance those lessons with an understanding and an appreciation of what went right. Stories shared by those schools represented before the committee today are shining examples of what has gone right." Colleges Urged to Prepare for Immigrant-Rights Boycott Planned for May 1 Writer: ERIN STROUT 4/27/2006 The Chronicle of Higher Education Some colleges are making plans for how they will deal with a national call for immigrants and their supporters to walk off their jobs and boycott businesses on Monday, in protest of legislation in Congress that would deport or criminalize illegal immigrants. The protest, dubbed "A Day Without an Immigrant," is designed to show the importance of such immigrants in the country's economy. Although it is not clear how widespread the protest could be, the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources is urging higher-education administrators to be prepared. The association and the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a group of business, trade organizations, and other industry groups concerned with labor shortages, have issued some advice for colleges and other employers. Among other things, the guidance suggests that: Employers work out a compromise to accommodate workers who want to be part of the protest. One idea would be to ask that a few people go as representatives of the other immigrant employees in the organization. Another would be to spread out the absences over various shifts. Employers consider the legal ramifications and negative publicity if they decide to forbid employees to take the day off. Campus leaders counter potential disruptions by protesters by scheduling discussions about immigrant issues and the challenges immigrants face. Some areas of the country will probably see more rallies and protests than others. In Southern California, businesses are bracing for large-scale walkouts, though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked illegal immigrants and their allies to ignore the call to boycott work and businesses. But the University of California at Los Angeles has not heard from any of its labor organizations that employees plan to be absent, said Phil Hampton, a university spokesman. "We want to emphasize that our goal is to allow employees to exercise their right of free speech regardless of their political views, while we maintain essential services and preserve the safety of our campus," he said. "It is standard practice for our human-resources professionals to advise campus managers and supervisors on how to handle requests for absences." Column: Ivy Tech aims to be college for Indiana's future Writer: DANIEL SCHENK 4/24/2006 Evansville Courier & Press Were you aware that 45 percent of the undergraduates enrolled in college in the United States are enrolled in a community college? April is National Community College Month in our country and the Ivy Tech Community College system is new to our state; Ivy Tech's new name and statewide mission were just signed into law July, 1, 2005. Like other community colleges, Ivy Tech Community College certainly has grown over the years. In fact, one in seven adults in Indiana has taken at least one course at Ivy Tech, and more than 25 percent of the households in the state have at least one person who is attending or has attended Ivy Tech. And those students stay, work and live in Indiana after experiencing success at Ivy Tech; 93 percent of our graduates and former students still call Indiana home. We are currently the second-largest institution of postsecondary education in the state, and we continue to grow. We have responded to the challenge of providing Hoosiers with more access to affordable higher education. Now we are responding to two more challenges that are important to the success of this state. Ivy Tech will serve as the state's educational fuel for the engine of the work force driving economic development, producing degree and certificate programs that respond to the needs of its communities. Ivy Tech is also servicing thousands of Indiana residents by providing the first two years of a four-year degree, as our credits transfer to colleges and universities throughout the state. With community college month upon us, there is no better time than now to share the goals of our new strategic plan with the residents we serve throughout the state of Indiana. Ivy Tech Community College will be a college of results, and we will deliver an education that counts. We will measure our successes and report back those successes to the people of Indiana. Between now and 2010, Ivy Tech Community College will increase the number of associate degrees awarded, industry-recognized certificates awarded, technical certificates awarded and successful transfer students to four-year institutions, each by 50 percent. Why is it so important that we reach these goals and hold ourselves accountable as a college? Indiana ranks 46th among the states in the percentage of residents with college degrees, and most of the jobs of the future will require at the very least an associate's degree, and in many cases a bachelor's degree. Needless to say, we cannot afford to stay 46th in this category and hope to provide our citizens with good-paying, steady jobs. We at Ivy Tech Community College are leaders in the effort to raise the educational attainment levels of citizens in Indiana. This is a huge and critically important task for the future of our state. We are privileged to be the faculty and staff to take up this challenge. No other organization is as poised to change the lives of Hoosiers and help our state on its economic recovery as Ivy Tech Community College. Help us celebrate community college month in April, and help us celebrate our successes as we achieve the goals of our strategic plan by 2010. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Daniel L. Schenk is chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College in Evansville. Column: We've Overlooked One of Our Greatest Assets - I believe that our community and junior colleges can help America regain its competitive edge. Writer: William D. Green 4/27/2006 Newsweek May 1, 2006 issue - If you had told me back in 1971--the year I graduated high school--that I'd be going off to college soon, I would have assured you that you were sorely mistaken. I was the son of a plumber living in western Massachusetts, and we had all assumed that in the end I'd be a plumber, too. I spent the year after high school working in construction. Then one day I went to visit some friends who were students at Dean College, a two-year residential college 45 minutes outside of Boston, and my mind-set began to change. As I walked around campus and listened to my friends talk about their experiences, I realized this was an opportunity to change my path that might not come again--an opportunity to take another shot at learning. So I enrolled at Dean, and I can honestly say it was a life-altering experience. The school's philosophy is to educate, energize and inspire. In fact, it was a Dean professor, Charlie Kramer, who ignited my passion for economics and taught me how to think analytically. After all these years, I still have my notes from his economics classes, and I've referred back to them from time to time--even as I went on to Babson College, where I earned my bachelor of science degree in economics and then an M.B.A. I'm proud to say that today I'm a member of Dean College's board of trustees. Would I be running a global consulting company with $17 billion in revenue and 130,000 employees today if I'd followed a different path? Who knows? But there is no doubt that my two years at Dean College not only prepared me for advancing my education and gearing up for a career, but also transformed me as a person. And that's not a bad start no matter where life takes you. But while Americans are waking up to the idea that we need to sharpen our competitive edge in the world, many still overlook our system of community and junior colleges. The truth is, these schools can be the solution for what our K-12 programs might not be getting done. Whenever I get the chance to talk to young people, I urge them to consider options other than four-year schools. Junior and community colleges can help them become better equipped to continue their education and to face real-world challenges. These colleges can smooth their transition from high school to work life, provide them with core decision-making skills and teach them how to think and learn. In the United States there are more than 1,100 community colleges, most of them publicly funded, which serve nearly 12 million students. Almost two thirds of these students attend school part time, and many of them are holding down a full-time job. What's especially striking is the diversity of these schools: 47 percent of all African-American undergrads in this country attend community college, as do 56 percent of Hispanic undergraduates. But what is it about these schools that make them so important to our competitive future? For starters, I can't think of any other institutions so tuned into the needs of our communities. The American Association of Community Colleges estimates that more than half of new health-care workers get their training at community colleges. In 2003, 62 percent of the applicants who took the national exam to become licensed registered nurses were graduates of such programs. Community colleges excel at working with local businesses to identify specific needs, whether helping displaced autoworkers gain new job skills or helping local companies ensure they will have a steady supply of skilled workers. Chances are, if there's a large manufacturing plant in your town, your community college offers technical training in conjunction with the plant. Better skills and better pay lead to happier, more productive employees. That boosts the economy, which gives us all a better standard of living. I believe that since businesses benefit from these institutions, we also have an obligation to help them. This is especially true as state support, which constitutes an estimated 44 percent of community colleges' financial resources, continues to decline. We can show our support by donating funds, recruiting students, offering career counseling and encouraging our employees to teach classes. An investment in your local junior or community college is a sound investment in the competitiveness of our country and the potential of our citizens. I should know. Green is CEO of Accenture. EDITORIAL: Cutting pork saves our bacon 4/26/2006 Elizabethtown News-Enterprise Gov. Ernie Fletcher was on the right track using his authority to reject individual budget items to veto a record $370 million in construction projects stuffed into the $18.1 billion two-year spending plan approved a by the General Assembly in the waning hours of its two-month session. Some of the lawmakers are squealing like stuck pigs over the loss of their pet pork projects, but they have only themselves to blame. Because of their recalcitrance the budget-challenged lawmakers have no choice but to accept the governor's vetoes and keep on squealing. The legislators who let two previous sessions in Frankfort expire without passing budgets, this year ran out of time and cannot return to the state capital to override the governor's vetoes. Most of the representatives and senators who voted for the budget didn't have time to read it. It might never be known how many of the 2,352 construction projects creating $2.4 billion in debt were sneaked into the budget during the week of secret, closed-door negotiations. Although there could be legitimate disagreements over the specific projects vetoed by the governor, he should be applauded for attempting to rein in indebtedness, the state's version of the federal government's deficit spending. Every state university was hit by cuts. On the other hand, there clearly could be no justification for indebting the state $6 million to pay for a polar bear display at the Louisville zoo and other projects. The governor iced that one, too. However, an argument could be made that Fletcher did not go far enough. The revised budget still includes almost $2 billion in projects, added to the record $1.9 billion in last year's budget, to be paid for with bonds over the next several decades. But because they didn't do their work in time, because they didn't know what they were voting for, and because they allowed legislative negotiators to hide from the inquiring eyes of the public and the media, the state officials elected to represent their districts in Frankfort by default allowed the governor to unilaterally make life-and-death decisions over their pet projects. And they can't do a thing about it. At least not now. Maybe this fiasco will teach the lawmakers a lesson they didn't learn from twice failing to complete their basic fiscal responsibility to pass a state budget. House Speaker Jody Richardson, D-Bowling Green, thinks so: "We made a mistake. I will emphasize in the future never to let that happen again." Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, expressed regrets, too: "I don't think it's good for the process." Sen. Joey Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville, also said: "I hope it's a lesson to us that we don't let this happen again." Don't count on it. Editorial: Fletcher's vetoes no big surprise 4/26/2006 Madisonville Messenger Jim Neighbors' character Gomer Pyle would often exclaim "surprise, surprise, surprise." In simple-minded delight, and complete oblivion to what was going on around him, Gomer was always open to surprise. Monday when Gov. Ernie Fletcher checked off $370 million in line-item vetoes to the state budget, no one (except, perhaps, Gomer) should have been surprised. Many were upset, rankled, feeling betrayed, smarting and a little frustrated, but the writing was on the wall long before Fletcher slashed into the numbers. "I will not criticize any of the projects which the legislature selected," Fletcher said Monday night in a televised address. "But to reduce the level of debt, we must reduce the number of projects." There is ample reason to question what was cut and what was left in the budget. That criticism came almost immediately, and was expected from those anticipating a slice of the pie that, seemingly, went to someone else. Bottom line, the bottom line could not tolerate a budget that carried with it an enormous debt load, eclipsing even last year's record $1.9 billion. In short, someone's got to pay for all these projects (that would be us) over a period of time. Fletcher's fiscally conservative nature is right on target in making an effort to control spending, something the legislature did not seem interested in doing as the session wound down. Tacked on to the many worthwhile and needed expenditures that were part of the budget passed (a little something for everyone) were a lot of bubbles and baubles that jacked the new debt to a record $2.38 billion. Delight that the legislature was finally able to agree on a budget before adjournment was mingled with the knowledge that Fletcher's veto pen awaited. With the allotted days for the session expired, the fate of the whole work was in the governor's hands. Maybe that was the intended purpose, maybe not. There should have been no Gomer Pyle surprise, though, when Fletcher exercised his line-item veto option. It's hard to take issue with projects that benefit the public, come with adequate justification and are deemed "essential" to the well-being of communities, institutions or regions. Hard, but necessary. It's our money that would have been used to fund the tech center at Madisonville Community College ($4 million) and $6 million toward a polar bear exhibit at the Louisville Zoo, both of which were cut. Folks in Louisville can bring forth convincing arguments and considerable indignation about the cut there, just as MCC can express disappointment that funds for the tech center were cut. The evidence is clear that Democrats' projects suffered more than Republicans' requests, prompting an immediate charge of "politics" in the way Fletcher made his selection. Of course politics figured into the equation. But not just on Fletcher's part. The whole process from proposal to discussion, to legislative vote and subsequent approval on through to the governor's veto can be labeled "politics." Anyone with a basic understanding of how our system of government is totally dependent on politics can understand that. Did Fletcher do the right thing in cutting the MCC project? We don't think so. But that perspective comes from a community that views it as a stimulus to growth and a much needed investment in this region. It was the top priority here, but not the only local request in the budget. Some items did survive, including funding for a second judge at the circuit level, a new judicial center and the agricultural and exposition center. How did some items survive and others fall by the wayside? Politics indeed. It's the fuel that makes the system function, for better or for worse. Fairness in politics always depends on the point of view from which it is being observed ... whose ox is being gored. We're grateful for what remained in the budget, though we agree with State Sen. Jerry Rhoads that the cuts clearly were arbitrary along party lines. At the same time, the legislature and the citizens of Kentucky should not be at all surprised that Fletcher would use the upper hand he held politically to his advantage. In so doing, he effected a policy of fiscal conservatism that got him elected in the first place. Hopes, dreams and big plans for the betterment of Kentucky abound across the commonwealth. Most of those plans come with a price tag and the need for public funding. In the end, however, the citizens of Kentucky, now and in the future, will be left with the bills. Fletcher did the right thing in trying to curb spending and ever-increasing debt. His selection of projects to cut will remain in question. We cannot fault him for seizing the opportunity to reduce the level of debt. We would have been surprised if he had not. Fletcher accused of 'hijacking' funds Writer: DEANNA LEE 4/27/2006 Harlan Daily Enterprise If Gov. Ernie Fletcher were to attend today's East Kentucky Leadership Conference in Harlan, as scheduled, he would more than likely be confronted with a number of questions about his controversial decision to veto millions of dollars in coal severance projects throughout eastern Kentucky. For Harlan County, the vetoing of 61 projects worth $6.7 million already included in the state budget is "a slap in the face of local officials and the entire public that elects them to do a job," said state Sen. Daniel Mongiardo, D-Hazard, who was joined by local and state representatives at a press conference regarding the cuts on Wednesday in Pike County. "It's universal. People in coal-producing counties are outraged. They're concerned about going back to the 'good ol' boy' system," Mongiardo said. "We're looking at all legal avenues to see if the governor has the right to do this," he said, speaking on behalf of those who were present at Wednesday's press conference. "We're certainly going to do everything in our power legally and otherwise." One of the projects vetoed by Fletcher included a $325,000 allotment to eliminate debt accrued by the Southeast Education Foundation in maintaining Benham's School House Inn and Kentucky Coal Mining Museum, as well as Lynch's Mine Portal No. 31. Mongiardo said the cut is "absolutely a threat" to the future of those attractions, which were to have been incorporated into the state parks system in August of last year. Most recent talks have indicated a May 1 takeover. Harlan County Judge-Executive Joe Grieshop said the attractions have the potential to bring thousands of jobs, but he is uncertain if GOLD will agree with lawmakers and provide money for the takeover. Mongiardo said Fletcher's vetoes are "purely a political re-election campaign in order to extort support out of coal-producing county judges. The governor's used hiring practices for political purposes, and now he's using coal severance money for political purposes. There's no other way to explain what he's doing." Fletcher's decision to retain some other state-funded projects, furthermore, shows how "simply out of touch he is with everything outside his office in Frankfort," Mongiardo said. "The governor is from central Kentucky. He has no idea about the problems we face in the mountains. He needs to come to Evarts or Cawood and talk to the people," he said. Mongiardo said he is questioning several projects that Fletcher did not veto, particularly a $14.5 million endeavor for a new community college in Washington County and $11 million in coal severance funds for a proposed pharmacy school in Williamsburg. He is also questioning the veto of $17.5 million for renovations to locks and dams on the Kentucky River that could ensure quality drinking water "for a quarter of the people in the state." "No one asked for that money," he said, referring to the $14.5 million community college project. A pharmacy school, in addition, is not necessarily needed "because, No. 1, it most likely will be determined to be unconstitutional and, No. 2, UK is in the process of expanding its pharmacy school," he said. Before money is released for the proposed school, Fletcher said he will ask the courts to determine the constitutionality of providing state funding for construction projects at private institutions. The figures don't add up, Mongiardo said, explaining that Whitley County has been awarded $15.5 million in coal severance funds and produces 0.3 percent of the state's coal, compared to Harlan County, which produces 5.4 percent, but only received $1.2 million. Pike County, the state's leading producer of coal, also received $1.2 million, compared to Clay County's $6.8 million. Clay County, Mongiardo said, produces 0.5 percent of Kentucky's coal. Some of the funds vetoed for local projects include $250,000 for a Kentucky Coal Academy program at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College; $249,000 for the county's Hope Drug Center; $125,000 for the Harlan County Committee on Aging; $1 million for a water line expansion to the Smith area; and thousands of dollars for other water and sewer projects and fire department upgrades throughout the county. State Rep. Rick Nelson, D-Middlesboro, has called the vetoes of coal severance projects an attack on eastern Kentucky, something Mongiardo said may not be intentional by Fletcher and Republican Senate President David Williams, who is considered Fletcher's ally. "It's their intention to hijack coal severance money for their own political gain, so yes, it affects eastern Kentucky," Mongiardo said. Mongiardo said efforts have been made in the past to seize control from lawmakers in deciding how to spend coal severance dollars. "Local control of local tax dollars is how the process should work," he said, referring to Fletcher's "complete control" of coal severance spending now that the decision will be left to the Governor's Office for Local Development (GOLD). "It adds another layer of bureaucracy. It's nothing but a slush fund that will lead to Fletcher's re-election. This may be good politics, but it's bad government," he said. "I'm not sure eastern Kentucky can survive another two years under this administration." While some legislators are lamenting that they didn't leave enough time to come back to override vetoes in this year's General Assembly, Nelson said "that doesn't excuse the actions of what's happened." Legislators used their constitutionally allotted 60 days for the General Assembly's 2006 session and could not return to override vetoes, something Mongiardo said he believes "was the plan all along." "The leadership made a mistake. ... But if the governor had a problem, he should have made a statement up front instead of ambushing us like this. We can't let the governor or anyone else take away what is ours," Nelson said. Nelson said the governor may call a special session in June to raise business taxes. "We'll use that opportunity to try to get everything back in (the budget). You're talking about a lot of people who thought they were going to get this money and have adjusted their budgets accordingly," Nelson said. Fletcher has said he "was concerned there was not enough local input in the budget-making process determining coal severance projects," but Nelson said the state's budget has obviously reflected that the process was entirely local. "We've talked with mayors, magistrates, judges - the budget reflected that," he said. Troy Body, spokesperson for Fletcher's office, said Fletcher is returning to the original application of the state's coal severance law by asking county fiscal courts to submit their project requests for coal severance dollars. According to the GOLD office, lawmakers have been putting coal severance projects in the budget since 1998. "The benefit to local communities is they (GOLD) make the decision as to how the money is spent," Body said. "It is important to note that while the earmarks were vetoed, the coal severance money is still in place." The single-county coal severance money totals $100 million for the fiscal year 2007 to 2008. Fletcher has requested a meeting of officials from Kentucky's 40 coal counties to review the grant application process for coal severance money. The meeting has not been scheduled. Body said Fletcher will not attend the 19th annual East Kentucky Leadership Conference today as the event's guest speaker, but he did not say why. State Rep. Howard Cornett, R-Whitesburg, could not be reached for comment. Fletcher decision sparks outrage - Coal counties' senators speak out Writer: Adrienne Steinfeldt 4/27/2006 Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer MADISONVILLE -- With his veto of 796 single-county coal severance projects this week, Gov. Ernie Fletcher has turned state tax dollars into a personal re-election fund, Democratic senators for coal counties across the state said Wednesday. "This is not a step toward collaboration," said Sen. Jerry Rhoads, a Madisonville Democrat. "This is a consolidation of power. We will now have to go to Frankfort and get approval of projects. It's like having a checkbook balance we're not able to draw on without the OK of the governor and his staff." Since 1998, legislators have been appropriating single-county money to coal counties by line items in the budget. Prior to that, the money was available as grants. The governor's veto effectively returns the system to its pre-1998 form. Under the line-item system, counties "didn't have as much input," Fletcher said Tuesday. "We need to work more with local governments." But coal county senators protested the decision in both western and eastern Kentucky on Wednesday, saying they always work with county leaders when forming lists of appropriations. "I have always gone to my judge-executive and Fiscal Court," said Rhoads, who called a Madisonville news conference to protest the governor's decision. The system was working well, and the administration's ability to say yes or no to projects politicizes the money and turns it into "a slush fund to use at will," said Sen. David Boswell, an Owensboro Democrat. "He'll distribute these funds as he sees fit," Boswell said. A news conference in eastern Kentucky brought out more Democratic lawmakers to protest the change. Some of the coal severance dollars were being counted on to match federal grant dollars, said Sen. Daniel Mongiardo, a Hazard Democrat. "People in the mountains are outraged," Mongiardo said. "It may be good politics, but it's certainly not good government. Everyone in the eastern Kentucky coalfields works closely hand in hand with the judges. We together decide what the priority list is for our projects. That's the way it should work, and that's the way it has been working." Mongiardo said the Fletcher administration is guilty of saying one thing while doing another, and it's hurting coal counties. "When you hear something coming out of this administration, you can almost always bet it's the opposite," Mongiardo said. "When the governor says he wants to include local government interaction, it's the opposite. It's putting the power in the governor's office." The senators assembled in Madisonville acknowledged that legislators wasted an opportunity to challenge Fletcher's budget adjustments by taking too long to pass a budget. The period of conference committee negotiations was "probably the most contentious it ever has been," said Sen. Joey Pendleton, a Hopkinsville Democrat who was on the conference committee. "We wasted a lot of time. Looking back and seeing what the governor has done, I do think it was a game plan." The goal now, the senators said, is to encourage the public outcry spreading across Kentucky so that the governor will feel the pressure to unleash the money without restrictions or stipulations, Rhoads said. There has been some talk of a legal challenge, but Rhoads said it's too soon to say where that challenge may come from. "The dust has barely settled on this," he said. "It's always a possibility." Others have suggested that in the January session of the General Assembly, legislation could be introduced to reinstate the line-item process and to tighten statute language so county governments are assured a lead in the decision-making process. For example, requests for line-items of single-county coal severance money might be required to carry a judge-executive's signature. But Rhoads said that the measure of powerlessness that lawmakers have now, unable do much more than talk about Fletcher's decision, at least until the January session, "should be a lesson to legislators not to let this happen again, where we don't have two days to veto." If there is a special session called to address a small business tax issue the governor has been raising, the coal county officials say they'll definitely be forcing the issue of single-county coal severance. If that doesn't work, "we'll certainly be looking at this in January," Mongiardo said. The governor's office did not return a request for comment Wednesday afternoon, but Fletcher told the Associated Press that attacks on his vetoes are politically motivated. Fletcher gives tech center the ax Writer: James Mayse 4/26/2006 Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer Gov. Ernie Fletcher exercised his veto power Monday -- and slashed Owensboro's sole major project out of the state budget. Fletcher vetoed $14 million to build the second phase of the advanced technology center at Owensboro Community & Technical College. The technology center was the top legislative priority of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce. Local legislators from both parties worked together during the General Assembly to get the tech center into the final budget passed by both the House and Senate. Fletcher cut $370 million from the state budget. The Republican governor said he is using his line-item veto power to reduce the level of debt in the $18.1 billion budget. "I will not criticize any of the projects which the legislature selected," Fletcher said in a televised budget address Monday evening. "But to reduce the level of debt, we must reduce the number of projects." Fletcher said legislators had included budget appropriations for 2,352 construction projects, which would have created about $2.4 billion in debt, eclipsing even last year's record debt load of $1.9 billion. Fletcher also cut single-county coal severance projects from the budget -- eliminating funding for projects in every coal county in the state. Monday evening, many Owensboro officials were, at best, disappointed by the vetoes. Others bitterly blasted Fletcher's decisions. "I so regret the governor as such little respect for this project and our community," Rep. Tommy Thompson, a Philpot Democrat, said. Thompson said funding for the tech center was "well justified." "It was the community's No. 1 project, and it crossed the political landscape," Thompson said. J. Todd Inman, chairman of the chamber of commerce, questioned why the Owensboro project was cut when similar projects at community colleges in Springfield, Elizabethtown, Ashland, Paducah, northern Kentucky and Somerset were funded. Inman and others particularly questioned the Springfield Technical and Community College project, a $14.5 million project that was not included in either the House or Senate budgets but was added during House-Senate budget negotiations. "This project has been waiting for over 10 years to be completed," Inman said of the Owensboro tech center. The veto "doesn't personally affect me -- it affects our community for years to come," Inman said. Daviess County Judge-Executive Reid Haire called the veto an insult. "Quite frankly, I'm furious," Haire said. "There was $2 billion in the budget bonded for projects the citizens of the commonwealth will pay for over 20 years. Owensboro and Daviess County did not get a dime. "This governor talks about what a friend he is to Owensboro, but he didn't put (the tech center) into his first budget ... and when he had the opportunity, he vetoed it," Haire said. "The irony is next year, he'll come parading through Daviess County asking for support." Owensboro Mayor Tom Watson said Fletcher had said previously it would be difficult to secure funding for the second phase of the technology center. Officials would not give up on getting funding for the center, Watson said. "I think it's a little bump in the road," Watson said. But Watson said the region appears to be overlooked by state officials. "The thing that disturbs me the most (is) you get the feeling western Kentucky is not important to the scheme of things," Watson said. Jacqueline Addington, president of Owensboro Community & Technical College, said: "Of course we are disappointed. It's the second time we're disappointed -- the first time it wasn't in his budget, and now he's vetoed it." Losing the second phase of the tech center funding sets back educational programs and will hurt the college's ability to offer bachelor's degrees through Western Kentucky University at the campus. "It was a project that was never designed to be cut in two," Addington said. Rep. Joe Bowen, an Owensboro Republican, said: "From a fiscally responsible point of view, I'm not terribly disappointed he cut some projects. I'm terribly disappointed the tech center is gone." Bowen said he believes the funds will be restored by legislators in a future session. Thompson and others mentioned a budget amendment could be passed in the 2007 short session to restore vetoed projects. "We got it in (the budget this year), and we'll get it back," Bowen said. " ... I think there is some potential to get some of those projects restored in the next session." The legislature will have to wait until January if lawmakers hope to restore project funding. There are no legislative days for lawmakers to override Fletcher's vetoes. "What frustrates me, as tough as it might be to override a veto, we didn't give ourselves the opportunity," Bowen said. Sen. David Boswell, a Sorgho Democrat, said House and Senate leaders allowed the time to slip away during negotiations, leaving no time to override vetoes. "I think legislative leadership ... needs to bear a little bit of responsibility for this, because they ran the clock down," Boswell said. Fletcher's decision to take the technology center out of the budget "is a slap in the face to our community." Spared from the governor's knife were $500,000 for the RiverPark Center and $700,000 for the Mary Kendall Campus. Fletcher also vetoed $4 million for the Madisonville advanced technology center. "I was appalled the governor pulled those funds out of the budget," said Sen. Jerry Rhoads, a Madisonville Democrat. " ... It's an arbitrary political decision that will hurt our area." Fletcher also vetoed $200,000 for park improvements and a miniature golf course at Lake Malone State Park. Rep. Brent Yonts, a Greenville Democrat, said he was perplexed by Fletcher's decision to target such a small project. "Why he would reach down and kill something to help a state facility with minimal dollars I do not understand," Yonts said. Coal county legislators were infuriated by Fletcher's decision to delete single-county coal severance projects from the budget. "This is the way you lose elections," Yonts said. "I believe (Fletcher) just angered 138 members of the legislature." Yonts said Fletcher appears to have "declared war on the legislature." The House is already considering taking Fletcher to court over his decision to veto specific single-county projects without vetoing the funds. "He vetoed the designations, but not the money," Yonts said. "It's my understanding he's brought (single-county projects) into the (Governor's Office for Local Development), and local citizens will no longer be able to tell what their needs are," Rhoads said. "The decisions will now be made by bureaucrats. Now our local officials are going to have to go to Frankfort and bet for our own money." Coal severance dollars are generated from money collected on each ton of coal sold. The funds are distributed back to coal counties for infrastructure and specific "single-county" projects. "What this means is the governor doesn't want the legislature to have any input on coal severance," said Rep. Jim Gooch, a Providence Democrat. " ... The money that comes out of the ground is our money." Fletcher veto lets him pick judges - DEMOCRATS ANGRY, POWERLESS TO STOP IT Writer: Brandon Ortiz 4/27/2006 Lexington Herald-Leader Gov. Ernie Fletcher used his line-item veto to strike provisions requiring nine new judges to be elected this November, a move that allows him to appoint them instead. The development, which went unnoticed Monday after Fletcher vetoed $370 million in projects in the state budget, angered House Democrats yesterday, who said the Republican governor took away the public's right to elect those judges. "Of all the vetoes across the executive branch and the judicial budget, that particular one is the most disturbing to me," said House Majority Whip Joe Barrows, D-Versailles. He later added, "You could raise the whole specter of packing courts." A Fletcher spokesman said the election provisions didn't pass constitutional muster. The state constitution forbids holding a judicial seat election before it has been funded, spokesman Brett Hall said. The nine judgeships, seven in circuit court and two in district court, are effective Jan. 1. "The election has to occur during its first year of funding," Hall said. Fletcher "amended the language to conform with the constitution." Late last night, Hall could not point to what section of the constitution the elections would have violated. Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said Fletcher's appointing judges is consistent with the state constitution, noting it allows him to fill judicial vacancies. "I wasn't surprised, nor was I disappointed," Thayer said of Fletcher's move. "To the victor goes the spoils. Was I happy when Bill Clinton appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the U.S. Supreme Court? No. Likewise, this governor has the right to name the people he chooses." Because the legislative session is over, the General Assembly cannot try to override the governor's veto. The veto comes a week after reports that several judges across the state are considering retiring before July 1 to receive better retirement benefits. If they step down before their terms end, Fletcher could appoint new judges to fill those vacancies, too. The judicial bill passed the House in early March, which Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville, said would have been "early enough for a veto override to be possible had the Senate enacted it" sooner. "As long as you have a divided House and Senate, apparently these things are going to continue to happen," Damron said. "The governor talked about not putting politics above people, but that is obviously where this provision went." Barrows said the judicial elections "had never been a bone of contention" between leaders of the two chambers. Legislators could theoretically de-fund and de-authorize the nine judgeships when they reconvene next year, but it's not clear whether the Republican-controlled Senate would support such an effort, Barrows said. It "may depend on whether people at both ends are upset about it," he said. Fletcher can appoint the new judges after Jan. 1. The seven circuit court judgeships are in the following counties: Hopkins; Hardin; Bourbon, Scott and Woodford; Breathitt, Powell and Wolfe; Allen and Simpson; Boone and Gallatin; and Russell and Wayne. The two district judgeships are in Warren County and Clark and Madison counties. To keep their jobs, those appointees would have to run for re-election. It's not clear whether that would take place in 2007 or 2008, Barrows said. But incumbents, in all branches of government, are historically heavy favorites to win re-election. "It depends on whether they are tainted by not being put in by the vote of the people," Damron said. Fletcher's $370 Million Cuts Meet Opposition Writer: Kerry Corum 4/26/2006 WFIE (Evansville) Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher's budget veto has sparked some anger among western Kentucky leaders. Leaders from several counties and four state senators plan to meet Wednesday, to protest the governor's veto of coal severance projects in western Kentucky. Phase two of the new Tech Center at Owensboro Community College was also a victim of the governor's budget ax, and that has Daviess County leaders upset. Owensboro officials say the Tech Center is the only project they asked for and they believe they were singled out unfairly. Todd Inman of the Owensboro Chamber of Commerce says, "We, as a community, came together for a project that crossed political, socioeconomic, and demographic lines. For one person to cut that and to exercise, is not the way I think our Constitution was framed." Fletcher responds, "We will get to completing that eventually, but we've got some other areas." Tuesday night, Governor Fletcher told the Associated Press he held back when trimming $370 million from the state budget. Fletcher said he tried to be fair when assessing what needed to go from the state's proposed $18.1 billion spending plan. The governor said he thinks lawmakers would have upheld his cuts even if the General Assembly hadn't ended before sending the budget to Fletcher. Previously: Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher's pen got a workout Monday, when he cut $370 million in construction projects from the state budget. That includes more than $18 million in western Kentucky projects. One of the casualties is a $14 million appropriation for the second phase of the Tech Center in Owensboro. The funding would have allowed construction of the facility to be completed including classrooms, business incubators and an expansion of Western Kentucky University. Fletcher says the cutbacks will keep taxes down in the future. "Just as heavy cargo makes ships float lower and more vulnerable to high seas, too much debt also increases risk. The next time storm clouds hang over our economy, we'll have to choose between tax increases and cutbacks in critical services if we don't decrease our debt." Other projects cut from the budget: $4 million for a new Tech Center at Madisonville Community College, and $200,000 for park improvements and a miniature golf course at Lake Malone State Park in Muhlenberg County. The governor said he made the cuts because he's worried about amount of debt the state's new spending plan called for. And on Tuesday, he'll make a stop in Muhlenberg County, where Greenville officials announced a new industry. Gourmet Express LLC will invest more than $7 million in the Commonwealth to move its manufacturing operation from Gridley, Illinois. It will mean 200 new jobs within two years. KSU, river funds sliced Writer: PAUL GLASSER 4/26/2006 Frankfort State Journal Gov. Ernie Fletcher has vetoed dozens of line items in the budget and cut millions of dollars for local projects. Much of the $370 million in cuts came from higher education, and Kentucky State University wasnt exempt. The school lost $4.9 million for improvements to the Betty White nursing school and $7 million for a new parking facility. The governor seems to understand that we have a health care provider shortage in this Commonwealth, but I am very disappointed that he did not see the need for the expansion of our highly successful nursing program, said KSU President Dr. Mary Sias in a press release. She said the program is one of the universitys unsung successes and more than 98 percent of the graduating students pass the national nursing exam. The program also has a substantial waiting list, but improvements cant be made if the money isnt available. Our program attracts diverse, highly qualified students, graduates them and places them into our community where they are easing a critical shortage of nurses, Sias said. Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort, also decried the decision to eliminate funds for improvements at KSU. Although there is a parking shortage on campus, Carroll said the issue isnt as critical as the need to improve the nursing program. However, he believes both projects are more worthwhile than the pharmacy school at the University of the Cumberlands. Its unbelievable for him to support an unconstitutional pharmacy school at Cumberland, and ignore the need for nurses at KSU, Carroll told the State Journal on Tuesday morning. Every time this governor makes a decision he makes a mistake. Carroll also lamented the decision to cut $17.5 million for improvements to the lock and dam system on the Kentucky River. The Kentucky River Authority received $55 million from the legislature to make repairs to locks, including Lock 4 in Frankfort. Fletcher eliminated $17.5 million in state funds, but the agency can still draw on $33 million in fee increases. The user-based increased would cost each household about $1.30 each month. There certainly is a dire, long-range need for a water supply in central Kentucky, Carroll said. In 1975, then-Gov. Carroll vetoed a plan to dam the Red River Gorge because he believed the Kentucky River was a viable source of drinking water. The House-Senate conference committee that fashioned the 2006 biennium budget agreed to support the program after Steve Reeder, director of the Kentucky River Authority, convinced them the project was vitally important. We made it one of our legislative priorities, Carroll said. However, Reeder told The State Journal today the cuts shouldnt affect the overall dam renovation project. A portion of the money would have repaired dam 10, which is still under federal control. Reeder said the Army Corps of Engineers wouldnt be able to make a firm commitment during the next biennium, which would add IRS penalties to the whole bond issue. However, the $33 million in fees are still available, which will be enough to complete the rest of the work. I dont really see it having any significant adverse impact, Reeder said. Overall, Carroll expressed dissatisfaction with the governors vetoes. There are no legislative days left, so the vetoes cannot be overridden. Fletcher hit us pretty hard, Carroll said. However, many other projects escaped unscathed, including the Grand Theatre, which received $488,000 in state funds. Until it was announced Monday night, the final fate of the project was in limbo, program president Bill Cull said. Were delighted the governor believes in our project, Cull said today. The money will allow Cull and his supporters to start the renovation process and raise additional funds. The project will turn the former movie theater into a regional multi-purpose performing arts center with 425 seats. The proposed renovations will cost an estimated $3 million. The design process should be completed this summer and work could begin next fall. This is a very significant start, Cull said. We can leverage more funding. A folk concert at the theatre this weekend demonstrated the potential impact on local tourism. Instead of visiting for the day, a bus tour from Salem, NC, stayed to see the concert and spent the night in a local hotel. We think thats the kind of thing Frankfort tourism can sell, Cull said. Its a great evening activity for people who have plenty of reason to visit. Other local projects that survived the veto process include $52 million for road improvements, $3 million for local sewer projects and $29 million for a new judicial center. Frankfort Mayor Bill May was pleased to see the sewer project funds preserved. I applaud the work of our local legislative delegation, the leadership of the House and Senate, and the governor for realizing the importance of these projects, May said. Leaders less than enthusiastic about the governor's decision Writer: ALLEN BLAIR 4/27/2006 Ashland Daily Independent FRANKFORT It's not exactly the talk of the Capitol's town, it seems. News stories about Gov. Ernie Fletcher's veto of "coal severance project" earmarks have been few this week, as wrangling over a private college's state-funded pharmacy school kept reporters busy. But, it's a hot issue among legislative and community leaders here - and they're less than enthusiastic about the governor's decision. State Rep. Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, the House majority floor leader, in fact is furious. "It's money we put together working with our counties, fiscal courts, water departments, school boards, cities, fire departments, coaches ... to make our communities a better place," Adkins said. "Why he would want to mess with taking out the line items? It seems nothing but political, for some reason," he said. "It doesn't benefit anyone. I'm furious he would take action upon a fund of money that means so much to our communities." Sen. Charlie Borders, R-Grayson, chairman of Senate appropriations and revenue committee who with Adkins sat on the conference committee that negotiated this year's budget, said he's still confident local projects will be funded to the dime. "It's a nuisance and something I'm not sure needed to be done ... but it could have been much, much worse," Borders said. "The local delegation works closely with people, and I hope they will recognize that so the process moves quickly." A meeting of coal county officials is planned to discuss the grant-making process for coal severance money, Fletcher said Tuesday, a day after his televised veto announcement of $370 million in bond funds from the state's $18 billion budget. In the veto, the governor removed the coal severance project list legislators traditionally set down in the budget by line item, but without removing the coal severance funds. The 2007-08 budget includes about $100 million for the biennium, rather than the $79 million for earmarked projects in the budget submitted by the General Assembly and entities will have to ask for funds through the Governor's Office of Local Development. "I was concerned there was not enough local input in the budget-making process in determining coal severance projects," Fletcher said. "I am calling a meeting of county judge-executives and fiscal courts to coordinate an effort to award single-county coal severance grants with their participation." Details of the meeting will be announced in the coming weeks. Adkins disagreed with the governor's reasoning on coal severance, saying the legislators are the ones with authority to appropriate. "We do the very thing he mentioned," he said. "That's what we do. I talk to my mayors and fiscal courts and I talk to my superintendents of schools ... That's where these line item appropriations come from." "They get them quickly under this process," Adkins said. "All it will do is prolong the ability of our communities to get funds back in to make their communities a better place." Rep. Tanya Pullin, D-South Shore, echoed that sentiment and said several mayors have already called to say they were starting to make plans but now there's uncertainty. "Our single county (coal severance) money for Greenup County represents months of work and coordination with the county and its eight cities and local school boards and many without unofficial voices, and I am responsive to all of them," Pullin said. "I feel like in terms of local input I'm as local as you can get. I don't see how a bureaucrat in Frankfort possibly knows the needs of Greenup County better." The money isn't lost, Pullin agreed, but "we have lost their being set in law." "Now, even though I'm hearing it's likely they will release the money for the same projects, it's not law," she said. "An element of uncertainty has been injected." Money wouldn't be available until after July anyway, but if the coal severance had stayed in as line items, construction plans could have been made now whether it's a water tower or school building roof, Pullin said. "It's distressing not to have the certainty." Referring to the governor's overall veto - it took away some Morehead State University construction and did away with specific earmarks for Grayson and Yatesville lakes - Borders said he wished that nothing had been changed, "because our delegation works extremely well together." But nothing major has changed in the long haul, he said, adding legislators talked with the Commerce Cabinet before about the parks appropriations and they agreed with local needs, and the agency bond funds can be put back into future budgets. "I can only assume the administration was concerned about spending somewhere, what was being spent," Borders said about the coal severance change. "I don't appreciate being micromanaged, but I don't think that was necessarily aimed at us," he said. "The long and short of it is... with MSU we had few taken out, but it could have been much, much worse; they didn't touch any money for our schools, roads or other projects." The Kentucky Association of Counties, or KACo, told reporters that overall county judge-executives approve the plan because it allows more local input. Some judges here, such as Carter County Judge-Executive Charles Wallace, say that input's already occurred within their delegation. Wallace also said he's heard that southeast counties with millions in coal severance had been spending money for salaries and in other inappropriate ways. "They should be penalized, not everybody else," he said. Again, changing a budget in that way, a budget that legislators worked hard in a bipartisan way to pass 136-2, takes away from communities, Adkins said. "The coal counties ought to be furious," he said. "These projects are not thought about overnight but through working with our mayors and councils and superintendents, our volunteer fire departments, people who run our Little League programs ... and we bring back that money to our communities in a way that they can access quickly and get it back into the communities quickly." "For him to complicate the process almost seems like he wants to slow down the flow of dollars." Most local projects survive veto Writer: Stephenie Steitzer 4/26/2006 Kentucky Post (Covington) Gov. Ernie Fletcher mostly left Northern Kentucky projects alone as he used his line-item veto to slash $370 million from the state budget in what he described as a commitment to reduce the state's borrowing. "I will not criticize any of the projects which the legislature selected," he said in a televised budget address Monday evening. "But to reduce the level of debt, we must reduce the number of projects." Fletcher said legislators had included budget appropriations for 2,352 construction projects, which would have created about $2.4 billion in debt, eclipsing even last year's record debt load of $1.9 billion. Normally, legislators could return to Frankfort and try to override any gubernatorial vetoes. But legislators used their constitutionally allotted 60 days for the General Assembly's 2006 session and so cannot return to override vetoes. Spared by Fletcher and his veto pen was $35.5 million for a Center for Informatics at Northern Kentucky University and $28 million for a Center for Advanced Manufacturing at Gateway Community and Technical College. Fletcher also spared $29.3 million for a new justice center in Newport for Campbell County and more than $17 million for water, sewer and small community projects. Those included $2.5 million for a planned museum at Big Bone Lick State Park; $5 million for a natural gas line in Owen County and $1 million for planning of the Times-Star Commons farmers market in Covington. "Overall, I think we're pretty pleased about how Northern Kentucky fared," said Senate President Pro Tem Katie Stine, R-Southgate, who helped negotiate the budget that was approved by the House and Senate last week. A new dorm and a dining hall expansion at NKU were among 43 projects statewide the governor vetoed, but NKU President Jim Votruba said he plans to brainstorm with state officials to see if there is another way to build the new dorm, such as a public/private partnership. He said there is a backlog of 200 students waiting to get into on-campus student housing. "If we're not able to build the residence hall, it will severely restrain our ability to grow the university," Votruba said. NKU planned to use its own money rather than state funds to build the new dorm and expand the Norse Commons dining hall. But the bonds that would have been issued for the project would have affected the state's overall debt rating, Votruba said. Basically, the arrangement was like NKU using the state's credit card and the school making the payments. Despite seeing two NKU projects axed, Votruba said he was pleased with the governor's treatment of the region. "I think Governor Fletcher has been very generous. He's generous because he understands this is an investment that will reap strong returns on behalf of the entire community." Fletcher spokesman Brett Hall said Northern Kentucky "certainly did" fare better than most other regions in the state. "The reason being because it's long been neglected." Financial support for NKU in each of the two budgets enacted since Fletcher took office in 2004 has been quadruple what was in each of the two previous budgets. While just $15 million and $12 million was allocated to NKU in 2000-02 and 2002-04, more than $68 million has been earmarked in each of the two most recent budgets. "It's a growing institution and when you look at the fact that it's the only public four-year institution in that region with a growing population base, there is a definite need to address the demands," Hall said. In addition, a Northern Kentucky project was the only one spared in a $60 million pool of money for state parks improvements. The governor vetoed all the project designations in that allocation except for $2.5 million for a museum at Big Bone in Boone County. Supporters of the project hope to parlay that money and $600,000 secured last year by U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, to leverage private donations for the museum, estimated to cost $7 million to $9 million. Rep. Dennis Keene, D-Wilder, said the governor's treatment of Northern Kentucky - where Fletcher was widely supported with votes and campaign contributions in the last election - leaves no doubt he is in campaign mode. "He's definitely running for 2007 and this reflects that," he said. Regardless of the governor's motives, Keene said he's pleased with the budget. "I think Northern Kentucky truly came out of this budget head and shoulders above a lot of regions," he said. "For the governor to eliminate just a couple projects was better than expected." Statewide, Fletcher's cuts included $6 million for a polar bear exhibit at the Louisville Zoo, $17.5 million for renovating a series of locks and dams on the Kentucky River, and $2.5 million for building animal shelters. Government watchdog groups had pointed to the Louisville Zoo appropriation as a pet project inserted in the budget during closed-door negotiations. However, the appropriations for renovations of the locks and dams were touted by legislative leaders as badly needed to ensure residents of central Kentucky have a reliable source of drinking water in the future. Fletcher said he thought the project could go ahead without that money, because the legislature had given the Kentucky River Authority the go-ahead to sell more than $32 million in bonds to pay for most of the project. Some university leaders upset over vetoed funds Writer: Linda B. Blackford And John Stamper 4/26/2006 Lexington Herald-Leader A day after Gov. Ernie Fletcher cut more than $300 million from state university projects, at least one school is threatening to fight back. University of Louisville President Jim Ramsey has called a news conference this morning to denounce more than $73 million in cuts and talk about the future of the Louisville arena project, which hinges on revenue from university basketball games. Ramsey was particularly upset that Fletcher said he cut several U of L projects because the city will get state backing for a sports arena. "I'll talk more about that tomorrow," Ramsey said yesterday, "whether or not we have any interest in the arena." He declined to elaborate on the $381-million project that is a top legislative priority of Fletcher's administration. The General Assembly just approved $75 million in state bonds for the project. Ramsey is not the only university president licking his wounds after Fletcher cut $312 million from university projects because of concerns over the state's debt level. While several say they are still grateful for generous operating budgets and the highest capital construction spending on record -- $714 million -- they say the cuts will hurt the state's efforts to improve its universities. Western Kentucky University lost $57.3 million to Fletcher's pen on Monday. "We're disappointed because high academic priorities focused on economic development will now be even further deferred," said President Gary Ransdell. He is among those particularly mystified by Fletcher's choice of projects fueled by agency bonds, which are backed by revenues like student fees, as opposed to state tax dollars. For example, bonds to build a new dorm or cafeteria are financed by student housing and dining fees. "To have to defer a project for lack of authorization is a bit frustrating," Ransdell said. About two-thirds of the vetoed projects were to be funded with agency bonds, including student centers, new dorms, medical buildings and parking lots. Fletcher said yesterday he needed to reduce the state's debt, noting that "Wall Street doesn't make a difference between agency bonds and general fund bonds." Ultimately, the state is on the hook to repay all its debts, he said. Rep. Robert Damron, D-Nicholasville, has repeatedly introduced a bill similar to laws in 45 other states that would allow universities to issue their own bonds for projects that are self-supporting. It has passed the House three times but hasn't been called in the Senate. "About 60 percent of the vetoed projects have no bearing on the state; the state makes no payments on those," Damron said. "Why we think we're smarter than 45 other states makes no sense to me." Rep. Jon Draud, R-Edgewood, said universities shouldn't be required to get the blessing of legislators before issuing bonds that are supported by an independent revenue stream. "I think the university people would be responsible enough to maintain their own debt," he said. "We've never had any kind of bond default." Draud has repeatedly voted in favor of Damron's bill. "Maybe this will make this more of a real issue now," he said. EKU loses dairy project Other university officials are holding their fire for now, including Eastern Kentucky University President Joanne Glasser, who lost a highly touted dairy project with the University of Kentucky at Meadowbrook Farm outside Richmond. "While we did not receive authorization for funding for the EKU-UK dairy complex at Eastern's Meadowbrook Farm and the bonding authority to construct student housing, we look forward to requesting approval for funding of these projects at a later date," she said. "On balance we're still very pleased with the budget," said UK spokesman Jay Blanton. "But the vetoes have impact." He pointed to the elimination of $13.5 million to renovate UK's Livestock Disease and Diagnostic Center, which examines 3 million cattle and horse carcasses a year and tests hundreds of thousands of live animals for disease. The lab's national accreditation is in trouble because it doesn't have enough room. "With mad cow disease, West Nile, these challenges Mother Nature keeps throwing us, plus the potential for agro-terrorism, we'll have quite a challenge in how we respond if we can't get the facility support we need to make that happen," said Craig Carter, an epidemiologist at the lab. KSU cuts questioned University officials stayed fairly quiet on the most controversial of Fletcher's decisions -- not to veto $11 million in coal severance money for a new pharmacy school and scholarships at the University of the Cumberlands. At issue is the legality of giving state funds to a private school that recently expelled a student after he acknowledged on a Web site that he is gay. "Those are coal severance dollars and they have to go back to the region and they're going for an educational use which is something we've supported," said UK's Blanton. But Democratic legislators are speaking out, especially because one of the vetoed projects was a nursing school expansion at Kentucky State University, a historically black university. "We've got a nursing school badly needed at Kentucky State University and yet he would attempt to fund a pharmacy school that is potentially illegal to begin with," said Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Frankfort.higher education. Suits blast, back funds Writer: Jack Brammer 4/26/2006 Lexington Herald-Leader Two lawsuits filed yesterday in Franklin Circuit Court seek rulings on the constitutionality of $10 million in state funds earmarked for a Baptist-affiliated college in southeastern Kentucky that expelled an openly gay student this month. Gov. Ernie Fletcher's Office for Local Development asked the court to rule that the funding to the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg and $317,900 for a proposed technology center upgrade at Baptist-affiliated Campbellsville University is constitutional. Earlier in the day, Christina Gilgor asked the court to prevent the state from giving public money to the University of the Cumberlands for a new pharmacy school. Gilgor is executive director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, which promotes gay rights. She said the funding is an "unconstitutional appropriation and use of public funds" for "a sectarian and denominational school that treats Kentucky citizens unequally." Senate President David Williams, a Burkesville Republican who has been pushing funding for the pharmacy school in his district, said the legal relief Gilgor is seeking is "too broad and simply is seeking protective status for gays and lesbians." "That's absurd," Gilgor said. "The relief we are seeking is to halt state funding to a private school that practices discrimination." Fletcher said Monday he would not veto the funding, but that no money will be used on the project until courts determine whether it's constitutional for state dollars to go the school. He said he declined to veto because the money would come from severance taxes paid by coal companies, not by individual taxpayers. The legislature also appropriated $1 million for scholarships to the pharmacy school at the Cumberlands. Before his office filed its lawsuit yesterday, Fletcher said he welcomed the Fairness Alliance's legal challenge. "I think it's good to have groups argue for both sides," he said. "We just think it's high time to find out what's constitutional in this area." Fletcher said that two of his top advisers differ on the constitutionality question. He said Stan Cave, his chief of staff, thinks the funding is unconstitutional. But he said his general counsel, Jim Deckard, thinks the state constitutional ban on using tax money in support of religious institutions applies only to elementary and secondary schools, and not to colleges. Fletcher's lawsuit lists state Budget Director Brad Cowgill and the Finance and Administration Cabinet as defendants. It asks that they proceed with the funding in question. Franklin Circuit Judge Roger Crittenden has been assigned the lawsuit. Gilgor's lawsuit lists Fletcher as the defendant. It was assigned to Franklin Circuit Judge William L. Graham. Louisville attorney David Tachau, a former member of the Kentucky Board of Education, is representing Gilgor's group. Gilgor said she decided to file her lawsuit and not wait for the governor because he would not be "a proper plaintiff" to issue a legal challenge in this case. She said the governor would lack "adversity" with any proposed defendant. She also said Fletcher lacks actual adversity because he has violated his oath of office and the Kentucky Constitution by failing "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed" by not vetoing the funding to the Cumberlands. The issue of state funding for private, religious institutions grew more intense after the school expelled student Jason Johnson of Lexington because he said on a Web site that he was gay. U of L wavers in its support for arena deal - University irritated by Fletcher vetoes Writers: Marcus Green and Mark Pitsch 4/27/2006 Louisville Courier-Journal The University of Louisville no longer is sure it wants to be part of a downtown arena after Gov. Ernie Fletcher vetoed $73 million in university construction projects. Visibly irritated by the governor's cuts, President James Ramsey said yesterday at a news conference that a riverfront arena was never U of L's priority and that it agreed to the site because it was best for downtown. "We are totally happy to play at Freedom Hall," Ramsey said. "And don't let anyone say for a minute that a new arena is U of L's arena, or a new arena is for U of L." Ramsey said he told arena officials he "didn't know what our position is at this point." U of L's wavering support threatens to undermine the arena proposal, the project's top official said. "Without U of L being the main tenant, we don't have an arena," said Jim Host, chairman of the Louisville Arena Authority. U of L and the arena authority, the group appointed to oversee construction, have been negotiating an agreement under which the university would be the primary tenant. No agreement has been signed. Host was quick to say that the arena authority would continue its work, and he expected attorneys from U of L and the authority to continue working to an agreement. "I just think we need to let the dust settle over the next few weeks and see how all of this plays out," Host said. In addition to control over dates -- something U of L has had little flexibility with at Freedom Hall -- the university would share in revenues from a new arena, including sales of 72 skyboxes. Fletcher said yesterday he does not believe U of L will pull out of the agreement to play at a downtown arena. "It is good for Louisville. It is good for the commonwealth of Kentucky," Fletcher said. "And I know Dr. Ramsey, and I trust he'll make the right decision." The university's basketball programs would be the chief tenants in the proposed 22,000-seat arena, but it took months of compromise to get U of L to agree to move from Freedom Hall. Originally, U of L wanted a new arena on campus or at the state fairgrounds. Fletcher's vetoes cut funding from a basketball practice facility, a downtown parking garage and a 40-year-old dormitory slated for renovation. The budget Fletcher signed did include $69.7 million for a health sciences building at U of L -- the most expensive construction project at a Kentucky public university funded through state bonds. Ramsey's remarks came two days after Fletcher announced his vetoes. At a news conference Monday night, Fletcher said one reason he cut $73 million in U of L projects from the budget was because the school would benefit from the arena that will receive $75 million in state bonds. "If you add that to it, that's the reason that we made some reduction otherwise," Fletcher said. But Ramsey said he didn't want funding for an arena to affect academic and other projects at the school. U of L athletics director Tom Jurich agreed. "We've said it from day one, that if this arena was going to cut into anything at the university then we weren't in favor of it," Jurich said. "We reluctantly went downtown to be a team player and to be on the river to go in accordance with the task force and to be a full partner." Greater Louisville Inc., the metro chamber of commerce, has been a leading voice for a downtown arena. Spokeswoman Carmen Hickerson said she doesn't know if U of L's sudden reluctance may doom the plan. But Hickerson stressed that the arena was not a U of L request. Instead, she said, it was a community development project that would benefit both the city and the state. "The two shouldn't have been linked, and U of L shouldn't have been penalized on their other requests because of funding for the arena," she said. U of L's reaction to the vetoes is the latest in a series of events that have threatened to derail building an arena at Second and Main streets, the site a state task force chose last year. In February, Louisville businessmen John Schnatter and David Jones announced they were paying for a study evaluating the old Louisville Water Co. block at Third and Liberty streets as an alternative arena site. That study found that an arena there would be $114 million cheaper. In this year's General Assembly, the House budget provided $75 million in arena funding if the facility went on the water company site. The Senate removed that language, as did a conference committee assembled to reconcile differences in the two chambers' spending plans. Host said he remains confident that an arena agreement "will still all come together, but it's just another one of these blips in the road that this thing has continued to have." Veto angers Democratic senators Writer: Don Perryman 4/27/2006 Madisonville Messenger Gov. Ernie Fletcher's decision to veto $79.1 million worth of single county coal severance projects was the subject of a bitter protest Wednesday by four state senators. Sens. Jerry Rhoads (D-Madisonville), David Boswell (D-Owensboro), Dorsey Ridley (D-Henderson) and Joey Pendleton (D-Hopkinsville) termed the veto as politically motivated. They further said Republicans intentionally stretched out budget negotiations so legislators would not have time to override the veto. Pendleton described the negotiations as "contentious" as he could remember. "I believe it was their game plan to stretch it out," he said. "I hope this was a wake-up call (for legislators)." The $79.1 million in coal severance projects was part of $370 million in total cuts made through the governor's veto. Fletcher said the cuts were necessary because the budget would have increased the state's debt load from $1.9 billion to approximately $2.4 billion. The cuts will keep the debt load relatively the same. Almost 800 projects statewide were included in the veto. The funding is generated through a 5 percent tax on each ton of coal produced in a county. Half of the revenue is returned to the county through an account in the Governor's Office for Local Development. In the past, counties have submitted a list of projects for coal severance funding. The projects must meet established guidelines and fall into categories such as public health and safety, economic development and public infrastructure. The change in policy, which Rhoads termed as "radical," now requires GOLD approval. In essence, he said, the state will now determine how counties spend their money. He said counties will now have to file applications with the state for each project and that places a heavy administrative burden on county officials. The veto does not necessarily mean the projects will not eventually be funded. The senators said they were unsure what the next step will be and they have received phone calls from a number of county officials wondering if Fletcher will approve their funding requests. "Right now, I have to tell them, 'I don't know,'" Rhoads said. Boswell said the policy is "an insult to every citizen in Kentucky coal counties." Rhoads said $420,000 of Hopkins County's $1.5 million worth of requested items falls into the area of public safety. "I hope the governor will be sensitive and take care of this right now," he said. "We never know when the next tornado is coming." In announcing the veto, Fletcher's office issued a statement that Rhoads read Wednesday morning. "The governor is taking this action because he believes that local officials and communities should have more involvement in the decision-making process for the investment of these funds that are returned to their communities as a result of the severance of minerals. This is how the program was and is intended to be operated," the statement read. Rhoads believes the governor's action and new policy have the opposite effect. "I agree to the extent that his statement reflects that local officials should decide how best the money should be spent," he said. "But I can't reconcile that statement with the action he took. On Tuesday, Hopkins County Judge-Executive Patricia Hawkins said she is taking a wait and see approach. "I'm not getting overly worked up over it," she said, "because we've had a good working relationship with the Governor's Office for Local Development and the governor. "I'm just going to wait and see what they send out to us in regard to what format we need to follow and what requirements and restrictions there are going to be," Hawkins said. |