Posted by: Dave Newton on February 11, 2012
This evening in Lexington, Senator Kathy Stein and Alan Stein hosted a house party with their friends to benefit Kentuckians For The Commonwealth.
About 30 friends and neighbors came out for soup beans and cornbread and donated a total of $1,250 to support KFTC's work.
Posted by: Dave Newton on February 11, 2012
Posted by: Dave Newton on February 11, 2012
Al Cross, Director of the Institute for Rural Journalism, wrote an interesting and broad piece on redistricting in Kentucky that appeared in today's Courier Journal. It's worth a read.
Posted by: jerry on February 9, 2012
Posted by: Ondine Quinn on February 8, 2012
Reflections from a first time lobbyist by central Kentucky KFTC member Jessica Barnett
This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to lobby in Frankfort for the first time. I tagged along with veteran KFTC lobbyists who helped me out as I learned the system. They began by showing me around the Capitol Annex where the Senate and House of Representative's offices are located. Although it was confusing at first, by the end of the day I had a general idea of how to get around.
Posted by: Jessica Hays on February 8, 2012
The Governor's office released the list of people who've been appointed to the Blue Ribbon Commission to study tax reform. We're still learning about a lot of these people, so we'll update when we know more, but want to congratulate allies Jason Bailey from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy and Sheila Schuster from Advocacy Action Network for taking on this important work.
KFTC member Dana Beasley Brown applied for a seat on the commission on behalf of KFTC. Members felt that it was important to apply because it's important to the work of the Blue Ribbon Commission, they felt, to have a person who is low-income, who has felt the impact of bad economic policies, seen the potential of good ones, and who has learned a wealth of skills to raise her voice to bring about a better Kentucky and a fairer tax structure. Dana would have been an asset to their work. Unfortunately, we did not get that seat. But we're looking ahead to the ways that we *will* be able to impact the work of this commission. It's supposed to hold town hall forums and take public comment, and members are looking forward to weighing in that way.
Posted by: Tanya Turner on February 8, 2012
Posted by: Tanya Turner on February 7, 2012
The annual "Crepes of Wrath" event was held this past Saturday in Eolia in the home of Sharman and Jeff Chapman-Crane. Letcher County members gathered early that morning for Jeff's infamous crepes filled with a choice of a buffet of fresh ingredients. Among the spread was fresh blueberries, strawberries, melons, yogurt, sour cream, honey, maple syrup, and pecans!
Jeff grilled up the crepes fresh and announced to the hungry crowd as each was ready. It was a shuffle in the living room to get to the kitchen for the next hot crepe!
After breakfast, tea, and coffee, members gathered at the kitchen table to start writing letters to local papers and their legislators.
Posted by: Erik Hungerbuhler on February 7, 2012
"Do it right, do it fairly this time"
A couple of weeks ago, Democratic House and Republican Senate leadership passed and Governor Beshear signed legislative re-districting plans that are vindictive against specific lawmakers, leave one incumbent lawmaker without a district to run for re-election, leaves citizens of another district represented by a senator from 200 miles away who they didn't vote for, and creates very oddly shaped districts that unnecessarily divide communities and counties.
Fortunately, the Franklin Circuit Court stepped in yesterday and declared the redistricting plans unconstitutional and restored the district lines to how they were last year, tasking the legislature to come up with new and constitutional plans.
Posted by: Dave Newton on February 6, 2012
