In the News: calls for a budget that works for Kentucky

A Letter to the Editor and an article worth noting, both underscoring the irresponsibility of the current budget.  Below is a member's call for tax reform that offers access to higher ed, and an article that shows how chronic underfunding of the Cabinent of Health and Family Services has compromised our ability to protect some of the state's most vulnerable. 

Amar Shah's Letter to the Editor in yesterday's Courier-Journal.  Shah is among the U of L students building support for affordable higher education.

Taxes and tuition

"Crit Luallen's opinion piece on the exorbitant costs of higher education in Kentucky could not be any more relevant. As she notes, Kentucky is among the least educated states in the nation and desperately must catch up. Luallen reports that tuition at our four-year institutions have risen by 96 percent over the past six years, forcing a massive decrease in enrollment. These tuition increases can be attributed to, at least in part, a refusal of our state government to raise the revenue badly needed to support higher education.

Luallen's figures demonstrate that the shortchanging of public higher education in Kentucky has been an ongoing trend, but our current governor and legislature must do everything in their power to reverse it. Simply put, raising revenue means raising taxes.

In this state, the wealthiest pay a smaller proportion of their income in taxes than do those who are merely eking out a living. In the end, it is the students who pay, in the form of sky-high tuition, as universities look for ways to shore up their budgets.

As a student at the University of Louisville, I challenge the readers of this newspaper to quit harking to the fear-mongering of anti-tax rhetoric and admit that the only way to an educated Kentucky is through economic justice and tax reform. Only when the state government has the guts to raise taxes on the wealthy will our public universities secure the funding necessary to ensure that higher education is affordable for all."

AMAR SHAH
Student
University of Louisville
Louisville 40217

And here is an article in the Herald-Leader about the effects of chronically underfunding the state wards, which care for the 2500 Kentucky adults who are unable to care for themselves.  Notice the incredible caseloads pointed out (and bolded) in the excerpt below:

Luallen said in an interview that the problems are not indicative of the quality of the employees hired by the state to handle guardianship cases.

      'These are committed, caring workers who are doing the best they can.' The problem, she said, is that there are too few of them.

A national study issued in 2005 recommended a ratio of one worker per 20 wards.  As of last year, Kentucky averaged one case manager for each 58 wards, the audit found. Since then, caseloads have increased to an average of one worker per 61 wards.

All this, and the Senate President isn't convinced that anyone is being cut to the bone.  These pieces, along with all the other calls for strengthening our investments our commonwealth, are cases for more inclusive, more participatory government, with elected officials who truly represent Kentuckians.  What are your thoughts?