Improving the education attainment of Kentuckians at all levels   Modernizing government at all levels   Promoting wellness and healthy Kentuckians   Preparing Kentucky to successfully compete in the global marketplace   Expanding Kentucky’s role as an energy leader

Improving the education attainment of Kentuckians at all levels: Kentucky’s economic future is directly related to the education and skills of its citizens. The business community requires a labor pool of well-prepared high school and college graduates to successfully compete in the global economy.

Improving education attainment at all levels will require multiple actions, such as:

•         Fully funding all-day kindergarten, to give children a boost in performance when starting elementary school

•         Updating teacher compensation by adopting differentiated pay for teachers that pays higher salaries for:

•         Teachers in hard to serve areas and subjects

•         Performance instead of seniority

•         Establishing an education improvement tax credit for businesses in Kentucky that contribute to public and private schools (as in Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona); contributions could go into a statewide fund and be distributed to schools based on need

•         Improving education alignment by:

o    Ensuring universal transferability of credits from KCTCS institutions to four-year public institutions—all credit earned at any of the 16 KCTCS colleges should be transferable to any public university in Kentucky

o    Improving teacher education/preparation to better prepare students for college

 

Modernizing government at all levels: The structure of state and local government in Kentucky is based largely on our 1891 state constitution. The method of organization of city and county government has remained virtually unchanged for over 115 years. The authority provided to cities to govern themselves (such as the form of local government, ability to raise revenue, and fire and police protection) varies by city class (from first class to sixth class cities), with smaller towns having less authority than larger cities. This antiqued system has left many local communities in Kentucky struggling with rising pension and benefit costs, with limited options for increasing revenue other than to reduce essential services.

Kentucky should modernize government and improve efficiency by considering such ideas as:

•         Privatizing the Kentucky Lottery to increase the return to the state

•         Creating a pilot project to privatize at least one state park and allow liquor sales as part of the pilot

•         Creating incentives to reduce the number of counties in Kentucky

•         Consolidating local offices such as constable, surveyors, magistrates, sheriffs, to improve efficiency

•         Encouraging regional/consolidated service delivery with timelines for

•         implementation

•         Abolishing the classification system of Kentucky cities and give all communities the authority to govern themselves in as entrepreneurial spirit as possible, including the ability to levy sales and restaurant taxes

 

Promoting wellness and healthy Kentuckians: A recent assessment of the health of Kentuckians prepared by the Institute of Medicine at the University of Kentucky revealed that we lead the nation in some grim statistics:

•         Kentucky ranks No. 1 in the percent of adults who smoke. A full 29% of adult Kentuckians smoke, compared to 21% nationally.

•         An estimated 25% of high school students also smoke, compared to 23% nationally.

•         More than half of all smokers will die of a smoking-related illness (cancer, cardiovascular disease and respiratory illness) and 23% of all deaths in Kentucky are attributed to smoking.

•         Kentucky ranks sixth in obesity, with 29% of adults considered obese, compared to a national average of 24%.

•         Oral health is also a concern, with Kentucky ranking eighth in the number of adults who have lost at least one tooth to dental disease.

The UK study found that many of the health problems in the state are due to poor lifestyle choices, which lead to preventable diseases and premature deaths. Compounding these problems is the fact that more than 14% of Kentucky’s population is not covered by public or private health insurance, and when the uninsured get sick, they tend to avoid seeking medical treatment or filling a prescription.

To promote wellness and healthy Kentuckians, we need to consider:

•         Provide tax credits to companies that offer wellness programs to employees

•         Encourage physical education in public schools

•         Create anti-obesity programs/ nutrition education in schools

•         Provide dental hygiene education to public school students

•         Expand access to affordable health care by working with the private sector to provide affordable health coverage and put Kentuckians on a plan that can be paid for on an individual or employer basis

Preparing Kentucky to successfully compete in the global marketplace: Just a few generations ago, America dominated the world economy. Most products were manufactured in the United States, and many of those produced in less-developed countries were considered inferior. With the rise of the global economy, fueled in part by the development of the Internet, quality products and services are now manufactured around the globe. The U.S. share of the global market has decreased to about 25%, and the nation now has an annual trade deficit of more than $700 billion. Some complex products like computers and software, once exclusively American products, are now widely produced in China and India.

Given this profound economic shift, Kentucky’s future prosperity rests on its preparation to compete in the global marketplace. This means recognizing that our true economic competitors are no longer limited to

Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee and other states, but now also include countries like China, Korea and India. It will also require adapting our educational system to this new international reality and making sure that state and local government policies are friendly to both foreign and domestic businesses.

Preparing Kentucky to compete in the global marketplace will require a number of action steps, which might include:

•         Providing tax incentives to STEM companies (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) that are currently located in Kentucky or want to move here

•         Radically altering Kentucky’s income tax, by either abolishing it, or replacing it with a simple three-line tax form

•         Teaching the metric system in public schools

•         Teaching foreign languages, such as Chinese, to prepare students to participate in the global market

•         Comparing Kentucky’s economic/educational performance with other countries, instead of other

      states, since our real competition in the global economy is beyond our national borders

•         Encouraging Kentucky cities to participate in the Sister Cities program, to strengthen foreign linkages and encourage foreign investment in Kentucky

 

Expanding Kentucky’s role as an energy leader: Kentucky enjoys an historic position as a national leader in energy production, ranking as one of the top three U.S. coal producers for the last 50 years. Our abundance of coal and an efficient system of power generation has also resulted in the lowest electric rates in the nation—a real plus for consumers, especially industries engaged in manufacturing.

To meet future energy demands, state regulators have estimated that we will need ten additional large power plants over the next 20 years. If we are to meet this growing demand while protecting the environment, as well as our position as an energy leader, we must expand the recently developed state energy plan to ensure that Kentucky has a comprehensive energy conservation/efficiency strategy involving public-private partnerships. This strategy could include, but not be limited to:

•         Alternative energy production/use (hybrid vehicles, turning waste into power, wind and solar power)

•         Expansion of hydroelectric power generation

•         Value-added energy production

•         Taxes/incentives that encourage responsible energy use

•         Clean coal technology