Gov. Steve Beshear's Chief of Staff is all atwitter with the news that Site Selection Magazine has named Kentucky's corporate welfare scheming as the fifth most prolific in the nation for 2008.
"Kentucky has been very aggressive in its economic development strategy under the leadership of Gov. Beshear, and this ranking demonstrates our work is seeing results," said Chief of Staff Larry Hayes, who doubles as Kentucky's Economic Development Cabinet Interim Secretary.
The press release sent out by the Cabinet for Economic Development accurately describes the "award" in its second paragraph as a measure of "state economic development agencies' competitiveness." That's a lot different than the headline that proclaims Kentucky's "economic competitiveness" as the fifth best in the nation.
In other words, this "award" suggests Kentucky has to dole out more tax incentives to companies to get them to invest here than nearly every other state does. We had to debunk a similarly misleading ranking only two months ago.
Sure would like to think Kentucky's reporters will catch (and disseminate) the distinction. Continued cheerleading on this point would be highly inappropriate.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Fifth best at what?
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2 comments:
This has to be some of the most ignorant propaganda by the state government. To consider that Kentucky is the 5th most competitive economy while its citizens languish in the 44th to 46th ranking every year in incomes is another pitiful statement. They haven't been able to create a decent state economy since the 90s and even John Y Brown for his faults actually started moving the state forward. Its too bad that the bumpkins in Frankfort didn't keep going and improving the local economy by training the workforce and stressing education. Instead, they've decided to keep messing things up for everyone through more taxes to pay for corporate welfare in the form of subsidies to these companies. More corporate welfare pulled from the pockets of Kentucky taxpayers, the productive people of the state. So instead we get the banana republic treatment of having low wage jobs and low incomes while we pay taxes for our own destruction. Makes little sense from any viewpoint. But that is what happens when the state is controlled by a liberal superminority at the executive branch and the legislative branch. Which is why your Senate Republicans follow a leader who is actually a tax and spend liberal in disguise.
The Beshear Administration still has not hired a Secretary of the Economic Development Cabinet. They have chosen instead to have the cabinet run by the Governor's Office which is in direct conflict with Kentucky's statutes creating the cabinet. The legislature was very explicit in their requirement that the Economic Development Cabinet is to be an entity outside of the political influence of the Governor's office. The Governor has no power to reorganize the Economic Development Cabinet unlike the other cabinets in the executive branch but the current administration is attempting to circumvent these laws by not hiring a permanent Secretary.
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