Campaign Platform Team Scott Coffey

Seizing Tomorrow’s
Promise
2015 Campaign for Kentucky’s Families

Will T. Scott for Governor

© 2015

www.TeamScottCoffey.com

Table of Contents
Expanding Our Base
Saving Eastern Kentucky’s Economy
Start Working for New Non-Coal Futures Now
Keep SOAR Working!
Western Kentucky SOAR
Use Coal Severance Tax Funds the Right Way
Federal/Kentucky Partnership for Clean Coal
Technology and Byproducts Research/Pilot Projects
Wilderness State Resort Park
Real Educational Attainment
Postsecondary Education
Charter Schools
Southern and Southeastern Kentucky Higher Education
Smaller Government
Lower Corporate Taxes Mean More Jobs for All of Us
There is Still Waste to Cut
More Justice
Keeping Our Promises
Gaming Will Help—DO IT!
Drugs, Crime, and Prisons
Juvenile Drug Courts
Adult Drug Courts
They’ll Also Be on the Highway
New Family Commitment Laws
New Prison Paths for Addicts and Local
Re-entry Drug Courts
A 21st Century Kentucky Judiciary
Reform the Kentucky Penal Code—Again!
Vehicular Criminal Use Statute
Punish Crimes, Not Unintentional Negligent Conduct!
Quit Sending People To Prison Who Act in Self-Defense!
Other Penal Code Reforms
We Need More Local Law Enforcement Officers
New Tool to Keep Drug Dealers on the Move: Zoning
Keeping Addicts in Recovery Clean With Jobs
They Can Be Proud Of
Death Penalty
Conclusion

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Foreword

Kentucky sits in the center of the most promising nation on Earth. We are
bounded by two of the largest rivers of commerce, blessed with an
abundance of energy-producing fuels in our natural gas, oil, and coal
reserves, and populated by some of the most industrious and gracious
people on Earth.
For us, tomorrow’s promise is attainable! To gather this promise, we must
build a more inclusive party, strengthen education, and grow a smaller
government with lower taxation, less waste, more jobs, and more justice.
Now is the time, this is the place, and we are the people to grasp this
promise.
This is my plan to gather “Tomorrow’s Promise.”

Will T. Scott

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Expanding Our Base
As Senator Paul has pointed out, we need to expand our party’s base. We
need to open our party’s gates, not close them. Thus, we need to embrace
and expand Kentucky’s successes, while, at the same time, fixing our
failures. We have a lot of economic success stories in Kentucky. We just
need to continue to nurture these while improving our ailing areas. My
victories in 2004 and 2012, along with Senator McConnell’s recent victory,
provide a good example of this opportunity in heavily-Democratic Eastern
Kentucky, the old 7th Congressional District. Historically, this area has
been the reason the Republican Party has only been able to win the
governorship for one four-year term every twenty-three years since 1927.
We can change this now with the right focus, the right plan, and good
government.

Saving Eastern Kentucky’s Economy
You can imagine the despair any region would feel after losing
approximately 24,000 good-paying jobs in the last several years (8,000
direct coal jobs and 16,000 support jobs). Having their coal-based
economy destroyed in
the last six years by
heavy-handed
EPA
regulations under the
national Democratic
Party,
Eastern
Kentuckians
have
now turned to the
Republican Party for
help. Whether or not
the
national
Democratic Party and
the EPA will be able
to continue their
heavy-handed
treatment of the coal mining regions in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia,
and western Virginia, along with our manufacturers nationwide, is a
question that will be answered politically in Washington, D.C. or judicially
in the federal courts in the near future. As to our national manufacturing
base, we also have to realize they can, and are, shifting their production

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facilities (and our jobs) overseas to their manufacturing affiliates so as to
avoid unreasonably stringent EPA regulations and costs. This, too, is a
federal question that has to be resolved in D.C.
That aside, coal mining is still a proud, legal occupation in both eastern
and western Kentucky.
Many
families
and
communities—and their
livelihoods—depend on it.
And now, they are looking
to us for help. We must
not fail them.
Western
Kentucky’s
mining in the Illinois Coal
Basin is doing fine for the
moment—with
some
storms on the horizon. But, to avoid economic collapse, eastern Kentucky’s
mining needs a decent interval of eight to ten years of continued mining
and coal sales within which to retool its mineral ownership, mining
methods, and to reestablish foreign markets we’ve ignored for years while
we’ve delivered coal domestically for steam coal markets.
We can help, but, to do so, we must understand the problem.
First, until the 1970s, coal in eastern Kentucky was produced by a lot of
small, local, family-owned mines that were adept at controlling the cost of
mining during tough economic times. However, by the late 1970s, large,
nationally- and internationally-owned corporations moved in and pushed
the small family mines out. Afterwards, their costs of mining began to
climb due both to increasing regulatory costs and wasteful management
and mining practices. As a result, their cost of mining has now reached or
exceeded the sale value of the eastern Kentucky high-quality, low-sulfur
coal they are producing.
Add to this the tremendous cost of installing scrubbers on the region’s
coal-fueled electric power plants to remove more sulfur and other
emissions, and the Ohio Valley power plants now have to buy cheaper
(around $10 a ton) high-sulfur coal (from the western Kentucky coal fields
and other Illinois Coal Basin mines) to recover the high installation cost of
the scrubbers. Thus, the higher-cost, higher-quality, low-sulfur coal from
eastern Kentucky is being pushed out of the steam-generated electric
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power plant market (steam coal) in America. Natural gas, at its current low
cost, is also increasing its market share of electric power generation. In
fact, our oil and gas producers are doing fine, natural gas prices are rising,
and Kentucky’s gas future looks good. Kentucky’s oil production is also
stable.
So, what do we do for coal?
First, we must realize that eastern Kentucky steam coal, because of its
high quality, is competitive in foreign markets, such as China, India, and
Europe, subject, of course, to the price per ton delivered overseas. Our
metallurgical coal is doing fine as it has its own different demands and
markets. Thus, we must, as a state, assist in the establishment of foreign
markets for eastern Kentucky steam coal. Since these foreign markets will
continue for our lifetime (and more) to rely primarily on coal for their lowcost electrical generating capacity (it is by far the cheapest way to make
electricity), let it be our coal they buy—and our jobs they sustain. In fact,
world economists now predict that the world’s consumption of coal to
produce power will increase by 50% from 8 billion tons per year to almost
12 billion tons per year by 2040.
Secondly, as the Eastern Kentucky mining community shifts from
nationally- and internationally-owned operations back to smaller, locallyowned
and
family-owned
operations, which can better
control production and materials
costs—this transformation is
already in progress—we must
retool
our
Kentucky Small
Operator Assistance Programs
(SOAP) to facilitate the reentry of
the small, family mines back into
the production market. Over the
long term, considering local operator profit, this will actually put more
money back into the eastern Kentucky economy. We can do this without
sacrificing mine safety.
Thus, to assist during this transition back to smaller, locally-owned, family
mines, Kentucky’s regulatory agencies need to review and reform
Kentucky SOAP programs and expand them where permissible under the
1977 Federal Mine, Health, and Safety Act, or subsequent amendments.
And, where possible—without sacrificing safety and fiscal responsibility—
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we need to accelerate permitting times for the small mines and create
accessible, responsible, cooperative bonding pools for the small operators’
permit bonds. We need to help them get back into the market more quickly.
Without producing mines, we cannot solicit foreign market contracts. We
must keep our mines working while we secure sales markets overseas.
Thirdly, we need to create new and immediate mining opportunities to
establish a decent interval of time so the workforce and operators can
make these transitions to lower costs, better mining methods, and better
markets.
We can help do this, too, by shifting some of our endangered mining
operations onto secondary recovery sites for purposes of reclaiming pre1977 high-walls left un-reclaimed prior to the 1977 U.S. Surface Mine Act.
To get this reclamation done, we just have to make it profitable for them
to operate on these sites—we can also deepen the recovery cuts for new
spoil for reclamation use in order to create new augur mining
opportunities—in order to accomplish the reclamation we’ve always
needed. One good note is that
a number of the bettermanaged operations will not
need this help. They’ll weather
the storm.
If we get no cooperation from
the regulatory agencies in
making
this
reclamation
successful, then I intend for
Kentucky to pursue the
federal
Abandoned
Mine
Lands (AML) funds in federal court to force them to spend the large sums
they are holding to pay for these reclamations. They can work with us and
let our people work free or they can pay us by the yard as reclamation
contractors at a higher price, and we’ll still work. Working together
voluntarily is much better.
But, that’s not all we need to do to secure eastern and western Kentucky’s
future, for mining in these regions will someday end.

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Start Working for New
Non-Coal Future Now
Keep SOAR Working!
We need to continue to support the efforts of Shaping Our Appalachian
Region (SOAR) in building a secondary eastern Kentucky economy. This
program created by Congressman Hal
Rogers and Governor Steve Beshear is
built around some of our best
leadership and has already enjoyed
some great success. As such, it will
provide
a
great
planning
and
implementation tool for eastern
Kentucky’s new future.
Western Kentucky SOAR
We need to create a structure similar to SOAR for western Kentucky’s coal
fields now.
Use Coal Severance Tax Funds the Right Way
The Kentucky Coal Severance Tax (the greater of 4.5% of the gross value
or $0.50 per coal ton mined) was conceived, sold, and enacted in the early
1970s as a cumulating fund from which to build a new economy for the
coal producing regions for the time when coal mining—the base economy—
was gone. Other than its current uses to help fund the regions’ health
claims (coal miners’ pneumoconiosis funding) and regional education
needs, the Severance Tax program has strayed far from its intended
regional future economic goal.
Now, it does nothing more than fund annual state and local budget items
unconnected to any future economies of these severance-tax-paying
regions. With the exceptions noted for regional educational opportunities
(tuition assistance) and health (pneumoconiosis funding), it needs to be
turned into two separate regional funds for the coal communities—one for
eastern Kentucky and the other for western Kentucky—and maintained
and invested in each region solely to bolster and create a new future noncoal-reliant economy for the coal-producing regions. Each fund needs to
be managed by exceptional regional leadership, including SOAR and the
equivalent western Kentucky coal fields’ entity and supervised by state

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leadership solely for creating new, non-coal jobs for these future regional
economies.
Federal/Kentucky Partnership for Clean Coal Technology and Byproducts
Research/Pilot Projects
In the late 19th Century, John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil) fought Nikola
Tesla and Thomas Edison and their separate wealthy backers (J.P.
Morgan, etc.) to prevent electric lighting from supplanting his oil monopoly
which he was then using to light America’s homes and cities with kerosene
lamps. He lost and his financial empire was threatened with collapse. Yet,
he had his scientists go back to work with his oil and they discovered a
new product from it: gasoline! The rest is history.
I have faith that we can do the same with coal and its numerous
components and byproducts, but it will take a sustained federal/state
partnership for this research and the consequent pilot projects to develop
the necessary clean coal technology and new, but valued, uses for its
components and byproducts.
Coal is too abundant a resource for Kentucky to abandon in the coming
future. In fact, I trust someday its abundance and future uses will be our
economic edge over many of our job-competing neighboring states. The
scientific research and pilot projects and their jobs, however, should be
done in the appropriate Kentucky coal fields. These should be their jobs!
Moreover, in the near
term, eastern Kentucky
needs a new fluidized
bed
coal/biomass
electric
generating
plant, like the Virginia
City Hybrid Energy
Plant in St. Paul,
Virginia. It needs to be
built in southeastern
Kentucky in order to maximize the savings on trucking costs. This new
green type of power plant thrives on waste wood products and waste coal
from old coal waste gob piles which litter our hollows. The waste coal and
wood is blended with good coal to bring it up to minimum burn
specifications. Pointedly, the fuel it burns will help us clean up eastern
Kentucky’s hollows. Being a timbering region, also, we would then have a
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profitable market for our waste wood products which now just rot on the
ground.
Moreover, waste products from industrial hemp work well as biomass in
these plants. A 600-megawatt plant of this type would expect to burn 6-7
million tons of local coal a year and would support approximately 1,000
good-paying jobs in the region. This new type of plant produces less than
1% of the emissions that the current coal-fired power plants of the 1960s
produce and can produce electricity at wholesale rates of around $0.03
per Kilowatt.
Moreover, it’s already designed to begin carbon capture as soon as the new
technology becomes commercially feasible. Interestingly enough, in the
last decade, we in the United States have cut carbon dioxide emissions by
8% while the rest of the world has increased these same emissions globally
by 32%!
Surprised?
Wilderness State Resort Park
As an anchor point for new southern or eastern Kentucky investment and
recreational opportunities, we need a new or expanded wilderness state
resort park built around visible, wild populations of black bear, elk, and
deer and fabulous stream fishing. Quite possibly, this could be a great
state/private entity partnership endeavor.

Real Educational Attainment
Postsecondary Education
We need an extensive statewide discussion of our current state financing
and control of our state-supported postsecondary (college) education
system. Funding for this system has been cut back significantly over the
last decade—in 2006, for example, we invested approximately $1 for every
$2 of tuition paid in our state university system, yet, by the end of the
current budget in 2016, that amount will have fallen to $1 of state
investment for each $5 paid in tuition. Thus, tuition has been allowed to
rise to compensate for this cut back while the General Fund receipts were
diverted to other needs. I don’t mean to seem critical of these decisions, as
I wasn’t there and there were many bills to pay during these times, but I
do believe we all need to be aware of these decisions and participate in
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making them in the future. It’s almost like we’ve decided to keep a statesupported system using tax assessments solely on the students and their
families (i.e., tuition). This increase in costs (and college debt) is consistent
with what other states are experiencing.
Considering student debt for college, nationwide, there are currently 40
million students who owe an average of $29,000 (some much more!),
totaling an astonishing 1.2 trillion dollars in education debt. This is more
than the combined credit card debt owed in the entire United States.
Moreover, to inflate tuition
and increase accessibility
to student loans, our
colleges and universities
have lowered the required
course load for fulltime
status from 15 hours
(years ago) to 12 hours.
This
lower
minimum
hourly
load
allows
students to take six years
to graduate instead of
four—four more semesters
of tuition, room, and board
for students and their
families to pay for college.
Obviously, then, being a fulltime student (at twelve credit hours) opens up
more avenues to borrow funds to pay for school—i.e., more debt for our
families and more revenue for our universities.
Looking at the University of Kentucky, its total budget for 2013 was
roughly 3 billion dollars. Kentucky’s contribution to this was roughly $300
million, or 10%. Compared to the national average of $18,000 per year
costs to attend state universities, U.K.’s cost per year for an in-state
student has risen to nearly $26,000. And to further enhance revenue, U.K.
has been shifting more enrollment space to out-of-state students at an
increased charge of $38,000 per year—all of this, ostensibly with the
knowledge and approval of our higher education watchdog, the Kentucky
Council on Postsecondary Education.
And one other thing, under federal law, a college is not allowed to disclose
a student’s grades to family members helping to pay that child’s tuition
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(without the student’s express permission, which can then be revoked
privately and orally). I’ve been through this and still don’t understand how
this practice makes sense—quite the opposite, it doesn’t.
We just need to sit down and analyze our current scheme of financing our
state-supported postsecondary education system, understand where we
are—where we are going—and reassess how we reach our goals of a better
college-educated population.
Charter Schools
For Kentucky’s future, we must be an education party, too! Thus, we need
to institute appropriate Charter Schools. They are obviously the best bet
for parents of children in under-performing urban and suburban schools
and school districts. In doing this, however, we need to stay with the statesupported non-profit models open to all families (up to their appropriate
attendance levels) and we need to start our trial relationship in the urban
and suburban neighborhoods that generally have access to a greater
number of available highly-skilled teachers—where Charter Schools have
proven to function to their potential. Remember, Charter Schools are state
supported
under
the
same funding principles
as our current public
schools—just free from
the
political
faults
generally aligned with
poorly performing school
districts so they should be
free to the students and
families from the underperforming districts that
choose to use them. They
are, however, subject to
state control in important aspects.
Kentucky would do well to foster this competition and the resulting
comparisons and pressures it will provide on our current underperforming urban and suburban public districts. It will improve our public
educational systems in our urban and suburban areas, and, thus, improve
our state.

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Rural districts present other problems for Charter Schools, but, hopefully,
we can solve these, too, with practice. However, it should be noted that the
implementation of charter schools should not be overseen by the local
boards of education or the Kentucky Department of Education. That would
be too much like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop. The state
agency that manages charter schools should be outside the influence of
the Kentucky Department of Education and unafraid of fostering
educational competition between schools. In the long run, competition is
the best way to bring our public school systems back up to the
performance level we need.
Southern and Southeastern Kentucky Higher Education
Education has always been the keystone for better economies, but cost
can be a blocking factor. And annual housing and food costs factor into
educations acquired a long distance away from one’s home and family.
In this respect, it has been reported that “if you draw a line through
Kentucky’s most eastern state university, Morehead, and run that line
through the most southern state university, Western Kentucky University
in Bowling Green, 40% of the geographic area of Kentucky lays below that
line, along with 25% of Kentucky’s population.” Yet, these generally
impoverished areas of southern and southeastern Kentucky have no four
year state universities.
Thus, as former Governor Paul Patton noted, 32% of all jobs in the United
States require a bachelor’s degree, but, in Kentucky, only 28% of the
working-aged people have that degree. However, in eastern Kentucky, he
noted that only 11% have the degree. Others have noted eastern Kentucky
matches other regions in attendance at two-year community colleges, but
falls off in third- and fourth-year programs.
These regions need a public university where day travel to and from the
school would be possible for those who can’t afford the annual food and
lodging costs ordinarily incurred in attending college away from home.
This is fair and will enhance Kentucky’s educational level immensely.

Smaller Government
We can grow a smaller government without harming Kentucky’s families.
According to the 2014 ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index,
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andKentucky ranks last when compared with our neighboring states in
the “bloated bureaucracy” rankings (all-level public employees per each
10,000 of population).
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Illinois
Indiana
Tennessee
Ohio
Missouri
Virginia
West Virginia
Kentucky

499.4
505.0
512.0
514.3
527.5
542.7
555.9
564.4

Nevada, for example, delivers governmental services to its population of 3
million using only 418 government employees per 10,000 people. Arizona,
with a population of 6.5 million people uses only 434 government
employees per 10,000. California (with a population of 39 million) and
Florida (with a population of 20 million) each use only 464 per 10,000.
We’re using 564! If you look to our southeast, Georgia (518.5), and South
Carolina (540.8) also beat us. But, we do fare better than North Carolina
at 575.5. Although this differential is not unduly alarming, it does indicate
that our neighboring states are committed to a smaller government, a path
we should follow. Moreover, studies show that smaller governments do not
harm services. The savings possible here could more than offset the
following suggested corporate income tax rate reduction over a period of
time. We can do this through normal retirement, retraining, and
reassignment over time without harming Kentucky’s families.
Lower Corporate Taxes Mean More Jobs for All of Us
Large national and international companies generally operate in formal
corporate form and when they move into a state, they generally bring large
numbers of good-paying, long-term jobs. Corporate income tax rates are
important to them in the selection of their corporate headquarters and
factory locations.
In this regard, it is critical to understand that successful corporations
never really end up paying corporate income, business, or franchise taxes.
The people who ultimately buy their goods and services do. Although
corporations do initially pay taxes, these taxes are then added to “general
overhead costs” and fractioned out on a per-product, per-service basis,
which is then added to the sale price of the goods or services. They then
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recover these from the purchasing population. The only corporations that
end up eating the cost of these taxes are those that go broke before they
recover them.
One might argue, then, that this is a good reason to just do away with all
corporate or business taxes and increase the sales tax to collect them
directly at the purchase site from the purchasing population. However, one
must keep in mind that corporations produce or manufacture a lot of
different goods or services and the current sales tax would then have to be
modified precisely to catch these in the right increments and amounts per
product or service. This is difficult to do and such a quantifiable and direct
increase in the sales or other tax is unpopular and politically
unsustainable. It (corporate taxes) works the way it does and everyone is
politically satisfied with it. So, we shouldn’t change the levying system. We
have a really good mixture regionally of sales, property, and other taxes
now and I wouldn’t suggest changing these.1 We rank fourth but when you
are thinking about jobs and where these large corporations—corporations
that don’t generally displace your current local employers—will go, you
have to realize even small fractions of taxes matter as every savings lowers
the cost of their goods or services and increases their profit margin versus
higher taxes in other comparable areas. It is the total cumulative taxes
added on to their cost of goods and services sold from each point in the
manufacturing and sale—i.e., the bottom line—that matters. So, if a large
corporation is moving, and all other considerations are nearly equal, it
should move to the lower tax zone.
According to the 2014 ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index,
Kentucky currently ranks second in the lowest corporate income taxes
among our neighboring states, based on its current top marginal rate:

According to the 2014 ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index, Kentucky,
as compared to our seven surrounding states, has the lowest propery tax rates, at $20.42
per $1,000 of property value, with Illinois being the highest at $43.51 per $1,000. We
rank fourth in sales tax burden at $19.61 per $1,000, as compared to the highest,
Tennessee, $35.21 per $1,000. Tennessee has no personal income tax on salaries and
wages (earned income), but picks it back up through it sales and on other taxes.
Tennessee’s top sales tax rate is 9.75% on a lot more items and services (81 out of 183)
than we tax on. Our current sales tax rate is 6% on fewer goods and services (37 for us).
1

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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Ohio
Kentucky
Missouri
Tennessee
West Virginia
Indiana
Virginia
Illinois

3.62%
6.00%
6.16%
6.50%
6.50%
7.50%
7.55%
9.50%

To our southeast, South Carolina taxes corporate income at the top
marginal rate of 5% and Florida at 5.5%, while Georgia and North Carolina
are tied with Kentucky at 6%.2
In fiscal year 2013, Kentucky’s corporate income tax produced $401
million at its maximum rate of 6%.3 This constituted approximately 5% of
general fund revenues.4
One of our competitors to the north, Ohio, taxes at a current top corporate
marginal rate of 3.62%, down from 5.14% in 2010.5 However, a proper
mixture of revenue generating taxes is necessary for relatively stable state
government services. And, once that mixture has attained political
acceptance within the population, it is difficult to make major changes.
Major changes also carry significant risks of unacceptable revenue
shortfalls. So, as the movie “Contact” said, “small steps” are best.
In my opinion, it would be beneficial for Kentucky to drop its top marginal
corporate income tax to 5% in small steps (0.25% per year) over the next
four years. As long as the economy stays at the projected growth rates, it
doesn’t appear that this would create any unacceptable risk in revenue as
compared to the 2013-2014 amounts. And, if the job market accepts the
tax rate drop as a “better business indicator,” jobs will come and corporate
income tax revenue will actually rise, given adequate time to grow. A 5%
top marginal corporate income tax rate would keep us tied for second
2

North Carolina is scheduled to reduce its corporate rate to 5% in 2015.

3

It produced $475 million in FY 2014.

Kentucky’s Limited Liability Entity (Income) Tax (LLEP) produced another $246 million
in FY 2013.
4

Ohio has also lowered its property tax and sales tax burden per $1,000 of personal
income since 2010.
5

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lowest in the region and, combined with our other geographic and geologic
advantages, it should help us be a better jobs competitor in the region.
There is Still Waste to Cut
There is always waste in government. However, achieving a consensus on
what is waste is the problem. One person’s trash is another person’s
treasure. Yet, given the forthcoming 2016 budget demands for education,
Medicaid, and the pay-down on our unfunded KRS pension liabilities,
finding waste will be critical to 2016 budget solutions. When government
has to start making choices as to what it can fund, it needs to stick to the
core promises and obligations. Quite frankly, we all need a good discussion
as to what we believe Kentucky’s core obligations should be to its citizens.

More Justice
Keeping Our Promises
For over sixty years, the promised tradeoff for taking lower-paying (as
compared to the private sector) state, county, city, or public teaching jobs
was the guarantee on retirement of good healthcare benefits and a good
defined benefit retirement plan where you are guaranteed the annual
retirement amount promised.6 Our failure to properly fund this promise in
the last decade, however, has created a lot of unpaid debt and is choking
our state budget to death. Currently, our total pension system has
unfunded liability of roughly 34 billion dollars! As a result of our funding
failures over the last ten years (we were essentially totally funded as of
2002, in fact, almost all funds were over 100% funded!), Kentucky has now
become the nation’s poster child for unfunded pension liability—not to
mention that we are already the top debtor state in our eight-state
competitive region with debt service expenditures equivalent to 13.5% of
our general fund tax receipts.

A “defined benefit plan” provides a promised annual retirement amount based on salary
and years of service. A “defined contribution plan”, on the other hand, does not promise
a certain amount and the annual retirement amount depends on the retirement
contributed annually by the employer and employee and the investment growth of these
amounts over the number of years contributions are made. Some “defined contribution
plans” have guaranteed annual “floor growth rates,” as does Kentucky at 4% for all new
hires beginning in 2014. Thus, Kentucky no longer provides a defined benefit retirement
for new hires, but must still fund its “defined benefit” retirement obligations to employees
in place as of 2014. This is where the $34 billion in unfunded liability comes in.
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We have to fix this; our credit rating and future infrastructure bond sales
depend on it. Our teachers and state, county, and city employees depend
on it. It is no longer a question of when to pay it. The question is now:
how? Three options exist. We could have a large increase in our sales tax.
My answer to this option is NO! How about another Kentucky government
bailout where we borrow money from our children’s future to pay this
debt? My answer, again, is NO! I suggest we use the Kentucky gambling
money that is already being spent on the other side of the Ohio River to
pay down this debt without a tax increase or another government bailout
that we cannot afford.
Gaming Will Help—DO IT!
Gaming is gambling and Kentucky’s rural populations are against it, as is
my running mate, Sheriff Coffey. But, if the people do approve it, he agrees
contributed annually by the employer and employee and the investment
growth of these amounts over the number of years contributions are made.
Some “defined contribution plans” have guaranteed annual “floor growth
rates,”
as
does
Kentucky at 4% for all
new hires beginning in
2014. Thus, Kentucky
no longer provides a
defined
benefit
retirement
for
new
hires, but must still
fund
its
“defined
benefit” retirement obligations to employees in place as of 2014.
This is where the $34 billion in unfunded liability comes in. This plan is
the only sensible plan to make sure the money goes where it should and
stays there! I believe our population understands the gambling effects
suffered by the Ohio River urban and suburban populations who have to
deal with the gambling effects from the casinos just 1100 yards away on
the other side of the Ohio River. I believe they also understand how
important keeping the “Racehorse Capital of the World” title is to
Kentucky’s image. More importantly, I think that they do believe strongly
that a promise made is a promise that must be kept. I believe that if the
Kentucky Legislature will give the people the chance to vote on it next year,
Kentucky would agree to a limited gaming constitutional amendment—as

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long as payment of the state’s proceeds from limited gaming would always
be constitutionally mandated as follows:
1. As long as needed, 95% of the state’s proceeds from gaming must be
used annually to pay down our unfunded state pension liability.
2. In addition to this, the “annual required contribution” (ARC) from
the general fund—or a modified ARC approved by the actuaries—
must also be required (added to this sum) until the pay-down is
complete. At the state level, the current ARC for state employees is
38.77% of payroll and this amount will climb to 41.3% next year!
Unbelievable! Unless we do something.
3. The other 5% would be added annually to new or existing programs
to help our needy, isolated elderly pay their winter heating costs (as
energy prices soar in the coming years—and they will as we move
away from coal as our primary fuel source). The only sensible way
to guarantee these payments is to use a constitutional amendment
that requires it. Otherwise, in the coming years the legislature could
reallocate the funds to wherever they wanted, or, if the amendment
did not require the ARC, they could treat the gaming proceeds as the
ARC. That won’t solve the problem. Both are needed to make good
on this promise.
Although the amount gaming would produce annually for Kentucky is
disputed—Governor Beshear indicated $780 million for the 2010-2012
biennial budget—I believe it is more accurate to suggest it would produce
around $200 to $250 million per year or nearly a billion dollars every four
years, plus the initial amount for the sale of the license ($125 million).
If we dedicate this amount to pay down the unfunded liability and add to
it the recalculated ARC amount from our general fund, we can pay down
this unfunded liability within a reasonable amount of time and keep our
promises. To me, promises are important. I believe they are to my fellow
Kentuckians, too. Then, Kentucky can breathe again and we can get on
with other, important state business.
To do this, I need five gaming licenses, four for the thoroughbred race
tracks in Kentucky and I would like one more to hold back for creating the
initial hotel room base for a “Smokey Mountain Resort Venue” I have in
mind for southern or eastern Kentucky. All of us must understand that
this debt must be paid—it cannot be avoided. It is like an elephant sitting
on the chest of Kentucky’s government services businesses. It would take
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at least a large increase in our sales tax to produce an equivalent source
of revenue for this pay-down; something I could never support as taxes
rarely go down, even when the debt they were raised to pay is long gone—
nor will I support a government bailout where you borrow more money to
pay a debt you couldn’t pay in the first place. Think about our real options.
Drugs, Crime, and Prisons
I’m not one that currently believes we can win the war on addictive drugs
by making drugs legal. Such a step might take the profit out of drug sales
and make them cheaper, but it must necessarily enhance drugs’
attractiveness, distribution, and accessibility. In short, the less pressure
we apply, the more addiction we are likely to see in our population.
I do agree that some drugs are more dangerous than others and this
should be reflected in the punishment patterns. Moreover, I leave it to
medical science to determine what medically beneficial uses should be
legal. And I see future agricultural promise for our hemp as well as energy
production.
Having said this, I acknowledge that our current tactics are not winning
the war on drugs. We are containing the war at certain levels, but we are
not winning it. We need new thinking and new tactics.
Here are the pieces of the puzzle we need to be aware of and study:
1. In 1972, Kentucky’s society was stable and relatively drug free. We
had a population of 3.3 million and 2700 felony inmates in all of our
jails and prisons.
2. By 2010, drug use had been soaring and our population had grown
roughly 25% to 4.4 million, yet, the number of felony inmates in our
jails and prisons had grown to roughly 23,000.
3. Forty percent of these inmates are now under 30 years of age; 29%
are there for direct drug crimes, but at least another 36% are there
for crimes they committed to get money to fuel their addictions.
4. Of the people in prison due to addiction-related criminal activity at
least 60% will commit new crimes within three years of their release
from prison.
5. Each medium-security prison bed now costs us almost $50,000 per
year and the last medium-security prison we built, Little Sandy, cost
us almost $100,000 per bed. That’s not considering the annual cost
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per prisoner which runs $18,000 to $29,000 per year depending
upon which state institution he or she is housed in.
Do I need to say Kentucky’s jail and prison costs are soaring through the
roof? Some say, now, that the next Governor will need to find another $100
million for corrections in the next budget.
Moreover, if you read history, you know that America has been here
before—in the “roaring twenties.” Then, too, crime due to addiction shared,
as did incarceration rates and prison costs for the time. Headlines from
the era decried the rising prison population and costs. We even built
prisons with hospitals for “addiction treatment,” such as “Narco” in
Lexington, Kentucky.
Sadly, with the penal and treatment programs we tried then, we lost that
war on drugs. That is, we lost it until the physical (and fiscal) demands of
the Great Depression followed by World War II cleansed American society
of its addiction.
The Justice System didn’t clean us up—life did.
However, by the ‘80s, we were heading back to drugs and we’re still there.
And, whatever you believe is the cause, you have to accept the notion that
the addiction rate of any society is tied to the availability of drugs and their
apparent acceptance by a society’s influential members—compare us to
the Middle East. That’s not to say that addiction is a rich person’s disease,
for it is not. It is an “equal opportunity destroyer” that cares not whether
you are male or female, rich or poor, where you live, or what your mom
and dad do for a living.
So, what do we do? We fight smarter
and with more partnerships between
our Judiciary, the Department of
Corrections,
and
our
local
governments. Keep in mind, with all
of our advances in recognition and
treatment of addiction over the last
decade we are still losing more and
more people to overdoses every year.
For example, in 1998, there were
4,000 overdose deaths reported
nationally. Yet, by 2007, that figure had grown to nearly 16,000.

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Then, by 2012, over 1,000 overdose deaths were reported in Kentucky
alone. If the old adage is true that “the wildest colts generally make the
best horses,” and I believe it is, then we are losing a lot of our best “colts”
from the upcoming generation. We need to act.
Juvenile Drug Courts
First, we need to address addiction questions earlier at the juvenile level
with sterner measures. Experts agree that the probability of successful
rehabilitation is greater the closer to the point of addiction rehabilitation
efforts begin. Thus, we
need to reinstate our
juvenile drug courts
statewide. And, the
legislature needs to
give our judges greater
latitude
and
more
lengthy
punishment
ranges so we can keep
them in drug court
with appropriate and
effective
judicial
responses
to
inappropriate behavior. And, we need to open these proceeding up to
public scrutiny.
We are not going to hurt them in the long run, but it’s important they
believe we might and could. If you have to trade a short, tough time for a
successful run at life for the next sixty years, that’s not a bad trade.
Adult Drug Courts
We also need to re-tool our adult drug courts and create new partnerships
between our drug courts, the Department of Corrections and one or more
addiction rehabilitation minimum security prisons to enhance our success
rates. Currently, the Judiciary, through its drug court programs, is able
to successfully rehabilitate around 45%7 of the addicts they manage at the

Previous studies indicate a recidivism rate of between 12% and 20% for drug court
graduates over a three year period. However, given their previous success and training,
most of these graduates either do, or desire to, recover their sobriety quickly. In recent
years, we have discovered that letting them voluntarily re-enter the program (with the
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community level at costs currently projected at $5,300 per participant per
year—a cost significantly lower than the annual costs of incarceration,
including bed costs and annual inmate costs.
Moreover, these participants, though continuing to live locally at their own
costs, present no threat or danger to the community, as long as they are
being drug tested extensively during their drug court program—which they
are.
Thus, they are not in people’s homes, garages, or businesses stealing to
pay for their habit while they are in drug court.
I believe, however, that with some extra back up we can achieve a recovery
rate closer to 60%. To do this, though, we need a large minimum security
prison (they’re much cheaper)—and a legal process—by which our drug
court judges can sentence our drug court failures to this prison for an
indefinite sentence of, say, one, five, or even ten years. Keep in mind, those
who fail our drug court program are addicts who are still unwilling or
unable to recover their lives. Thus, they present a continuous and
significant threat to their local communities. They will be selling drugs to
others (1200 transactions per year) or breaking in to houses, garages, or
businesses, or committing other crimes (280 per year) to get money to pay
for their addictions as long as they are out, free, and untested. They’ll also
be on the highway dangerously stoned while driving their vehicles. Yet,
most can be easily and safely controlled in a minimum security prison or
jail setting at much lower costs.
And, once we give up on them and sentence them to a medium security
prison, we will have to deal with them multiple times for the rest of their
lives as they come out on parole and go back in to prison on re-arrest.
And, ultimately, if they live long enough, they will age out of their addiction
at 55-60 years of age with no education or job skills and very poor health.
Society will still have to bear their burden. There is no avoiding this for
some of them, but if we can successfully rehabilitate 60% of them early
on, the cost savings to us and the added security for our citizenry is huge,
not to mention the enhanced value of their lives and those of their families.
To do this we need to create a new minimum security prison or adopt a
current one that would be big enough for our needs and use the cost and

court’s permission) can result in a more successful outcome for the participant than a
re-entrance to prison.
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operational savings to staff it with treatment specialists, a high school and
college along with new job skills training facilities to enhance job
acquisition upon completion. As mentioned, a sentence to this prison upon
failure to progress in drug court would be for an indefinite sentence of
between 1, 5, or even 10 years—a large enough sentence to get their
attention! While there, they would continue their education, get
rehabilitation training from specialists, and learn new job skills.
Then, if and when the prison treatment specialists believe an inmate would
then be a good prospect to re-enter drug court, they would confer with the
local drug court judge and, with his or her approval, the inmate would go
back to his or her original drug court. With this joint approval, each drug
court failure would get this one second chance opportunity, but, a second
failure or a failure to advance while in this prison, would result in a
transfer to the general prison population to complete the sentence. Some
people you just can’t help.
This system would only apply to defendants who had not committed
violent crimes or crimes of an abusive or forceful sexual nature and only
to those who were properly categorized as addicts. Defendants who had
already spent significant time in prison—and have become acclimated to
it—would not be good candidates for this program.
I believe this new partnership between Corrections and the Judiciary
would increase our success rates with addiction and generate significant
savings for our budget as well as greater security for our families, homes,
and businesses.
New Family Commitment Laws
We also need to create new legislation by which any family can have one
of its own members judicially determined to be addicted to an illegal
substance and committed for treatment without having to pay for the
treatment. Currently, the family has to pay and most cannot afford it now,
so the law is not helping.
I doubt anyone would seriously argue that an addict does not present an
immediate threat of harm to himself or herself or others. Under U.S.
Supreme Court guidelines, this would have to be the ultimate standard.
However, I see no difficulty with meeting this standard upon appropriate
testimony. With legislative sentencing authority, we could then expand our
drug courts to tackle this family problem locally, too. And, of course, our
new treatment prison would be a great back up here. There is simply
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nothing wrong with separating an addict from the society he thrives on
when the purpose is to help him or her attain a truly meaningful life.
Moreover, putting families back together has great value to us as a society.
New Prison Paths for Addicts and Local Re-entry Drug Courts
It would also facilitate better treatment options for our prisons if, upon
court sentencing, the court made a specific finding as to whether the crime
committed was related to an addiction. This would help us in creating new
prison paths and treatment regimens for true addicts and such
possibilities could also lead to new partnerships between Corrections and
the Judiciary where our judges take a greater role through re-entry drug
courts in the process of subsequent parole supervision and punishment
short of re-incarceration. It is my belief that a greater partnership between
the Judiciary and the probation and parole personnel of the Department
of Corrections would lead to better results for our system and society and
lower budget costs.
Given that our courts are trying a lot less cases, we have the time available
to take on new tasks.
To date, the Judiciary has been resistant to this concept, but the need to
find better ways is increasing political pressure for more government
partnerships across constitutional lines of authority. New days require
new ways.

A 21st Century Kentucky Judiciary
Currently, we have enough judges spread out through Kentucky to
accomplish the judicial tasks allocated to the judicial branch. They are
just in the wrong places. This maladjustment has been allowed to continue
over a long period of time due to the failure to redistribute the Judiciary to
take into account population shifts as well as the growth or decline of
regional economies. Moreover, courts are not trying the number of cases
they used to and this is creating free time that could be put to additional
uses.
Plainly, we need a Kentucky judicial system based on Kentucky’s 21st
Century needs. Such a redistricting will necessarily involve redistricting
the Commonwealth’s Attorneys, who prosecute felony crimes, as their
geographical organization is tied to the local judicial circuit. This will
require cooperation between the two systems. Admittedly, this is not an
easy task politically; yet, it is good government.
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Attempts to do this occurred several times in the last decade, and have all
failed due to the local political pressure applied to protect the current
geographic allocation of judges and Commonwealth’s Attorneys. In fact,
political pressures have been able to put a halt to just about every piece
meal adjustment the Supreme Court of Kentucky has suggested in recent
years.
To avoid this political pressure, Kentucky’s judges and Commonwealth’s
Attorneys need to adopt a redistricting plan that will put the right
personnel in the right circuits so that each circuit has the people and time
available to deal quickly with the demands of the population and economic
changes. This new plan needs to be worked out now and passed, but to be
effective only on an agreed date far enough into the future that very few in
office now will feel affected or threatened.
Only in this manner can we avoid the tremendous political forces that have
prevented this change in the past. Moreover, this new redistricting bill
needs to bring judicial and prosecutorial salaries in line with our
neighboring states, as we have also dropped far behind in our salaries for
these positions—without good salaries you don’t get the right people.
Furthermore, an early incremental adjustment in salaries for these judges
and prosecutors would go a long way in muting any political objections to
the redistricting. It is worth the cost.
Reform the Kentucky Penal Code—Again!
There is a distinct difference between criminals and law-abiding citizens.
Criminals, either intend the acts which cause consequences—or the
consequences themselves—which harm others unjustifiably. Law abiding
citizens may harm others, but only by accident or under justifiable
circumstances. Accidents occur at random and are difficult to prevent,
whereas the occurrence of crime is solely within the control of the criminal
mind. While accidents, or negligent conduct, resulted historically in civil
liability for monetary damages—in America, we had never before felt that
imprisonment was an appropriate punishment for accidental conduct.
Being prone to such conduct ourselves, we’ve historically recognized an
accident for what it is—a tragedy based upon human error.
Today—whether due to frustration or thoughtless reactions to terrible
events—we have tolerated a significant shift in the focus of our “justice
system” toward accidental or negligent conduct of otherwise law-abiding
citizens. THIS MUST STOP.
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For, as you expand, or reinterpret your laws, you punish more law-abiding
citizens and you decrease the support and respect of the citizenry for the
laws. This ultimately results in more restrictions on the police powers of
the state, which necessarily reduces the ability of the state to identify,
apprehend, prosecute, convict, and imprison the real offenders of the
public good—CRIMINALS. In the long run, it hurts public safety.
With a limited amount of resources in our Justice System, we must
redirect our police power away from otherwise law-abiding citizens of
Kentucky and back towards criminals. This will allow a more efficient use
of our “Justice System.”8
To do this:
1. Vehicular Criminal Use Statute – We need a well-defined and
inclusive “vehicular criminal use statute” defining the scope of the
crime and the prison punishment for those persons causing injuries
or death by the improper use of a vehicle. In ways other than the
“Justice System” as used herein refers to the Judicial System,
including Circuit Clerks and augmented by portions of the Executive
Branch, such as Commonwealth’s and County Attorneys, law
enforcement, as well as the Department of Corrections (prisons,
probation and parole). Intentional acts are covered under other
criminal statutes. This criminal statute should be solely limited to
causation based upon alcohol or illegal drug use. We do not need to
be in the business of prosecuting or incarcerating citizens, mothers,
fathers and children who have tragic vehicle accidents.
2. Punish Crimes, Not Unintentional Negligent Conduct! – Again, we have
no business using the limited resources of our “Justice System”
prosecuting persons solely for their negligent and sometimes tragic
conduct which harms others or allows others to come to harm other
than through or because of the use of intoxicants. These people live
every day of the remainder of their lives with the tragedies they
precipitated and no punishment designed by humankind could ever
exceed the pain of their own tragedy. Thus, unless there is some
evidence to indicate a real criminal intent to cause the result which

The “Justice System” as used herein refers to the Judicial System, including Circuit
Clerks and augmented by portions of the Executive Branch, such as Commonwealth’s
and County Attorneys, law enforcement, as well as the Department of Corrections
(prisons, probation and parole).
8

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occurred, or evidence that the behavior was alcohol- or druginduced, we don’t need to be prosecuting parents and grandparents,
children, friends and neighbors, for foolish mistakes, even though
tragic in their results. Thus, it would be necessary in redefining the
Kentucky Penal Code to review the use of the words “wanton” and
“reckless” in regard to the conduct thereby encompassed and which
now, arguably, include “accidental mistakes.” I’m not suggesting the
final result, but strongly recommend we let the professionals have a
go at it. Such a review would serve our institutions well.
3. Quit Sending People To Prison Who Act in Self-Defense! – For over 180
years, it was the law of this Commonwealth that if someone created
a dangerous situation which actually put another person in
immediate fear of his life, or the life of another, then that person in
fear could take whatever reasonable measures he or she believed
necessary at that instant to protect his or her own life, or the life of
another. This was called the right of self-defense which assigned the
real responsibility for the events to the person who created the fear
of injury or death. Under this rule, if a jury reasonably believed that
a person acted only in self-defense, then that person was not
thought of as a criminal and was not subject to imprisonment for
such conduct. As regretful as the circumstances may have been
upon occasion, the use of self-defense was never felt to indicate any
propensity for further violent conduct against members of the
society at large.
In recent years, this rule has been changed resulting now in the
imprisonment of some men and women who acted only to defend
themselves, their families, or others who they felt at the time were in grave
physical danger under a concept of “imperfect self-defense.” The change in
this statute now allows a jury to find that somebody did act in self-defense,
but if in “second-guessing the events”, the jury believes they would have
acted differently, they may still give a prison sentence. Moreover, the legal
instructions used in these matters are generally incomprehensible to the
average juror.
This occurred once in my court in the case of Commonwealth of Kentucky
v. Mary J.K. Rose, 725 S.W. 2d 588—a case where the jury found that Mary
Rose acted in self-defense (she shot her husband when he was threatening
to kill her), but still gave her a prison sentence of between five and ten
years.
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“Second-guessing” the way any human being should have reacted under a
given set of dangerous circumstances, within a very tense and dangerous
time period of seconds, treats that person—The Real Victim—as a criminal
and ignores the conduct of the person who created the dangerous
situation. We should change our self-defense statute back to the point
where, if a jury believes you truly acted in self-defense, imperfect or not,
then you cannot be treated as a criminal and sent to prison.
4. Other Penal Code Reforms – There are many other areas of penal code
reform that need to be studied but we should leave that to the experts.
Suffice it to say that we have drifted far from the intent of the original
drafters of the 1974 penal code which replaced almost two hundred years
of prior experience. We need a new penal code.
5. We Need More Local Law Enforcement Officers – Kentucky currently
employees 910 state police officers for the entire state. They’re 200 officers
short of what they normally have. They work in shifts. They get occasional
weekends off and have holidays and sick days.
Thus, at any given time, we only have around 300-350 troopers actually
working state-wide. While our municipalities maintain adequate police
forces, local county law enforcement officers are declining due to county
budgetary problems. Yet, the security of persons, homes, and businesses
is one of the most important services a civilization can provide to its
citizens. We are failing here as our unsolved crimes rates are soaring and
no one feels like their homes and businesses are safe anymore. The few
crime labs we have to assist the police are now understaffed and
underfunded.
Thus, to reclaim safety in rural Kentucky, we need to ensure our County
Sheriffs’ offices have sufficient law enforcement officers as well as higherquality training. Moreover, we need to add to and upgrade our crime labs
in equipment and personnel and establish more regional offices and do
more local training so as to facilitate greater cooperation with local law
enforcement, especially municipal police and County Sheriffs’ offices. We
also need to enhance their CSI skills to preserve crime scene evidence for
the labs. These steps would tremendously enhance our citizens’ feeling of
safety and reverse the unbelievable rise in unsolved crimes.
6. New Tool to Keep Drug Dealers on the Move: Zoning – Most people in the
hollows and neighborhoods of Kentucky know who is dealing drugs and

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where they are dealing them from. And, if they believe they can do so
safely, they will pass the information along to law enforcement.
However, under our current criminal law standards, it takes a lot of
officers and time to build the case and make the buy from the dealer in
order to prove the charge “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Meanwhile, dealers
continue to use their homes or family’s home, apartment, or mobile home
to deal their destruction in comfort. To supplement our current war on
drugs, we need to do two things:
1. As drugs are as dangerous and deadly to the family members and
children of a community as guns and other dangerous instruments,
we need reasonable laws to empower and protect those courageous
members of the community that insist their local community stay
free from drugs and dealers; and,
2. As it is far simpler to determine where they are dealing from, as
opposed to making prosecutorial buys, we need to employ local
zoning laws to make them uncomfortable, keep them moving, and
where appropriate and necessary, after formal notice and proof,
forfeit their homes, apartments, cars, and mobile homes if they don’t
stop dealing from the location. To do better we are going to need new
ideas. If they are uncomfortable and moving a lot, their dealing will
be less effective and much more stressful—and that’s good.
To do better, we are going to need new people with new ideas.
Keeping Addicts in Recovery Clean With Jobs They Can Be Proud Of
Everybody in Kentucky knows someone that is a model citizen today, yet
has a criminal past. There are tens of thousands of these respectable
citizens in Kentucky today, but they generally cannot find a great-paying
job, nor do they generally hold jobs they are truly proud of due to their
past criminal records. They can’t even vote. In today’s society and job
market, felonies are like a brand for life.
With legislative help, we can change this for those truly deserving. One of
the problems our businesses face in hiring is the legal concept of “negligent
hiring,” which holds a business directly liable for its employee’s actions if
the employee had an indicative criminal history. The concept operates
under an after-the-fact “you should have known better than to hire him”
concept, irrespective of why the business owner thought the employee
would be a good employee. While some criminals continue their criminal
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conduct, there are many, many more who would make great citizens and
employees, but just can’t get the job because of this risk to the employer
who hires a convicted felon. While in some cases, this tort law serves a
good societal purpose, when left unchecked and unrestricted as it is at
times today, it presents more problems for society than it solves.
For example, the end purpose of all of our criminal justice tools and
objectives is to not only punish someone for a crime but to ultimately
change them, to rehabilitate them, by the end of their punishment. But, if
we extend the branding or societal banishment after service of the
punishment, we deprive them of the one essential thing they need to
function properly in society: pride in themselves. And, having a good job
and being respected again is the hallmark of one being “proud of who he
is,” as Merle Haggard would often sing.
So, to end this point, today one’s criminal history will follow one to the
grave and that means good businesses are afraid to hire them. And, the
lack of that good job makes it harder for those of us in the justice system
to truly rehabilitate more than we have. When we have successfully
rehabilitated addicts through drug court we still have a hard time of getting
them good jobs to support their mental wellbeing. We do well, but with
help here, we could do much better. That would make you and your family
much safer. And, for those people coming out of prison we need to be able
to help them get their pride back, too, to help them climb out of their abyss.
But, still, it’s hard to ask businesses to take this risk under our present
legal concepts.
So, what do we do? We need to do the following:
1. Tighten up the tort of “negligent hiring” to those instances where the
employee’s criminal history is an accurate and probable indicator of
what he or she actually did.
2. Create a “Kentucky Certified Worker Program” funded solely by
criminal fees where drug courts and prison wardens can reward
their deserving parolees, serve outs, and graduates with a certificate
that certifies to a business that if they hire this worker, the
“Kentucky Certified Worker Program” will reimburse the business for
any losses it suffers due to the employee’s misconduct up to the limit
of the fund.
3. Finally, after the expiration of a legislatively-determined amount of
time without further criminal conduct and upon proof of work and
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“good citizenship” from the community along with notice to the
Commonwealth’s Attorney and with his or her opportunity to object
and be heard, local circuit judges should be empowered to order the
expungement of one’s past criminal record to the extent that such
record is no longer pertinent to any future persistent felony offender
charges.
Death Penalty
The last time I checked there were 33 men and one woman on Kentucky’s
death row. Altogether, the average time their sentences have been delayed
is now over 20 years, and many have been delayed even longer. Keep in
mind, the death penalty is given only for the most heinous of crimes.
Although lengthy and multiple appeals, as well as delays in the court
system, have historically played a large part in the delays, the death
penalty is currently suspended in Kentucky while the courts determine the
constitutionality of death by lethal injection.
Currently, it appears there will be no quick end to the litigation
surrounding consideration of the constitutionality of lethal injection,9
though the primary motive for switching to lethal injection was to be more
humane. The legal battles have become nothing more than a game of delay;
delay; and, delay.
That being said, death by electrocution is still legal in Kentucky and has
been upheld by the United States Supreme Court. Thus, unless things
change, I believe the legislature should terminate Kentucky’s experiment
with elective lethal injection and require all executions to be by
electrocution—or get out of the death penalty and just use a life sentence
without any chance for parole.
I’m not against the death penalty—I’m actually for. But, I’m tired of having
a law on our books that is being legally impeded to death. If nothing else,
maybe we should leave the question to the people by constitutional
amendment.

Thank goodness that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear and rule on this issue by late
spring of this year.
9

© 2015. PAID FOR BY TEAM SCOTT-COFFEY, JAMES D. WALLEN, TREASURER.

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Conclusion
I do understand that the Kentucky Legislature makes the laws of
Kentucky, not the Governor and that all our ideas are just that—ideas.
But, this is no reason why we all can’t work together as Kentuckians and
bring “tomorrow’s promise” to life. All we have to do is talk to each other
and really listen. I am willing to do that.

Will T. Scott

© 2015. PAID FOR BY TEAM SCOTT-COFFEY, JAMES D. WALLEN, TREASURER.

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