What the governor left out

Kentucky governor Ernie Fletcher gave his State of the Commonwealth address to the General Assembly last night. There were some positive elements to his speech: proposals for substantially increasing teacher pay, enhancements to the seat belt law, and helping small businesses provide health insurance for their employees. Other parts of his speech were cause for concern. The governor wants to let employees opt out of union membership even if the majority of their co-workers want a union, which will significantly weaken unions in a state where organized labor is already at a disadvantage (public employees are prohibited by law from engaging in any type of collective bargaining). Fletcher also advocated setting limits on medical malpractice awards, an idea which has some merit on the surface but might steepen the already unlevel playing field between patients and their doctors, hospitals and huge medical corporations. But the most disturbing part of Fletcher's speech was his advocacy for schools teaching "intelligent design." Since this is a local school board decision, as the governor acknowledged, there seems little reason for him to take this stand except for political pandering to conservative Christian groups.

It was disappointing that the governor did not acknowledge the many other bread-and-butter issues that average Kentuckians are concerned about. As the Kentucky Economic Justice Alliance documented in a well-publicized report last month, chronic underfunding and deliberate spending cuts have left the state nearly $2 billion short in what would be needed to adequately support a wide variety of programs such as P-12 education, higher education, health care, housing, environmental protection and justice. KEJA is pushing for legislation from the General Assembly to correct this need. Likewise, Kentucky's natural environment remains vulnerable to damage and exploitation. House Bill 83 would prohibit coal companies from dumping mine wastes into waterways. These are the kind of initiatives Governor Fletcher should, but did not, address.