Beshear all ears

By Russ Cassady Staff Writer

VIRGIE — Following a turbulent start to his first term as governor, Steve Beshear kicked off a statewide series of town hall meetings at Virgie Middle School's auditorium Thursday.

About 400 people, including a large contingent of current and past officials, took the opportunity to meet in a casual forum with the governor in which he and First Lady Jane Beshear not only gave their ideas, but listened to the comments and questions of those gathered.

“We want people to know we want to hear from you,” Beshear told the crowd. “Let's face it - a lot of office holders, we talk a lot, but we don't listen enough.”

Beshear acknowledged his lack of success in the past legislative session on topics like expanded casino gaming, even joking at one point that Jane Beshear and Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo had accomplished what he hadn't been able to accomplish — they got a bill passed.

Beshear, though also blasted the current mood in Frankfort, which he characterized as fraught with partisan politics.

Beshear said partisanship is so bad in Frankfort right now that it is stalling progress in this state.

“People are so interested in fighting each other that they can't get together and do what's right in this state,” he said.

He also passed the blame for the current state economic issues to the administration of his predecessor — Ernie Fletcher.

“When we walked into office, we inherited a mess,” Beshear said. “We had a $435 million shortfall in our budget, just in the current fiscal year and we're looking at a $1 billion shortfall over the next two years.”

Those problems have led to some unpopular ratings for the governor.

A SurveyUSA/WHAS poll in April found that Beshear's approval rating in Eastern Kentucky was 37 percent, and nearly the same statewide.

Beshear took the opportunity Thursday to highlight some of the things he feels he has accomplished so far, including his ethics reform package, the balancing of the state's budget and the recently completed special session, in which the legislature tackled pension reform.

He also spoke on the need for jobs in Kentucky, as well as delivering a message tailor-made for his Pike County audience - that he supports the county's efforts in the area of energy.

“The Beshear administration is making energy a top priority,” Beshear said, adding he praises the efforts of Pike Judge-Executive Wayne T. Rutherford to make Pike County the energy capitol of the world and he wants to make the rest of the state part of that.

If the state could get two or three coal-to-liquid plants, like the $4 billion one proposed here, Beshear said, the state’s transportation problems could be solved.

“I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of watching everyday as billions of American dollars go overseas, mostly to countries that hate our guts, because we've got to have their foreign oil to run our cars and trucks and our factories,” he said.

Coal, he said, has to be made cleaner and greener, but must be used.

The questions Beshear fielded covered a variety of topics, from retired teacher’s pensions and the county’s drug problems to roads and education.

Members of the United Steelworkers presented one of the biggest crowds to the meeting to voice their concerns over the lack of road-building funds in the state.

Tommy Adkins of Elkhorn City was one of those.

A member of the USWA Local 14581, Adkins said prior to the meeting that the current job he is working has about three to four months before completion, and, after that, he doesn’t know what’s going to happen.

“We’re hoping he will let the money loose,” Adkins said.

Funding, Beshear told the crowd, is the problem.

When he got into office, the previous administration had spent all of the road fund, Beshear told the crowd, and the federal highway trust fund is also not in good shape.

Pike Sheriff Charles “Fuzzy” Keesee and others in the crowd asked about the prescription drug problem in the county, with Keesee also saying that he needs more focus on the problem from the state.

Beshear said he wants to look at all three aspects of the problem —law enforcement, treatment and education — to deal with the problem.

When looking at all the things that need to be funded from education to roads, coupled with the state’s current financial condition, Beshear said there is a need for new revenue. Two of Beshear’s revenue-production ideas during the last session — a cigarette tax and expanded casino gambling — were shot down.

Neither are dead, Beshear told the crowd at Virgie.

“We’ve got (casino gambling) now, it’s just over our borders,” Beshear said. “Folks are going and spending money on that kind of entertainment, it’s just that we’re not getting any money from it.”