April 1, 201610 yr The financial catastrophes in Louisiana and Kansas are coming to Kentucky. Same model, why does he think it will be different results.
April 1, 201610 yr The financial catastrophes in Louisiana and Kansas are coming to Kentucky. Same model, why does he think it will be different results. Could you elaborate please? Not sure exactly what disaster you are talking about.
April 1, 201610 yr Could you elaborate please? Not sure exactly what disaster you are talking about. Didn't say disaster, but ok. Massive tax cuts in both states without examining and acting on obvious tax restructuring. Kansas actually raised taxes on low income families only and their credit rating is in the tank. Even Republican friendly states that are next door neighbors, OK and NE, are cutting any ties with them Jindal just slashes education, mostly higher education at an alarming rate. They only cut, cut cut without reform. We are heading the down the same street.
April 1, 201610 yr Didn't say disaster, but ok. Massive tax cuts in both states without examining and acting on obvious tax restructuring. Kansas actually raised taxes on low income families only and their credit rating is in the tank. Even Republican friendly states that are next door neighbors, OK and NE, are cutting any ties with them Jindal just slashes education, mostly higher education at an alarming rate. They only cut, cut cut without reform. We are heading the down the same street. Sorry meant catastrophe...disaster or catastrophe is semantics. What Tax cuts have been put in place, all I'm seeing is spending cuts so far? What reforms would you put in place? Seems as if the state has been spending, spending, spending and money that wasn't theirs to spend, for example the Retirement Fund that has been robbed for years. I'm not being confrontational, I'm just not that close to this subject at this point and I'm trying to figure out what is actually going on, beyond the political rhetoric.
April 1, 201610 yr Bevin is making tough decisions that should have been addressed long before now, but career politicians were afraid what it would do to their careers.
April 1, 201610 yr A better question is why is he having to make these cuts....who has been in control for all these years to have got it like this? All Ernie Fletchers fault I am sure.
April 1, 201610 yr @KYSportsRadio And in other news Governor Matt Bevin just significantly cut higher education funding in KY which will mean tuition increases. Depressing ✔ @MattBevin @KYSportsRadio Check out this article: Heleringer | Weep no more for Ky. higher education Yeah...definitely no wasted money in higher education...Move along now kids
April 1, 201610 yr @KYSportsRadio And in other news Governor Matt Bevin just significantly cut higher education funding in KY which will mean tuition increases. Depressing ✔ @MattBevin @KYSportsRadio Check out this article: Heleringer | Weep no more for Ky. higher education Yeah...definitely no wasted money in higher education...Move along now kids Jones setting up a democratic political group with Adam Edelen...look for him to be more and more critical and political going forward.
April 1, 201610 yr At a zoomed out level it makes sense to me to cut the budget by a certain percentage across the board to pay for the pension fund. Of course, I haven't looked at the budget to see if this is a backdoor gimmick or not, but I will give the governor the benefit of the doubt. I'm also with Bengal Maniac in that reforms could be implemented to make some of the spending more efficient than a one-size-fits-all budget cut. I don't think all government agencies in the state are equal nor do I think all budget cuts are equal. Higher Ed is one of those that I certainly think could be made more efficient. But, it's also an area where an off the top budget cut would make the universities less competitive immediately. Yet, this seems like one area where the state has done well - UK and UL are well-regarded state schools with a national footprint, WKU, EKU, NKU, Murray, and Morehead have increasingly improving reputations, attracting more students from different areas than local commuters. Why not work with the university presidents with coming up with some sort of reform package that can cut some fat, restructure administration (where a lot of the bloat is), and keep things moving ahead? Dangle the threat of an automatic 10% cut over their heads if they can't come up with a serious plan. Heleringer | Weep no more for Ky. higher education I've read this (deeply unfunny, but tries very hard at it nonetheless) article the governor linked to from the CJ, and the writer's big targets miss the mark a little for me. 1 and 2: He says Western and Northern have spent a combined $591,000 on a fundraising consulting firm. Yes, that's a lot of money, but what's the return for it? Did each school's fundraising drives rake in a multiple of that number? How does that compare to schools that use amateurs and volunteers only? I don't know the answers, but neither does the author. What I'm getting at is more goes into a decision like that than pointing out it's a lot money and making some bad quips about phones. 3: $33,000 isn't nearly as much money as the previous one, but, again, it was for security. The author says visiting schools should use GPS. Those are different things. But, again, what's the return? Is this part of having a D1 sports program? Will schools not agree to play in Bowling Green without security? Is that a reasonable thing to do? 4: This is a non-event about money that was not spent. 5: Again, a lot of money spent on consulting for marketing. But, again, what's the return? If a new branding campaign raises EKU's profile which leads to more applications and thus brings in students whose tuition more than pay for it or whose accomplishments further raise the distinction of the university, then what's the problem? 6: $155,000 for what seems like a superfluous project. OK. It's also %0.000098 of Morehead's budget. 7: Mostly more of the same as the above. Some large looking numbers, bad jokes about their titles, but little evidence the university would save money in the long run without them. And in the end, despite the author compiling a bunch of "easy targets" for spending cuts - and if these are the easy ones what do the difficult cuts look like? - he fails to address three crucial questions. What is the combined cost of all of these programs that he would eliminate? What is the amount of money a 4.5%-9% cut out of each universities' budget would require? Do his spending cuts get anywhere near it? If they do not - and they do not - then this is just a long bad joke with some numbers in it. Short version: Spending cuts might be necessary. Higher education, I think, has been a good thing for this state in both educating its population and attracting others to the state. I think the universities can be reformed to work more efficiently, but that is a process that can't happen overnight. If cuts are demanded immediately, they might come from the most accessible targets, which might hurt the universities in the long-run and won't lead to reform. To wit, the article linked with a series of budget items from the public schools the author chides as needless. Yet, these budget items don't add up to even a tenth of a percent of the cuts demanded and most of these items seem aimed at producing a ROI above the initial expenditure. What will an immediate cut of 4.5% actually entail and will that make the universities and the state better off? Edited April 1, 201610 yr by Habib
April 1, 201610 yr The financial catastrophes in Louisiana and Kansas are coming to Kentucky. Same model, why does he think it will be different results. Didn't you know that the definition of an expert is someone from out of state with a briefcase in his hand?
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