CANDIDATES FOR OLDHAM COUNTY JUDGE DEBATE

Thursday night the Oldham County Chamber of Commerce and the Oldham Era sponsored a debate between the candidates for the office of Oldham County Judge. There were more than 150 people in attendance. Although several issues were discussed I did not hear any solutions.

The participants were given the identity of the topics, but not the questions, prior to the debate. Thus, the participants were well prepared for their opening and closing remarks.

When asked what they would do to assist local businesses to receive business from the county government both candidates essentially said the same; that is, that most bids are required to meet legal criteria and that the county usually is required to accept the lowest bid. I saw virtually no difference in their respective responses. Whoever proposed this question surely didn’t believe that one of the candidates would be so stupid as to say he/she would give all of the available work to local business whether the local business was the lowest bidder or not.

The second issue presented to the candidates was the balancing of the budget. Essentially, Gish did not have an answer to the question. She reiterated how the present administration had balanced the budget. In her attempt to describe what they had done she stated that the staff had been reduced by 15%. However, she did not mention all of the increases in taxes and the county’s failure to pay its bills. (The county only paid the interest on some of its debt to save money and spent the money in other non-essential places such as funding the Chamber of Commerce.) The only prospective thing that she said was, that she would ask all of the department heads to try to cut their budgets.

Voegele stated his review of the proposed income for the coming year reflects that the income will remain about the same while expenditures would increase by about 500 thousand dollars due to inflation. His idea was to cut back on some purchases such as police vehicles. Voegele did mention that the current administration had doubled the insurance premium tax to help with balancing the budget.

The issue of Oldham Reserve was the basis of the next question. Voegele said that the interest on the outstanding balance of Oldham Reserve is $14,000 per week. He stated that something has to be done but that failure is not an option. Voegele said that he did not support an occupational tax.

Gish stated that the county has an opportunity to sell the land. However, as far as I know the only prospective buyer is Talmadge Hocker and he won’t purchase it without an interchange on I-71 and that may take a long time to get, if ever. And he will only be purchasing a small portion of the land. The fact is, the Oldham Reserve is a “white elephant” that just doesn’t seem to go away in spite of the efforts of the Murner-Gish administration’s efforts to keep it from being brought up publicly. Gish also stated that failure was not an option. Gish did state that the county has an agreement with Hocker. That is the first time that I had heard that. Coincidentally, I had asked LaGrange Mayor Elsie Carter on Wednesday if the deal with Hocker had been closed and she told me that as far as she knew, it had not been closed.

One troubling thing I gleaned from the debate was that both candidates stated that the failure of the Oldham Reserve was not an option. However, I would say that failure is more than just a mere possibility and nobody seems to be thinking about that. If you don’t think about it, and you don’t plan for it, you will be in big trouble if it does fail. Nobody had a solution.

Since it is going to be taxpayer money that pays for the infrastructure of Oldham Reserve, and the interchange alone will be at least twenty-six million dollars, perhaps the county should consider forming a public corporation made up of Oldham County residents and allow them to buy shares in the corporation. Then the corporation could hire good management for the to promote and sell the land. The corporation would then develop the land under the guidelines that are already in place. The county would get out from under the burden of the debt and the taxpayers who invest in the new corporation would have an opportunity to get some of their tax dollars back.

Gish also stated that she does not support an occupational tax. However, I have heard other people in the Murner-Gish administration say that an occupational tax is absolutely the key to diversifying the tax base in Oldham County and that an occupational tax is necessary for additional industry to make a difference in the tax base. I happen to agree with that. That is why I do not understand why we have gotten the county into such a mess if we are not willing to either place a tax on the businesses or to implement an occupation tax. Please, someone tell me how any industry will help the tax base if you don’t get any additional tax money through the businesses!

Paula Gish touted the fact that The Rawlings Group now has 121 employees who live in Oldham County. She thought that was great. I don’t know if that means that they have hired that many people who reside in the county or if it means that many of their employees have moved to Oldham County. Either way does not matter. There is absolutely no basis for this county to be trying to get additional people to move to the county. Until the recession came about there were already more people coming to the county than the infrastructure could support. Thus, I don’t understand why Gish was so proud of that figure.

Voegele did add that he favored the creation of “incubator businesses.” That would be the creation small businesses that demonstrate the capability of growing. That would not cost the county huge amounts of money to support. Once again though, without additional taxes those business won’t change the tax base.

The issue of the Oldham County Development Authority (OCEDA) was not brought up. The fact is, it has essentially been a failure. I remember hearing the director of OCEDA admitting that very little had been done in several years to promote growth in Oldham County. He resigned a short time after making that statement.

Gish said that the county should financially support the Chamber of Commerce. Why should taxpayers give sparse tax dollars to an agency that has not brought industry to the county? If you want to help balance the budget, cut the funding to the chamber.

Gish stated that the county needs to expand the tax base but she gave no ideas on how to do that. The fact is, neither candidate had an idea on how to expand the tax base. Remember, industry won’t diversify the tax base unless some tax is placed upon the business or its employees.

Both candidates stated that they would work with other government officials to push forward for the I-71 interchange. However, neither candidate said what he/she would do if the interchange could not be secured. I have a difficult time believing that the federal government will build an interchange that has nothing at the end of it and connects to a two-lane road. However, stranger things have happened.

I was startled to learn that no questions were asked regarding development in the county or open government. Frankly, I believe that the questions were intentionally omitted. There could be no other justification.

I attended the forum in Brownsboro earlier in the month. In that forum the questions came from those in attendance and there were many questions regarding development. Further, I hear from a lot of people throughout Oldham County and I can say with certainty that the issue of development is one of the top three issues on the minds of people, if not the top issue. Anyone sponsoring a debate could not leave out that topic out unless they intended to do so. It is well known that the developers are the driving force behind Paula Gish. Could it be that that group had influence on the debate? I know a lot of people believe that to be the situation.

As for a discussion on an open government, everyone knows that the Murner-Gish administration has been less than forthright when asked for information. Once again, this is a topic that I don’t believe Gish wanted to tackle.

As I recently said before Fiscal Court, I did not believe that the debate would be fair. I continue to believe that the debate was not fair in that two of the most important issues were left out of the debate. I stand by my earlier statements.

David Voegele did voice his displeasure regarding the omission of any questions regarding development. And, he stated that, if elected, he would conduct the government’s business in public.

You may have noticed that I have frequently used the term “Murner-Gish Administration.” The reason is that in her closing remarks, Gish stated that she had been endorsed by the current Judge/Executive, Duane Murner. She has set the stage although most people have known that they are/were both funded in large part by the same contributors.