Andanh.com

The April 20 article "Mixing business with politics" by staff writer John Cheves reports that "more than one in five state lawmakers sponsor measures that would directly benefit their outside businesses, investments, employers or industries."

You could have knocked me over with a medium-sized truck. This is news?

Since the days of the Roman Senate, legislators have been looking out for themselves while "serving the public weal." While living in Buffalo, N.Y., for 45 years, I observed it at the municipal, county, state and federal levels.

The only part of the article that came as news to me is that it's only "more than one in five." Maybe it's a lot more.

Budget cuts in public schools are predicted to cause layoffs and jeopardize essential programs for our children.

Public universities are increasing their tuition up to 9 percent, putting an additional financial burden on parents and students already struggling with the skyrocketing cost of higher education.

The public defender office is forced to cut 54 positions, which will leave many vulnerable people without proper representation mandated by the U.S. Constitution.

And in Louisville, it was announced that Seven Counties Services is closing its southeast Jefferson County office, which serves 1,500 people with mental health problems.

To believe that the budget Kentuckians have been dealt is the best we could hope for is to give legislators a free pass for their dereliction in the handling of the state's public affairs. Instead of rallying to address Kentucky's economic woes and to move the state in a direction where it can sustain funding for its core program responsibilities, the legislature caved in to political shenanigans at taxpayers' expense.

It's hard not to focus on the flat funding and cuts to programs such as child care and public health that will have long-term effects on the state However, Kentuckians must also look ahead to the next budget session and make our expectations clear.

There are two leadership imperatives for legislators. If they become a reality, this is a state with a future. If they are ignored for political expediency, we will be having the same discussion in 2010.

The legislature must ensure transparency in the budget decision-making process. Good government and secrecy simply cannot co-exist. When deliberations are conducted behind closed doors, critical information is obscured, and when timing is orchestrated to preclude debate, the public good is not served.

Brad Cowgill is right to shine a bright light on proposed tuition increases. But Cowgill can't be an effective advocate for affordable higher education, or anything else, under the current circumstances.

An attorney general's opinion last week said that his hiring as president of the Council on Postsecondary Education violated a state law requiring a national search.

Gov. Steve Beshear, who sought the advisory opinion, said the controversy is not about Cowgill, who was Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher's budget director before being named interim CPE president a few months before Fletcher lost re-election.

Cowgill, a Democrat, was once Beshear's partner in a Lexington law firm, but had no experience in higher education.On the qualifications question, also raised by Beshear, Assistant Deputy Attorney General Tad Thomas wrote that the law is contradictory.