Thursday, May 13, 1999
Kenton GOP finds governing tough
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Politics 101: Getting elected is easier than being an elected official.
That's a hard lesson some Kenton County Republicans are painfully learning.
There are more than a few GOP officeholders down at the Kenton County Courthouse pining for the grand old days of last fall, when they boasted about and then delivered big wins on Election Day.
The Kenton County Fiscal Court, the jail and the sheriff's office all fell firmly into the hands of the Republican Party, which dominated the elections from one end of the county to the other.
But running is just one aspect of politics. Governing is a whole different matter.
Let's start with fiscal court.
The Republican members — Judge-executive Dick Murgatroyd and Commissioners Adam Koenig, Dan Humpert and Barb Black — inherited a couple of tough issues right off the bat: building a new jail and trying to find the money for a new emergency dispatch system.
The former court, including interim Judge-executive Rodney “Biz” Cain, left the new court with a jail proposed on 3L Highway in Covington, near Edgewood.
But Edgewood, for the most part, doesn't want the jail, and residents have made a whole lot of noise about not forgetting in the next election if the jail is built there.
Then last week, faced with a decision about the need for a new emergency dispatch system, the court — with the exception of Mrs. Black — made a very tough call and passed what amounts to a 1,000 percent tax increase on phone bills to help fund it.
That's not a misprint. Some Northern Kentucky Republicans actually voted for a tax increase.
Boy, that one is going to come back to haunt. A lot of GOP candidates, officials and supporters have made names for themselves bashing on Democrats for being “tax and spend liberals,” a jab that at times has had some merit but more often than not is as much rhetoric as fact.
The GOP isn't even going to have to wait until the next election year to get slapped around for that one.
Kenton County Democratic Chairwoman Shirley Huelsmann fired off a press release this week, claiming the tax hike was quickly shoved through with little advance notice to the public.
“The fiscal court should have sought more input from the public and studied the issue more before raising taxes,” Mrs. Huelsmann said.
Ouch. How about that — a Democrat beating on a Republican for raising taxes. Never thought we'd see that one in Northern Kentucky.
On one hand, you can say the fiscal court made the tough call on an issue it knew would not popular with taxpayers, but one that was needed for public safety.
Sorry — Democrats have been trying that line, or variations of it, for years around here, and the GOP has shoved it right back in their faces every time. Paybacks are hell, fellas.
Then there's the Kenton County Sieve, er, jail.
Prisoners have escaped and walked away. The wrong guy was let go. A top deputy has been booted. The fiscal court wants the administrative payroll reduced. And Jailer Terry Carl, as Mrs. Huelsmann points out, has a chef baking the prisoners fresh bread.
“Maybe he ought to think about hiring a few more guards to keep prisoners from walking away,” she said.
We must point out that at least in some cases, if the Democrats in office in Kenton County had been doing a decent job, maybe they wouldn't have been booted from office by the voters.
But Republicans have dished it out plenty over the years. Now they're just going to have to take it.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for The Kentucky Enquirer. His column appears Thursdays and Sundays. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort, or by e-mail at crowleys@cinci.infi.net
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for the Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort.
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