Wednesday, June 23, 1999
Patton touts higher tax and casinos
Governor defends spending
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — Gov. Paul Patton used a Tuesday night speech to a local business group to push proposals for casino gambling and a gasoline tax increase and defend his administration's spending.
Speaking at the Covington Business Council's annual awards dinner, Mr. Patton was animated and adamant about what he has achieved as governor and what he wants to do in a second term. His topics included:
• Casino gambling. Mr. Patton has touched off a fiery debate over whether the Kentucky legislature and subsequently the voters should approve a constitutional amendment next year that would allow casino gambling in the state.
Mr. Patton has said Kentucky residents are spending millions of dollars annually on riverboat casinos in neighboring states.
“I'm going to say that we have casino gambling in Kentucky, at least on our borders,” he said. “My basic theme has been ... should we attempt to recover some of the $500 million going into the casinos operating on our borders?”
As much as $200 million of that could be returned to Kentucky in the form of tax dollars for the restoration and preservation of rural and urban areas, he said.
The governor made no mention of how money generated by gambling would benefit the thoroughbred racing industry, which has been lobbying the state to allow some type of casino gambling at racetracks.
• Gas tax. Kentucky has the 46th-lowest gasoline tax in the nation, Mr. Patton said. He has proposed that the legislature raise the tax by up to a dime a gallon to provide more money for road construction and improvements.
Some of that new revenue could be used to improve roads in Northern Kentucky, includ ing 12th Street in Covington.
Mr. Patton said the interstates and main roads in Northern Kentucky “aren't all that bad.”
“But your feeder roads are the worst in the state,” he said. “And you're going to have to have the state's help if you're going to build feeder roads like 12th Street. You know how expensive it is going to be to get a modern corridor into Covington.”
The state plans to improve 12th Street from Interstate 71/75 east to Scott Boulevard in a project estimated to cost $12 million.
Covington City Commissioner Jerry Bamberger, while not necessarily advocating the gas tax increase, said the 12th Street project is needed “to give the city another entryway, another gateway for residents, and for people to come to the businesses here in the city.”
• Spending. Mr. Patton used most of a $200 million budget surplus last year to build projects around the state. He said the spending was vital because it invested in the state's infrastructure.
But Mr. Patton also showed he may be growing tired of criticism over the spending. Some lawmakers and Republican Party leaders have said Mr. Patton, a Democrat running for re-election this year against GOP candidate Peppy Martin of Hart County, spread the money across the state because this is an election year.
“The press wants to refer to every investment outside of their community as pork,” he said. “This past year, we had a good surplus, and we did exact ly what we ought to have done with it.
“It was one-time money, and we invested it in one-time expenditures, in infrastructure all over this commonwealth,” he said.
During the awards ceremony, the business council honored the following individuals and businesses:
• Carolyn Zink, marketing di rector for the accounting firm of Carpenter, Mountjoy and Bressler, was given the Ralph V. Haile Jr. Outstanding Achievement Award.
• The Point organizations, which provide training and jobs for the disabled, received the Michael A. Partin Community Leadership Award.
• Adams, Brooking, Stepner, Woltermann and Dusing, a Cov ington law firm, was given the Outstanding Established Business Award.
• Ashland Inc., which moved its headquarters to Covington in January, was given the Outstanding New Business Award. Chief Executive Officer Paul Chellgren accepted the award for the firm.
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