Wednesday, January 05, 2000
Patton address highlights workers
Better pay one of his goals
The Associated Press
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Collective bargaining for all public employees and a better compensation system for state workers in particular were the centerpieces of Gov. Paul Patton's wide-ranging State of the Commonwealth address Tuesday.
With hundreds of union workers gathered in the Capitol Rotunda to cheer his proposals, Mr. Patton found less enthusiastic response among senators and representatives gathered in the House chamber for his biennial report to the General Assembly.
Mr. Patton said the state employee compensation system was near collapse, with pay grades out of balance and the state at a severe disadvantage to private employers and other states.
He blamed the situation on the lack of a collective bargaining system for public employees. The governor supports a proposal that would force local and state governments to negotiate with employees who form a union, but he said Tuesday that would not require a contract.
Union leaders from Kentucky and across the nation gathered to applaud Mr. Patton. State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan said it demonstrated Mr. Patton's commitment to collective bargaining, which is organized labor's primary legislative objective.
But Mr. Patton warned union leaders in September that they still carry the burden of gaining votes for the idea and there is not enough support in either chamber for passage.
Legislative leaders said there appeared little hope for passage of such a plan, which failed in a similar form two years ago.
But while spending most of the first part of his speech on labor issues, Mr. Patton said, “the four most important tasks that we'll talk about this session are education and education and education and education.”
He said the legislature's finest hour was in 1990 when it passed the Kentucky Education Reform Act and he pledged continued support for it.
The state should provide an increase in the basic aid to local schools program and open more than 100 new family resource centers.
“Let us never ease up in our efforts to improve our common schools; half our budget; the very foundation of our society; the most important task we do as a people,” Mr. Patton said.
In addition, he said the goals of higher education reform enacted in 1997 must also be continued. Adult education and programs for early-childhood development also received the governor's endorsement.
Mr. Patton offered tantalizing glimpses of several of his plans for the session, on topics ranging from tax reform to how to spend Kentucky's share of the national settlement with tobacco companies. From garbage collection — which he wants to make mandatory statewide — to rural preservation, programs for the mentally ill, roads, clean water and health insurance, Mr. Patton was interrupted more than three dozen times by applause during his 45-minute speech.
His most impassioned plea, which drew a standing ovation even from the assembled Supreme Court justices and Republican members of Kentucky's congressional delegation, was for more help for Kentucky's most disadvantaged citizens.
Mr. Patton said his only public commitment to providing more money in the budget was for mental health and mental retardation programs. He said he has not yet found money to do so in his budget, which will be presented by Jan. 25, but he said it must be done.
“The people of Kentucky are special, and they're going to take care of our special people,” Mr. Patton said to a standing ovation.
Kentucky may receive more than $3 billion in the tobacco settlement program over the next 25 years, though almost no one expects the total to reach that figure. Mr. Patton said he wants to use the proceeds for early-childhood programs, to help agriculture development and for a health insurance program for people who have to obtain coverage on the private market.
He said he would not propose to use tobacco settlement money to balance a budget and would not sign a budget that did so.
Noticeably absent from the speech was any reference to expanded gambling in the state, which had once threatened to overshadow all other topics.
His final words were reserved for legislators, who enter the 2000 session with a new political reality and Republicans in majority control of the state Senate. Mr. Patton congratulated Democrats for responsible governance in the legislature, and said Republicans will be able to do likewise.
“The people will be looking to you to focus on issues and not partisanship, an admonition I would deliver to all members of the legislature and to myself and our administration,” Mr. Patton said.
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