Friday, April 14, 2000
Patton, McConnell keep silent on call tax
BY Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ERLANGER — When the Kentucky General Assembly session began in January, two of the state's top office-holders went public with their positions on taxes.
Gov. Paul Patton, the second-term Democrat from Pikeville, advocated a tax increase to balance the budget and pay for some projects and programs.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Louisville Republican, told GOP senators — who for the first time were in control of the chamber — to make sure they didn't raise taxes.
Mr. Patton and Mr. McConnell were far less vocal on the topic Thursday.
Both politicians declined to discuss legislation pushed by the Republican-controlled Senate and backed by Democrats in the House that im plements a 6 percent tax on out-of-state long distance phone calls.
“I'm not going to get into that,” a smiling Mr. Patton said as he entered a Boy Scouts of America awards luncheon at the Receptions Banquet facility in Erlanger.
Mr. McConnell, who helped give the GOP its Senate majority last year when he helped persuade two Democrats to switch parties, was equally tight-lipped.
“I'm just not going to comment or talk about that,” Mr. McConnell said during his weekly media conference call from Washington. “It's not something I have really been following.”
The tax increase, which has created a political firestorm in Frankfort, is expected to be formally inserted into the two-year state budget today when lawmakers approve the spending plan.
While Mr. Patton has spent most of the session making his case for higher taxes, Senate Republicans have battled his efforts.
After the Democratic-controlled House passed a budget that included a $178 million telecommunications tax increase and 400 projects in communities around the state, Senate Republicans stripped the money and the projects from the budget.
But last week, when it was clear a budget agreement would not be reached, Republicans came up with the phone tax and added another 200 projects to the budget.
The Republicans claim their tax plan is “revenue neutral,” that the nearly $100 million generated by the phone tax will be offset by decreasing taxes elsewhere in the budget, including a cut in the unemployment tax business owners pay.
But the Republicans are also facing criticism for first deriding and then supporting taxes while at the same time pushing for projects many GOP senators originally labeled “pork.”
Mr. McConnell was asked Thursday if his silence on the subject was fueled by the state GOP senators' refusal to take his advice, but he wouldn't answer.
Mr. Patton, while calling the budget “good,” was asked if he believed the Senate plan was a tax increase or was it revenue neu tral, as the GOP has claimed.
“That's a lot (of) semantics,” Mr. Patton said. “It's a good program. I support it. It moves Kentucky forward. It does what needs to be done and we're supporting it.”
Asked if he thinks the budget will pass, Mr. Patton chuckled.
“It ain't over till it's over, but I expect so. I know of no reason why it won't.”
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