A little over a month ago I wrote in this space that the political situation couldn't get much worse for the Kenton County Fiscal Court. It has.

        The all-Republican court that has raised taxes and fumbled selection of a site for a new county jail continues to make moves that leaves me scratching my head so hard I'm going to need the Hair Club For Men pretty soon.

        It's bad enough, at least politically, that the court raised the county's payroll tax in the first place. There was no doubt the money was needed to, among other things, pay for the jail - that is, when the court finally decides where to build the darn thing.

        As long as I've been covering politics in Kentucky, I've had Republicans repeatedly tell me that it is Demo crats who raise taxes, not GOP officeholders.

        “Tax and spenders” is the favorite slogan Republicans use to often accurately describe Democrats.

But this fiscal court, led by Judge-executive Dick Murgatroyd, seems like it's trying to saddle the Republicans with that reputation.

        The payroll tax was the third tax the court - which also includes commissioners Adam Koenig, Barb Black and Dan Humpert — has raised. Not exactly a record the Republicans will be eager to tout when they run for re-election, which is what the judge and commissioners are preparing to do next year.

        Making the situation even more difficult and delicate for the fiscal court is a ruling handed down two weeks ago by Kenton County Circuit Court Judge Patricia Summe that basically negated the increase.

        But instead of cutting their losses and dumping the tax, the court is going to appeal the judge's ruling. That puts these presumably fiscally conservative Republicans in the position of not only increasing a tax, but using tax dollars to defend doing so.

        And if that weren't enough, the court has said it will continue to collect the tax during the appeal process and hold the money in an escrow account.

        One more little item. If the tax increase is killed the court may have to cut back on social services, including some of those for senior citizens.

        So not only will the court anger its voting base by raising taxes but it would draw the ire of older folks who always turn out big at the polls on election day.

        What a mess. Can it, will it, get worse? We'll just keep watching.

There went the judge?

        A casualty of the recent Democratic takeover of the U.S. Senate could very well be the son of Kentucky U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, a Southgate Republican.

        No one involved has talked about it publicly but it is well-known in legal and political circles that David Bunning, a Fort Thomas resident and assistant U.S. Attorney, was likely to be nominated for the federal judge slot William Bertelsman is vacating in Covington.

        When the Republicans controlled the Senate, the judicial nominations make by President Bush had a good chance of winning Senate approval.

        But now that the Dems are in charge look for nasty fights over the president's nominees. And that could spell trouble for David Bunning if he is nominated.

        E-mail at pcrowley9@home.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/crowley.

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