Q&A on creating jobs with governor candidates

THE QUESTION:

AP: Some regions of the state continue to suffer from high jobless rates. What is your plan for bringing economic prosperity to all parts of Kentucky?

ANSWERS:

REPUBLICANS:

Ernie Fletcher:

My family is from eastern Kentucky and I was born in those foothills. Job creation there faces challenges of sparse population, access and infrastructure, but one thing is clear many of the poor performing schools unfortunately are there.

To improve economic development in this region, and throughout Kentucky, the key is investing in education.

I have been able to provide record funding to education in Kentucky, but special attention is needed in these poor performing districts. I have proposed that we begin to recognize education's roll in economic development, and dedicate some of the funding specific to these counties to improve education in these areas.

I have proposed we invest in need-based scholarships to ensure that every student has the opportunity to go to college. We have made landmark investments in infrastructure, including roads, schools, waste water facilities that will make communities more attractive for economic development.

We are conducting a study on adventure tourism that will provide us a blueprint for the promotion of tourism in eastern Kentucky. We also have an energy plan that will have a positive impact on coal counties by utilizing clean coal technology and in rural Kentucky by utilizing renewable resources.

I have also worked to bring broadband Internet access to every corner of Kentucky. Kentucky has led the nation in broadband growth, and I am proud to be nearing my goal of 100 percent access by the end of the year. I invested $9 million to integrate ultra-high speed broadband technology to all classrooms in Kentucky that will increase our capacity to get instruction into the classroom.

I have also created the "No Child Left Offline" program which has refurbished hundreds of computers to provide to children who do not have a computer in their home. With broadband in schools and in homes, these areas will have access to educational and health information in a way that they never have before, and have a critical element of infrastructure in place to attract businesses to grow.

Billy Harper:

First and foremost, we must create a better business environment in Kentucky. Politicians in Frankfort cannot say that Kentucky is open for business in one breath and then tax unprofitable businesses through the alternative minimum tax in the next. It will be a priority of my administration to repeal this tax, and I will also focus attention on the state's small businesses, our true economic engines and ways to help them grow and expand.

Kentucky's dropout rate remains among the highest in the nation, and we continue to lose roughly one out of every three kids that pass through our public schools. Likewise, our graduation rate in Kentucky has been stuck near 70 percent since the early 1990s, despite doubling per-pupil spending in our schools. Unfortunately, both of these factors heavily influence the state's jobless rate.

As a business owner and employer, I know from experience that the surest way to boost economic opportunity and grow the job base statewide is to empower individuals through educational achievement beyond high school. For those who aren't interested in traditional four-year colleges and universities, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System offers a wide a variety of quality two-year degree programs, such as accounting, engineering technology and nursing, at a relatively low cost. In fact, at $115 per credit hour, two years' worth of KCTCS training can be obtained for less than $7,000.

Anne Northup:

For three years, we've had a governor who has put off addressing Kentucky's lagging economy. Now we have the fourth-highest unemployment in the nation. We need to create an environment where small businesses flourish and new jobs are created, and that happens when we repeal the AMC, encourage entrepreneurship and let workers keep more of their pay checks. While the national economy has enjoyed healthy economic growth since the recession of 2001, Kentucky continues to lag behind year after year. (Running mate) Jeff (Hoover) and I intend to bring the state up to pace with the rest of the nation by making Kentucky a better place to do business.

DEMOCRATS:

Steve Beshear:

(Running mate) Dr. (Daniel) Mongiardo and I have introduced a detailed plan, as part of our Kentucky First plan, which will harness the competitive advantages of Kentucky to create a new 21st century economy. This will be accomplished by investing in Kentucky's businesses and Kentucky's people instead of continuing to offer tax breaks to out-of-state corporations. Our plan will create more jobs in all regions of the state.

Gatewood Galbraith:

We must create and implement programs that benefit all Kentuckians, regardless of location or politics. Education in Kentucky is in real trouble and the main proof of that is this: In 1991, we spent 68 percent of our budget on education. In 2006, we are spending 60 percent. In the past seven years, Kentucky has gone from being the 10th poorest state to the sixth poorest. There is a direct correlation between education and economic development and they are among the most important missions of state government. Therefore we must refund education by restoring the proper money to the budget to get the job done.

We must also remove the administrative burden placed on our teachers by the failed program of KERA. The teachers must be freed up to teach and given the materials and time to spend with each student. Right now they are unfairly burdened with administrative tasks and must be freed up to spend time with students. We must also reduce class sizes and stop "teaching to the tests." Then we must strengthen our curriculum to ensure that no high school graduate from a Kentucky high school has to gain a remedial education after they graduate. This would set the stage for the centerpiece of our campaign: "The Commonwealth Incentive"

Our platform is focused on uplifting and educating citizens with programs such as our "Commonwealth Incentive," whereby every high school graduate becomes entitled to a $5,000 voucher toward books, tuition and fees at any institution of further learning within Kentucky. This can be college, vocational training, cosmetology or truck driving school or any other accredited institution where our work force can be better or further trained for individual employability.

In essence, this is a much more surgically precise method of funding education because the money is only spent when the individual makes the internal decision to educate themselves towards employability and the money then flows directly to the educator. That is a distinctly different kind of spending on education than taking that money and building some $100 million structure and then trying to entice students to try and get an education from it in subjects they may have no interest in.

Illiteracy and an untrained work force are continuously blamed for Kentucky's low standard-of-living indexes and our "Commonwealth Incentive" is designed to remedy both of those chronic ills. It will increase the incentive for many high school students, including minorities, to graduate and it may attract educational or vocational training institutions to locate within our borders. Our current budget can afford this program and we cannot afford to do without it.

Steve Henry:

Traditionally the "Golden Triangle" has been the economic engine of the state, Kentucky has to broaden its focus and work on making our entire state profitable.

Creating a statewide energy policy called "Corn Fields to Coal Fields" will create thousands of jobs and provide a renewable source of energy in both the eastern and western parts of the state. This policy will focus on ethanol, bio-diesel and clean-coal gasification and coal liquefaction initiatives. Kentucky has already had tremendous success with the ethanol plant located in western Kentucky.

Otis Hensley Jr.:

I will implement the Kentucky Small Business Investment Program to increase household incomes and create over 560,000 new jobs, developed by my economic adviser, Roger Thoney. This program is initiated by HB725, introduced into the 2006 regular session. This bill includes a goal to achieve a 3 percent unemployment rate in every Kentucky county to ensure that jobs are distributed throughout the state.

Bruce Lunsford:

We need a real strategy to grow our economy and create good-paying jobs in Kentucky. The best economic development program is investing in a world-class education system. A significant investment in our education system is a significant investment in our economy. As a successful entrepreneur, I've created thousands of good jobs in Kentucky. I've done it before and I can do it again. In addition, we need universal health care, which will lower health care costs and attract businesses to Kentucky. Universal health care is not only the right thing to do, it will strengthen our economy. We need to put sound financial strategies in place to give every Kentuckian an opportunity to succeed.

Jonathan Miller:

There are hard working men and women in the commonwealth who are struggling. They deserve better, and we will use fresh approaches to attracting good paying, 21st Century jobs in all of our communities.

Disparate economic opportunity and prosperity is not just an economic issue or a political issue, it is a moral issue. Solving disproportionate access to opportunity and employment must be a priority of any administration and it will be in the Miller-Maze administration.

I believe that a well-educated work force will attract opportunity, so we must focus on those areas of high jobless rates and poverty with good educational and training opportunities. Equal, affordable and quality access to education from start to finish must be a key to turning our jobless rate around.

Access to our four-year colleges and universities and our technical and community colleges must become affordable and attainable if we are ever going to begin to respond to joblessness in our commonwealth and our nation. We will end double-digit tuition taxes on Kentucky families, and we will lead for passage of "Cradle to College," a 529 college savings account I proposed with Secretary of State Trey Grayson. "Cradle to College" will ensure that every Kentucky child has at least the opportunity of attending community college.

Recognizing that we as a state can cash in on Kentucky's "beauty, brainpower and bounty," I recently proposed a plan to create economic wealth all across our state using our bounty of coal and agriculture. We will use those resources with our state's natural beauty and the technology already operating or emerging in this state to become the clean energy capitol of the world. The economic opportunities are boundless all across the state in the areas of agriculture, tourism and biomass.

Jody Richards:

We must emphasize high-tech, new economy jobs for our state. Attracting companies that do business on the cutting edge is important these are high-paying jobs that will not be shipped overseas and are part of the new, developing economy. Part of that plan will be to attract new jobs through the development of alternative energy sources such as clean coal, biomass and ethanol.

As Governor, I'll change our economic development strategy to allow the governor to be the chief economic development architect and leader. And in that role, I'll work everyday to bring new industries and jobs to Kentucky and also do a better job serving our existing industries and companies. We need to eliminate barriers to business, especially for our Kentucky small businesses.