State officials promoted Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s stop Monday morning in Hopkinsville as an announcement of new funding for local road improvements. But after a quick report on those projects, Bevin spent about 30 minutes on key themes for his re-election bid, and a campaign worker told the audience she had yard signs and bumper stickers for them.
“I could sit here and blow smoke at you and lie to you. The guy I’m running against will do that,” Bevin told a few dozen locals and several state officials and cabinet members who turned out to hear him speak at the Hopkinsville Sportsplex. Justice Secretary John Tilley, who is from Hopkinsville, was among them.
Bevin and his Democratic challenger, state Attorney General Andy Beshear, will have their first debate at noon Thursday in Paducah. (It will be televised on WPSD and will air on WKMS.) Four more televised debates will follow.
Three topics – the state’s tax code, pension solvency and Kentucky’s ability to compete with surrounding states – were the focus of Bevin’s comments in Hopkinsville and will likely be among his main points during the five debates in October. He also called Beshear and his family “corrupt.”
Bevin said it will take several years to dig out of the state’s pension shortfall. He said opponents of his plan to put $2 billion a year for the next 30 years into state pension plans, while also reducing the benefits of future employees, will not tell voters to the truth about how to prevent ruining the state’s economic future.
“They will do what it takes to make themselves popular … ultimately it will destroy the credit of this state,” he said.
Proposals to raise state revenue by legalizing recreational marijuana and casino gambling are not real solutions, Bevin said.
“The people who tell you – including the guy I’m running against – that if we all just smoke pot and gamble, we could fix this problem. We can’t,” Bevin said.
The governor also talked about ways Kentucky can compete with Tennessee – especially in the Hopkinsville area where the economy benefits from Fort Campbell soldiers and their families who choose to live on the Kentucky side of the border.
“If we had a zero percent income tax in this state, you would hear a sucking sound as opportunities started to come across the border in our direction instead of the other way,” he said.
But he also acknowledged that eliminating the state income tax would take years because a drastic cut in that revenue would require a steep increase in the sale tax.
Bevin said he can also cooperate with border states, including Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio, by making joint pitches to big employers. A large plant near a border would provide jobs for people in two states, he said.
He also pledged that legislation is coming in 2020 to modernize Kentucky’s tax code.
The general election is Nov. 5. The voter registration deadline is Oct. 7.
The road projects, which will receive funding for resurfacing, that Bevin announced are as follows:
- $188,247 for Van Buren Avenue in Oak Grove.
- $43,566 for Pleasant View Acres Road in the county.
- $42,882 for North Ridge Drive in the county.
- $278,495 for Old Palestine Road in the county.
- $278,495 for Newton Lane in the county.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
