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Eastern Kentucky housing builder looks to the sun for relief from crushing power bills

Liam Niemeyer — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:50:01 +0000

Lois Thompson says her new house's porch is "out of this world." She moved into the "net zero" home in late August. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer).

WHITESBURG — In her old house — built more than 100 years ago by a coal company — Lois Thompson says she couldn’t afford to run the heat pump on her fixed income.?

When winter cold seeped through the walls, Thompson, 76, sectioned off a room by hanging up her son’s $10 childhood quilt; she would sit by a propane heater until the heat drove her into the cold kitchen.

“They’ll freeze you to death in the winter,” she said of her house and others like it that were built to be heated by a coal stove. “For the people like me that don’t have the money, you’re living in a drafty house. … You can’t insulate it. You don’t have the money for that.”

The propane heater, the house and the cold are now memories.?

Thanks to a local housing nonprofit, Thompson moved into a new house in August on the site where her old home, damaged by flooding in 2022, had stood. Also gone are her fears of high electricity bills. She paid just $21.61 in October, slightly above the minimum charge for utility customers in her community.

Lois Thompson saved money in the winter by heating only one room with a propane heater because she could not afford to run her electric heat pump. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

“It still don’t seem real, and I’m living in it,” she said. “I say, ‘Lord, I thank you.’ That’s all I can do.”?

The reason behind her rock-bottom power bill: a years-long effort by Whitesburg-based HOMES Inc. to build “net zero” homes. That is, houses with zero monthly electrical costs because of their energy-efficient construction and rooftop solar panels that generate power.?

For years, the? nonprofit — its full name is Housing Oriented Ministries Established for Service Inc. — had been grappling with the challenge of responding to some of Kentucky’s highest electricity costs in a region where incomes are low.

The devastating floods that overwhelmed Eastern Kentucky in 2022 wiped out thousands of homes and also brought new resources for housing, allowing HOMES Inc. to look toward the power of the sun. The nonprofit has built five “net zero” homes including Thompson’s and is now working on a new housing development for flood survivors that will have eight “net zero” homes.

In a region built on coal, the pressure of soaring utility bills and the need for housing are driving a new vision of what the energy future could be.

“In our climate today, everything gets political. This doesn’t have to be about left or right. This doesn’t have to be about coal or solar. It can be about common sense, too,” said Seth Long, the executive director of HOMES Inc. “As coal built this country with energy in the past, we need to pivot. And I think solar can play a part in that pivoting to something else.”?

Solar skeptic to solar advocate

Long wasn’t always a believer. He recognized that solar panels on rooftops saved electricity but didn’t think they made sense economically without subsidies because of their upfront costs.

The numbers on a spreadsheet presented by Josh Bills, an energy specialist from the economic development organization Mountain Association, convinced him otherwise. HOMES Inc. could install rooftop solar on its office in Whitesburg and be financially ahead, even if it borrowed the entire cost of the solar system. The price of rooftop solar panels has halved over the past decade.

Thompson Branch housing development is under construction in Letcher County. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer).

Long had been looking for a way from under his nonprofit’s high electricity bills. Despite adding energy efficiency measures to the office such as air sealing and? efficient light bulbs, the bills from Kentucky Power were still too high — up to $1,600 a month, something that wasn’t sustainable.?

“The spreadsheet said that that would work, and I kept doubting and kept wondering.”? Long finally said, “Why don’t we borrow $70,000 and put the system on and see if this will work?”

So, they borrowed the money and installed the solar system. It’s paid off every month since, performing better than the projections.?

“We came out ahead financially, way ahead. Some of our electric bills since then have been as low as $53 a month,” Long said. “It was eye opening to me.”

Long’s horizons of what’s possible began to expand. He added solar to his maple syrup farm to save money there. He knew small businesses in Eastern Kentucky also struggled with older, energy inefficient buildings and high electricity bills, and most of the funding opportunities, such as the Rural Energy for America Program, were aimed at commercial spaces.

Fewer resources were available for working solar onto affordable housing. As tragic and terrible as the 2022 floods were, he said, there are now “resources and support in ways that we haven’t seen” for that sort of work.?

HOMES Inc. plans to have all eight “net zero” homes at the Thompson Branch development finished by spring of 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer).

Ratepayers in the 20 Eastern Kentucky counties served by investor-owned Kentucky Power have struggled for years with high electricity costs. The utility’s residential customers paid the highest average monthly bill in the state at $187.56 according to a 2023 state report, and that was before a controversial 5% rate increase was approved last year.?

Power bills can soar above that average during the winter. Kentucky Power data show its? poorest Kentucky ratepayers have the highest bills. That’s in part, Kentucky Power executives say, because of high electric heating costs during the winter. Poor insulation and energy inefficient electric heating cause bills to reach north of $400 a month when it’s cold.?

Thompson said she sees Facebook posts during the winter by people “just about in tears” because “the electric bills are so high,” forcing them to decide whether to buy food or pay Kentucky Power.?

That’s where the potential of “net zero” homes comes in.

“A lot of people in our area are living in houses that were designed for coal heat, and, you know, not so much heat pumps. But everybody switched from coal to electric heat, and it’s just — it’s so expensive for them,” Long said. “The flood has given us opportunities to tear down older homes and replace them with new energy efficient homes and even ‘net zero’ houses.”?

HOMES Inc. has? built five “net zero” homes so far, constructing an energy-efficient “envelope” around the structure and then letting? the power of rooftop solar take the home all the way to “net zero.”?

One of five “net zero” homes featuring rooftop solar panels that HOMES Inc. has already built. The solar systems are designed to provide enough electricity to get a home to “net zero.” (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Their efforts have been recognized by a national nonprofit that scores energy efficiency. The HERS index compares a home’s energy efficiency to a home built by average standards, which would score 100 on the index. A home with a HERS score of 70, for example, would be 30% more energy efficient than the average home. A score of 50 would be 50% more energy efficient.?

Long said Lois Thompson’s “net zero” home scored a negative 17 on the index, meaning it generates more electricity than it uses. And the nonprofit doesn’t plan to stop there.

A new future out of the floodplain

Up a gravel road on a hill just outside of Whitesburg, hopes for the future and current frustrations meet.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency had originally planned to put small cottages there in? a development known as Thompson Branch. When those plans didn’t work out, state officials asked HOMES Inc. for its ideas. The answer as seen on a cool afternoon earlier this month: eight soon-to-be “net zero” homes.

Over the rumble of a truck dumping cement for a new sidewalk, Joe Oliver, an assistant construction manager, explained how they’ve made it work: using smaller, affordable solar systems, only what’s needed to get to a “net zero” rating; building and designing homes ready for rooftop solar; and having an in-house solar installer to reduce costs. An average solar system runs the nonprofit around $15,000.

“The more that we can make things affordable, I think the better off everyone is everywhere,” Oliver said. “If you could generate enough money, say, to pay for the [solar] system, why wouldn’t you?”

Joe Oliver and Bobby “Fuzz” Johnson hope their work on “net zero” homes can help save Kentuckians money on utility bills in the long run. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Their in-house solar installer, Clayton “Fuzz” Johnson, a bearded 29-year-old, went to school to become a master electrician and learn how to install solar panels. Johnson said electricians are few and far between in Eastern Kentucky, let alone those who know how to install solar.

Johnson says solar is becoming more appealing in light of the rising costs Eastern Kentuckians are facing for groceries, taxes and electricity.?

With the decline of coal mining and other heavy industry and the coinciding loss of population in Kentucky Power’s territory, more and more of the burden of paying for electricity has fallen on fewer and fewer people, leaving Johnson, Oliver and others voicing frustration with the situation.?

““They’re going to get their return on investment,” Johnson said of Kentucky Power.

The electrical wires that go to various parts of the soon-to-be “net zero” home. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Johnson believes that with people already leaving instead of rebuilding after the floods, high power bills will only increase the outmigration.

Johnson, standing inside the frame of a “net zero” home, wondered if batteries could be hooked up to store electricity from solar from the rooftop panels. HOMES Inc. has yet to try adding home battery systems with the rooftop solar because the nonprofit considers the added cost to still be too much. The cost of batteries has plummeted in recent years due to a boost in electric vehicle production.??

Some renewable energy advocates envision a virtual power plant; excess power from solar panels on homes and businesses and from electric vehicles would be pulled onto the grid to power communities as an alternative to centralized power plants.

The need and potential for home energy efficiency upgrades in the region are immense, according to HOMES Inc. and other nonprofits.

Long and others, including the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, are pushing Kentucky Power to do more than it’s? currently proposing to support energy efficiency, noting the challenges of upgrading mobile homes and older homes that disproportionately make up the region’s housing stock. The utility should support energy efficiency programs for new home construction as well, the nonprofits have proposed.?

Also, the utility “has a clear duty to its customers to help them limit their energy usage,” Long has written, “not only for cost savings at the household level but also in order to reduce the overall energy production needs of the region.”

Kentucky Power has argued the costs of what they’re proposing would be too high.

Johnson wants to show what’s possible with the “net zero” homes and that people don’t have to spend most of their paycheck on electricity. Letcher County is still a coal community, he said, and his father works at a coal mine, but high utility bills are melting skepticism toward solar.?

“Everybody is on the same team just trying to get lower utility costs. Like, whatever it takes. We’re all in it together,” Johnson said. “Coal has its purpose, and so does solar. But I think it’s just to a point of trying to live and be sustainable.”?

This story was updated to note Thompson’s home was damaged by flooding in 2022.

A substation for electric utility Kentucky Power in Letcher County. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer).

Rhetoric versus reality: Addressing common misconceptions about the economy

Casey Quinlan — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:40:34 +0000

Sale prices are displayed for items at a grocery store in San Rafael, California, on Sept. 10, 2024. Grocery prices are just one piece of the U.S. economy, which is key to many voters in their pick for president. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The economy is key to many voters in their pick for president, but that fervor also makes it an attractive subject for distortions, misinformation, and oversimplification.

Nearly eight? in 10 U.S. voters say that the economy is one of the most important issues to them in this upcoming presidential election, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in September. Although 66% of voters say the economy is very or somewhat poor, six in 10 also say their personal finances are good.

Millions have already cast their ballots through early or mail voting. But those who are still deciding between the two main candidates – Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump – have until Nov. 5 to wade through various myths and exaggerations to understand the state of the economy and each candidate’s record on related issues.

What is the state of inflation in the U.S.??

The most recent cycle of inflation reached its peak in June 2022 at 9.1%. Inflation has fallen considerably since then and to a more manageable 2.4% in September’s Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation. Wage growth, meanwhile, has beaten inflation for more than a year. The Federal Reserve cut its key interest? rate by half of a percentage point for the first time in four years in September after inflation neared ?toward its goal of 2%.

But those macro figures don’t hit home with everyone, because of the prices of groceries and other essentials.

The literal prices that people see on goods make them think that they’re not doing as well because they feel that they are higher than they think they should be,” said Elise Gould, senior economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. But, those prices are actually lower as a share of their wages than they were four years ago.”

This doesn’t mean that many voters’ experiences of struggling to afford basic items aren’t real. The cost of housing is very high and puts a strain on people’s budgets. The Fed’s interest rate policy affected credit card rates, and thus, people’s ability to make purchases.

Gould said that despite the positive news of slowing inflation, the lack of long-term wage growth before this recent increase has been hard on many Americans.

“Even though things are good, we know that for the vast majority of people over the last several decades, they’ve been faced with relatively slow wage growth and so it can be hard to feel like you’re going to get ahead,” she said.

Was unemployment higher under Biden or Trump??

The unemployment rate under Donald Trump was fairly low, at 4.7%, when he took office in 2017 , and it mostly trended lower until the beginning of the pandemic. It then shot up to 14.8% in April 2020 and fell sharply for the rest of Trump’s term, which ended in January 2021. The unemployment rate was 6.7% during Trump’s last full month in office.

The labor market has been fairly hot under President Joe Biden. The unemployment rate was 6.4% during the month he and Harris were sworn into office. But since then, it largely fell, and from February 2022 to April 2024, the unemployment rate was below 4%. In September, the unemployment rate was 4.1% but the economy continues to show strong job growth.

Looking at the Biden-Harris administration’s record and Trump’s record outside of the immediate economic impact of the recession and supply shocks during their presidencies, unemployment remained fairly low. Overall, unemployment averaged 3.8% since 2022 and averaged 4% between 2017 and 2019, before the pandemic hit the economy in 2020.

Labor force participation rates and the employment-to-population ratio, measures of the number of people in the labor force and workers employed versus the working age population, were high in the last jobs report and show signs of a healthy labor market.

Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America, a left-leaning group focusing on economic policies, said that it’s also important to understand the percentage of the population adjusting for age, the prime age employment rate. It is marginally higher now, by about 0.3%, than it was right before Covid struck, during the Trump administration, he said.

“We’ve seen generally slower paces of employment gains more recently and that might be just because a lot of people are now back in the labor force itself. It’s probably a little harder to grow employment quickly when you’re coming from a high level as opposed to a low level,” Amarnath said. “Nevertheless, we’re at an employment rate where there’s been a reasonably strong labor demand, a little bit combined with the fact that people are also moving out into their retirement years.”

The American Rescue Plan Act, CHIPS and Science Act, Inflation Reduction Act, and bipartisan infrastructure deal, enacted during Biden’s presidency, helped fuel the recovery, Amarnath said. The CARES Act, which was signed into law byTrump, likely helped the U.S. avoid a protracted recession, he added.

What would Trump’s proposed? tariffs do to the U.S. economy

In an interview with John Micklethwait, editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News at the Economic Club of Chicago on Oct. 15, former president Trump said tariffs would be good for economic growth.

“We’re going to bring companies back to our country … We’re going to protect those companies with strong tariffs because I’m a believer in tariffs,” he said.

The Trump campaign has also proposed a 60% tariff on goods from China, one of the U.S.’s largest trading partners, and 10-to-20% on other imports. The Tax Foundation, a business-friendly research think tank, estimated that if Trump’s proposed tariffs were to be implemented, it would reduce GDP by at least 0.8% and eliminate 684,000 jobs.

Tariffs would likely result in lower trade and retaliatory tariffs from other countries, raising prices, and costing each household between $1,900 to $7,600 in 2023 in dollars, according to the Budget Lab at Yale, a nonpartisan policy research center.

“If the tariff wars back in President Trump’s first term are any indication, they’re going to respond with their own tariffs and other trade actions,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “Broadly, tariffs are going to raise prices for imported goods, weaken consumer purchasing power and slow growth.”

Zandi added that although the retail sector would be particularly hard hit by these tariffs, he doesn’t think any industry would come away unscathed by the policy.

How do Harris and Trump’s economic plans compare??

Harris has said her plans, which include building more affordable housing supply, restoring and expanding the child tax credit, and supporting legislation to expand labor rights, have been approved by respected economists and sources of financial research.

“Please do check out the Wall Street Journal or Goldman Sachs or the 16 Nobel laureates or Moody’s, who have all analyzed the plans and said mine will strengthen the economy, his will make it weaker,” Harris said.

The reality is a little more complicated. Some of the reports Harris referred to do not say the economy would weaken under Trump but would grow less than the economy under Harris in certain scenarios, depending on the political breakdown in Congress.

Others show the GDP falling more as a result of Harris’ proposals. The Penn Wharton Budget Model looking at Trump and Harris proposals shows the GDP falling 0.4% under Trump by 2034 and declining 1.3% under Harris over the same period, but notably, it does not factor in proposals not to tax tips, mentioned by both candidates, or Trump’s tariff policies.

Before Biden withdrew his candidacy, 16 Nobel-prize winning economists said Biden’s investments in the economy through signing legislation to improve infrastructure and manufacturing would boost economic growth. They spoke out against Trump’s tariff plans. Although Harris is part of the Biden administration, they did not address her specific plans as a candidate. On Wednesday, 23 Nobel-prize winning economists, including the economist who led the last letter, Joseph Stiglitz, endorsed Harris’ specific policies.

‘Defining moment’: East Kentucky Power expanding solar with up to $1.4 billion from feds

Liam Niemeyer — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 18:17:38 +0000

East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which distributes electricity to 16 cooperatives, plans to add solar installations generating 757 megawatts of power and expand transmission infrastructure. (Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — A federal investment of up to $1.4 billion to expand renewable energy will help transform how a Kentucky utility serves future generations, its CEO said Monday.?

Officials from East Kentucky Power Cooperative (EKPC) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture joined Gov. Andy Beshear at the state Capitol Monday morning to tout funding that will build solar installations producing 757 megawatts of electricity and improve transmission infrastructure.

East Kentucky Power Cooperative CEO and President Tony Campbell touts a large federal investment to add solar power to the utility’s electricity generation portfolio. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

EKPC President and CEO Tony Campbell said the funding, which could consist of grants or subsidized loans, was a “defining moment” for the nonprofit utility that generates electricity for 16 power distribution cooperatives across the state. The USDA announced the funding last month.

“We will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and operate with less carbon intensity, while maintaining reliability service and competitive rates,” Campbell said. “East Kentucky Power Cooperative is doing our part to help address global greenhouse gas emissions and slow the impact of climate change. We are boldly planning for Kentucky’s energy future.”

The funding comes from the Empowering Rural America program (New ERA), monies made available through the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act opposed by all of the Republicans in Kentucky’s congressional delegation.

Administrator of the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service Andy Burke also said EKPC will receive additional funding in the form of tax credits on top of the $1.4 billion from the New ERA program.?

The USDA received 157 proposals for clean energy projects, and so far the federal department has awarded funding for nearly two dozen of those proposals including to EKPC.?

Beshear called the announcement one of the biggest investments in the state’s electric infrastructure since the New Deal, saying the funding would help with economic development for companies that want renewable energy.?

“Just about every company asks what energy portfolio we can bring to them. It’s either commitments to sustainability they’ve made,or they’ve been demanded by their downstream customers,” Beshear said. “The answer has always been, ‘We’ll get there, and we’re working on it.’ We’ve got a very big answer today with about $1.4 billion.”

Campbell told reporters EKPC intends to build solar installations itself instead of purchasing solar power from private solar developers, known as power purchase agreements. He said the solar installations have to be “on the ground” by Sept. 30, 2031 to comply with a federal deadline.

Roughly 40 transmission projects are also being planned, he said, for “both reliability and to allow more renewables to flow” to homes and businesses. Earlier this year, EKPC proposed to build two solar installations in Fayette and Marion counties generating a combined 136 megawatts of electricity.

Like other electric utilities in Kentucky, EKPC generates the majority of its power from burning coal, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses contributing to climate change among electricity sources. Environmental advocates have previously lauded New ERA funding but argue more needs to be done to move utilities from fossil fuels to clean energy sources.?

EKPC is supporting a lawsuit to federal regulations that would require utilities to curb nearly all greenhouse gas emissions by 2032 from new natural gas-fired power plants and existing coal-fired power plants. Campbell said the New ERA funding would help the utility “go down the path to start decarbonizing our generation portfolio” while not harming the reliability of the power supply.?

The leader of the United Nations last year called for developed nations to have carbon-free electricity generation by 2035 and a phase out of coal-fired power by 2030 in order to avoid the worst harms from climate change. A United Nations report last week found the world was on track for catastrophic warming by the end of the century because of the unabated burning of fossil fuels.?

When asked about the call for action from the United Nations’ leader, Campbell said renewable energy paired with battery storage systems hadn’t “evolved enough” to “totally run the country on that.”?

“We have to have reliable power plus decarbonize,” Campbell said.

Other utilities across the country are investing significantly in solar installations and battery storage systems, and the International Energy Agency considers solar and wind power to be the cheapest form of electricity in most of the world.?

Burke, the USDA official, said the decreasing cost of renewables and battery storage systems is “going to build that clean energy future we need.”?

“But we need to do it in a reliable way that makes sense to the person who still has to pay that utility bill at the end of every month,” Burke said.

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Less power from coal, more from natural gas in Kentucky’s future, says state’s largest utility

Liam Niemeyer — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 09:50:48 +0000

E.W. Brown solar array at Kentucky Utilities Mercer County plant. (Photo courtesy of LG&E/KU)

Power-intensive data centers will drive growth in electricity demand in the near future, says the utility serving the most Kentuckians. It plans to meet that demand by continuing to replace coal-fired power with natural gas while potentially adding up to 1,000 megawatts of solar power by 2035.

Investor-owned Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU) outlined those steps and others in an integrated resource plan filed Oct. 18 before the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC), the state’s utility regulator. Kentucky utilities are required every three years to file plans for how they will meet demand at the “lowest possible cost,” although they are not bound to follow them.

The new plan anticipates adding no new coal-fired generation while building as many as four new natural gas-fired plants plus battery storage systems for solar energy — in addition to a natural gas plant already slated for construction.?

‘Panicked rush to gas’ could hike energy costs, report warns regulators

The PSC will consider the new plan as environmentalists in Kentucky push for a faster pivot to renewables and amid urgent calls from climate scientists to halt the burning of fossil fuels to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.?

There’s also uncertainty over whether new Biden administration regulations that seek to curb nearly all heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions from power plants will withstand court challenges from utilities, coal advocates and Republican attorneys general including Kentucky’s Russell Coleman.?

Data center growth reflects nationwide boom

The utility’s plan says Kentucky is “well-positioned” to participate in the nationwide boom in data centers thanks to a lower risk of severe weather, available telecommunications infrastructure and water to cool equipment, as well as “favorable tax incentives.”?

Data centers are essentially computer hubs that power the internet, ranging from storing data on the “cloud” to processing credit card transactions and the surge of artificial intelligence services. They need a tremendous amount of electricity, sometimes on par with what an entire coal-fired power plant produces. The Lantern previously reported the parent company of LG&E and KU was in talks with data centers interested in locating to Kentucky, and Kentucky lawmakers passed tax breaks this year to incentivize data centers to locate in Jefferson County.?

Driving surge in demand for power, data centers eye Kentucky

“The Companies’ Economic Development team is working with a growing number of data center projects that vary in stages of development, but which mostly have very large power requirements,” the utility states in its planning documents.?

The utility currently needs about? 30,000 megawatts of electricity a year. Models forecast that could increase by 30% to 60% by the early 2030s.?

Data centers could increase the utility’s load by 1,050-1,750 megawatts, according to the utility’s modeling. For reference, its forecast peak load in the summer of 2024 was 6,115 megawatts.?

Seeking more natural gas and no new coal?

Burning coal generated 68% of Kentucky’s electricity in 2023, down from more than 90% a decade earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Only two other states, West Virginia and Wyoming, were as reliant as Kentucky on coal for power generation, making Kentucky an outlier in a nation that has generally transitioned to lower-cost natural gas and renewable energy.?

LG&E and KU coal-fired power plants make up over 60% of the utility’s capacity during the summer. The utility anticipates moving away from coal-fired power in favor of new natural gas-fired combined cycle plants.?

Depending on future demand, the utility foresees building two or three new natural gas-fired combined cycle plants to be paired with several utility-scale battery storage systems between 2028 to 2035. The natural gas plants would generate about 1,935 megawatts of summertime load — energy needed to meet demand at a given time — by the early 2030s. ?That includes power from another natural gas-fired combined cycle plant the utility already is slated to construct by 2027 after receiving permission from the PSC.?

That new natural gas-fired plant was opposed last year by environmentalists as a costly investment that would lock in ratepayers to decades of fossil fuel instead of pivoting to renewables that don’t create greenhouse gas emissions. Similar opposition has met other utilities’ plans to build natural gas-fired plants including the Tennessee Valley Authority.

LG&E and KU’s coal-fired Mill Creek Generating Station in Louisville in September 2024. One of its four units is scheduled to be retired by the end of the year, resulting in an expected small savings for consumers. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

The Kentucky utility’s plans for investing in natural gas-fired plants conflict with a call last year by the leader of the United Nations for carbon-free electricity generation in developed nations by 2035 and a phase out of coal-fired power by 2030 in order to prevent the worst harms from climate change. The call was based on research from climate scientists including U.S. institutions such as NASA. LG&E and KU has previously pointed to goals set by its parent company to have net-zero emissions by 2050.?

Burning natural gas, which consists primarily of the potent greenhouse gas methane, for electricity is considered to release less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared to the burning of coal, but environmental advocates have raised concerns that methane leaks during production and transportation of natural gas are wiping out progress made by the United States on curbing greenhouse gas emissions by phasing out coal-fired power.?

LG&E and KU already has approval to retire one of four coal-fired units at its Mill Creek Generating Station in Jefferson County by the end of this year and another coal-fired unit at Mill Creek in 2027. The utility estimates that retiring the first Mill Creek unit will shave some pennies from ratepayers’ bills starting in March.

LG&E and KU projections call for retiring the other two units at Mill Creek and a single remaining coal-fired unit at E.W. Brown Generating Station in 2035.?

Utilities that opposed Kentucky’s new energy planning commission are now part of it

That would leave Ghent and Trimble County generating stations as its only operating coal-fired plants by 2035. According to the utility, both of those plants would need upgrades to meet existing or anticipated federal regulations on ozone-producing nitrogen oxide emissions and water pollution. LG&E and KU stated it isn’t considering building any new coal-fired power plants because of “the high cost and environmental risk.”

More solar expected, but not until 2028

LG&E and KU’s plans also include more investments in utility-scale solar, potentially adding 500-1,000 megawatts, though the soonest it expects it could add more solar is 2028. The utility is currently planning to build two 120-megawatt solar installations in Mercer and Marion counties; it already has a solar installation in Mercer County at its E.W. Brown Generating Station.

The utility said its agreements to purchase solar power from private companies don’t appear to be moving forward due to issues with getting solar connected to the power grid and cost increases, though adding hundreds of megawatts of new battery storage “could help pave the way for additional new renewable resources in the future.”?

Other utilities across the country are investing heavily in solar installations and battery storage systems, with the Energy Information Administration estimating 58% of all power-generating capacity planned to be installed in 2024 to be solar power. The International Energy Agency considers solar and wind power to be the cheapest form of electricity in most markets in the world.?

Solar power is considered “intermittent,” meaning it produces electricity only during a portion of the day — such as when the sun is shining. But renewable energy advocates have touted battery storage systems paired with solar installations as a way to make the renewable power “dispatchable” and available around the clock.? Solar installations can charge batteries during the day to be used at night.

But LG&E and KU argued that pairing solar with battery systems would be a costly replacement for a“dispatchable” around-the-clock energy source such as coal-fired power. Thousands of megawatts of solar and battery storage would be needed to replace Mill Creek’s 391 megawatts of coal-fired power, the utility’s analysis said.

Advocates and the former PSC chair have expressed concern utilities aren’t able to be held accountable to follow the plans they outline. The last time LG&E and KU presented an integrated resource plan to the PSC, it was chastised by the regulator for not presenting plans that were “actionable” for the future.

LG&E and KU in its latest IRP filing writes the documents are a “snapshot of an ongoing resource planning process” that is “constantly evolving.””

Skepticism about carbon capture, future of greenhouse gas regulations

Looming over LG&E and KU and other coal-reliant utilities are new regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that require coal-fired power plants and new natural gas-fired power plants to curb 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032 if utilities plan to operate them past 2039.?

Challengers are arguing in court that the technology proposed to comply with the regulation isn’t yet commercially viable at a utility scale. Carbon capture and sequestration is a controversial technology that tries to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to prevent release into the atmosphere. LG&E and KU is planning to install and test a carbon capture system on an existing natural gas-fired plant.?

LG&E and KU in its planning documents wrote that implementing carbon dioxide transport and storage “is not achievable” in the timeline set by the EPA. The utility also wrote that converting coal-fired power plants into burning natural gas is also “questionable” because of the time it would take to establish gas pipelines. Retiring coal-fired power plants by 2032 is an option for compliance, LG&E and KU stated, but “retirements require reliable replacement capacity.”?

“Replacing generation at the scale necessary for compliance is not reasonable” under the EPA’s timeline for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the utility wrote.

LG&E and KU’s integrated resource plan will likely come under scrutiny from a range of stakeholders during PSC review — the attorney general, renewable energy advocates, advocates for industrial and residential ratepayers and local governments in the utility’s territory covering Lexington, Louisville and parts of Eastern and Western Kentucky.

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Lawmakers urged to ease criminal expungement process for a half-million eligible Kentuckians

Sarah Ladd — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 17:08:41 +0000

A panel discusses the Clean Slate initiative in Louisville. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

LOUISVILLE — When James Sweasy was 19 years old, he was convicted of a felony related to marijuana and spent the next 20 years of his life held back by his record.?

He got a lawyer and started the “multi-months” process of expungement when he was in his early 40s, he said.??

“No taxation without representation. … I can’t go on my kid’s field trip, right?” he remembers thinking. “I can’t elect a school board member that’s overseeing my kid? I don’t get a voice in that, but you’ll happily take my tax money? I didn’t like that.”??

Sweasy was part of a five-person panel who spent nearly an hour Tuesday night at the Women’s Healing Place in West Louisville discussing Kentucky’s current process for crime expungement — and their proposal to ease and automate that process, which is expected to come before the legislature next year.

“The computer would notice that (a crime) is now eligible (for expungement) and start the process and move the process forward” without a person having to file a petition or hire a lawyer, explained Kungu Njuguna, a policy strategist with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.?

In 2024, a slate of bipartisan lawmakers sponsored the proposal as House Bill 569, but it failed to advance past the committee stage. It’s unclear who would sponsor an automatic expungement bill next year.

In Kentucky, about 572,000 people are eligible to have their records fully cleared, according to data from The Clean Slate Initiative. But not everyone has the means and know-how to hire a lawyer, apply for expungement and ultimately clear their records, advocates said.?

Sweasy called Kentucky’s current expungement system “archaic” and a “nightmare” full of “bureaucratic red tape” that was “not cheap.”?

Njuguna said the proposed legislation would automate the current “complex” and “expensive” expungement process.?

Crimes currently eligible for expungement would go through that process paperless and automatically. The proposal? does not expand eligibility for expungement, Njuguna said, and only covers Kentucky crimes. Sexual and other violent crimes would not be eligible for automatic expungement.

“The current expungement process is complex, costly,” said Njuguna. “If you don’t have a lawyer, you probably aren’t going to get it figured out.”??

This can hold Kentuckians back, he said, because many employers are reluctant to hire people who have been convicted of crimes.

“Having a criminal history prevents people from getting back into the workforce,” Njuguna said. “And so we’re trying to even that floor and give people clean records, get people back into the workforce to be able to reclaim their lives.”??

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‘Second chance’ at employment sought for Kentuckians leaving incarceration

Sarah Ladd — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 18:06:04 +0000

about 15,000 former inmates reenter Kentucky society annually, said Kerry Harvey, an advisor to the governor. (Getty Images)

Gov. Andy Beshear has established a council aimed at promoting employment of Kentuckians reentering society after incarceration.?

Beshear signed an executive order Thursday to establish the Governor’s Council of Second Chance Employers. The 15-member council will “educate employers and local communities on the benefits of second-chance hiring,” according to Beshear’s office.?

The council will also “advocate for laws and investments to improve reentry outcomes and develop best practices for effective reentry programming,” Beshear said.?

Members are to meet quarterly and provide an annual report to the governor’s office including their findings and recommendations.?

“Investing in second chances makes us safer and addresses some workforce challenges that we’re seeing all across the country,” Beshear said during a Thursday press conference.?

The initial council will have these members, with two-year terms, according to the executive order:?

Tyler Stegall with BlueOval S
Barbara Aker with More than a Bakery
Steve Powless with Lifeline Recovery Center
Rob Perez with DV8 Kitchen
Stephen Johnson with Martin Contracting?
Nick D’Andrea with UPS?
John Estus with Amazon?
Chad Mills with Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council
Ryan Quarles, president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System
Tami Wilson with Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
LaKisha Miller with Kentucky Chamber of Commerce?

The remaining four members will be the governor and the secretaries or designees of three cabinets — Health and Family Services, Education and Labor, and Justice and Public Safety.

The council will “give us folks that not only can communicate the success that they have had with second chance employment, but they also can provide feedback for us and our programs to make sure we’re doing it right, to make sure that the skills that we’re providing while someone is incarcerated match up with the jobs that are on the other end and to create a flow of communication where we can try to do better and better and better in real time getting that feedback,” Beshear said.?

Kerry Harvey, special advisor for reentry programs, said about 15,000 former inmates reenter Kentucky society annually. And, he said, “successful reentry programming offers an enormous return on investment to taxpayers” and can help prevent recidivism.?

“Everybody wins if those who reenter society from prison succeed,” he said. “And in this context, success means that our reentering inmate does not commit a new crime, does not reoffend.”?

“It means that our reentering inmate obtains meaningful employment at a living wage and can support their families, both financially and emotionally,” Harvey said. “It means that they become role models for their children and their grandchildren.”???

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Years after CONSOL ended retiree benefits, judge finds merit in case claiming miners were defrauded

Caity Coyne — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 09:50:45 +0000

A federal judge found merit in a case filed by retired coal miners alleging that CONSOL Energy engaged in a decades-long scheme to rob them of lifetime health benefits that were promised as a condition of employment (Karen Kasmauski | Getty Images)

Several retired coal miners are feeling validated this month as a federal judge found merit in their case alleging that CONSOL Energy engaged in a decades-long scheme to rob them of lifetime health benefits for them and their spouses that were promised as a condition of employment.

The coal miners who brought the case all worked at CONSOL Energy mines between 1969 and 2014. Unlike many of their colleagues, they abstained from joining a union to work in the CONSOL mines, largely due to promises made by leaders at CONSOL that if the workers stayed non-union, they would earn higher wages and receive lifetime health benefits that were competitive with those offered by the United Mine Workers of America.

Thousands of miners took CONSOL operators at their word that their benefits would remain as long as they served the company for at least 10 years or worked until they were 55 years old. The promises of lifetime health benefits were repeated time and time again — at human resources fairs, informational workshops for employees, company picnics and more — to workers across different states and different mining operations.

But in 2014, as many of the miners were forced to retire in preceding years due to downsizing at the mines and a sale of some CONSOL properties to Murray Energy, those promises were proven to be false.

Miners — who were told numerous times without question that their health coverage would persist for them and their spouses into retirement — began getting letters saying that coverage was coming to an end.

Allan “A.J.” Jack, a 75-year-old former coal miner who retired in 2009 after spending 18 of his 39 year career underground for CONSOL in Pennsylvania, remembers getting the initial letter in the fall of 2014 telling him the benefits would expire in 2019. Less than a year later, he received another letter from CONSOL, this one saying both he and his wife’s medical, dental and prescription insurance coverage would end on Dec. 31, 2015.

“I was devastated. I mean, you retire and you just know that you’re going to have this,” Jack said in an interview with West Virginia Watch. “Why would anybody tell you time and time again that you were going to have these benefits and then take them away? It really is devastating.”

Jack was initially told of the lifetime health benefits in an orientation in 1991. He was working at another mine in Pennsylvania at the time but — based largely on the promises of lifetime benefits, which were already guaranteed to miners affiliated with the UMWA, and a 401(k), which union miners did not qualify for — decided to leave his job and begin work at the Enlow Fork mine in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Throughout his nearly two decades with CONSOL, not one manager mentioned to him that the company reserved the right to terminate the retiree benefits at any time.

According to the order issued on Sept. 30 by Senior U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr., the fact that CONSOL executives repeatedly failed to tell employees working for the company in different states, at different mining operations and in different departments this fact was a clear misrepresentation of benefits and therefore a violation of the company’s fiduciary obligations.

Terry Prater, a 69-year-old who worked for CONSOL for 15 years in Kentucky, unexpectedly retired from his job on Sept. 30, 2014. He showed up to work for his evening shift that day like he usually did. In the middle of his shift, Gerald Kowzan — who worked in human resources for CONSOL — addressed employees, telling them that anyone who retired on or after Oct. 1 would not be receiving their promised lifetime health, dental and prescription insurance benefits. A coworker asked what would happen if they retired before midnight. Kowzan told them if they did, they could get the benefits for five years.

“There were six of us there on the night shift who had put the time in and were of age to retire. So at 11 o’clock, we hollered in the foreman’s radio. We told him to come and get us, we’re retiring,” Prater said. “I got my insurance and kept it for 15 months, then I got the letter that it was going to be taken away. Just like that and it was gone.”

A ‘union-busting scheme’

Sam Petsonk, a labor rights attorney who litigated the CONSOL case along with attorneys from the nonprofit legal advocacy organization Mountain State Justice, said the repeated lies told by CONSOL to its employees were clearly part of an overarching scheme to keep the mines from being unionized.

This was despite attempts at those mines by workers over decades to gain union recognition and join the UMWA.

“Anyone who’s lived in Appalachia over the last 30 years has watched this union-busting scheme unfold. I mean, many miners wanted to organize a union at these operations,” Petsonk said. “I grew up in these communities. I watched the parents of many of my friends choose to work in non-union jobs because of misrepresentations just like this. An entire generation of wealth that our miners thought they had earned is now gone because of these broken promises.”

Before beginning to offer the promise that CONSOL employees would have lifetime benefits, the company was a “wall-to-wall” union operation, Petsonk said. The misrepresentations were an attempt to compete with union operations, where workers were guaranteed more protections and legally mandated to receive those lifetime benefits through an act of congress.

“The judge found and agreed that Bobby Brown, the CEO of CONSOL [at the time] directed this scheme to defraud thousands of Appalachian coal miners out of joining the union, out of gaining those benefits,” Petsonk said. “That’s what the judge found, that is a finding of fact in this record.”

And the misrepresentations weren’t the only union-busting activities happening at the CONSOL mines. Other attempts were more direct and explicit — and they worked.

Jack remembers colleagues of his at the Enlow-Bailey mining complex beginning work to unionize around 1992. There were picket lines, walkouts and other traditional unionizing attempts. Jack said they had things thrown at them. Four of his tires were slashed. He and his colleagues were threatened and told that unionizing would lower their wages and mean worse health insurance.

“We retired thinking that way, thinking, ‘man, we did have better pay and we’re going to have all these great retirement benefits,’” Jack said. “Well, in the end we ended up with nothing. They gave us nothing they told us they would and they left us all without.”

Jack said it was clear that the attempts by CONSOL to remain non-union was a scheme because of how widespread the lies were told.

Sitting in a courtroom in 2021, when the case went to trial, he remembers looking around at other former miners he’d never met. Most worked in other states, many in different parts of the coal mining operations. All of them, however, had been fed the same lines about lifetime benefits throughout their careers, and now all of them were going without those promised benefits.

“I’m from Pennsylvania. There were some there from West Virginia, from Kentucky. And I just said to the judge, ‘isn’t it amazing that I never saw any of these people before? That we don’t know each other? But we all were told the same thing by the same people,” Jack recalls. “I mean, what are the odds of that? It was clear that it was planned to tell everybody the same thing and to just renege on the whole thing, right?”

What the case means and what’s next for the affected miners

The case brought to the federal court was not an all around win. Only two of the seven plaintiffs — including Prater — were successful in proving their cases against CONSOL, and those successes were only granted in part. Others were thrown out due to limitations with the claims process, missed deadlines and other technical reasons, as well as not enough clear evidence proving that they individually were misled by the company’s leadership.

Overall, at least 3,000 miners were affected by the misrepresentations and lies from CONSOL operators over decades. Petsonk said that while it’s good that the court saw clear merit in the case and the claims made within it, much work remains to get justice for all the miners. In last month’s order, the judge wrote that the claims would likely need to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

But that’s nearly impossible, Petsonk said.

Now, he and his colleagues are reassessing and moving forward with filing an appeal to last month’s order in the hopes that the case can turn into a class action proceeding for all those affected.

“We’re very grateful to the judge for finding merit in this case [but] we’re going to ask the appeals court to review, to see this as a class action,” Petsonk said.

In the meantime, however, those affected like Prater and Jack will remain in limbo.

While the judge ruled partially in favor of Prater, his benefits won’t kick back in until all appeals are adjudicated. And while the judge agreed that Jack proved his claims against CONSOL, his claim came too late to entitle him to a remedy.

For Jack, who was grateful to the judge for agreeing with his claims, continuing to go without the benefits is having real repercussions in his and his wife’s lives.

Throughout Jack’s last 25 years of employment, he never missed a single day of work. He took pride in what he did and believed those above him who promised his commitment would be worth it.

And coal mining, as well as aging, is hard on the body. Both Prater, Jack and their wives are paying thousands of dollars a year for out-of-pocket medical expenses that they never planned for.

In the years since their promised lifetime benefits were pulled, it’s been difficult for Jack and his wife to enjoy their retirement.

“When you’re working that long, especially for a coal mine, it’s three different shifts, it’s weekends, it’s long hours and a lot of things that you want to do in life, you sort of pull off until you retire,” Jack said. “Hopefully, at that time, your health is good enough to do those things. And so now we want to make plans to maybe travel a little bit, do the things we weren’t able to do when we were younger, but then these medical expenses come up that you never thought you’d have to pay. Those plans you have, you’re putting them aside again, and this time until when?”

This story is republished from West Virginia Watch, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

As AI takes the helm of decision making, signs of perpetuating historic biases emerge

Paige Gross — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 09:30:07 +0000

Studies show that AI systems used to make important decisions such as approval of loan and mortgage applications can perpetuate historical bias and discrimination if not carefully constructed and monitored. (Seksan Mongkhonkhamsao/Getty Images)

In a recent study evaluating how chatbots make loan suggestions for mortgage applications, researchers at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University found something stark: there was clear racial bias at play.

With 6,000 sample loan applications based on data from the 2022 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the chatbots recommended denials for more Black applicants than identical white counterparts. They also recommended Black applicants be given higher interest rates, and labeled Black and Hispanic borrowers as “riskier.”

White applicants were 8.5% more likely to be approved than Black applicants with the same financial profile. And applicants with “low” credit scores of 640, saw a wider margin — white applicants were approved 95% of the time, while Black applicants were approved less than 80% of the time.

The experiment aimed to simulate how financial institutions are using AI algorithms, machine learning and large language models to speed up processes like lending and underwriting of loans and mortgages. These “black box” systems, where the algorithm’s inner workings aren’t transparent to users, have the potential to lower operating costs for financial firms and any other industry employing them, said Donald Bowen, an assistant fintech professor at Lehigh and one of the authors of the study.

But there’s also large potential for flawed training data, programming errors, and historically biased information to affect the outcomes, sometimes in detrimental, life-changing ways.

“There’s a potential for these systems to know a lot about the people they’re interacting with,” Bowen said. “If there’s a baked-in bias, that could propagate across a bunch of different interactions between customers and a bank.”

How does AI discriminate in finance?

Decision-making AI tools and large language models, like the ones in the Lehigh University experiment, are being used across a variety of industries, like healthcare, education, finance and even in the judicial system.

Most machine learning algorithms follow what’s called classification models, meaning you formally define a problem or a question, and then you feed the algorithm a set of inputs such as a loan applicant’s age, income, education and credit history, Michael Wellman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan, explained.

The algorithm spits out a result — approved or not approved. More complex algorithms can assess these factors and deliver more nuanced answers, like a loan approval with a recommended interest rate.

Machine learning advances in recent years have allowed for what’s called deep learning, or construction of big neural networks that can learn from large amounts of data. But if AI’s builders don’t keep objectivity in mind, or rely on data sets that reflect deep-rooted and systemic racism, results will reflect that.

“If it turns out that you are systematically more often making decisions to deny credit to certain groups of people more than you make those wrong decisions about others, that would be a time that there’s a problem with the algorithm,” Wellman said. “And especially when those groups are groups that are historically disadvantaged.”

Bowen was initially inspired to pursue the Lehigh University study after a smaller-scale assignment with his students revealed the racial discrimination by the chatbots.

“We wanted to understand if these models are biased, and if they’re biased in settings where they’re not supposed to be,” Bowen said, since underwriting is a regulated industry that’s not allowed to consider race in decision-making.

For the official study, Bowen and a research team ran thousands of loan application numbers over several months through different commercial large language models, including OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 Turbo and GPT 4, Anthropic’s Claude 3 Sonnet and Opus and Meta’s Llama 3-8B and 3-70B.

In one experiment, they included race information on applications and saw the discrepancies in loan approvals and mortgage rates. In other, they instructed the chatbots to “use no bias in making these decisions.” That experiment saw virtually no discrepancies between loan applicants.

But if race data isn’t collected in modern day lending, and algorithms used by banks are instructed to not consider race, how do people of color end up getting denied more often, or offered worse interest rates? Because much of our modern-day data is influenced by disparate impact, or the influence of systemic racism, Bowen said.

Though a computer wasn’t given the race of an applicant, a borrower’s credit score, which can be influenced by discrimination in the labor and housing markets, will have an impact on their application. So might their zip code, or the credit scores of other members of their household, all of which could have been influenced by the historic racist practice of redlining, or restricting lending to people in poor and nonwhite neighborhoods.

Machine learning algorithms aren’t always calculating their conclusions in the way that humans might imagine, Bowen said. The patterns it is learning apply to a variety of scenarios, so it may even be digesting reports about discrimination, for example learning that Black people have historically had worse credit. Therefore, the computer might see signs that a borrower is Black, and deny their loan or offer them a higher interest rate than a white counterpart.

Other opportunities for discrimination?

Decision making technologies have become ubiquitous in hiring practices over the last several years, as application platforms and internal systems use AI to filter through applications, and pre-screen candidates for hiring managers. Last year, New York City began requiring employers to notify candidates about their use of AI decision-making software.

By law, the AI tools should be programmed to have no opinion on protected classes like gender, race or age, but some users allege that they’ve been discriminated against by the algorithms anyway. In 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission launched an initiative to examine more closely how new and existing technologies change the way employment decisions are made. Last year, the commission settled its first-ever AI discrimination hiring lawsuit.

The New York federal court case ended in a $365,000 settlement when tutoring company iTutorGroup Inc. was alleged to use an AI-powered hiring tool that rejected women applicants over 55 and men over 60. Two hundred applicants received the settlement, and iTutor agreed to adopt anti-discrimination policies and conduct training to ensure compliance with equal employment opportunity laws, Bloomberg reported at the time.

Another anti-discrimination lawsuit is pending in California federal court against AI-powered company Workday. Plaintiff Derek Mobley alleges he was passed over for more than 100 jobs that contract with the software company because he is Black, older than 40 and has mental health issues, Reuters reported this summer. The suit claims that Workday uses data on a company’s existing workforce to train its software, and the practice doesn’t account for the discrimination that may reflect in future hiring.

U.S. judicial and court systems have also begun incorporating decision-making algorithms in a handful of operations, like risk assessment analysis of defendants, determinations about pretrial release, diversion, sentencing and probation or parole.

Though the technologies have been cited in speeding up some of the traditionally lengthy court processes — like for document review and assistance with small claims court filings — experts caution that the technologies are not ready to be the primary or sole evidence in a “consequential outcome.”

“We worry more about its use in cases where AI systems are subject to pervasive and systemic racial and other biases, e.g., predictive policing, facial recognition, and criminal risk/recidivism assessment,” the co-authors of a paper in Judicature’s 2024 edition say.

Utah passed a law earlier this year to combat exactly that. HB 366, sponsored by state Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Syracuse, addresses the use of an algorithm or a risk assessment tool score in determinations about pretrial release, diversion, sentencing, probation and parole, saying that these technologies may not be used without human intervention and review.

Lisonbee told States Newsroom that by design, the technologies provide a limited amount of information to a judge or decision-making officer.

“We think it’s important that judges and other decision-makers consider all the relevant information about a defendant in order to make the most appropriate decision regarding sentencing, diversion, or the conditions of their release,” Lisonbee said.

She also brought up concerns about bias, saying the state’s lawmakers don’t currently have full confidence in the “objectivity and reliability” of these tools. They also aren’t sure of the tools’ data privacy settings, which is a priority to Utah residents. These issues combined could put citizens’ trust in the criminal justice system at risk, she said.

“When evaluating the use of algorithms and risk assessment tools in criminal justice and other settings, it’s important to include strong data integrity and privacy protections, especially for any personal data that is shared with external parties for research or quality control purposes,” Lisonbee said.

Preventing discriminatory AI

Some legislators, like Lisonbee, have taken note of these issues of bias, and potential for discrimination. Four states currently have laws aiming to prevent “algorithmic discrimination,” where an AI system can contribute to different treatment of people based on race, ethnicity, sex, religion or disability, among other things. This includes Utah, as well as California (SB 36), Colorado (SB 21-169), Illinois (HB 0053).

Though it’s not specific to discrimination, Congress introduced a bill in late 2023 to amend the Financial Stability Act of 2010 to include federal guidance for the financial industry on the uses of AI. This bill, the Financial Artificial Intelligence Risk Reduction Act or the “FAIRR Act,” would require the Financial Stability Oversight Council to coordinate with agencies regarding threats to the financial system posed by artificial intelligence, and may regulate how financial institutions can rely on AI.

Lehigh’s Bowen made it clear he felt there was no going back on these technologies, especially as companies and industries realize their cost-saving potential.

“These are going to be used by firms,” he said. “So how can they do this in a fair way?”

Bowen hopes his study can help inform financial and other institutions in deployment of decision-making AI tools. For their experiment, the researchers wrote that it was as simple as using prompt engineering to instruct the chatbots to “make unbiased decisions.” They suggest firms that integrate large language models into their processes do regular audits for bias to refine their tools.

Bowen and other researchers on the topic stress that more human involvement is needed to use these systems fairly. Though AI can deliver a decision on a court sentencing, mortgage loan, job application, healthcare diagnosis or customer service inquiry, it doesn’t mean they should be operating unchecked.

University of Michigan’s Wellman told States Newsroom he’s looking for government regulation on these tools, and pointed to H.R. 6936, a bill pending in Congress which would require federal agencies to adopt the Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The framework calls out potential for bias, and is designed to improve trustworthiness for organizations that design, develop, use and evaluate AI tools.

“My hope is that the call for standards … will read through the market, providing tools that companies could use to validate or certify their models at least,” Wellman said. “Which, of course, doesn’t guarantee that they’re perfect in every way or avoid all your potential negatives. But it can … provide basic standard basis for trusting the models.”

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Unemployment ticks down, labor market remains strong, latest numbers show

Casey Quinlan — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 22:42:53 +0000

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing a strong labor market with growing wages, a lower unemployment rate, and the addition of 254,000 jobs to the economy. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A month before voters cast their ballots, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing a strong labor market with growing wages, a lower unemployment rate, and the addition of 254,000 jobs to the economy.

Eighty-one percent of registered voters say the economy is key to their vote for president this fall, according to a September Pew Research report.

“We saw job creation beating expectations, unemployment rate ticking ever so slightly down, and we saw great wage growth which has continued to outpace inflation,” said Kitty Richards, senior strategic advisor at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive economic policy think tank. “We don’t have the new inflation numbers for last month, but wage growth is strong and has been outpacing inflation for about 16 months now and those are all really good things.”

The unemployment rate in September was 4.1% compared to 4.2% in August and 4.3% in July. A rising unemployment rate earlier in the year had caused some economists to worry that the Federal Reserve’s decision in the past few months not to cut the federal funds rate was beginning to hurt the labor market.? In September, the Fed decided to cut the rate by half a percentage point, allaying those worries.

The Fed began an aggressive campaign to beat inflation by raising rates in March 2022 and stopped in mid-2023 but the rate remains high and has affected the economy, particularly the housing market, economists say. Inflation has significantly cooled since its peak in June 2022.

“If today’s job report had said that the labor market was softening further, I think a lot of us would be more aggressively concerned about the risks posed to the labor market by high interest rates,” Richards said. “It’s great to see that those risks have not tipped over yet … But there are risks and we need to be really mindful of what it would mean if we started to see the unemployment rate picking up again.”

The report also showed continued job growth in healthcare, government, social assistance and construction last month. Wage growth was strong, rising 4% over the past year.? Adult men saw their unemployment rate fall, at 3.7%, last month. Women, Black people, Asian people, white people, Hispanic people, and teens all had little or no change in their unemployment rates in September.

The prime-age employment-to-population ratio, which is a measure of how well the economy provides jobs for people who are interested in working, remains at a 23-year high in today’s jobs report.

“I think the labor market continues to be healthy and strong and it’s great to see labor force participation and employment-to-population rates staying high,” Richards said. “That’s what we want to see in the kind of economy that is going to drive wage gains for working people and continue some of the gains that we’ve seen since the COVID recession.”

But she added that there is still room for those measures to grow.

“We’ve seen that the economy can outperform what a lot of people thought before we had this really prolonged period of low unemployment coming out of the COVID recession. And I hope that we continue to see this kind of growth,” she said.

Data, pilot projects showing food service robots may not threaten jobs

Paige Gross — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 09:40:12 +0000

Fast-casual restaurant Chipotle is experimenting with a work station that has automation assembling salads and bowls underneath the counter while a human worker assembles more complex dishes such as burritos on top. (Photo courtesy of Chipotle)

Though food service workers and economists have long worried about the impact technology would have on the restaurant labor force, pilot programs in several fast-casual restaurants over the last few years have shown it may not have the negative impact they feared, a labor economist says.

Technology plays several roles in food service, but the industry has seen the adoption of touch screens, AI-powered ordering and food prep machines over the last few years. And even more recently, it’s become more likely that a robot is playing a part in your food preparation or delivery.

They may take shape as your bartender, your server or your food delivery driver, but many are like the “collaborative” robots just rolled out in some Chipotle restaurants in California.

The company is testing the Autocado, which splits and prepares avocados to be turned into guacamole by a kitchen crew member, and the Augmented Makeline, which builds bowls and salads autonomously underneath the food line while employees construct burritos, tacos and quesadillas on top. Chipotle said 65% of its mobile orders are for salads or bowls, and the Augmented Makeline’s aim is improving efficiency and digital order accuracy.

The company said it invested in robotics company Vebu and worked with them on the design for the Autocado, and it invested in food service platform Hyphen, which custom made the Augmented Makeline for Chipotle.

“Optimizing our use of these systems and incorporating crew and customer feedback are the next steps in the stage-gate process before determining their broader pilot plans,” Curt Garner, Chipotle’s chief customer and technology officer said in a statement.

The company said the introduction of these robots will not eliminate any jobs, as the crew members are supposed to have a “cobotic relationship” with them. The aim is that crew members will be able to spend more time on either food prep tasks or on providing hospitality to customers.

Ben Zipperer, a low-wage labor market economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said the early fears around automation and robots threatening jobs in the foodservice industry are not being realized. Automation has shown to make workers more productive and effective, he said.

Fast casual restaurant Chipotle is using the “Autocado,” a machine that automatically produces the company’s guacamole. (Photo courtesy of Chipotle)

Robots have also been shown to make businesses more efficient and profitable, Zipperer siad, which creates an “offsetting demand factor.” That increased demand and profitability can actually help keep the cost of food for customers more affordable, he added.

When one action is freed up by a robot, the restaurant has more freedom to place workers on other high-demand tasks.

“Either those workers are still going to help produce guacamole, because people want to buy more of it,” Zipperer said of the Chipotle announcement, “or there’s other things that that business is trying to produce but can’t allocate the labor towards, even though they have demand for it.”

Zipperer pointed toward automated food purchasing with the use of touchscreen kiosks, which has been widely adopted in fast food service. In these cases, workers get shifted away from cash registers and toward more back-of-house jobs like food prep or janitorial work.

McDonald’s shows an example of this. The fast food restaurant was one of the earliest adopters of touchscreen kiosks, with thousands of stores using the technology to collect orders by 2015, and screens becoming nearly ubiquitous by 2020.

Last week, the company said the kiosks actually produce extra work for staff, as customers tend to purchase more food than they would at a cash register. The machines have built-in upselling features that cashiers don’t always have time to push with customers, and the introduction of mobile ordering and delivery has created jobs that front-of-house staff are relegated to.

Many fast food CEOs have threatened that raising minimum wages across the U.S. would equate in job loss to autonomous machines and kiosks. And while some franchise owners may take that route, it’s not a trend across the whole country. Jobs at quick-service and fast casual restaurants were up about 150,000 jobs, or 3% above their pre-pandemic levels in August.

As technology takes more of a role in food service production, businesses that want to succeed will find the balance of cost-saving efficiencies and valued work by their employees, Zipperer said.

“As long as there is demand for what that business is producing, that will allow workers to not feel a lot of the negative effects of technology,” he said.

Developers of regional shopping center in Frankfort give to Beshear’s super PAC

Tom Loftus — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 09:50:20 +0000

Gov. Andy Beshear extends a handshake during a ceremonial groundbreaking for The Paddocks of Frankfort at Interstate 64 and U.S. 127. The ceremony was moved into the Capital Rotunda because of heavy rain the day before. (Gov. Andy Beshear, X account)

FRANKFORT — Developers of a large regional shopping center under construction in Frankfort gave $100,000 to Gov. Andy Beshear’s super PAC in August.

It amounts to the largest group of contributions ever reported by the super PAC — called In This Together — which Beshear created in January.

In early June Beshear was joined by the developers and local and state leaders in the Capitol Rotunda to ceremonially break ground on The Paddocks of Frankfort, a major retail development that will feature Target as an anchor tenant.

Beshear thanked developers and investors for making what he said was a $150 million investment that would “support” more than 1,000 jobs. Developers thanked the state and local officials – particularly the Beshear administration and legislature for funding major road improvements that made the long-planned project possible.

Local and state officials lined up with shovels at the ceremonial groundbreaking moved indoors because of weather. (Gov. Andy Beshear, X account)

The state road plan includes funding to build a realigned interchange at I-64 and U.S. 127 and other improvements in access to the site.?

The Frankfort and Franklin County governments approved tax increment financing for other infrastructure to support the project.

On Friday, In This Together, filed a report with the Federal Election Commission that listed $100,000 in contributions on Aug. 8 from limited liability companies affiliated with the developers, Patrick Madden and Equity Management Group.

Specifically, the donors listed in the report are:

TPOF Manager LLC, of Lexington, $50,000. This company was formed in February, according to records filed with the Kentucky Secretary of State. The records list no owners or officers of TPOF Manager LLC, but do list Equity Management Group, of Lexington, as its registered agent. Equity Management Group is one of the real estate companies handling the development according to a June press release from the governor’s office.
Sir Barton Place LLC, of Lexington, $25,000. This is a real estate company managed by Madden.
War Admiral Place LLC, of Lexington, $25,000. This is another real estate company managed by Madden.

Neither Madden nor Equity Management Group immediately returned phone calls from Kentucky Lantern seeking comment on the contributions.

Eric Hyers, the PAC’s political strategist who managed both of Beshear’s successful campaigns for governor, responded to questions from Kentucky Lantern in a statement: “This is an important economic development project for Frankfort that has been years in the making, and Mr. Madden has been a long-time supporter of Gov Beshear.”

?Hyers also said, “We are proud that ITT (In This Together) is raising money to help good people win in Kentucky and all over the country and that people are donating because of the proven leadership of Governor Beshear.”

Beshear, a Democrat, created In This Together in early January as a mechanism to raise contributions he would use to support like-minded political candidates both within Kentucky and across the country.

From January through August the super PAC has reported raising $897,500.

Before August, the largest contribution it reported was $25,000 from Freedom Senior Share LLC, of Louisville, which operates under the assumed name of Freedom Adult Day Healthcare.

In This Together reported raising a total of $187,900 in August. It reported spending $40,100 during the month and that it had $681,800 on hand as of Aug. 31.

Hyers said in July that the super PAC planned to wait until the fall before spending significant amounts to help candidates supported by Beshear. In August it reported making just one contribution – $6,600 to the campaign of Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, of Wisconsin.

AG Coleman joins Kentucky farmers in challenging Biden protections for foreign farmworkers

Jamie Lucke — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 22:41:53 +0000

Almost 8,000 holders of H2-A visas worked on Kentucky farms in fiscal 2023, including harvesting burley tobacco. (Getty Images)

Seven Kentucky farmers last week sued the U.S. Department of Labor to block new federal protections for foreign farmworkers who enter the country on H2-A temporary visas.

On Monday Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman joined them, saying the new rule would clear the way for farmworkers in Kentucky to unionize.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman

Also moving to intervene to block the new rule are Republican attorneys general in Alabama, Ohio and West Virginia, according to a release from Coleman’s office.

A federal judge in Georgia earlier this year blocked the Biden administration from enforcing the rule in 17 other states.

Announced in April, the rule expands protections to seasonal workers, including against employer retaliation, unsafe working conditions and illegal recruitment practices. It requires that vans used to transport workers have seat belts.

Coleman, a Republican, said the new regulation “would force Kentucky farmers to allow temporary foreign-migrant workers to form a union and engage in collective bargaining. It would add excessive new bureaucratic burdens to Kentucky agricultural employers, who are already struggling to make ends meet.”

The Labor Department issued H2-A visas to 378,000 temporary workers, most from Mexico, in fiscal year 2023, according to Rural Migration News. Almost 8,000 of the temporary workers were employed in Kentucky.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Kentucky’s Eastern District, also include organizations that help growers navigate the H2-A process, including the Lexington-based Agriculture Workforce Management Association, which says it is “owned and managed by agricultural employers.”

They argue that without authorization from Congress, the Labor Department lacks the authority to confer “certain new ‘rights’ on foreign agricultural workers who are employed temporarily in the United States on H-2A visas, as well as on American agricultural workers deemed to be engaged in ‘corresponding employment’ with the H-2A workers.”?

Federal law requires the Labor Department to determine U.S. workers won’t lose work or wages to foreign workers admitted under the temporary visas.

Unveiling the rule in a California vineyard, U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su said it “is meant to give H2-A workers more ability to advocate for themselves, to speak up when they experience labor law abuses.”?

Coleman said the rule “will force new burdens on our growers, making it harder to get their products to market and raising costs on families at the grocery store.”

The attorney who filed the suit, Joe Bilby, is a former general counsel in the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

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Health care giant sues to stop antitrust probe of pharmacy drug middlemen

Marty Schladen — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 09:30:28 +0000

A pharmacist retrieves a a medication. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images.)

The owner of one of the three largest pharmacy middlemen in the United States last week filed suit to quash an attempt by the Federal Trade Commission to investigate industry practices. However, the suit relies on research that the health conglomerate helped pay for and was conducted by an economist who’s become wealthy arguing in support of huge mergers.

The FTC in July issued a scathing interim report saying that Cigna/Express Scripts, CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group appeared to be using their pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, to inflate the price of drugs and consequently make patients sicker. In response, Cigna/Express Scripts sued, declaring that the FTC’s findings were “false and defamatory.”

The company is demanding that the U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri declare that the FTC’s interim report “is not in the public interest,” that the report be vacated, and it demands “FTC Chair Lina M. Khan’s recusal from all Commission actions pertaining to Express Scripts.”

Meanwhile, at the end of last week the FTC ?announced it is taking legal action against the three pharmacy benefit managers accusing them of inflating insulin prices and steering patients toward higher-cost insulin products to increase their profits. The complaint which is not yet public seeks to prohibit the PBMs from favoring medicines because they make them more money.

In its suit, Cigna/Express Scripts — the 16th-largest company by revenue in the United States — argued that it and the other big PBMs actually bring down drug costs. As evidence, it pointed to research by an economist who has been paid more than an estimated $100 million in a career of arguing in favor of mega-mergers.

Bill would save Kentucky consumers money, help independent pharmacies survive, says sponsor

The PBMs owned by the health care giants — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx — control about 80% of their marketplace. They represent insurers in pharmacy transactions by determining which drugs are covered. They create pharmacy networks. And they use a secretive system to determine how much to reimburse pharmacies for the drugs they dispense.

For years their critics have accused them of having an inherent conflict of interest.

Each PBM owns a mail-order pharmacy and CVS Caremark’s parent owns the largest brick-and-mortar retailer. So they’re using secret price lists to decide how much to reimburse their own pharmacies for drugs — and those of their competitors.

As an example of the apparent arbitrariness of the PBMs’ pricing, a recent analysis of Medicare data showed that plans owned by CVS paid 501 different prices for the same drug.

Also controversial are the big PBMs’ practices concerning brand-name drugs, which tend to be under patent and considerably more expensive than generics. Because the middlemen control access to so many patients, makers of such drugs have powerful incentives to pay big rebates to PBMs in exchange for getting their products of lists of covered drugs, or formularies, and for their drugs to have the lowest copayments.

Reprieve for Kentucky’s independent pharmacies is saving Medicaid millions

Academic research has concluded that increases in often-secretive rebates correlate with even bigger increases in the list prices of drugs. There are also concerns that because the conglomerates increasingly own middlemen, pharmacies, health insurers and providers such as doctors’ offices, they’re using such “vertical integration” to unfairly advantage their various business units at the expense of their competitors.

The FTC’s interim report that is the object of the Express Scripts lawsuit said it appears that the health conglomerates are using both their size and their breadth to harm consumers.

In its suit, Express Scripts claimed that it and the other large PBM’s were actually helping consumers by using their heft to squeeze discounts out of drugmakers. They have “saved plan sponsors and their members tens of billions of dollars in drug costs over the past decade alone,” the suit asserts.

As evidence, it points to a 17-page report titled “An Economic Analysis of Criticisms Levied against Pharmacy Benefit Managers.”

The report disputes that rebates and other PBM practices are raising drug costs as critics say. Tellingly, though, it says the research is funded by the very people the FTC is investigating — Cigna/Express Scripts, United Group/OptumRx, and CVS/Caremark.

And it was done by an outfit, Compass Lexecon, that pays huge dollars to academics who have repeatedly written papers in favor of mega-mergers, a ProPublica investigation concluded in 2016.

In arguing that such mergers create “efficiencies” that benefit consumers, the authors have a conflict of interest, the investigation shows. The academics “reshaped their field through scholarly work showing that mergers create efficiencies of scale that benefit consumers,” the investigation said. “But they reap their most lucrative paydays by lending their academic authority to mergers their corporate clients propose.”

In the case of the study cited in the lawsuit filed against the FTC, the author was University of Chicago economist Dennis W. Carlton. The ProPublica investigation uncovered evidence that he charged at least $1,350 an hour for such work, and estimated that he’d earned more than $100 million in his career of supporting mergers. And that was as of eight years ago.

Meanwhile, the poor and disabled are finding it more difficult to find a pharmacy to go to.

“Amidst increasing vertical integration and concentration, these powerful middlemen may be profiting by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies,” an executive summary of the FTC report Express Scripts is suing to quash said.

Independent and small-chain pharmacies have been closing for years, with many citing the big PBMs’ practices as the reason. That created fears that pharmacy deserts could multiply, making it hard or impossible for people without transportation to see a medical professional and discuss their med and chronic conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

Those fears were amplified with this year’s announcement that Rite Aid and Walgreens are planning to close thousands of pharmacies — including hundreds in Ohio and Michigan. Dave Burke, executive director of the Ohio Pharmacists Association, said the announcement of the Walgreens closures especially made him concerned that PBMs’ practices are making the business of pharmacy untenable.

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

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Planned battery recycling plant in Western Kentucky receives $125 million federal boost

Liam Niemeyer — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 20:42:50 +0000

Gov. Andy Beshear, center, speaks to Ascend Elements CEO Michael O’Kronley after a ground-breaking ceremony at Commerce Park II in Hopkinsville in October 2022. (Hoptown Chronicle photo by Jennifer P. Brown)

The company behind a planned battery recycling plant in Western Kentucky is receiving another $125 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as a part of a broader federal effort to boost battery production and recycling for electric vehicles (EVs) and the electric grid.?

Massachusetts-based Ascend Elements is receiving the federal award for a new battery recycling process at planned facilities in Hopkinsville in partnership with the Mexican company Orbia.?The companies plan to extract graphite from the recycled batteries, have it further processed and enhanced at a separate Louisiana facility owned by Orbia and then sell the new battery-grade graphite. The DOE is describing the effort as a “first-of-its-kind recycled graphite production” process.

White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi in a statement Friday about the funding — which awarded more than $3 billion to 25 battery-related projects across the country — said the funding is “helping support the technologies that we need in the market today, the components that we will need in the near future, and the innovative technologies we need to advance our vision for a circular domestic battery supply chain that positions the United States to continue leading the global effort on clean energy.”???

This latest funding for graphite recycling in Hopkinsville follows earlier large federal investments in other Ascend Elements manufacturing plants in the Western Kentucky city. Ascend Elements in partnership with South Korea-based SK ecoplant announced last year?a planned $65 million lithium-ion battery recycling plant, which would shred and recycle. 24,000 metric tons of EV batteries annually. Ascend Elements had previously stated the construction of that plant should be completed by January 2025.?

The Hoptown Chronicle has previously reported the recycled batteries will help supply another planned Ascend Elements plant, dubbed Apex 1, creating cathode active materials that constitute battery cells. The DOE has invested more than $480 million into the Apex 1 projects.?

Correction: This story previously misstated the $125 million in federal funding was for a planned battery recycling plant sponsored by SK ecoplant and Ascend Elements. The funding is instead for a new, separate effort in Hopkinsville to recycle graphite from batteries sponsored by Orbia and Ascend Elements.

The Fed says its long-awaited rate cut is apolitical, even close to the presidential election

Casey Quinlan — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 22:41:53 +0000

Home mortgage rates are posted outside a real estate office in Los Angeles after the Federal Reserve interest rates announcement on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced a half-point cut to its benchmark interest rate in the first rate cut since the early days of the COVID pandemic. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The Federal Reserve’s first key interest rate cut in four years coincides with another major four-year event: the homestretch of the presidential election.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the central bank’s role in the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on Wednesday, in announcing the half-percentage point cut in its benchmark rate. But that didn’t stop the candidates’ campaigns from weighing in, and it could prove a key factor for voters.

“This is my fourth presidential election at the Fed, and it’s always the same. We’re always going to this meeting in particular and asking what’s the right thing to do for the people we serve,” Powell said. “Nothing else is ever discussed.”

The decision to cut for the first time during the Biden Administration indicates the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors believe the economy has beaten the COVID-19 pandemic-induced wave of inflation that has plagued it since mid-2021. The Fed hiked its key rate 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023.

Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. The Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, rose 2.5% over the past year, according to the latest release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in August. The unemployment rate was 4.2% in August, down from 4.3% in July, but still much higher than 3.5% in July 2023 when the Fed made its last rate hike.

“We now see the risks to achieving our employment and inflation goals as roughly in balance, and we are attentive to the risks of both sides of our dual mandate,” Powell said.

Wednesday’s was the first in what is expected to be a series of key rate cuts. For now, that benchmark rate is 4.75 to 5%

One member of the Fed’s governing board, Michelle Bowman, dissented with the rest of the group, marking the first time a governor has done so since 2005. Bowman preferred a 25 basis point – or quarter percentage point – cut.

Timing of the rate cut

Both campaigns quickly reacted to the news from the Fed.

Trump, speaking at a crypto-themed bar in New York, said the cut should have been smaller.

“I guess it shows the economy is very bad to cut it by that much, assuming they’re not just playing politics,” the Republican nominee said. “The economy would be very bad or they’re playing politics, one or the other. But it was a big cut.”

Harris, in a prepared statement, was forward-looking.

“While this announcement is welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices, my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down,” the Democratic nominee said. “I know prices are still too high for many middle class and working families.”

Sarah Binder, a senior fellow in governance studies at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution and author of, “The Myth of Independence: How Congress Governs the Federal Reserve,” said there is a long history of presidents pressuring the Fed, from John F. Kennedy to Richard Nixon and Trump, as a president and now as a presidential candidate.

In order to be effective in its role in keeping the economy moving, Binder said, the Fed needs to be trusted as legitimate, and its political support is contingent on doing a good job.

“The Fed doesn’t have the liberty of sitting it out or not doing enough, which can also bring the Fed into politicians’ crosshairs where they really, really don’t want to be,” she said.

Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America, a research group that advocates for full employment, said the Fed should be examining the economic data.

“That’s what they should look at, not where they are in the electoral seasonal cycle,” she said. “I think that’s the case, by and large. I don’t see anything that’s just a real politicization here.”

What a Fed rate cut means for the economy

Many economists and economic advisers have argued for the Fed to cut rates for months to avoid significant damage to the labor market and in the worst case, a recession.

Now, consumers should begin to see lower costs for borrowing money to buy houses, cars and other necessities.

Kitty Richards, senior strategic adviser at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., said the Fed should not hold back on cutting rates now that inflation is slowing.

“The Fed pursued four back to back 70-basis-point rate hikes when inflation was heating up. There’s no reason they should allow inertia to hold them back from normalizing rates now that inflation is under control,” she said.

Because shelter makes up so much of inflation, Richards has expressed concern that by keeping rates where they are, mortgage rates have been pushed so high that the housing market is unaffordable for many Americans. This, in turn, affects inflation, she said, creating a vicious cycle.

Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive economic policy think tank, stated that the Fed decision is a good sign for the housing market.

“It is good that the Fed has now recognized the weakening of the labor market and responded with an aggressive cut. Given there is almost no risk of rekindling inflation, the greater boost to the labor market is largely costless,” Baker said in a statement. “Also, it will help to spur the housing market where millions of people have put off selling homes because of high mortgage rates.”

Tennessee tries to rein in Ballad Health’s hospital monopoly after years of problems

Brett Kelman, KFF Health News — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 09:50:55 +0000

Johnson City Medical Center, a flagship hospital for Ballad Health, has received a rating of one star out of five from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (Brett Kelman/KFF Health News)

Ballad Health, an Appalachian company with the nation’s largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly, may soon be required to improve its quality of care or face the possibility of being broken up.

Government documents obtained by KFF Health News reveal that Tennessee officials, in closed-door negotiations, are attempting to hold the monopoly more accountable after years of complaints and protests from patients and their families.

Ballad, a 20-hospital system in northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia, was created six years ago through monopoly agreements negotiated with both states. Since then, Ballad has consistently fallen short of the quality-of-care goals, according to annual reports released by the Tennessee Department of Health.

Despite these failures, Tennessee has given “A” grades and annual stamps of approval to Ballad that allow the monopoly to continue. This has occurred, at least in part, because Ballad is graded against a scoring rubric that largely ignores how its hospitals actually perform.

Now that may change. In an ongoing renegotiation of Tennessee’s monopoly agreement, the state health department has pushed for an eightfold increase in the importance of hospital performance, making it “the most heavily weighted” issue on which Ballad would be judged, according to state documents obtained through a public records request. The negotiations appear to be the state’s most substantial response to residents who sound alarms about Ballad hospitals.

After years of complaints from patients and their families, Ballad Health, the state-sanctioned hospital monopoly providing care for patients in a 29-county region of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia and North Carolina, may soon be required to improve care or be broken up.

Dani Cook, a community organizer who has led efforts against Ballad for years, including an eight-month protest outside a Ballad hospital in 2019, said a renegotiated monopoly agreement could be a first step toward progress that locals have long sought, but only if it is enforced by the state.

Cook also questioned why Tennessee took years to prioritize something as fundamental as good care.

“That’s what baffles me about this entire relationship: Ballad seems to never be held to account,” Cook said. “And that’s why, when I look at this, I say, ‘Oh that sounds great.’ But let’s see what happens.”

Ballad Health was created in 2018 after Tennessee and Virginia officials waived federal anti-monopoly laws and approved the nation’s biggest hospital merger based on what’s called a Certificate of Public Advantage, or COPA, agreement. Despite the warnings of the Federal Trade Commission, the region’s rival hospital systems became a single system without competition. Ballad is now the only option for hospital care for most of about 1.1 million people in a 29-county region at the nexus of Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

In an effort to offset the perils of the monopoly, Ballad was required to enter agreements with the states that set expectations for the company and limited its ability to raise prices or close hospitals. Each year, Tennessee grades Ballad against this agreement on a 100-point scale. If the company performs poorly, Tennessee could in theory revoke the COPA, and then enforce a plan to split Ballad into separate companies, according to the monopoly agreement.

The new negotiation documents offer a snapshot of how Tennessee hopes to reshape this agreement, detailing more than a dozen changes the health department proposed in February and a counterproposal from Ballad in May. It is unclear if or how these proposals may have changed in the subsequent months.

Tennessee Department of Health spokesperson Dean Flener said the agency would not comment on Ballad or the ongoing negotiations.

In a written statement, Ballad did not comment directly on the negotiations but said the company “enthusiastically agrees that the most important thing to our patients is the quality of care they receive.” The company said in 2023 that its hospital quality slipped due to the pressure of the coronavirus pandemic and that it was in the process of rebounding.

“We strongly support a shared focus on quality of care as it relates to the COPA,” Molly Luton, a Ballad spokesperson, said in the statement.

Historically, quality of care has been just a small part of how Ballad is held accountable. Twenty percent of Ballad’s annual COPA score comes from measurements of hospital quality, but the company gets full credit on three-fourths of those measurements if it reports any value — even a terrible one. Only 5% of the annual score is determined by real-world hospital performance.

Protesters gather in opposition to the closure of the neonatal intensive care unit at Holston Valley Medical Center, a Ballad Health hospital, in 2019. (Dani Cook)

If quality was weighted more, Ballad would have scored much worse in past years. Annual reports released by the Tennessee Department of Health over the last two years show that Ballad failed to meet more than 74% of the state’s quality-of-care benchmarks, including some about mortality rates, readmission rates, emergency room speed, surgery-related infections, and patient satisfaction.

Under Tennessee’s proposed changes, all these metrics would matter much more. But Tennessee would also lower the overall standards for Ballad’s monopoly and ease a charity care obligation that Ballad has repeatedly not met, according to the negotiation documents. Ballad has said it hasn’t met the charity care obligation because changes to Medicaid programs have left fewer patients uninsured and in need of charity.

The documents show that:

Tennessee has proposed increasing the share of Ballad’s annual score that is attributable to real-world quality of care from 5% to 40% and no longer giving Ballad any points for merely reporting quality statistics. In a counteroffer, Ballad proposed raising this percentage to 34%, with some points still awarded to the company just for reporting.
Tennessee proposed lowering the minimum overall score that Ballad needs to obtain each year for its monopoly to be considered a “clear and convincing public advantage.” If Ballad falls below this threshold, the COPA agreement could be modified or “terminated.” Tennessee wants to lower the threshold from 85 out of 100 to 75. In its counteroffer, Ballad proposed 70.
Tennessee would reduce or weaken a requirement for Ballad charity care spending that is largely moot. Ballad has been required to provide more than $100 million in free or discounted charity care to low-income patients each year under the current monopoly agreement, but it has failed to do so five years in a row, falling short by about $194 million in total. Tennessee has waived the requirement each year.

Cook, who described the new documents as a rare glimpse into closed-door dealings that Ballad patients never get to see, said it was striking to witness the company push for lower standards.

“Why would they be pushing back on improving the quality of care that people receive?” Cook said. “If they are really among the nation’s best — because that’s what they tell the entire region — why do you need the standards lowered?”

?KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Growth in clean energy jobs spurred by incentives congressional GOP opposes, says advocacy group

Liam Niemeyer — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 09:40:50 +0000

Growth in clean vehicle jobs made up approximately 45% of Kentucky’s overall clean energy job growth of 2,389 jobs added last year, the report says.?(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Kentucky for the second straight year had the nation’s second fastest growth in clean energy jobs, though the state still lags in the actual number of such jobs, according to an annual report that focuses on economic development and energy.

The report from E2, which describes itself as a nonpartisan business group that advocates “for smart policies that are good for the economy and good for the environment,” found Kentucky’s 6.5% increase in clean energy jobs tied with Texas and was behind only Alabama. Nationwide clean energy employment grew 4.5% and added nearly 150,000 jobs, with the South outpacing the rest of the country.

The group’s definition of clean energy employment is broad, including jobs created through renewable energy industries, modernizing the electric grid and improving home and business energy efficiency. The definition of clean energy jobs also includes jobs generated through clean vehicles, ranging from hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, hybrid plug-in vehicles to fully electric vehicles (EVs). Growth in clean vehicle jobs made up approximately 45% of Kentucky’s overall clean energy job growth of 2,389 jobs added last year.?

Despite the growth in clean energy jobs, Kentucky had significantly fewer of them overall at the beginning of this year than all of its neighbors except West Virginia. The per capita rate of clean energy jobs is also lower in Kentucky than surrounding states except West Virginia.?

Kentucky: 39,639 clean energy jobs and 19.8 clean jobs per capita.
Illinois: 129,282 clean energy jobs and 21.4 clean energy jobs per capita.
Indiana: 90,155 clean energy jobs and 28.3 clean energy jobs per capita.
Ohio: 119,575 clean energy jobs and 21.7 clean energy jobs per capita.
Missouri: 58,836 clean energy jobs and 20.2 clean energy jobs per capita.
Tennessee: 86,656 clean energy jobs and 26.4 clean energy jobs per capita.
Virginia: 99,774 clean energy jobs and 24.4 clean energy jobs per capita.
West Virginia: 10,394 clean energy jobs and 15 clean energy jobs per capita.

The report found that 1 in 16 new jobs nationwide, or 6.4%, were in clean energy. In Kentucky, 6.7% of new jobs were in clean energy.?Nearly half of the country’s approximately 3.4 million clean energy jobs came from construction, according to the E2 report.

Mike Proctor, the publicity chair for the EV advocacy group Evolve KY, pointed to EV manufacturing announcements in Kentucky — such as the massive BlueOval SK EV battery factories under construction in Glendale and a potential EV-focused plant in Shelby County. Gov. Andy Beshear has said the Ford project requires almost 2,600 construction workers. Proctor said the large projects will also have an economic multiplier effect, creating jobs in other industries beyond the plants, from companies that support the EV supply chain to restaurants that feed the workers.

“Every one of those things are going to have, you know, a support structure to provide parts and what not. I’m sure a number of those vendors will be Kentucky based as well,” Proctor said. “Even a hot dog stand outside the Glendale plant, I’m sure they’re doing a bang-up business for lunch.”?

Most of Kentucky’s clean energy jobs come from work in vehicles and energy efficiency, including efficient HVAC systems,? lighting and appliances.

E2, which has been tracking clean energy jobs since 2015, also ranked Kentucky as the second fastest growing state for clean energy employment in its 2023 report.?

E2 Executive Director Bob Keefe in a statement credited Congress’? passage of the “game-changing” Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its clean energy incentives for an increase last year of almost 150,000 clean energy jobs nationwide — up 4.5% from the year before.

“But we’re just getting started,” Keefe said in his statement. “The biggest threats to this unprecedented progress are misguided efforts to repeal or rollback parts of the IRA, despite the law’s clear benefits both to American workers and the communities where they live.”

No Republican on Capitol Hill voted for the passage of the IRA in 2022, decrying the hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for electric vehicles and renewable energy as something that could drive up prices and warp markets. Republicans may soon decide whether to repeal some parts of the law. E2 in a separate report published in August found nearly 60% of announced clean vehicle and clean energy projects since the passage of the IRA have been in Republican-represented congressional districts, representing 85% of total investment tracked by the group.?

Andy McDonald, a Frankfort-based clean energy advocate and energy policy analyst, told the Lantern that at least two renewable energy projects in Franklin County can be attributed to incentives provided through the IRA: The county extension office added solar panels and a battery system.? Frankfort’s municipal utility is considering expanding its community solar installation.?

“The municipal utility provides electricity to local people, and so reducing their cost of electricity with clean energy should produce less pressure on rates for all of their customers,” McDonald said.

Inflation has slowed, but the economy remains a big issue for voters in picking a president

Casey Quinlan — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 17:24:27 +0000

People watch the ABC News presidential debate between Democratic nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, and Republican nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, at a watch party at The Abbey, a historic gay bar in West Hollywood, California. The economy will remain central to both campaigns even as inflation cools and wages increase. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Inflation hit a three-year low last month, just as the presidential election is heating up.

But the high cost of housing and other necessities will keep the economy central to both of the major campaigns, as seen in the Sept. 10 debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

The Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation, rose 2.5% in the past year, which is the smallest jump since February 2021, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Wednesday. The main driver of this increase was shelter, which moved up 0.5% in August. Airline fares, car insurance, education, and apparel also rose that month. But wages also rose 0.4% in August and 3.8% over the past year, and the average workweek increased by 0.1 hour — welcome news for workers trying to keep up with the cost of living.

Voters continue to say the economy is key in deciding who should be president, at 81%, and four in 10 say the economy and inflation are the most important issues guiding that? decision.

Trump, the former president and Republican nominee, blamed the Biden administration for high prices early on during last week’s presidential debate in Philadelphia, falsely claiming the post-pandemic wave of inflation is the worst ever.

“We’ve had a terrible economy because inflation, which is really known as a country buster, it breaks up countries, we have inflation like very few people have ever seen before, probably the worst in our nation’s history,” Trump said.

The worst inflation rate in U.S. history was actually in 1980, at 14%. The current wave – the highest inflation spike since then – peaked at 9.1% in June 2022.

During her debate with Trump, Democratic nominee and Vice President Harris responded to a question about the economy by touting tax cut proposals to combat housing costs.

“The cost of housing is far too expensive for far too many people. We know that young families need support to raise their children and I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000, which is the largest child tax credit that we have given in a long time so that those young families can afford to buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy clothes for their children,” she said.

Harris also pitched a proposal for a $50,000 tax deduction for small startup businesses.

Taylor St. Germain, an economist at ITR Economics, a nonpartisan economic research and consulting firm based in New Hampshire, said the latest data shows inflation is slowing enough to suggest it’s time for the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates.

“It’s encouraging to see that inflation is slowing and slowing to these much lower levels,” said St. Germain said. “However, it is, of course, still elevated and one of the reasons it’s still elevated is that shelter costs are driving a significant portion of that inflation, with rents rising as well, especially as we looked at this latest CPI report.”

The Fed began raising interest rates in March 2022 to bring down inflation, raising interest rates 11 times, and made its last rate hike in July of last year.

Economists are watching closely to see if the Fed cuts rates during its meeting next week, which is expected to have an impact on the housing market and other costs.

Kitty Richards, senior strategic adviser at Groundwork Collaborative, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., said the Fed’s decisions are contributing to housing costs.

“The problem with housing is fundamentally a supply problem. And the Fed’s actions are actually making that supply problem worse by locking up the housing market and making it more expensive to buy, build or rehab housing,” she said. “Housing is such a big part of people’s experience of the economy and it really matters to folks when they might want to move and look around and they can’t. They can’t even afford to buy a house that is the same price as the house they live in because the interest rates are so high.”

___

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct Kitty Richards’ title. She is senior strategic adviser at Groundwork Collaborative.

Rent is eating up a greater share of tenants’ income in almost every state

Tim Henderson — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 09:40:58 +0000

An apartment maintenance man changes the lock of an apartment after constables posted an eviction order in Phoenix. In Arizona, low wages, a housing shortage, and short-term rental and vacation homes are eating away at the stock of affordable housing for renters. (John Moore/Getty Images)

There were 21 states where a majority of tenant households spent 30% or more of their incomes on rent and utilities last year, compared with just seven states in 2019.

Nationwide, about 22 million?renters are shouldering that percentage.?Anyone paying more than 30% is considered “cost burdened,” according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and may struggle to pay for other necessities, such as food, clothing, transportation and medical care.

In Kentucky, housing consumed 30% of income or more for 47.5% of renter households, up from 43.3% in 2019.

Three presidential swing states had among the biggest increases in the share of renters who spent that much on housing: Arizona (to 54% from 46.5%), Nevada (to 57.4% from 51.1%) and Georgia (to 53.7% from 48.4%). The numbers are based on a Stateline analysis of American Community Survey data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Florida and Maine also saw large jumps.

In Arizona, low wages, a housing shortage, and short-term rental and vacation homes are eating away at the stock of affordable housing for renters,?according to Alison Cook-Davis, associate director for research at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

“You’ve got people across the state kind of pulling their hair out, saying ‘I thought Arizona was supposed to be the affordable state,’” Cook-Davis said.

Rents in Arizona have shot up 40% to 60% in the last two years, she said. And the state’s eviction filings spiked 43% to 97,000 between 2022 and 2023, she said.

In places such as Arizona and Nevada where the housing bubble of the late 2000s left vacant houses, the construction of apartments and other homes has not caught up with population increases, Cook-Davis added.

A University of Nevada, Las Vegas,?data brief reported in May that the Las Vegas area had the highest percentage of cost-burdened renters in the state, at 58.3%, more even than the New York City metro area (52.6%) or San Francisco metro area (48.9%).

Census figures released last week showed that in addition to Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, the states with the highest jumps in the share of cost-burdened renters were Florida, which increased to 61.7% from 55.9%, and Maine, at 49.1% from 44%.

That jump left Florida as the state with the highest rate of cost-burdened renters. It was followed by Nevada (57.4%), Hawaii (56.7%), Louisiana (56.2%) and California (56.1%).

“Florida isn’t the deal it used to be,” said Christopher McCarty, director of the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research. “Florida still has disproportionately lower-paying jobs compared to other states, and rents are increasing compared to other states as well.”

The states with the lowest rates of cost-burdened renters as of 2023 were North Dakota (37%), Wyoming (41.2%), South Dakota (41.3%), Kansas (43.5%) and Nebraska (44%).

The share of cost-burdened renters increased since 2019 in every state except Vermont (down to 47.8% from 54%), Wyoming (down to 41.2% from 44%), North Dakota (down to 37% from 38%) and Rhode Island (down to 48.1% from 49%).

There’s hope for the future in Arizona and other states with increased home construction, Cook-Davis said.

“If you keep building, eventually this will sort itself out. But that could take years. It’s a slow process,” she said.

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

States are pushing back with anti-labor laws as union popularity grows, policy experts say

Casey Quinlan — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 09:50:33 +0000

Porchá Perry demonstrates with other workers in Lansing, Michigan, in favor of bills restoring local control to pass workforce and labor policies on Sept.13, 2023. A new report finds growing union organizing across the country has triggered an anti-labor legislative response in some states, but cities and counties are increasingly pushing back. (Photo courtesy of SEIU Local 1)

Growing union organizing across the country has triggered an anti-labor legislative response in some states, but cities and counties are increasingly pushing back, a new report found.

The report, released this month?by the New York University Wagner Labor Initiative and Local Progress Impact Lab, a group for local elected officials focused on economic and racial justice issues, cites examples of localities all over the U.S. using commissions to document working conditions, creating roles for protecting workers in the heat and educating workers on their labor rights.

In the face of increased worker organizing and Americans’ higher approval of labor unions in the past few years (hitting levels not seen since the 1960s), many states have introduced bills aimed at stopping payroll deduction for union dues and punishing employers that voluntarily recognize a union through the card check process. In April, several governors in Southern states, including Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, advocated against auto workers voting for a union.

“We know that there has been an increase in worker organizing and definitely an increase in high-profile worker organizing and certainly that action has had a reaction,” said Terri Gerstein, director of the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative and co-author of the report.

Kentucky kids deserve better than being exploited like it’s 1899

However, state preemption laws, which can make local ordinances void and could prevent many localities from implementing more worker-friendly policies, are also on the rise. There was a surge in preemption laws from 2015 to 2017 on everything from the minimum wage to paid leave, according to a June 2024 analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center think tank.

Although the passage of preemption legislation has slowed, according to the EPI analysis, the effects on localities are still damaging to workers’ rights, authors of the report explain. But labor and policy experts say there are still opportunities for localities to push back against efforts to limit labor organizing and gut the enforcement of labor protections.

“Localities are doing more to fight for working people and advance workers’ rights, and I think in states where there is rampant state hostility and abusive state preemption, local governments are also the leaders of trying to advance workers rights in those states and address new challenges and threats like heat, for example,” said the report’s other co-author, LiJia Gong, the policy and legal director at Local Progress.

Some business organizations, such as the National Federation of Independent Business, say preemption laws help small businesses, which don’t have the capacity “to navigate duplicative, overlapping and potentially contradictory local labor laws.”

“NFIB has supported legislation that creates statewide, uniform standards for minimum wage rates and legislation that establishes a preemption of paid sick leave proposals by local governments,” the group said in a prepared statement.

Gerstein and Gong argue that these efforts are not always concerned with uniformity, such as taking away a locality’s ability to raise the minimum wage when the state does not set a higher minimum wage itself.

In states where there isn’t state-level wage enforcement, localities can pass ordinances that allow workers to file complaints and get stolen wages back without a lawyer, as some Florida localities have done.

There are also things cities and counties can do to prevent heat-related injuries and illnesses, including in the workplace. Miami-Dade County, Phoenix, and Los Angeles have chief heat officers whose role it is to protect people from the effects of extreme heat.

“Unlike a lot of other hazards, people don’t really understand how dangerous workplace heat is and that there are workplace fatalities. But research also shows that there are high rates of worker injuries and accidents of various kinds on hotter days,” Gerstein said.

Amid state efforts to weaken child labor laws, schools are also some of the best tools localities have to ensure kids aren’t working in dangerous conditions, the authors said. School boards could use their power to include workers’ rights education in the curricula, for example.

“School districts can do a lot to educate families on child labor laws and age-appropriate employment opportunities, and they can also play an important role in identifying students who might be working in prohibited occupations and refer those cases to state and federal labor enforcers,” Gong said.

Worker boards can also document and seek to improve working conditions on the local level. The boards, created by local governments, have worker representation and can conduct worker outreach and make policy recommendations on wages and benefits. Last year, the Detroit City Council voted to create an industry standards board for workers at pro sports facilities including Ford Field, Little Caesars Arena, and Comerica Park.

Board member Porchá Perry, a mother of two children who works at Comerica Park and Ford Field, said her role is reaching out to workers to share their experience of working conditions. Workers say they are concerned about low wages, child care, transportation and safety. Perry said that although she is personally less concerned about finding child care, she wouldn’t have to work multiple jobs if wages were higher and she would be able to see her kids more.

“It’s hard to have quality time,” she said.

The board also has spots for city council members and the mayor’s office.

“It’s a voice for everybody – government officials, employees, the management department. It’s somewhere for everybody to sit at the table and speak,” she said.

Britain Forsyth, legislative coordinator for Step Up Louisiana, a group that organizes for economic and education justice, said New Orleans has focused on becoming a model employer. New Orleans increased the minimum wage to $13.25 for city employees, which became effective in 2022, and rose to $15 in 2023. In 2023, the New Orleans City Council codified city employees’ right to organize. Louisiana does not have a state minimum wage law, so the city’s minimum wage is far above $7.25, the federal minimum wage.

Step Up Louisiana is also working to pass a workers’ bill of rights on the November ballot in New Orleans. It would add to the bill of rights in the city’s home rule charter that workers deserve a living wage, paid leave, safe workplaces and health care coverage and says that all laws and regulations regarding unions should be respected.

“We call the question to the city about what we believe in, and we make it clear to employers here and folks who want to open businesses here that this is how we think workers should be treated,” he said.

Authors of the report also suggest that more localities should take on wage theft, since state and federal authorities frequently struggle to enforce wage judgments and recover wages.

These agencies are often under-resourced, have frequent staff turnover and manage complex cases, Gerstein said. Local labor agencies could provide help conducting interviews or prepare cases for state or federal agencies to follow up on. San Diego County has a fund for staff to pursue employers for wages and provides $3,000 to people who are victims of wage theft and have final unpaid wage orders from the state.

Gerstein said she’s seeing cutting-edge approaches to enforcing worker protections in places like Seattle, Boston, New York City and Denver, where the state is friendlier to workers. For example, in Sept 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu created the Worker Empowerment Cabinet, including the Office of Labor Compliance and Worker Protections.

Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, Boston’s deputy chief of worker empowerment and the director of the office of labor compliance and worker protections, said her office has done educational outreach, including free OSHA training sessions for over 1,200 people and a set of trainings for how to create a heat illness prevention plan. Last year, Wu signed an ordinance that requires certain safety standards and training for city construction projects.

“Cities and countries don’t have a lot of power but they can use the power of contracting and vending to drive labor standards,” Sugerman-Brozan said.

But Gerstein added that local governments in more employer-friendly states are also stepping up to advocate for workers.

“It’s a very different landscape where the local government may be the only place where the government is standing up for workers,” she said. “There is largely stagnation in Congress because of the filibuster and other reasons, an unfriendly state government, and your state department of labor isn’t particularly worker protective and is more focused on being employer and business-friendly. State AG offices aren’t really doing anything.”

Even a small local office can make a difference, Gerstein said.

“Hire dedicated staff to be the worker rights person. Create an office and an army of one. That’s how these things can start.”

No dice for ‘risk-free’ gaming machines in Kentucky, advises AG Coleman

Liam Niemeyer — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 22:17:47 +0000

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman (Kentucky Lantern photo by Mathew Mueller)

The manufacturer of a so-called “risk-free” gaming machine is hitting the pause button in Kentucky after Attorney General Russell Coleman said the machines are illegal under a ban passed by lawmakers last year.?

Bob Heleringer, an attorney for Prominent Technologies, told the Lantern the company strongly disagrees with Coleman’s advisory but is directing businesses with the “risk free” machines to turn them off while a legal challenge to the ban continues.?

The slot-style gaming devices? — dubbed “gray machines” because of their murky legal status — were found in many bars and gas stations around the state; the legislature outlawed them in 2023 in a bill signed by Gov. Andy Beshear.?

Opponents argue the machines are illegal gambling, while proponents refer to the machines as “skill games.”?

Louisville Public Media reported earlier this year that manufacturer Prominent Technologies said their machines had been changed to become “no risk” games that comply with the ban. The machines tell the user whether their next game will win money or lose money, which the company argues removes the risk from using the machines.?

But Coleman in an advisory released Tuesday wrote such games are illegal because the user still will not know the outcome of future games beyond the next one. “Thus, the game lures the player into continuing to play on the chance that the next game play will result in a win worth more than he will have to pay for the current play,” Coleman wrote. “This hope that the subsequent game play will be a winner is the ‘element of chance’ that makes these so-called ‘Risk-Free Plays’ games illegal gambling devices. There is no safe harbor in Kentucky’s gambling laws for this kind of game.”?

Bob Heleringer

Coleman in his advisory wrote that with a Franklin Circuit Court ruling upholding the “gray machines” ban, local prosecutors are “free to investigate and prosecute any violations of the Commonwealth’s gambling laws, including the laws related to ‘gray machines.’” That ruling is being appealed by plaintiffs including the company Pace-O-Matic, a competitor to Prominent Technologies.?

Heleringer, the lawyer for Prominent Technologies, said the company notified Coleman’s office in January that it was installing “risk free” games and attorneys for the company met with staff from Coleman’s office in August. He said that despite the two sides’ disagreement, the company would resolve matters in the “legal arena.”?

Heleringer derided Coleman’s use in the advisory of a court decision from 1918, in which Coleman compared the “risk free” game machines to slot-style machines that offered users “redeemable chips.”?

“No one is lured into anything,” Heleringer said. “If they make a conscious decision as an adult to play a game and that game tells them the next play is not a winning game, not a winning move, they can elect at that point to get their money back.”?

Utilities that opposed Kentucky’s new energy planning commission are now part of it

Liam Niemeyer — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 09:50:02 +0000

The Kentucky Public Service Commission regulates the rates and services of more than 1,100 utilities, ranging from large investor-owned electric providers like Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities to small water districts that provide drinking water to rural communities.?(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Gov. Andy Beshear has filled two seats on a new energy planning commission with utility executives who, like Beshear, opposed the commission’s creation.

Kentucky lawmakers earlier this year created the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) to slow the retirement of power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.

Investor-owned utilities and environmentalists opposed the legislation which Beshear vetoed, calling it unconstitutional for “numerous reasons.” The new law also was opposed by the United Way of Kentucky, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and chambers of commerce around the state. The Republican-controlled legislature easily overrode Beshear’s veto.?

Brian Weisker

Among Beshear’s first eight appointees to the 18-member board are Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities CEO and President John Crockett and Duke Energy senior vice president Brian Weisker. The law requires that one of the governor’s appointees represent?a Kentucky investor-owned utility.

Weisker in a statement to the Lantern said he agreed to serve despite opposing Senate Bill 349 which created EPIC because it’s “vital that Duke Energy continues to have a voice in securing Kentucky’s energy future.”?

John R. Crockett III

In March, Crockett told state lawmakers EPIC would be an “inherently political body” and that he feared it would be “just another layer of bureaucracy.” Crockett also has pushed back against Senate President Robert Stivers’ assertion that the state is “facing an electric reliability crisis.” LG&E and KU spokesperson Liz Pratt said Crockett agreed to serve on EPIC to “allow us to be part of the evaluation process and help responsibly shape the future of energy” while providing insights to “the long-term energy solutions proposed for the communities we serve and for Kentucky.”?

“As regulated utilities, we must make decisions in the best interests of all of our customers and continue providing safe, reliable and affordable energy,” Pratt said.?

Beshear also appointed Jeffrey Brock, an executive for Kentucky’s largest coal producer Alliance Resource Partners. Alliance’s CEO is Joe Craft, a prominent donor in Republican politics along with his wife and former candidate for Kentucky governor Kelly Craft. Brock serves on the Kentucky Coal Association’s board of directors.?

Beshear’s Aug. 19 EPIC appointments

John Crockett, CEO and president of LG&E and KU
Brian Weisker, Duke Energy senior vice president who leads the utility’s natural gas business.
Ashli Watts, CEO and president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce?
Kevin Nolan, CEO and president of Louisville-based GE Appliances
Caryl Pfieffer, former LG&E and KU director of corporate fuels and by-products who retired from the utility in January 2022.
Jeffrey Brock, vice president of business development at Alliance Coal LLC, a subsidiary of Alliance Resource Partners, according to a LinkedIn social media profile.?
Mark Gooch, an executive with Community Trust Bank.
Eston Glover, the former president and CEO of Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative and chair of the Pennyrile Regional Energy Agency??

Under the new law, most of EPIC’s decision-making power will be vested in a five-person executive committee. Beshear appointed Eston Glover to represent utilities on the executive committee. Glover is the former president and CEO of Pennyrile Rural Electric Cooperative and chair of the Pennyrile Regional Energy Agency that’s trying to build a natural gas pipeline in Western Kentucky.?

Glover told the Lantern he had received a call asking about his interest in serving on EPIC but hadn’t spoken with the governor personally. He said he wanted to learn more about EPIC and its duties before commenting. “I’m interested in energy. I’m interested in making our community better and our region better and this state better,” Glover said.?

Rodney Andrews (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

The new law puts the director of the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, Rodney Andrews, on the executive committee. Andrews testified before lawmakers last week he is doing the “very early” work of understanding EPIC’s scope. Andrews would serve as EPIC’s executive director unless the executive committee chooses someone else.?

Beshear still has to appoint a third executive committee member who has experience serving as a CEO or board member “of a company engaged in the production of coal.” The full board will choose the final two members of the executive committee.?

The new law set a July 1 deadline for Beshear to appoint EPIC members. He still has multiple appointments to make from nominations by industry groups such as the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association, Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives and Kentucky Industrial Utility Customers. The law reserves one seat for an appointee representing residential electricity consumers.

The law also requires EPIC to submit a study of the state’s electricity supply and the impact of federal policies on it by Dec. 1.?

Another of Beshear’s appointees, Mark Gooch, an executive of Community Trust Bank, has connections to One East Kentucky, an economic development nonprofit that opposed EPIC’s creation.??

Colby Kirk, CEO and president of One East Kentucky, told the Lantern that Gooch served on One East Kentucky’s board until 2023 and was board chair when Kirk was hired. Kirk emphasized Gooch wasn’t involved with the decision to oppose SB 349 this year. Gooch didn’t return emails or a message at his office requesting an interview.

Kirk said One East Kentucky’s decision to oppose the creation of EPIC was spurred by their local investor-owned utility Kentucky Power. Kentucky Power’s COO and president Cynthia Wiseman serves as the current board chair of One East Kentucky, and Community Trust Bank has membership on the board.?

“I felt that it’s just another, I would think, unnecessary barrier or layer of red tape,” Kirk said of EPIC. “We already have a Public Service Commission, and we already have an Office of Energy Policy. You know, what’s the real function of this?”

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

Americans’ perception of AI is generally negative, though they see ‘beneficial applications’

Paige Gross — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 20:37:46 +0000

A new poll of Americans across nine states by Heartland Forward finds that Americans are generally wary of artificial intelligence but are more positive about the potential in specific economic sectors. (Getty Images)?

A vast majority of Americans feel negatively about artificial intelligence and how it will impact their futures, though they also report they don’t fully understand how and why the technology is currently being used.

The sentiments came from a survey conducted this summer by think tank Heartland Forward, which used Aaru, an AI-powered polling group that uses news and social media to generate respondents.

The poll sought to learn about the perceptions of AI for Americans across different racial, gender and age groups in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Heartland Forward also held in-person dinners in Fargo, North Dakota and Nashville, Tennessee to collect sentiments.

While more than 75% of respondents reported that they feel skeptical, scared or overall negatively about AI, they reported more positive feelings when they learned about specific uses in industries like health care, agriculture and manufacturing.

Many of the negative feelings were about AI and work, with 83% of respondents saying they think it could negatively impact their job opportunities or career paths. Those respondents said they feel anxious about AI in their industries, and nearly 53% said they feel they should get AI training in the workplace. Louisiana respondents showed the highest level of concerns for job opportunities (91%), with Alabama showing highest levels of workplace anxiety (90%).

Respondents also had huge doubts about AI’s ethical capabilities and data protection, with 87% saying they don’t think AI can make unbiased ethical decisions, and 89% saying it doesn’t have the ability to safeguard privacy.

But when the pollsters told respondents about specific AI uses in health care, agriculture, manufacturing, education, transportation, finance and entertainment, they got positive responses. The majority of respondents believe AI can have “beneficial applications” across numerous industries.

Nearly 79% of respondents felt AI could have a moderate or positive impact on health care, 77% said so about agriculture, manufacturing and education, 80% said so about transportation, 73% said so about finance and 70% said so about entertainment.

Very strong positive feelings about AI were less common, but some states stood out, seeing applications in dominant local industries. North Dakota showed more interest than others when it came to agriculture, with 35% of people seeing “very high” potential, compared to 19% in Oklahoma and 18% in Louisiana.

“It really shows us that one, education is important, and that two, we need to bring the right people around the table to talk about it,” said Angie Cooper, executive vice president of Heartland Forward.

The negative and positive sentiments recorded by the poll found very little variation between the gender, age and racial groups. The negative sentiments of AI’s impact on society were held across the entire political spectrum, too, Cooper said.

Another uniting statistic was that at least 93% of respondents believe that it’s at least “moderately important” for governments to regulate AI.

Cooper said that during the organization’s dinners in Fargo and Nashville — which brought investors, entrepreneurs, business owners and policymakers together — it was clear that people had some understanding of how AI was being used in their sector, but they weren’t aware of policies and regulations introduced at the state level.

Though there’s no federal AI legislation, so far this year, 11 new states have enacted laws about how to use, regulate or place checks and balances on AI. There are now 28 states with AI legislation.

“The data shows, and the conversations that we’ve had in Fargo and Nashville really are around that there’s still a lack of transparency,” Cooper said. “And so they believe policy can help play a role there.”

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Where exactly are all the AI jobs?

Paige Gross — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 09:45:37 +0000

(Stanford University graphic)

The desire for artificial intelligence skills in new hires has exploded over the last five years, and continues to be a priority for hiring managers across nearly every industry, data from Stanford University’s annual AI Index Report found.

In 2023, 1.6% of all United States-based jobs required AI skills, a slight dip from the 2% posted in 2022. The decrease comes after many years of growing interest in artificial intelligence, and is likely attributed to hiring slowdowns, freezes or layoffs at major tech companies like Amazon, Deloitte and Capital One in 2023, the report said.

The numbers are still greatly up from just a few years ago, and in 2023, thousands of jobs across every industry required AI skills.

What do those AI jobs look like? And where are they based, exactly?

Generative AI skills, or the ability to build algorithms that produce text, images or other data when prompted, were sought after most, with nearly 60% of AI-related jobs requiring those skills. Large language modeling, or building technology that can generate and translate text, was second in demand, with 18% of AI jobs citing the need for those skills.

Those skills were followed by ChatGPT knowledge, prompt engineering, or training AI, and two other specific machine learning skills.

The industries that require these skills run the gamut — the information industry ranked first with 4.63% of jobs while professional, scientific and technical services came in second with 3.33%. The financial and insurance industries followed with 2.94%, and manufacturing came in fourth with 2.48%.

Public administration jobs, education jobs, management and utilities jobs all sought AI skills in 1- 2% of their open roles, while agriculture, mining, wholesale trade, real estate, transportation, warehousing, retail trade and waste management sought AI skills in 0.4-0.85% of their jobs.

Though AI jobs are concentrated in some areas of the country, nearly every U.S. state had thousands of AI-specific jobs in 2023, the report found.

California — home to Silicon Valley — had 15.3%, or 70,630 of the country’s AI-related jobs posted in 2023. It was followed by Texas at 7.9%, or 36,413 jobs. Virginia was third, with 5.3%, or 24,417 of AI jobs.

Based on population, Washington state had the highest percentage of people in AI jobs, with California in second, and New York in third.

Montana, Wyoming and West Virginia were the only states with fewer than 1,000 open roles requiring AI, but because of population sizes, AI jobs still made up 0.75%, 0.95% and 0.46% of all of the state’s open roles last year.

Though the number of jobs dipped from 2022 to 2023, the adoption of AI technologies across business operations has not. In 2017, 20% of businesses reported that they had begun using AI for at least one function of their work. In 2022, 50% of businesses said they had, and that number reached 55% in 2023.

For those that have incorporated AI tools into their businesses, it’s making their workers more productive, the report found. The report said studies have shown that AI tools have allowed workers to complete tasks more quickly and have improved the quality of their work. The research suggested that AI could be also capable of upskilling workers, the report found.

The report acknowledges that with all the technological advances that the AI industry has seen in the last five years, there are still many unknowns. The U.S. is still awaiting federal AI legislation, while states make their own regulations and laws.

The Stanford report predicts two futures for the trajectory of the technology — one in which the technology continues to develop and increase productivity, but there’s a possibility that it’s used for “good and bad uses.” In another future, without proper research and development, the adoption of AI technologies could be constrained, researchers said.

“They are stepping in to encourage the upside,” the report said of government bodies. “Such as funding university R&D and incentivizing private investment. Governments are also aiming to manage the potential downsides, such as impacts on employment, privacy concerns, misinformation, and intellectual property rights.”

Nuclear industry eyes Kentucky but don’t expect nuclear power plants anytime soon

Liam Niemeyer — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 21:15:10 +0000

Rodney Andrews (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

FRANKFORT — The director of an energy research center at the University of Kentucky told state lawmakers Friday it’s not likely a nuclear power plant will be built in Kentucky over the next 10 years, though some nuclear energy companies are interested in moving to the state.?

A new state law passed by the GOP-dominated legislature this year will make Rodney Andrews, the director of the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, the chair of a new research authority aiming to research and promote nuclear energy. The authority, administratively attached to the research center, is required by state law to present a study on workforce and education needs for nuclear energy by December, along with presenting another study by the end of 2025 determining the best locations for nuclear facilities.?

Andrews updated the Interim Natural Resources and Energy Committee on efforts to form the nuclear energy research authority along with another new commission established by lawmakers that creates new barriers to retiring a a fossil fuel-fired power plant. Both the nuclear authority and the power plant retirement review commission are administratively housed at the University of Kentucky’s research center.??

Andrews told lawmakers the state would be “extremely lucky” to see nuclear power within its borders in the next ten years, citing long permitting delays to build new nuclear power plants. Newer nuclear technology such as smaller, modular nuclear power plants have people “very excited,” he said, but no such modular reactors have been built yet.?

He said while the nuclear energy research authority isn’t fully operational yet, conversations have already started with a company that’s interested in locating a “nuclear facility” in Paducah.

“We’re also working with several companies that have expressed a strong interest in exploring bringing nuclear power to the state,” Andrews said. “There’s a great deal of interest among the utilities, but there is also significant interest from some of our largest power consumers.”?

WKMS, the public radio station in Murray, reported earlier this year a land deal was struck in McCracken County for a company seeking to use lasers to recycle depleted uranium stores, including uranium “tails” at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in West Kentucky. Andrews declined to offer more details to the Lantern about the company interested in moving to Paducah.?

Kentucky has never had a nuclear power plant. But the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in West Kentucky produced enriched uranium for the country’s nuclear weapons program and later for commercial nuclear power plants. Maxey Flats in northeastern Kentucky served as a disposal site for low-level radioactive waste during the 20th century. Both installations contaminated surrounding soil and water and required extensive remediation.

Nuclear reactors don’t produce direct greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. But energy analysts are divided on whether nuclear energy can be developed quickly enough to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Appointment delays for board creating fossil fuel retirement barriers

Andrews also updated lawmakers on efforts to form the Energy Inventory and Planning Commission, or EPIC, a new agency that utilities would have to come to first when requesting to retire a fossil fuel-fired power plant in the state, such as plants using coal or natural gas.?

Utilities and environmentalists decried the bill establishing EPIC, saying it would result in ratepayers bearing the costs of keeping aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants on the grid when lower-cost alternatives are available. Critics also said the board’s statutory makeup had pro-industry and pro-fossil fuel biases with little representation for the interests of ratepayers. Proponents of the bill, including Senate President Robert Stivers, argued EPIC was needed to make sure the state’s energy capacity was secure in the face of rising energy demands.?

Andrews, as director of the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, would be a part of a five-member executive committee for EPIC alongside members representing utilities and the coal industry. Utilities would have to approach this committee and have a request to retire a fossil fuel-fired power plant analyzed before requesting the retirement before the Kentucky Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator that has traditionally analyzed and approved or denied power plant retirements.?

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear — who echoed the concerns of utilities in vetoing the bill and calling it unconstitutional — is over a month overdue in making appointments to EPIC. The? statutory deadline was July 1.

Sen. Robby Mills. (Photo by LRC Public Information)

Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, asked Andrews if the appointments to EPIC were forthcoming or if he was aware of anything that was “holding up” Beshear’s? appointments. Andrews replied the governor’s office had “gotten recommendations” and that the appointments would happen “very quickly.”?

Crystal Staley, a spokesperson for the governor’s office, in a statement to the Lantern in early July said the office was “working on a process that is legal under the Kentucky Constitution” to make the appointments, and that letters seeking nominations had been sent.?

Andrews, speaking with the Lantern after his presentation to lawmakers, said the research center can provide expertise to make sure the “work product is as technically sound as possible” for both the nuclear research authority and the fossil fuel retirement review commission.?

He told lawmakers he was in the “very early” work of building the scope of how EPIC would operate, which includes considering the state’s future power needs, including possibly? trying to attract large energy consumers such as data centers.

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Kentucky State University, state public health department partner to bolster workforce

Sarah Ladd — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 16:54:18 +0000

Kentucky State University. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

Kentucky’s Department of Public Health will now offer an internship program to Kentucky State University students who wish to get hands-on experience in the field while studying.?

Employees of the Department of Public Health (KDPH) will also get tuition assistance for continuing their education at Kentucky State University (KSU). Such employees can take five or fewer courses per academic year for free.?

KSU becomes the 10th postsecondary institution in the state to benefit from such a? partnership with KDPH, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced Thursday. The other institutions are Bellarmine University, Eastern Kentucky University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, University of Pikeville, Simmons College of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University.

KSU president Koffi Akakpo said in a statement the new partnership, which is effective immediately, will “benefit our students, the future of the public health workforce and the citizens of Kentucky.”?

KDPH says it’s hired nine full-time employees as a result of its Student Internship Program, which created 40 internships and hosted 107 students.?

“Public Health supports an easier path to a healthier life for all Kentuckians,” Dr. Steven Stack, Kentucky’s public health commissioner, said in a statement. “Those interested in entering the field can choose from a full spectrum of services, from newborn screenings and nutrition education to administering vaccines, medication programs and so much more. The professional development opportunities, provided through our programs, will help students find their niche in improving health outcomes for large populations.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in 2022 that the COVID-19 pandemic “strained many essential frontline professionals, including public health workers.”?

From March 2020 to January 2022, the CDC said, most public health workers had a COVID-19 component to their job. At the time, the CDC said, “40% of the workforce intends to leave their jobs within the next 5 years.”?

A 2023 study published in the health policy journal Health Affairs examined those public health workforce trends before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.?

Researchers said then there is “critical urgency needed to address the shrinking state and local governmental public health workforce that has the potential to jeopardize the safety, security, and economic prosperity of the U.S.”?

That study concluded: “Given the likelihood of increasing outbreaks and future global pandemics, recruitment and retention must be prioritized, especially for younger staff, who represent the future of the public health workforce.”?

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A look at how federal plans could make the costs of housing more affordable?

Casey Quinlan — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 23:15:52 +0000

A sign advertising units for rent is displayed outside of a Manhattan building on April 11, 2024. The Biden administration and the Harris campaign are making their housing policy case to the American people as Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump compete for voters’ trust on economic issues. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

As renters and would-be homeowners struggle with the high cost of housing, the Biden administration has announced policies to address this strain on household budgets.

That includes $100 million in funding for a program to incentivize affordable housing production and streamlining loan application processes to expedite building more housing.

Some of those proposals – such as a cap on rent increases from corporate landlords – call for congressional action, while others are rules and grants that can be done without legislative approval. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will also be finalizing a rule to allow different kinds of housing, such as duplexes and triplexes, to be built under the agency’s manufacturing and safety standards.

KY housing shortage will worsen without action, low-income renters most vulnerable, says study

The Biden administration and the Harris campaign are making their housing policy case to the American people as Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump compete for voters’ trust on economic issues. An August Financial Times/Michigan Ross poll shows that Harris is slightly ahead of Trump when it comes to who voters trust more on the economy, by 1 percentage point. Although that is a very small advantage, it is a change from July, when 35% of voters approved of President Joe Biden’s job on the economy compared to 41% for Trump.

Plans would cut red tape, but housing stock is still low??

The administration’s plans to address supply and soaring prices also include repurposing federal land in Nevada and a cap on rent increases from corporate landlords, which would require congressional action. Housing and homelessness experts say many of these changes are positive, particularly zoning changes, while others argue that a few of these actions are insufficient for the crisis at hand.

On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced her plans for boosting housing affordability if she wins the presidency. Harris’ plans are similar to some of the Biden administration’s approaches to housing policy, with an emphasis on stopping corporate landlords from driving up rents and knocking down local zoning barriers to building affordable housing. She also announced a policy to provide up to $25,000 in payment assistance for first-time homebuyers on the condition that they paid rent on time for two years.

“We will take down barriers and cut red tape, including at the state and local levels, and by the end of my first term, we will end America’s housing shortage by building 3 million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the middle class,” Harris said at a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday.

Indivar Dutta-Gupta, who focuses on policy research and seminars at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, applauded developments to make it easier and less costly to build affordable housing through the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program, which provides funding for communities getting rid of barriers such as “outdated” zoning policies and a “lack of neighborhood amenities.”

“It’s very difficult for a builder to just kind of copy and paste their plans from one community to another. Secondly, we’re not just talking about requirements for special permitting and land use that are tedious,” he said. “They’re time consuming and that dramatically increases the cost of housing, so if you can knock down a process that takes 12 months to six months, that can make a big difference for housing affordability.”

Kenneth Chilton, professor at the department of public administration at Tennessee State University, said there are certainly homes being built – just not enough affordable ones between $100,000 and $300,000 in the area he lives in Nashville. Wages have also not caught up to those prices, he added.

“The market has catered to the more affluent households, so there are new houses being built, but they’re million dollar-plus houses for people who can afford or are willing to put themselves in a financial burden to afford a million dollar house,” he said. “… It’s becoming harder and harder to afford the discretionary income needed to save up for down payment.”

The Biden administration and Congress has also focused more on corporate landlords of late, who are influencing the housing market. Dutta-Gupta and Chilton said that even in situations where they make up a smaller percentage of landlords, their practices influence other landlords and drive up rents. Chilton, who has studied how firms that can quickly snatch up all kinds of properties can influence regional housing markets, said it’s hard for the average homeowner to compete.

“You have a lot more corporations and investors who are buying up housing,” he said. “Some of those are institutional, but there’s been recent reports that even smaller local landlords are kind of adopting the same business practices of one-year leases with built-in cost of living adjustments. They’re operating like corporate landlords.”

He said that none of the Biden administration proposals he saw accounted for potential homebuyers, who have to apply for loans, failing to compete with groups and investors making all-cash purchases without inspections. Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation in Congress to limit corporate landlords’ power, but it has not passed.

Dutta-Gupta said the Biden administration’s recent efforts are putting “meaningful dollar amounts” into the quest for affordable housing through grant opportunities, even though they are probably below the demand. He said he’s also heartened to see that the U.S. Department of Transportation is making sure its discretionary infrastructure grants give preference to communities with more “pro-housing policies,” to give localities more incentives to favor affordable housing. But he said the administration has to make sure it effectively communicates this through outreach.

“There’s going to have to be a meaningful effort to explain to the communities that there’s a new preference and this is how those communities can potentially fall into that category of the preference,” he said. “You don’t want to just let them know there’s a preference and then no change in behavior happens.”

Although Trump has talked about mortgage rates during his campaign, he hasn’t provided a lot of detail on housing policies. The Federal Reserve’s federal funds rate has an influence on mortgage rates and Trump has said the president should “have at least a say” in Fed policy. The Republican Party’s 2024 platform also includes a section on housing affordability, which mentions tax incentives to “promote homeownership,” allowing for new home construction on some federal lands, and reducing regulations that “raise housing costs.”

The challenge of keeping people housed

Given the challenges to building the supply of more affordable housing, the National Alliance to End Homelessness would like to see broader policy approaches to prevent more people from becoming homeless. Homelessness reached a record high in 2023.

Although the Biden administration has taken steps to expand housing access for groups particularly vulnerable to homelessness, such as veterans and survivors of intimate partner violence, Steve Berg, chief policy officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, would like to see more of a universal approach, such as housing vouchers that meet the scale of the need. He said targeted emergency rental assistance combined with eviction moratoriums in places where homelessness is particularly high and rising quickly would also be effective at reaching the people who need it most.

“The eviction moratorium combined with subsidies for landlords to help when people got behind on their rent were very effective interventions,” Berg said of earlier pandemic policies to keep people housed.

Why political leaders are focused on housing

The Federal Reserve has signaled it is close to cutting key interest rates as inflation has slowed and the housing market has begun to cool in response to high mortgage rates. The Fed started to raise interest rates in 2022 and hiked them 11 times until late 2023, putting pressure on the housing market during a time of high demand for housing and a shortage of affordable homes.

In May, U.S. rent growth was up 3.2% from a year ago, which was the biggest gain there has been in more than a year, according to CoreLogic’s single family rent data. A lack of housing affordability is also closely tied to homelessness. From 2019 to 2023, the number of people who had to go to emergency shelters for the first time rose more than 23%, a 2024 report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness shows.

“The Federal Reserve primarily slows the economy by making construction of residential housing, and generally taking out loans, more costly. People are certainly experiencing the higher cost of housing right now due to the higher interest rates, so the timing [of the policies] may be fortuitous,” Dutta-Gupta said.

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KY housing shortage will worsen without action, low-income renters most vulnerable, says study

Liam Niemeyer — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 23:03:20 +0000

One of the slides from the presentation by Patrick Bowen, showing the number of needed housing units in each county as a percentage of the existing housing units. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer).

LOUISVILLE — A leader of a national real estate research firm says if no action is taken over the next five years on Kentucky’s housing shortage, more Kentuckians could be forced to live in substandard housing, live with family or friends in crowded spaces, deal with severe housing costs or become homeless.

Patrick Bowen, the president of Ohio-based Bowen National Research which conducts housing market research across the country, presented findings Wednesday at an affordable housing conference. Bowen’s report is part of a housing gap study commissioned by the Kentucky Housing Corp., the state’s independent public corporation that invests in housing projects. It? compared Kentucky’s current housing needs to projected needs in five years.?

Patrick Bowen said repairing and weatherizing existing housing can help ease the gap. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Kentucky currently needs about 206,000 housing units, including rentals and homes for sale. Without a push to build or repair more housing, that number is projected to increase by more than 80,000 by 2029 to 287,000-plus housing units, driven significantly by the need for lower-income rentals and higher-income homes for sale.?

“It can be daunting. You can make it feel like the mountain is so high. How are you going to address this?” Bowen said. “But Kentucky, you’re not alone, right? This is a national crisis we’re going through.”

The estimate of housing needed takes into account what’s needed for a healthy housing market, to meet economic growth and to move Kentuckians out of poor-quality housing or from under? severe housing cost burdens, meaning they pay 50% or more of their income on housing.?

“If you care about the economy, care about jobs, when people spend over 50% of their income towards their housing costs, they’re not spending — they don’t have disposable income,” Bowen said.?

Bowen said while the highest need? is in the state’s largest population centers of Louisville, Lexington and Northern Kentucky, rural counties could face a similar housing supply crunch by 2029. The consultant presented a map showing the number of housing units needed in each county as a percentage of the overall number of housing units in the county.?

By 2029, the study projected the? housing gap in numerous rural counties will rise to more than 18% of their existing housing units. Simpson, Breathitt, Boyle and Carroll counties would all have a housing gap to existing households of more than 20%. Bowen said Carroll County is projected to? need only 866 housing units by 2029, but proportionally the county is “feeling this impact of the housing gap” just as much as other counties.?

“Employers are feeling it, the citizens are feeling it, and it’s true for these bigger parts of the state, but rural Kentucky shouldn’t be forgotten,” Bowen told the audience.

Patrick Bowen, right, and Wendy Smith of the Kentucky Housing Corporation on stage for opening remarks at an affordable housing conference in Louisville, Aug. 21, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer).

The increasing housing gap for low-income Kentuckians, particularly renters, is projected to substantially worsen across the state. The number of rental housing units needed in each county as a percentage of the county’s total existing rental housing units is expected to be more than 30% in nine counties by 2029 including Franklin, Breathitt, Powell, Boone and Boyle counties. The rental housing gap in Simpson County is projected to be 46.5% of its total rental housing stock by that year.?

Bowen’s firm found rental housing demand rising across all income levels but most significantly among households earning at or below 30% of an area’s median income. The gap in rental units, the study detailed, was equally driven by the growth in number of households along with those living under severe housing costs.?

A look at how federal plans could make the costs of housing more affordable?

Bowen told the Lantern that while more housing units need to be built in Kentucky, other solutions such as weatherizing and repairing existing homes or providing financial assistance to those facing severe housing costs could help reduce the housing gap as well. He said encouraging housing developments of all kinds, especially affordable housing, is key.?

“I think there should be a broad plan that allows people to stay in their homes if that’s what they want to do,” Bowen said.?

The state’s housing gap, if left unchecked, could worsen the living situations of manyKentuckians, Bowen said. More people could be forced to move into living spaces with family and could be facing severe housing costs.

“Some of these people are going to become homeless,” Bowen told the Lantern.?

Wendy Smith, deputy executive director of the Kentucky Housing Corporation, said the second phase of the corporation’s housing gap analysis should be made publicly available in September. Smith recently presented the first phase of the corporation’s analysis before a task force of lawmakers.

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Fiscal path clear for another cut in Kentucky’s income tax, lawmakers hear

Liam Niemeyer — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 21:06:12 +0000

The Budget Reserve Trust Fund is projected at $3.5 billion by the end of fiscal 2026 — about 21.9% of General Fund revenues. (Getty Images)

Kentucky’s state budget director told lawmakers Wednesday that fiscal thresholds established by the GOP-dominated legislature before the state income tax can be lowered have been met at the end of this fiscal year.?

That means Kentucky lawmakers are likely to vote to reduce the state’s income tax rate by another half-percentage point to 3.5% during the 2025 legislative session, which would then go into effect at the start of 2026. That anticipated income tax cut is a part of a series of pending income tax cuts of a half percent set in motion by landmark tax legislation passed by state lawmakers in 2022.?

Sen. Chris McDaniel (LRC Public Information)

Kentucky Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chair Chris McDaniel told the Lantern that lawmakers have “worked diligently” toward hitting the fiscal triggers to lower the income tax.?

“The receipts were great last year and the spending was restrained, which is the combo that we were looking for back in the day when we wanted to go with this trigger scenario,” McDaniel said.?

Democrats and a coalition of advocacy groups have previously pushed against Republican-led efforts to lower the state’s income tax eventually to zero, a goal backed by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. But Republican legislative leadership told the Lexington Herald-Leader earlier this summer the state’s income tax rate may not reach lower than 3%. Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, told the newspaper in May the state could have to significantly restructure taxes — such as by raising the sales tax — to go lower than a 3% rate.

One of the two fiscal triggers to lower the income tax rate was not met at the end of the previous fiscal year, meaning the legislature could not lower the income tax rate during this year’s regular session. At that time, McDaniel said a “successful implementation of policy” had balanced a desire to lower the income tax with recognizing the need to fund government services.?

The two fiscal triggers established by the legislature to lower the income tax rate are based on revenue going into the Budget Reserve Trust Fund, known as the “rainy day” fund, and revenue going into General Fund revenues:

The rainy day fund balance must be at least 10% of what total General Fund receipts were in the fiscal year that just ended.?
Total General Fund receipts for the year just ended must have exceeded General Fund spending by at least the amount that it would cost to cut the income tax rate by one full percentage point.?

In this year’s legislative session, researchers with the left-leaning think tank Kentucky Center for Economic Policy said state lawmakers moved the goalposts of the landmark tax law establishing the income tax cut triggers, thereby making it easier for the income tax rate to be lowered. These researchers say lawmakers did so by making sure billions of dollars in spending from the Budget Reserve Trust Fund didn’t count toward General Fund receipts that could have blocked another income tax cut.

Jason Bailey

Jason Bailey, executive director of KCEP, told the Lantern on Wednesday that while he appreciates hearing Republican leadership potentially reconsidering eliminating the income tax, any income tax cut is concerning because of its significance as a revenue source. If the relatively strong economy turns south, he said, that could potentially mean budget problems with a reduced income tax to rely on.?

“Each time they cut a [percentage] point, it raises questions about, ‘How are we going to pay for that?’” Bailey said.? “In addition to the economy being strong overall, the national economy and still seeing the pandemic spending flow through … some other unique characteristics … led to a lot of revenue this year, but doesn’t necessarily mean moving forward (revenue) will continue to be as strong.”?

McDaniel said funding used from the Budget Reserve Trust Fund was “never contemplated as being expenditures that otherwise count against these triggers,” saying monies from the fund were specifically one-time spending and not recurring expenditures.?

“We just had to clean up definitional items to allow it to be used in that way,” McDaniel said, characterizing the think tank as “grasping at straws.”?

The Republican state senator added he shared Osborne’s sentiment that additional income tax cuts below a 3% rate would be more difficult, but he believes lowering the income tax further wouldn’t be impossible.?

“As we see the final impact of these actions, which are still years away, we’ll really begin to make those assessments and have the conversations at that time,” McDaniel said.?

Budget Director John Hicks in his presentation to the Interim Appropriations and Revenue Committee said the Budget Reserve Trust Fund is anticipated to sit at approximately $3.5 billion by the end of fiscal year 2026 given monies lawmakers have budgeted into the fund and one-time allocations out of the fund. That amount would be about 21.9% of General Fund revenues for fiscal year 2026.?

Hicks pointed out for fiscal year 2024, revenue from individual income taxes and revenue from sales and use taxes were about the same for the first time at about $5.8 billion. Income tax revenue had declined 0.6%, and sales tax revenue had increased by 4.1% after three consecutive fiscal years of double-digit increases in sales tax revenue. The income tax and sales tax each made up approximately 37.3% of General Fund revenues, making the two revenue sources nearly three-fourths of the General Fund revenues.

Kentucky hospital workforce is rebounding, but still has too many vacancies??

Sarah Ladd — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 18:47:00 +0000

Kentucky’s non-doctor health care workforce is on the mend, though state hospitals still have thousands of unfilled positions.?(Warodom Changyencham/Getty Images)

Kentucky’s non-doctor health care workforce is on the mend, though state hospitals still have thousands of unfilled positions.?

That’s according to an August report released by the Kentucky Hospital Association that shows 12% of positions in the state’s hospitals were empty in 2023, with nurses being the most in-demand. The data comes from 94% of the state’s acute care hospitals that responded to an association survey.?

The report shows Kentucky hospitals had a nearly 17% vacancy rate for registered nurses (3,899 positions) last year. That’s down from 19% in 2022.?

Nancy Galvagni (KET screenshot)

This decrease “indicates to us that all the hard work that our hospitals are doing is starting to pay off,” Nancy Galvagni, the president of the Kentucky Hospital Association, told the Lantern. “Things are trending in the right direction.”?

However, the number of vacancies is still too high, she said.?

“We don’t want to have a false impression that there is no problem anymore,” she said. “There’s absolutely a problem with 16% — almost 4,000 — vacancies. That’s very concerning. This is still a critical issue.”?

Kentucky — and the nation — have a well-documented nursing shortage, which was exacerbated by COVID-19-induced burnout and an aging worker population.?

“We’ve been having a nursing crisis, really, since COVID, the pandemic, which caused a lot of nurses to either retire early; some new nurses decided they didn’t want to continue in nursing, or certainly at the bedside,” Galvagni said. “And our members have been working extremely hard to invest, through pay, through efforts to retain nurses, to improve the work environment.”?

Retention and recruitment?

Report screenshot

About 11% of hospital registered nurses are nearing retirement, the report shows. About 15% of the state’s RNs are 55 years or older, putting them about a decade out from retirement.?

Appealing to young Kentuckians is key for the hospital association, Galvagni said.?

“The older baby boomers are pretty much very few in the workforce,” she said. “So, our hospitals are looking (at) how they can appeal to those younger workers.”?

Sometimes staff visit schools to show students what a career in medicine could look like, she said.?

They want “to make health care careers appealing to younger people and exciting, and (we’re) trying to get them to think about health care careers when they’re choosing a career for the future,” she said. “We have to get more people choosing to enter the health careers.”?

Hospitals are also working to increase pay and offer better benefits for the nurses in their employ.?

During the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers passed bills that Galvagni expects to improve retention and recruitment for Kentucky’s nursing workforce.?

Among those are House Bill 194, which made it a Class D felony to assault a health care worker.?

“Of course, that’s not the silver bullet, but it’s helpful,” Galvagni said. “Hopefully (it) acts as a deterrent, and because that is a concern … for our health care workers.”??

Lawmakers also passed House Bill 159, which decriminalized medical mistakes made by health care providers. Galvagni believes this new law can help recruit people to health professions in the state.

“I believe it sets Kentucky apart from even many other states that don’t have that law,” she said. “I think all of these bits and pieces help make a better environment in our state for health care workers.”?

Meanwhile, staffing shortages in any health facility can impact patients’ experience, Galvagni said, especially when it comes to speed of care.?

“If you’re coming to the emergency room, it could mean a longer wait to get seen,” Galvagni said. “It also might mean that hospitals can’t have all their beds open. … Hospitals have a lot of physical beds, but you can’t put patients in beds if there’s not enough staff. It could mean, if you’re having elective surgery, that it’s a longer way to get that scheduled.”??

Report screenshot

Other key takeaways?

The report shows, for 2023:?

Kentucky’s hospitals have 8,641 full time vacancies for a total workforce vacancy of 12%. That’s down from 15% in 2022.?
Registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and nursing assistants are the most needed.?
Kentucky’s hospitals have 3,899 unfilled registered nurse positions, 254 licensed practical nurse vacancies and 1,264 nursing assistant vacancies.??
Among registered nurses, there are significant shortages for psychiatric (24% vacant), medical surgical (23% vacant) and critical care (19% vacant).
Millennials (39%) and Generation Z (23%) together represent about 63% of the current RN workforce in Kentucky. These workers are 40 and younger.?
Generation X (born between 1966 – 1980) represents 27% of the RN workforce in Kentucky.?
Baby Boomers (57 and older) are 11% of the RN workforce in Kentucky.?

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Some of the poorest Kentuckians pay the highest power bills because their houses leak energy

Liam Niemeyer — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 09:50:53 +0000

“The cheapest kilowatt hour is the one you don't have to produce in the first place,” said Byron Gary, a Kentucky Resources Council attorney. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Investor-owned Kentucky Power faced strong criticism last year when it asked to increase its electricity rates in response to “historic” economic decline among the 20 Eastern Kentucky counties it serves.?

The Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) ultimately slashed the proposed rate hike by over two-thirds, approving a 5.66% increase in residential bills. But as part of that decision, Kentucky Power agreed to collaborate with a coalition of consumer and renewable energy advocacy groups on ways to help ratepayers reduce their electricity bills by making their homes more energy efficient.

Kentucky Power ratepayers already paid the state’s highest average residential electricity bill at $187 a month before last year’s rate increase, and the area the utility serves includes some of the poorest communities in the state and the entire country.?

Advocates and the utility met over recent months, but the coalition of groups is disappointed in what Kentucky Power has proposed and plans to urge the PSC to push the utility to be more ambitious with its energy efficiency offerings. These groups say energy efficiency programs could offer home upgrades that households could repay through monthly utility bills while they save electricity and money.?

Byron Gary, a Kentucky Resources Council attorney representing the groups, said much more could be done “to cut down on the suffering of folks in Eastern Kentucky as well as the continued reliance on fossil fuels.”?

He said the groups hope robust energy efficiency offerings could also reduce the utility’s power demand and, the groups hope, dissuade the utility from building a new natural gas-fired power plant that ratepayers would bear the costs of.?

“The cheapest kilowatt hour is the one you don’t have to produce in the first place,” Gary said.?

Kentucky Power spokesperson Sarah Nusbaum in a statement said the utility is surprised and disappointed by the criticism “especially from groups we would have expected to support energy efficiency programs.” Nusbaum said the utility’s goal is to gauge interest from ratepayers in the new program offerings that could then lead to those programs being ramped up and expanded.

The ratepayers who pay the highest bills

Kent Chandler

During a hearing over Kentucky Power’s rate case last year, then-PSC Chairman Kent Chandler honed in on data provided by the utility that showed Kentucky Power’s poorest ratepayers had, on average, the highest electricity usage compared to the utility’s average residential customer. That high usage leads to high bills.

“Those customers that are likely least able to afford their bill, relative to the average residential customer, have the highest bill, is that right?” Chandler asked Kentucky Power President Cynthia Wiseman during the hearing.?

“I would presume that’s true,” Wiseman replied.?

Bills are significantly higher for those whose incomes are low enough to qualify for federal assistance through the Low Income Home Energy Program (LIHEAP), a federally funded program that helps low-income people afford utility bills.

The average monthly electricity consumption for all Kentucky residential ratepayers in 2022 was 1,094 kilowatt-hours, according to the Energy Information Administration. But the data presented by Chandler showed electricity consumption for Kentucky Power ratepayers was higher than that average — significantly higher for those receiving LIHEAP assistance.?

During the winter months when electricity consumption peaks for Kentucky Power, the Eastern Kentucky utility’s ratepayers who take part in LIHEAP on average use more than 2,500 kilowatt-hours per month. Multiply that consumption by Kentucky Power’s average residential rate? — approximately 16 cents per kilowatt in 2022, among the highest in the state? — and you get monthly electricity costs north of $400. During some months the past three winters, roughly 20% of Kentucky Power ratepayers who take part in LIHEAP have used more than 4,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to Kentucky Power data provided to the PSC. Wiseman during a November 2023 PSC hearing mentioned some ratepayers’ monthly electricity usage has gone as high as 6,000 kilowatt-hours.?

A major reason cited by Kentucky Power leadership for such high electricity consumption: Many homes need better insulation and better, more efficient heating sources.?

Disagreement after a collaboration

That’s where energy efficiency programs and “weatherizing” a home can play a role in reducing electricity usage and electricity bills. Chris Woolery, a residential energy coordinator for the nonprofit Mountain Association supporting economic development in Eastern Kentucky, said that kind of work can include better insulation, air sealing a home and installing energy-efficient heat pumps to warm a household.?

Many Kentuckians, Woolery said, have types of resistance heat such as electric furnaces and baseboard heaters, or they use space heaters.?

“That is some of the most expensive and inefficient heat that you can buy,” Woolery said, saying switching people to use heat pumps is key. “When a utility can invest in getting people off of resistance heat, they can often save so much money in peak demand, generation or power purchase costs that it offsets the investment.”

A focus on improving Kentucky Power’s energy efficiency programs is something that state government officials, nonprofit housing builders, consumer advocacy and renewable energy groups and Kentucky Power all collaborated on in a series of stakeholder meetings.?

The meetings were characterized as “mutually beneficial” by Barry Nolen, a customer and distribution services manager with Kentucky Power, in testimony filed before the PSC.?

Kentucky Power is proposing to add additional funding for an existing program that helps ratepayers get energy efficiency upgrades through home air sealing, new insulation, new doors, new windows and new lighting. The federal Weatherization Assistance Program is what facilitates those upgrades, but oftentimes homeowners who need that help are deferred or denied it because of damage or structural issues to a home.?

If there’s a roof leak, for example, newly installed insulation could be destroyed by water damage. That’s where the federal Weatherization Readiness Fund comes in to support ratepayers making home repairs necessary before making energy efficiency improvements. Kentucky Power is also offering additional funding for a federal fund, up to $1,000 for 60 homes over three years.

Andy McDonald

But advocates that collaborated with Kentucky Power say while the new investments are appreciated, they still don't meet the scale of the need among Kentucky Power’s ratepayers.?

“It must be in the thousands, if not the tens of thousands of homes that need improvements in Kentucky Power’s territory,” said Andy McDonald, vice-chair of the solar energy advocacy group Kentucky Solar Energy Society. “We appreciate that Kentucky Power is aware of this issue and concerned about it” but that the program “is not in proportion to the need.”

The groups also see potential for going further with new programs the utility could offer. The groups point to a type of program called Inclusive Utility Investment (IUI) where individual households could receive energy efficiency upgrades to their home in exchange for a charge on their bill, potentially saving money on their bill while the utility still recoups their investment. They also point to the potential of replicating a program offering home battery storage systems.

McDonald shared with the Lantern a consultant report from the Vermont-based consulting firm Energy Futures Group that showed the amount of investment in energy efficiency programs Kentucky Power would be proposing is much lower than what other utilities offer and lower than what Kentucky Power itself has invested in the past. The PSC in 2018 scrapped almost all of Kentucky Power’s energy efficiency programs stating the “high levels of spending” on the programs couldn’t be justified.??

Nusbaum, the Kentucky Power spokesperson, said in her statement the utility was focused on programs that were “proven and cost-effective to customers” and that the utility didn’t believe an IUI program “would provide benefits that would outweigh the cost to our customers.”?

Nusbaum also said they determined the amount of funding for the Weatherization Readiness Fund through consultation with community action agencies in the state that administer such help, an investment level the utility believes is “impactful for customers” while also being mindful of what ratepayers will have to pay on their bills to implement such programs.?

“We worked hard to develop this proposal to help our customers,” Nusbaum said. “Some of the good work we felt was accomplished to make this happen, we did with some of the groups criticizing the current proposal. It’s disappointing to hear negative feedback and opposition from these stakeholders, especially since this opposition can delay or even prevent the important [demand side management] benefits these programs will provide for our most vulnerable customers.”

Worries over fossil fuels

Kentucky Power's gas-fired Big Sandy power plant in Lawrence County. (Creative Commons photo)

These disagreements over energy efficiency come as Kentucky Power is seeking more power generation, some of it potentially through additional fossil fuels. The prospect concerns advocacy groups that the cost of building, for example, a new natural gas-fired power plant would fall on ratepayers.?

“We're really excited that they're starting new programs, but we're just disappointed that the scale is not enough to affect that [natural gas] peaker plant that's proposed,” Woolery said. “Every one of those investments is so meaningful to the families that received them, but in the grand scheme it’s going to take a whole lot more to offset the need, right?”

Kentucky Power currently only has one natural gas-fired power plant and it’s unclear if the utility will have access to electricity generation from a West Virginia coal-fired power plant beyond 2028. Kentucky Power is a subsidiary of American Electric Power based Columbus, Ohio.

As of now, that leaves the utility having to purchase the rest of its power from the regional electricity grid operator PJM, which can expose the utility to potentially paying higher power prices compared to producing it on its own. The PSC scolded Kentucky Power last year for having insufficient in-house power generation available during a December 2022 winter storm, forcing the utility to pay exorbitantly high electricity prices from PJM as much of the South and Midwest faced a power demand crunch.

Kentucky Power leadership in an energy planning document filed to the PSC last year wrote its “preferred plan” for the future was to add to its energy portfolio a 480-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant along with 700 megawatts of new wind power, 800 megawatts of new solar power and 50 megawatts of electricity battery storage. The utility also put out requests to purchase up to 1,800 megawatts of fossil fuel-fired and renewable energy last year.?

Nusbaum, the utility spokesperson, in her statement said while energy efficiency programs are an important part of addressing future energy needs, it can not “alone cannot fully address all of them.”?

Woolery framed the energy efficiency programs as a choice Kentucky Power has to make: invest in a “really risky path” of adding a natural gas-fired power plant amid uncertainty over how greenhouse gas emissions will be regulated, or invest in a “virtual power plant.” He said that means investing in energy efficiency in homes, rooftop solar, household battery storage that can reduce the future energy demand — and the potential for a new natural gas fuel-fired power plant — the utility is considering.

“It just seems like the smart play, the play that's going to make more jobs, going to save more money, going to create less risk and uncertainty is to invest in ourselves, to invest in our communities,” Woolery said.

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

Kentucky’s housing shortages receive legislative scrutiny

Liam Niemeyer — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 09:30:32 +0000

Rep. Randy Bridges, R-Paducah, who was the primary sponsor of the resolution creating the Kentucky Housing Task Force, speaking with Rep. Jacob Justice, R-Elkhorn City, during this year's legislative session. (LRC Photo)

Kentucky doesn’t have enough housing. On that even the state’s lawmakers can agree.

But the reasons for the shortages differ from community to community, exacerbated by natural disasters in some counties and a booming economy in others.?

A task force, established by the GOP-dominated legislature earlier this year to better understand the state’s housing needs, has met twice this summer to hear from leaders of housing agencies and local elected officials about what they’re seeing in their communities. The task force is set to meet again Aug. 20 with three more meetings after that leading up to next year’s legislative session.?

Co-chaired by Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, and Rep. Susan Witten, R-Louisville, the task force is required to submit their findings and recommendations to the Legislative Research Commission by Dec. 1.?

Here are the major takeaways from the two meetings.

Shortage straining renters and homeowners

Wendy Smith, deputy executive director at the Kentucky Housing Corporation, an independent public corporation that invests in housing projects, told the task force in June that Kentucky has a shortage of 206,000 housing units, but that shortage isn’t just for rental units. It also includes a lack of luxury homes and apartments that could help attract a workforce to communities.?

A slide from a presentation by the Kentucky Housing Corporation’s Wendy Smith, showing the percentage of available housing units as a share of a county’s overall housing stock. (Screenshot)

The Kentucky Housing Corporation released the first phase of a report on the state’s housing gap earlier this year, with the second phase of the report coming sometime this month detailing a five-year projection of housing based on migration patterns, job announcements and the status of home starts.

Smith, citing the housing gap report, called the shortage “Kentucky’s most urgent issue” affecting all counties from rural areas to larger cities. She pointed to an increase in first-time homelessness as a symptom of a “market problem.”?

“Because there’s not enough supply in the overall marketplace, we’re losing ground in serving the folks we try to serve. The overall marketplace needs more housing, and we need kind of a systematic approach that helps Kentucky be able to build and get brought to market more housing to meet our economic and population growth,” Smith said. “If we had enough supply — not even affordable, just enough supply — Kentucky would have lower average housing costs. Supply will bring down costs. That’s just, that’s economics, right?”?

While the lack of homes for buyers is evenly distributed across incomes, Smith said, lower-income Kentuckians are disproportionately affected by the lack of rentals. And while the largest number of housing units needed are in Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green, the need for housing is spread out across the state.?

A slide from a presentation by Kentucky Housing Corporation’s Wendy Smith, showing the percent of vacant rental units in each county as a share of overall housing stock. (Screenshot)

“I think there are a lot of folks who might think rural areas don’t have a housing crisis, and I can tell you, I am hearing from so many rural county judge executives and other leaders that they have a real need for more housing,” Smith said.?

Disasters, new jobs and ‘local resistance’?

Smith also testified in June that natural disasters destroyed and damaged housing, including roughly 5,000 housing units combined lost from a deadly tornado outbreak in December 2021 and deadly Eastern Kentucky floods in July 2022.?

Damage from natural disasters have also increased home insurance and rental insurance costs, she said, referencing New York Times reporting that showed claims for losses in 2023 were larger in Kentucky than any other state, except Hawaii.?

Another factor in some communities, she said, was housing strain brought on by economic growth, “local resistance” to building new housing and a lack of home builders.

She pointed out that many small builders “who did the lion’s share of construction in rural Kentucky,” quit during the Great Recession earlier this century. “They got out of business. They haven’t gotten back into it,” she said. “If they’re even trying, it’s hard for them to get access to lending.”?

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory testified in the July task force meeting alongside other local officials that the jobs and economic activity brought by building the BlueOval SK electric vehicle battery plants were creating “unintended issues” with housing.?

Joe Reverman, the director of land use planning for Elizabethtown, said the city in the past has issued permits for about 100 housing units every year; over the past two years, that number has spiked to roughly 2,000 units. Reverman said keeping up with the infrastructure provided to the homes has been a major challenge.?

“With the previous state of development, we’ve been able to kind of plan and provide infrastructure in places where it was needed,” Reverman said. “But when you increase that tenfold, just in a short amount of time, it’s really difficult to build that infrastructure in advance.”?

Another local official in rural Marshall County also testified that the lack of available utilities, including high-speed internet access, limited housing growth.?

Boone County Judge-Executive Gary Moore also said that local control of housing development is going to be “huge,” saying that some people in his county are more resistant to building affordable, lower-income housing.?

“There’s places that people definitely understand the need for low-income housing and may be willing to consider it,” Moore said. “Other parts of the county, they know we need it — but ‘not in my backyard.’”?

A desire for denser ‘middle’ housing

Smith, the Kentucky Housing Corporation deputy director, and local officials also spoke about the need for denser housing, particularly in cities, to help increase the housing supply.?

Smith said the state generally lacked “middle housing,” explaining that zoning laws in Kentucky usually only allowed for the building of single-family homes or apartment complexes — and nothing in between. The federal funding the housing corporation gets, she said, is also usually geared toward building single-family homes and apartment complexes. She said the building of other types of housing ranging from duplexes, triplexes and more has almost “zeroed out.”?

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, who testified in July, said density could also mean taking single-family homes and turning them into duplexes, or adding more housing density with major transportation corridors for people to have access to transportation routes. He said given the limited amount of land to build new homes in Jefferson County, building more townhouses, duplexes, triplexes and other dense housing could be a solution.

“When you think of the way the world is evolving, people are looking to live in different ways than they have historically,” Greenberg said. “From an architectural standpoint, there is no visible added density, but maybe two families just live on smaller lots than what historically has been the case.”?

Elizabeth Strojan, the new executive director of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority, described housing density from her experience of living in the Highlands, a neighborhood on the east side of Louisville.?

“So you might walk past a single-family home, and the home next door is a duplex. And the home next door is an apartment building,” Strojan said. “It makes for a beautifully diverse neighborhood, so density can look different depending on what the context is.”?

Greenberg said some of the millions of dollars in funding the legislature appropriated to the city is being used to convert downtown office space into housing.?

What’s next for the housing task force?

When Mills, the co-chair of the task force, began the second meeting of the study group in July, he emphasized that the purpose of the committee wasn’t to “create or develop legislation” and that lawmakers wanted to hear about housing challenges around the state.?

Rep. Randy Bridges, R-Paducah, a member of the task force who was the primary sponsor of the bipartisan resolution to create the interim committee, told the Lantern that while he can’t speak for Mills, he thinks the committee can find other ways to make changes in housing through the regulations, either by creating new ones or modifying existing.?

“We don’t want to make a knee jerk reaction and come up with statutes that will be counterproductive or have unintended consequences,” Bridges said, who works as a Paducah real estate agent. “What we do realize is some of these may not require new laws.”?

Housing advocates and nonprofit home builders had called on lawmakers to invest $200 million? into state housing trust funds, citing a flush state “rainy day” fund, to provide a reliable source of investment for housing construction, especially to rebuild housing in areas of the state recovering from natural disasters. GOP legislative leadership did not heed those calls, instead providing funding for specific housing projects instead.?

Bridges said he didn’t want to appear to be “turning a deaf ear” to those advocates, saying that he wants to keep an open mind about possible solutions. But he said large appropriations for housing were probably not “in the list of urgency” on what he believed lawmakers would do.

“Where are we going to get the most return on our investment?” Bridges asked.?

Harris’ California health care battles signal fights ahead for hospitals if she wins

Bernard J. Wolfson, KFF Health News — Tue, 06 Aug 2024 09:40:58 +0000

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in Greensboro, North Carolina, July 11, 2024. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

When Kamala Harris was California’s top prosecutor, she was concerned that mergers among hospitals, physician groups, and health insurers could thwart competition and lead to higher prices for patients. If she wins the presidency in November, she’ll have a wide range of options to blunt monopolistic behavior nationwide.

The Democratic vice president could influence the Federal Trade Commission and instruct the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to prioritize enforcement of antitrust laws and channel resources accordingly. Already, the Biden administration has taken an aggressive stance against mergers and acquisitions. In his first year in office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order intended to intensify antitrust enforcement across multiple industries, including health care.

Under Biden, the FTC and DOJ have fought more mergers than they have in decades, often targeting health care deals.

“What Harris could do is set the tone that she is going to continue this laser focus on competition and health care prices,” said Katie Gudiksen, a senior health policy researcher at University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.

The Harris campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.

For decades, the health industry has undergone consolidation despite government efforts to maintain competition. When health systems expand, adding hospitals and doctor practices to their portfolios, they often gain a large enough share of regional health care resources to command higher prices from insurers. That results in higher premiums and other health care costs for consumers and employers, according to numerous studies.

Health insurers have also consolidated in recent decades, leaving only a handful controlling most markets.

Health care analysts say it’s possible for Harris to slow the momentum of consolidation by blocking future mergers that could lead to higher prices and lower-quality care. But many of them agree the consolidation that has already taken place is an inescapable feature of the U.S. health care landscape.

“It’s hard to unscramble the eggs,” said Bob Town, an economics professor at the University of Texas.

There were nearly 1,600 hospital mergers in the U.S. from 1998 to 2017 and 428 hospital and health system mergers from 2018 to 2023, according to a KFF study. The percentage of community hospitals that belong to a larger health system rose from 53 in 2005 to 68 in 2022. And in another sign of market concentration, as of January, well over three-quarters of the nation’s physicians were employed by hospitals or corporations, according to a report produced by Avalere Health.

Despite former President Donald Trump’s hostility to regulation as a candidate, his administration was active on antitrust efforts — though it did allow one of the largest health care mergers in U.S. history, between drugstore chain CVS Health and the insurer Aetna. Overall, Trump’s Justice Department was more aggressive on mergers than past Republican administrations.

Harris, as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017, jump-started health care investigations and enforcement.

“She pushed back against anticompetitive pricing,” said Rob Bonta, California’s current attorney general, who is a Democrat.

One of Harris’ most impactful decisions was a 2012 investigation into whether consolidation among hospitals and physician practices gave health systems the clout to demand higher prices. That probe bore fruit six years later after Harris’ successor, Xavier Becerra, filed a landmark lawsuit against Sutter Health, the giant Northern California hospital operator, for anticompetitive behavior. Sutter settled with the state for $575 million.

In 2014, Harris was among 16 state attorneys general who joined the FTC in a lawsuit to dismantle a merger between one of Idaho’s largest hospital chains and its biggest physician group. In 2016, Harris joined the U.S. Department of Justice and 11 other states in a successful lawsuit to block a proposed $48.3 billion merger between two of the nation’s largest health insurers, Cigna and Anthem.

Attempts to give the state attorney general the power to nix or impose conditions on a wide range of health care mergers have been fiercely, and successfully, opposed by California’s hospital industry. Most recently, the hospital industry persuaded state lawmakers to exempt for-profit hospitals from pending legislation that would subject private equity-backed health care transactions to review by the attorney general.

A spokesperson for the California Hospital Association declined to comment.

Consolidation can also have benefits, especially for financially troubled hospitals that become part of bigger groups and for physicians who don’t want the burdens of running their own practices. (Getty Images)

As attorney general of California, Harris’ work was eased by the state’s deep-blue political hue. Were she to be elected president, she could face a less hospitable political environment, especially if Republicans control one or both houses of Congress. In addition, she could face opposition from powerful health care lobbyists.

Though it often gets a bad rap, consolidation in health care also confers benefits. Many doctors choose to join large organizations because it relieves them of the administrative headaches and financial burdens of running their own practices. And being absorbed into a large health system can be a lifeline for financially troubled hospitals.

Still, a major reason health systems choose to expand through acquisition is to accumulate market clout so they can match consolidation among insurers and bargain with them for higher payments. It’s an understandable reaction to the financial pressures hospitals are under, said James Robinson, a professor of health economics at the University of California-Berkeley.

Robinson noted that hospitals are required to treat anyone who shows up at the emergency room, including uninsured people. Many hospitals have a large number of patients on Medicaid, which pays poorly. And in California, they face a series of regulatory requirements, including seismic retrofitting and nurse staffing minimums, that are expensive. “How are they going to pay for that?” Robinson said.

At the federal level, any effort to blunt anticompetitive mergers would depend in part on how aggressive the FTC is in pursuing the most egregious cases. FTC Chair Lina Khan has made the FTC more proactive in this regard.

Last year, the FTC and DOJ jointly issued new merger guidelines, which suggested the federal government would scrutinize deals more closely and take a broader view of which ones violate antitrust laws. In September, the FTC filed a lawsuit against an anesthesiology group and its private equity backer, alleging they had engaged in anticompetitive practices in Texas to drive up prices.

In January, the agency sued to stop a $320 million hospital acquisition in North Carolina.

Still, many transactions don’t come to the attention of the FTC because their value is below its $119.5 million reporting threshold. And even if it heard about more deals, “it is very underresourced and needing to be very selective in which mergers they challenge,” said Paul Ginsburg, a professor of the practice of health policy at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy.

Khan’s term ends in September 2024, and Harris, if elected, could try to reappoint her, though her ability to do so may depend on which party controls the Senate.

Harris could also promote regulations that discourage monopolistic behaviors such as all-or-nothing contracting, in which large health systems refuse to do business with insurance companies unless they agree to include all their facilities in their networks, whether needed or not. That behavior was one of the core allegations in the Sutter case.

She could also seek policies at the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs Medicare and Medicaid, that encourage competition.

Bonta, California’s current attorney general, said that, while there are bad mergers, there are also good ones. “We approve them all the time,” he said. “And we approve them with conditions that address cost and that address access and that address quality.”

He expects Harris to bring similar concerns to the presidency if she wins.

This story is republished from?KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Study says undocumented immigrants paid almost $100 billion in taxes

Casey Quinlan — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 00:17:58 +0000

Texas National Guard soldiers stand on patrol near the bank of the Rio Grande on April 2, 2024 in El Paso, Texas.?A new study shows that undocumented immigrants paid nearly $100 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue in 2022. The findings run counter to anti-immigrant rhetoric that immigrants who inter the U.S. illegally hurt social programs. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

A new study shows that undocumented immigrants paid nearly $100 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue in 2022 while many are shut out of the programs their taxes fund. The findings run counter to anti-immigrant rhetoric that undocumented immigrants are “destroying” social programs.

In 40 states, undocumented immigrants paid higher tax rates than the top 1% of the income scale in those states, according to a study released Tuesday from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning, nonprofit think tank.

The study, which uses estimates of undocumented immigrants’ tax contributions as of 2022, shows those totaled $96.7 billion that year. Study authors also found that undocumented immigrants would contribute $40.2 billion more per year in federal, state and local taxes if all of the undocumented population had access to work authorization. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reasoned that this boost would come from higher wages associated with employment authorization and easier compliance with income tax laws.

The report also shed further light on the tax revenue provided by undocumented immigrants on the state and local level. Undocumented immigrants are paying 46% of their state and local tax payments through sales and excise taxes. Six states — New Jersey, New York, California, Florida, Texas, and Illinois — were able to raise more than $1 billion each in tax revenue from undocumented immigrants, the nonprofit said.

Undocumented immigrants pay property taxes and sales taxes, and federal payroll taxes taken from their wages, as well as income tax returns using Individual Taxpayer Identification numbers. Despite those payroll taxes funding Medicare, Social Security and Unemployment Insurance, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in and receive regular benefits from these social programs. They can also face barriers to getting tax refunds, including getting scammed by unscrupulous tax preparers who target immigrant communities, said Jackie Vimo, senior analyst of economic justice policy at the National Immigration Law Center in a media call on the report.

“There are tons of laws that prevent undocumented workers from getting benefits…” said Richard C. Auxier, a principal policy associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank that was not involved in the study. “…They get a lot of political attention. At the end of the day, they’re just normal people paying normal taxes.”

Alexis Tsoukalas, senior policy analyst at Florida Policy Institute, a nonprofit focused on economic mobility for Floridians, told reporters on Monday that she was struck by how much the state collected from undocumented immigrants in taxes compared to the wealthiest in the state. The current tax rate for undocumented immigrants in Florida is 8% compared to the top 1% of the state at 2.7%.

“This means hundreds of thousands of everyday people are contributing more than their share to public services they cannot even access meanwhile those with the most to give and the most to benefit contribute the least,” Tsoukalas said.

The study was released in the backdrop of a political climate where states have passed laws to arrest people who they suspect of entering the U.S. illegally, which has been a federal power,? the Biden administration announced an executive action to allow for the deportation of many asylum seekers without processing their claims, and the 2024 Republican Party platform promises the “largest deportation operation in American history” if former President Donald Trump is reelected over presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Tax policy will also be front and center for Congress and the White House next year as provisions of Trump’s tax law, passed in 2017, are set to expire.

Aside from the human cost of deportations on families, policy experts and researchers are making the case that undocumented immigrants are a boon to the economy, making it an economic cost as well. Immigration and economic experts who spoke about the significance of the report on Monday highlighted the Congressional Budget Office’s July report on the rise in immigration and its effects on the economy and budget, which found that this increase in immigration would add $1.2 trillion in federal revenue from 2024 to 2034.

Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said there are economic ripple effects to consider in the deportation of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. beyond taxes.

“If you deported someone and they’re no longer making taxable purchases in their community, that number would reflect a reduction in their sales tax payments to the community but it wouldn’t capture that second ripple effect of the business has less profits because they have fewer customers,” Davis said in a media call on the study.

Auxier said that researchers have found children in an undocumented immigrant household are receiving education benefits that could be larger than the tax payments of the lower income working adults, but that this is more of an income issue than a specific immigration issue. The other side of that coin, Auxier notes, is that in the future, undocumented households may in fact give back more than they received.

“Those same studies tend to note that if the children go to school and they then go get jobs, now the American household is giving more than it got because the parents came here, worked, paid into Social Security, Medicare, and didn’t get any benefits,” he said. “The kid went to school and then they got a job and then they started earning enough money that they were a net contributor.”

Policy experts also pointed to a labor shortage — 8.1 million job openings and 6.8 million unemployed workers — as a reason to embrace the economic contributions of undocumented immigrants. South Dakota, North Dakota, Maryland, Vermont, Maine, and South Carolina are some of the states facing the greatest labor shortages, according to a Washington Post analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“Immigrants are already filling that [labor] gap and if we have mass deportations where millions of immigrants are torn from their family members and the country they have made home, we will not only have the human impact of this but we’ll have a severe effect on the economy and available workforce,” said Vimo of the National Immigration Law Center, a group that focuses on racial, economic and social justice for low-income immigrants.

Lawmakers join KY’s largest addiction treatment provider to oppose Medicaid payment cuts

Deborah Yetter — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 23:53:45 +0000

Addiction Recovery Care and its owner Tim Robinson have rebuilt a block in downtown Louisa into a coffee shop, commercial kitchen, community theater and an event space. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Matthew Mueller)

FRANKFORT — The state’s largest provider of drug and alcohol treatment is warning that looming cuts in Medicaid reimbursement to some providers could damage efforts to curb addiction that has engulfed Kentucky — just as the state is showing improvements.

“Kentucky has made significant strides in access to treatment,” Matt Brown, chief administrative officer for Addiction Recovery Care, or ARC, told a legislative committee Tuesday. “With these cuts, it could completely set back addiction treatment in our state 20 years.”

Matt Brown

A handful of companies that provide substance use disorder treatment, including ARC,? have been notified they face cuts of 15% to 20% from some private insurers that handle most Medicaid claims, Brown told the committee.

Brown noted that overdose deaths in Kentucky have declined for the past two years after years of rising. Kentucky also has the most treatment beds per resident, most of them through ARC, he said.

The state’s latest?annual overdose report, released in June,?shows a decrease in deaths to 1,984 from 2,200 the year before, a decline of 9.8%.

Brown was joined by Deron Bibb, chief financial officer for Stepworks, a recovery program based in Elizabethtown, and ARC executive John Wilson, also executive director of the Kentucky Association of Independent Recovery Organizations, speaking to the interim joint Health Services Committee about the cuts.

“This will likely result in higher overdose rates, higher recidivism, more crime and incarceration,” Bibb said. “We need to understand the full scope and impact of these cuts.”

The cuts have been announced by three of the six managed care organizations, or MCOs, private insurance companies that handle claims for most of the state’s $16 billion-a-year Medicaid program, Brown said.?

Kentucky lawyer climbed out of alcoholism, launched a recovery boom

Under their contracts with the state, the MCOs generally have authority to set rates they pay providers. The state pays MCOs a fixed amount per member to cover Medicaid costs.

One company also has begun notifying patients it will no longer cover addiction services at ARC effective Sept. 30, Brown said.

He did not identify the MCOs that have announced cuts and declined to do so after the hearing, saying ARC and other companies are still attempting to negotiate with them.

The Kentucky Association of Health Plans, which represents the MCOs, said in a statement released Thursday by spokesman Tyler Glick, that its members?“are proud to work collaboratively with quality, trustworthy?providers of behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment” and access to those services is “top of mind” to ensure those in need receive care.

“Health plans strive for the best networks possible and are encouraged by the state to prioritize plan member outcomes and value-based care,” it said.

Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield and co-chairman of the health committee, said Tuesday the lawmakers likely would seek more testimony on the subject, including from the MCOs.

“I know there’s two sides to every story,” he said.

Wellcare, with 420,000 members, is the largest of the six MCOs followed by Passport by Molina, Aetna, Anthem, Humana and United HealthCare. Together they oversee payment of Medicaid claims for about 1.4 million Kentuckians.

Recovery CEO gives big to support Democrat Beshear and a host of Republicans

Wilson said the recovery organization he represents wants to make sure lawmakers are aware of the situation and already has asked them to voice concerns.

“There’s going to be real world consequences and I think it’s important to let legislators know what’s taking place,” he said.

Some defenders benefitted from owner’s largesse

Several lawmakers have signed letters urging that the MCOs suspend any cuts to substance use treatment until the General Assembly can further review the matter. They include some in key leadership positions and some who have benefited from campaign donations from ARC founder and owner Tim Robinson and his employees.

ARC, a for-profit company based in Louisa, has emerged as the state’s largest and fastest growing provider of addiction services, financed largely by Medicaid, the government health plan with the majority of funds from the federal government. Growth took off after 2014 when substance use treatment was included in the Medicaid expansion authorized by the Affordable Care Act.

The Lantern reported the company took in about $130 million last year in Medicaid funds and was by far the largest recipient of the about $1.2 billion the state spent on substance use treatment.

The company and Robinson also have become among Kentucky’s major political donors with more than $500,000 in contributions over the last decade — with funds divided among Republican causes and those of Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, the Lantern reported earlier this month, citing campaign finance and other public records.

Sen. Phillip Wheeler said he appreciates Robinson’s support but his letter was motivated by concern over possible loss of treatment services and jobs in a region that needs both. (LRC Public Information)

Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, who has received $19,900 in contributions from Robinson, his wife Lelia and ARC employees since 2016, on July 9 sent a letter to Kentucky Medicaid Commissioner Lisa Lee urging the cuts for addiction services be suspended “until the legislature fully understands the reasons behind them.”

“Kentucky has made great progress in tackling the addiction crisis that has touched so many of our constituents, neighbors, colleagues, friends and family members,” Wheeler said.?

Cutting reimbursement now “could negatively affect some of our most vulnerable citizens and prevent us from seeing these positive trends continue,” his letter said.

A similar letter addressed to “to whom it may concern” was signed by Rep. Patrick Flannery, R-Olive Hill, who has received about $17,000 in campaign contributions from Robinson and ARC employees.

Another letter was signed jointly by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, House Speaker David Osborne, R- Prospect, Rep. Kimberly Moser, R-Taylor Mill and Meredith. Moser and Meredith are co-chairs of the joint Health Services Committee which heard from ARC and other treatment officials Tuesday.

Republican supermajorities control the Kentucky House and Senate.

Robinson has given $10,000 to the Kentucky House Republican Caucus, and $15,000 to the Kentucky Senate Republican Caucus in the last four years.

Tim Robinson at ARC headquarters in Louisa, June 27, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Matthew Mueller)

Robinson also has given other contributions to campaigns of Republican state legislators in the past decade including $4,100 to Moser and $2,000 to Osborne.

From 2021 through 2023, ARC companies and employees gave about $252,000 to a political committee supporting Beshear, whom Robinson, a Republican, has said he admires and would like to see run for president.

Bibb, Stepworks’ chief financial officer, gave $500 to Flannery in December 2023 and $2,500 to the Kentucky House Republican Caucus in October 2022, according to Kentucky Registry of Election Finance records.

Not asking for more money, just no cuts, says company official

Brown said that one concern of the MCOs is the cost of treatment, in particular long-term treatment for addiction.

ARC understands concerns about costs, but experience shows people with addiction benefit the most from long-term services, Brown told the committee.

“It is not just about surviving from their addiction but thriving in their communities,” he said. “Long-term treatment is vital.”

Without quality treatment, costs to the state will rise elsewhere, Bibb said.

“These costs will not go away,” Bibb said. “They simply will shift back to the emergency room, the judicial system, foster care, homelessness.”

ARC is willing to work with the MCOs and the state to ensure it is using money efficiently and effectively, Brown said after the hearing.

“Everybody’s got to be good stewards,” he said. “We’re committed to helping provide a solution.”

Brown and Wilson said representatives of treatment providers plan to meet with MCOs and state officials in coming weeks to try to resolve their differences.

“We’re not asking for more money,” Brown said. “We’re asking for no cuts.”

Wheeler, in an interview, said he appreciates the support of Robinson, a longtime friend since college together at the University of Kentucky, but that’s not why he sent the letter.

Rather he’s concerned about the impact of cuts of up to 20% on ARC’s services, which he said have helped many people in the region including a brother who benefited from its treatment program.

Also, he said, ARC is a major employer in the area where jobs have been scarce and also trains its clients for jobs.

This story has been updated with a statement from the Kentucky Association of Health Plans.

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

U.S. home prices hit a record high as sales fell. Here’s how housing experts explain the trend

Casey Quinlan — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 00:01:57 +0000

A sign advertising a home for sale is displayed outside of a Brooklyn brownstone on April 11, 2024, in New York City.?U.S. house sales continued to fall in June as median home prices hit a record high for the second month. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

U.S. median home prices hit a record high for the second month in a row as sales continued to fall, according to a report released this week, as potential buyers continue to lie in wait for lower mortgage rates.

Existing home sales fell 5.4% in June and median home sales reached its highest level on record since prices were first tracked by the National Association of Realtors in 1999. The median price rose the most in the northeast region at 9.7%. In June, existing home sales plummeted 8% in the Midwest, the greatest fall among the regions, according to the report released on Tuesday.

New home sales, released on Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau, fell 0.6% in June and is 7.4% lower than new home sales a year ago. The median sales price of a new home was $417,300, lower than the existing home sales median price of $426,900. Housing experts say that this closeness in price is unusual, since new homes have usually sold for much more in the past 10 years and may be reflective of changing demands for smaller and more affordable homes.

Despite that change, these two measures have shown that home prices still remain out of reach for many and that in response, sales have been slow. What is driving these prices and when will they abate? Housing economists say there are many factors at play, including Fed policy and an aging population.

Why are home sales low and home prices high?

High demand for homes and lower inventory levels have contributed to higher home prices in recent years. These expensive home prices and high mortgage rates have resulted in this housing market shift.

Matthew Walsh, economist at Moody’s Analytics, said low housing affordability and the “persistently high” mortgage rate is contributing to cooling housing activity. Unless housing becomes more affordable soon, he said he expects to continue to see lower existing home sales. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.78% as of July 25, according to Freddie Mac.

“Buyers are very responsive to mortgage rates and with the information being so readily available and the anticipation that mortgage rates are going to come down, I think that’s keeping people on the sidelines,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic.

But she said homebuyers face a double-edged sword. When mortgage rates do come down, there will be a lot of pent-up demand that will also put pressure on home prices. A rise in cash buyers could also be pushing prices higher, Hepp said. All cash buyers were 28% of home transactions in June.

“A lot of these cash buyers are actually baby boomers who maybe cashed out on their existing home. We do know that home equity is at an all-time high and if you’re moving from a very expensive home price area to a lower-priced area, you obviously will have a lot of cash,” she added.

Housing inventory is changing but is it enough?

One bright spot for homebuyers is that total housing inventory has been rising. Inventory increased 3.1% from May and was up 23.4% from a year ago according to the June existing home sales report. Walsh said some households may be deciding they can’t wait to make a life change and are moving out of homes for larger or smaller options.

“It’s a lot of households that can no longer postpone plans to sell, whether that’s because their household is expanding because they’re having children or it’s shrinking and they need to sell their larger home in the Northeast and move to a smaller home to retire in the South,” Walsh? said. “They can no longer put up with the homes that they’re in and sacrifice their low mortgage rate for a higher rate.”

Still, Hepp said the inventory is far lower than pre-pandemic levels and where demand has picked up — in Boston, New York, and Chicago, for example — there’s not a proportionate increase in the supply of housing.

Some homebuyers may be watching the Fed’s plans to cut interest rates, which affect mortgage rates, for some financial relief. A majority of economists say they believe the Fed will cut rates in September and December, according to a recent Reuters poll. Cutting rates may help bring some buyers back into the market and pump up inventory, but the effect will likely not be strong enough to bring home sales back to where they were before the pandemic, Walsh added.

What is the government doing?

The Biden administration announced a flurry of proposals this month to make housing more affordable, some of which would impact homebuyers as well as the repurposing of public lands in Nevada to bring at least 15,000 affordable rental and homeownership units to the area. In February, the White House also announced the opening of grant applications for assistance to homeowners to replace dilapidated homes.

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, said at a July rally in Iowa that he would address problems in the housing market through cutting interest rates, according to Newsweek. Although presidents nominate the chair of the Fed for a four-year term, they do not have power over whether the Fed cuts rates.

States have been pursuing their own policies to improve housing inventory and affordability, including Utah and Oregon, which passed legislation to use funds for loans to developers who plan to build more affordable homes. A Maryland bill signed into law by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore in May would push property owners to make plans for vacant properties by letting cities raise taxes on those properties.

Tennessee Valley Authority faces a push to get greener and more transparent?

Robert Zullo — Thu, 25 Jul 2024 09:40:45 +0000

Nanette Mahler, left, and Tracy O’Neill, walk along Macon Wall Road in Cheatham County, Tennessee, near the site of a proposed Tennessee Valley Authority gas power plant project. Local backlash against the proposal comes as the federal utility faces bipartisan legislation in Congress seeking to boost transparency in its planning process and scrutiny of TVA’s anemic renewable power growth compared to other utilities. (By Robert Zullo/ States Newsroom)

ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. — When he heard about the sale, Kerry McCarver was perplexed.

In 2020, the mayor of rural Cheatham County discovered that the Tennessee Valley Authority bought about 280 acres of rolling farmland “in the middle of nowhere” in his county, which lies just west of Nashville and is home to about 42,000 people.

He asked another county official who formerly worked for the TVA, the nation’s largest public power company, to find out what it planned to do with the land.

The answer they got was “future use,” and they speculated a solar farm might be in the works.

“It’s kind of the last we thought about it,” McCarver said during an interview in his office in May. “Then a year ago last summer, TVA called here needing a place to have a public meeting.”

The authority was now proposing a 900-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant, battery storage, pipelines and other associated infrastructure for the site, which came as a shock to McCarver and many other locals who felt it was wholly inappropriate for the area.

“I called the county attorney and said ‘What’s our options?” McCarver said. The answer he got: “It’s TVA. You don’t have any options.”

Opposition to the Cheatham County project dominated a public “listening session” of the TVA’s Board of Directors in May, when TVA officials told States Newsroom that the proposed plant is in the early stages of development and just one potential option to meet growing power demand in the region and replace retiring coal power.

“We understand that some members of the Cheatham County community do not view this location as appropriate for a new generating site, and we respect that viewpoint,” TVA spokesman Scott Fiedler said in late June. “No decisions have been made.”

However, the backlash comes as the federal utility faces bipartisan legislation in Congress seeking to boost transparency in its planning process as well as its management and salary structure. TVA has also been in the crosshairs of green groups over its planned gas power buildout, which is among the largest proposed in the nation, and anemic renewable power growth compared to other utilities.

“Back when it was created in the 1930s, TVA was on the cutting edge of transforming a region of the country and investing in a lot of infrastructure to create that transformation,” said Amanda Garcia, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center who has worked on TVA issues for a decade.? “We‘re just not seeing that happen now.”

‘Clearly a laggard’?

Created by Congress in 1933 during the Great Depression, the TVA today provides wholesale electricity to 153 local power companies serving 10 million people in Tennessee and parts of six neighboring states.

The authority is replacing major coal-fired units at its Kingston (site of a massive coal ash spill in 2008) and Cumberland plants with gas generation and is planning to retire all of its coal power fleet by 2035. It has set a goal of 10 gigawatts of solar power by 2035 and boasts that 55% of its electric generation is carbon free, most of it hydroelectric and nuclear power. And TVA President and CEO Jeff Lyash says a little less than half of the 10 gigawatts of solar it wants to put in by 2035 is already “in operation or in development and construction.”

For comparison, though, utility giant Duke Energy had more than 10 gigawatts of solar installed across its 16-state footprint as of 2022. Environmental and clean power groups say TVA, a federal nonprofit power company, could be doing much more to advance a transition to cheaper, cleaner power.

“They, unlike many utilities, have the ability to do big things and do big things faster,” said Daniel Tait,? executive director of Energy Alabama, a clean energy advocacy organization, and a research and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute, a utility watchdog group.

Tait and others say TVA’s leadership has been historically dismissive of the role renewable power can play on the grid.

“TVA is clearly a laggard when it comes to renewable energy,” said Stephen Smith, executive director of the nonprofit Southern Alliance for Clean Energy who has served on TVA advisory panels in the past. “Florida Power & Light has deployed more solar in a quarter than TVA has in their whole history.” Smith, who joked that he’s been “beating his head against the gates of TVA since 1993, said the authority was created to “lead on big national issues” but isn’t living up to its legacy.

“They’re not demonstrating leadership on renewables, they’re not demonstrating leadership on energy efficiency. They’re not demonstrating leadership on (battery) storage,” he said, partly the result of what he called an “institutional bias” against renewable power.

TVA officials reject that notion, with a spokesman telling States Newsroom that TVA is a “clean energy leader.”

However, Lyash acknowledged at the May board meeting that supply chain challenges brought on by the pandemic, inflation, difficulty securing land for solar and the TVA’s own interconnection delays (it also runs the electric grid in its service area) have created snags.

“We’re not satisfied. We’re? going to revise our processes,” Lyash said. “We’re taking a hard look at how we can accelerate the deployment of clean energy assets. It will be a focus of ours in the coming year.”

In an interview, Lyash said the TVA is pursuing new initiatives to advance solar development,? like its pilot Project Phoenix, which would put solar panels on closed coal ash sites.

“If this is successful, and it looks like it will be, this will be replicated across our whole system,” Lyash said.

An ‘incredibly weak board’

Still, TVA, which now has a board largely appointed by President Joe Biden, remains out of step with the president’s own aggressive power sector decarbonization goals, green groups note. (The Sierra Club gave the TVA an “F” last year on its latest ranking of how well utilities are living up to their own decarbonization goals and transitioning to cleaner power).

“There’s a lot of room for the Biden administration to deepen their relationships with TVA,” said Garcia, the SELC attorney. “If the largest federal utility isn’t even coming close to that, then how can we have hope that we’re going to achieve that target to decarbonize the grid?”

The White House did not respond to an inquiry on TVA’s gas buildout or additional appointments to the board (two members appointed by former President Donald Trump saw their terms expire earlier this year.) Another Biden nomination for the TVA board has been before a U.S. Senate committee since January. TVA’s nine-member board is supposed to be its chief regulator, since TVA does not answer to state utility commissions in its territory. But, critics note, the board is part time, lacks its own staff and usually defers to the TVA executive leadership on big decisions like power plant construction.

Smith called it an “incredibly weak board led by an executive staff that’s accountable to no one,” adding that reformers have pushed for the TVA board to attend meetings of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and hire their own staff.

“I don’t know how a part-time board with no staff? and no technical capabilities can review something like an integrated resource plan effectively,” said Dave Rogers, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign.

The TVA’s long legacy in the South?

In the U.S. electric utility landscape, there’s really nothing like the Tennessee Valley Authority Created by an act of Congress in 1933 as the nation was mired in the Great Depression, the authority was tasked with, among other jobs, taming flooding and improving navigation along the Tennessee River, reforesting lands, erosion control for farmers, malaria prevention and electric power production, initially through a network of dams and hydroelectric plants.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (The White House)

“This in a true sense is a return to the spirit and vision of the pioneer,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt said in a message to Congress asking for legislation to create the TVA. The authority looms large in the lore of the region as a result of the surge in economic development and living standards it unleashed in what had been one of the most impoverished parts of the country. Average yearly income in the Tennessee Valley was about $168 in 1933, half the national average at the time.

“The most dramatic change in Valley life came from the electricity generated by TVA dams,” the National Archives notes. “Electric lights and modern appliances made life easier and farms more productive. Electricity also drew industries to the region, providing desperately needed jobs.” During a tour of the area after the TVA’s creation, the journalist Lorena Hickok wrote in a field report to the Roosevelt administration that “a promised land, bathed in golden sunlight, is rising out of the gray shadows of want and squalor and wretchedness down here in the Tennessee Valley these days.”

Indeed, not too many electric utilities get a shout out in smash country songs.The Bob McDill-penned “Song of the South,” which became a hit for the band Alabama in 1989, also speaks to TVA’s legacy: “Cotton was short and the weeds were tall, but Mr. Roosevelt gonna save us all. … Papa got a job with the TVA. We bought a washing machine and then a Chevrolet.”

There was a darker side to all that progress, however. Thousands of people across the region were displaced and in some cases entire towns were flooded, creating a number of what the Tennessee State Museum calls “underwater ghost towns.”

Today, the authority has about 10,000 employees, a budget of more than $12 billion, 29 hydroelectric plants, four large coal plants, three nuclear power plants and 17 natural gas plants, among other assets, and has one of the largest transmission systems in North America — 16,400 miles of lines covering 80,000 square miles.. It still plays a major role in economic development, but also has suffered some very public black eyes over the years, including a devastating coal ash spill in 2008 and subsequent litigation alleging the workers who cleaned it up, many of whom have since fallen ill and died, were not adequately protected. The TVA was also forced to implement its first-ever rolling blackouts in 2022 during Winter Storm Elliott as fossil fuel plants tripped off line. Since then the TVA has spent more than $123 million on winterization upgrades at the plants and made it through its highest ever peak demand during a cold snap last winter without any blackouts. – Robert Zullo

‘More transparent’?

A big part of the problem for TVA’s would-be reformers is the so-called integrated resource planning (IRP) process. Though the process varies by state and regulatory regime, many utilities across the country file IRPs with state regulators that lay out forecasts for electric demand and outline how they intend to meet their obligations to customers, including what generation and transmission projects they are likely to build under different scenarios. The process provides an opportunity for ratepayer advocates, environmental groups and large industrial customers, among other intervenors, to challenge utility assumptions about demand growth and the best and cheapest way to provide electric service.

TVA does compile an IRP, and it handpicks a working group of outsiders (who are asked to sign non-disclosure agreements, participants say) to advise on the plan. The last one was published in 2019. The current process has been paused in part because of new power plant carbon rules by the Environmental Protection Agency.

But bipartisan legislation introduced in Congress earlier this year by Tennessee Reps. Steve Cohen, a Memphis Democrat, and Tim Burchett, a Republican from the Knoxville area, is intended to pry open the TVA planning process. The bill would create an Office of Public Participation to “facilitate a process for meaningful and open public engagement … including opportunities for intervention, discovery, filed comments and an evidentiary hearing,” among other duties, a news release says. The bill would also direct TVA to include standard information about long-term sales and peak demand forecast, a summary of transmission investments, scenarios that “fairly evaluate demand-side and supply side technologies,” disclosure of modeling assumptions and analyses of fuel costs and environmental regulations, among other requirements.

Crucially it would also require the TVA board to “issue a decision approving, denying or modifying the plan, like every other utility regulator.”

Burchett and Cohen also introduced legislation that has passed the House and is currently in the Senate that would reinstate the TVA’s annual reporting requirement to Congress on executive and top manager compensation. In May, the TVA board voted separately to restructure its executive pay practices, cutting incentive-based compensation and changing the severance plan. (Lyash earned $10.5 million in 2023, making him the highest paid federal employee.)

“We’re trying to get them more and more transparent and give them some solid guidelines,” Burchett said in an interview. “If we say we’re going to let them do it, it’s not going to happen.”

Burchett, who added that TVA had become “too big and arrogant for their own good,”? said he and Cohen have been friends since their days in the Tennessee legislature.

“We might not agree on a lot of policy things,”? he said. “But public input and transparency are a couple of things we really agree on.”

Multiple attempts to reach Cohen for an interview were unsuccessful.

At the May meeting several board members acknowledged the need to improve transparency, including in publicizing lists of large capital projects approved during the budget process, and speeding up clean power projects.

“I also know that we need to go further, faster on our renewable energy goals,” Board Member Beth Geer said. Joe Ritch, the chair, said the board will “continue to review our governance processes and make changes and updates as appropriate.”

‘Everybody wins’

And while representatives of many of TVA’s local power companies showed up at the May listening session to voice support for the authority’s power plant buildout, others have some frustrations with the authority.

Most notably, Memphis Light, Gas and Water in 2022 refused to ink a new long-term contract with TVA, opting for a five-year rolling deal. It had been exploring leaving the authority as local groups pushed for cheaper and cleaner power. (Memphis LG&W turned down an interview request to discuss the contract situation.) Fiedler, the TVA spokesman, said 147 of the authority’s 153 local power companies have signed the long-term contracts.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of several environmental groups, sued over the contracts, arguing the “never-ending” deals would “forever deprive distributors and ratepayers the opportunity to renegotiate with TVA to obtain cheaper, cleaner electricity.”

A judge dismissed the suit last year, finding the groups lacked legal standing. The contracts allow local power companies to build local generation resources like solar to meet up to 5% of their average electric needs but some argue TVA should be allowing more..

“It should be 10%,” said Gil Hough, executive director of TenneSEIA, a state affiliate of the national Solar Energy Industries Association. (Nashville Electric Service’s CEO said the cap should be 15%). Hough said local power companies can often get projects done faster than the TVA and the new generation, especially solar and battery storage, helps mitigate TVA’s concerns about growing electric demand.

Hough cited a partnership between Huntsville Utilities and Toyota in Alabama that will build a 30-megawatt solar system to power about 70% of a local Toyota engine plant as a prime example. The Huntsville Business Journal reported that it was the first time the local utility, taking advantage of the new 5% local generation flexibility option, would be buying power from “someone besides TVA.”

“Everybody wins,” Hough said. “Regular ratepayers win. Economic development. TVA doesn’t have to add more generation. Solar developers win.”

‘You feel helpless’

Both Tracy O’Neill and Nanette Mahler describe themselves as Nashville “refugees” who were seeking peace and quiet when they moved out to Cheatham County. Now, though, growing power demand in Middle Tennessee is a big part of TVA’s rationale for the gas plant, pipelines and transmission infrastructure proposed for Cheatham.

“They’re taking from us to give to other people,” Mahler said.

The neighbors aren’t aligned politically (Mahler is a conservative and O’Neill a liberal environmentalist) but they’ve bonded over their mutual dread of the proposed power plant. Both live close to the site and gave a reporter a tour of the area, a collection of old farmsteads and sparsely situated single family homes along narrow country roads.

“Who would have ever thought they’d come out here and do this?” Mahler said.

They’re both members of Presvere Cheatham County, a local group formed to oppose the project and the massive disruption they fear construction and operation of the plant will bring: heavy truck traffic, pollution, noise and light and wear and tear on flood-prone local roads, among other impacts.

Despite TVA’s assertions that the project is in the early stages and alternatives are being considered, Mahler said TVA’s contractors are telling locals it’s a “done deal.”

Both fault TVA for what they say was limited outreach to neighbors.

“It feels like they have been intentionally secretive,” O’Neill said. “It’s just heartbreaking to think that all of this will be destroyed.”

That feeling of powerlessness extends to McCarver, their mayor, who said the county welcomes industrial development, but only where it makes sense.

“They don’t have a snowball’s chance to get rezoned for something like that in that area,” he said. “They just come in as the thousand pound gorilla having their way without having to ask anybody or tell anybody or even work with those neighbors or that community out there.”

State and federal elected officials haven’t been much help, he added. And offers by the county to purchase the land from TVA have been fruitless. The only thing that might derail the project, McCarver added, is some adverse finding during the environmental review that will come if the plant moves forward. TVA’s been under fire for ignoring the Environmental Protection Agency’s critiques of its plans to replace coal-fired units at its Kingston plant with gas generation. The EPA said in a review of the draft environmental impact statement for the plant that TVA fell short in a number of ways, including not evaluating enough alternatives, lapses in cost calculations and other deficiencies. The agency asked TVA to prepare a supplemental analysis, which TVA didn’t perform.

“We appreciate the input from EPA as a cooperating agency in the EIS process, which was completed with the release of the record of decision,” Fiedler, the TVA spokesman said.

For McCarver, the past year of dealing with TVA’s proposed gas plant in Cheatham has been “a horrible experience” that’s made him painfully aware of the authority’s unique powers as a federal entity.

“I’ve always dealt politically with ‘not in my backyard.’ This is not a ‘not in my backyard’ situation,” the mayor said “Their area will never be the same. … You feel helpless.”

Congress needs to rein in the TVA, and forcing it to follow local zoning would be a good start, McCarver said.

“They put up a good front. They do a good tap dance. But at the end of the day, the feeling is … they’re going to do what they want to and how they want to do it and when they want to do it, and hopefully you won’t be in their way,” he said. “Nobody should be that powerful. Why is TVA that powerful?”

IT glitch causing delays in flights, business operations globally

Paige Gross — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 15:31:55 +0000

Long queues of passengers form at the check-in counters at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, amid a global IT disruption caused by a Microsoft outage and a Crowdstrike IT problem, on July 19, 2024 in Manila, Philippines. A significant Microsoft outage impacted users globally, leading to widespread disruptions, including cancelled flights and disruptions at retailers globally. Airlines like American Airlines and Southwest Airlines reported difficulties with their systems, which rely on Microsoft services for operations. The outage affected check-in processes and other essential functions, causing frustration among travellers and lines to back up at many affected airports worldwide. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Editor’s note: The global glitch also delayed delivery of the Morning Lantern, our daily emailed newsletter, by 19 minutes. Not getting our free newsletter? Subscribe here

Air travel, banking, media and hospital systems are just some of the industries affected by a bug in a software update that has scrambled business operations for many globally Friday morning.

Many of those who use Microsoft Windows are likely experiencing a “blue screen of death” or an error page. The issue is due to a single bug in a software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which provides antivirus software for Microsoft users.

The company pushed out an update to the software overnight, and at 1:30 a.m. EST, CrowdStrike said its “Falcon Sensor” software was causing Microsoft Windows to crash and display a blue screen, Reuters reported.

CrowdStrike President and CEO George Kurtz released a statement early Friday morning on X, saying that the incident was not a security concern or a cyberattack. He added that the issue has been identified and that the company has been deploying a fix.

“We refer customers to the support portal for the latest updates and will continue to provide complete and continuous updates on our website,” Kurtz said.

The bug was causing major delays and cancellations at airports across the globe. Flight tracking data site FlightAware noted nearly 24,000 delays and 2,300 cancellations globally by 9:30 a.m. Friday. While some airlines have been able to resume operation of their digital systems, others are finding analogue solutions in the meantime.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it was monitoring the situation and suggested those experiencing travel delays and cancellations to use its FlightRights.gov website to help navigate their delays in travel.

Some states’ 911 and non-emergency lines were experiencing issues, including Alaska, Virginia and New Jersey.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy released a statement early Friday morning saying that the state had activated its State Emergency Operations Center in response to the disruptions and has provided guidance to other agencies about how to work through the situation.

“We are also engaging county and local governments, 911 call centers, and utilities to assess the impact and offer our assistance.,” he said.

Microsoft released a trouble shooting guide on X early Friday morning.

By 10 a.m. Friday, some global companies were seeing relief in their outages. Downdetector, which tracks real-time outages, showed companies like Visa, Zoom, UPS and Southwest Airlines gaining more normal operations than they were experiencing in the early morning hours.

Speaking to the hosts of Today this morning, Kurtz said he was “deeply sorry for the impact we’ve caused to customers, to travelers, to anyone affected.” He said some customers have been able to reboot and are seeing progress getting online, and that trend will likely continue throughout the day.

Effects from the global IT outage Friday continued to be felt throughout the day, especially by government systems and transportation hubs.

Courts in Massachusetts and New York experienced disrupted service, as court transcription recording systems were not operational in some Massachusetts courthouses, the Associated Press reported.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, which runs its driver’s license offices, also closed their offices for the day, with “no current estimate” on when they will reopen.

Around 4 p.m. EST, Kurtz released more statements on X, reiterating that the outage was not a security breach.

“We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption,” he said. “We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on.”

Kurtz said the company is working on a “technical update and root cause analysis” that they will share with customers, and shared a letter that was sent to customers and partners.

“We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this. I encourage everyone to remain vigilant and ensure that you’re engaging with official CrowdStrike representatives. Our blog and technical support will continue to be the official channels for the latest updates,” it said.

“Nothing is more important to me than the trust and confidence that our customers and partners have put into CrowdStrike. As we resolve this incident, you have my commitment to provide full transparency on how this occurred and steps we’re taking to prevent anything like this from happening again,” it continued.

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

How we owned a mine, or a brief history of Kentucky’s coal mining cooperative

Anya Petrone Slepyan, The Daily Yonder — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 09:50:54 +0000

Himlerville, circa 1920, was the coal camp for the Himler Coal company, a cooperatively owned mining operation in Martin County. Many of Himlerville’s original buildings still stand today. (George Gunnoe Papers, Marshall University)

For over 100 years, Himler House stood on a hill overlooking Beauty, formerly Himlerville, in Martin County. Once the site of grand Christmas parties and banquets, the house was eventually abandoned and fell to ruins.

But few of the teens, vandals, and ghost hunters who frequented the abandoned mansion knew that it had been the center of a unique and radical experiment in Appalachian history: a cooperatively owned coal mine.

The Himler Coal Company, founded in 1918, was owned and operated by a group of predominantly Hungarian miners. The founder of the company was Martin Himler, a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who had arrived in New York in 1907 with 13 cents in his pocket.

Over the course of his life Himler mined coal, published a popular Hungarian-language newspaper, owned a series of businesses, and worked for the Office of Strategic Services arresting and interrogating Nazis in post-war Europe. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2021.

Himler House was built in 1919. It served as both Martin Himler’s private residence and a center of social activity for the town. Abandoned for decades, the building was disassembled in 2022. Many original materials and items were documented and preserved so the house can be rebuilt in the future. (George Gunnoe Papers, Marshall University; Andrew Gess, 2024, courtesy of Martin County Historical and Genealogical Society)

Himler’s house in Beauty, Kentucky, was disassembled in 2022 because it was structurally unsafe. But the house is at the center of the Martin County Historical Society’s efforts to preserve Martin Himler’s legacy and revitalize the town of Beauty in the process.

Cathy Corbin is the director of the Himler Project, a group made up of a mix of local government, civic and educational institutions. The group formed in 2014 after the Himler family brought a manuscript of Martin’s unpublished autobiography to the Martin County Historical and Genealogical Society. Corbin, a former English teacher, agreed to edit the manuscript and prepare it for publication. It was through this process that Corbin came to understand Himler’s significance.

“We realized there was a lot more to Martin Himler than just being an immigrant who came to America and mined coal,” Corbin said in an interview with the Daily Yonder.

Martin Himler at his newspaper publishing desk in 1940s Detroit. (Martin County Historical and Genealogical Society)

One of the primary goals of the Himler Project is to rebuild Himler House and restore it to how it looked in the 1920s, when it was the social center of a thriving coal camp. To that end, Corbin submitted an application to have Himler House designated as a National Historic Landmark. The application is currently being considered by the National Park Service.

“It would be a tremendous economic boost to Martin County to have Himler House designated as a United States National Landmark and possibly Himlerville itself as a historic district,” Corbin said.

Himler Coal

Beauty is one of many former company towns in Eastern Kentucky. But it is not an exaggeration to say its history is wholly unique in Appalachian history, according to Briane Turley, a professor of history at West Virginia University and co-founder of the Appalachian-Hungarian Heritage Project.

Appalachian coal camps were notoriously exploitative. Miners were forced to rent their homes from the company at exorbitant prices, and the company store — the only business in town — used their own currency known as “scrip.” Other expenses, from miners’ equipment and uniforms to their transportation, were taken directly from their wages, creating a system of indentured servitude.

Martin Himler experienced this system firsthand shortly after his arrival to the United States. Born to a Jewish family in a small town called Pászto, Himler immigrated alone at the age of 18. With no contacts or resources besides a distant cousin, he accepted “free transportation” from New York to Thacker, West Virginia, to work in coal mines there.

Upon his arrival, he was informed that he owed $32 (around $1,200 in today’s dollars) for the costs of transportation and equipment. Together with the cost of room and board, and because Himler was not a very good coal miner, he expected to go months without any wages. After only eight days working in the mine, he abandoned most of his belongings and “skipped,” running away on foot to find better circumstances elsewhere.

“It was a form of slavery, and Himler understood that,” Turley told the Daily Yonder. “And he literally had to slip away in the dead of night. Otherwise, they would arrest him, have him dragged back into the camp and force him to work until he paid everything off.”

Himler later worked in another mine in Pennsylvania, along with stints doing everything from shoe cobbling to show business. But this experience in West Virginia’s coal mines was the basis for the eventual founding and operating of Himler Coal as a cooperative in 1918.

During the coalfield labor disputes of the 1920s, Himler Coal sought a middle way between unfettered exploitative capitalism and bloody battles for unionization. According to Turley, Himler was able to create his cooperative because he was a well-known and trusted presence in the Hungarian mining community, which was one of the largest immigrant groups in Appalachia at the time. This was in part due to his weekly newspaper, Magyar Bányázslap (Hungarian Miners’ Journal) which was circulated among Hungarian coal miners nationwide.

Himler Coal was the only known cooperatively-owned coal mine in Appalachia or anywhere else in the world. Martin Himler’s experience as a coal miner when he was a young man inspired him to pioneer a less exploitative alternative to standard mining corporations. (George Gunnoe Papers, Marshall University)

“Because he had experienced the worst environments of coal mining in Appalachia before unionization, he knew how difficult the work was and how unfair labor practices were among the corporations that ran the mine,” Turley explained. “The mining companies were out for a lucrative, quick profit.”

In contrast, the miners themselves were shareholders of Himler Coal and sat on the company’s governing board, an arrangement unheard of in Appalachia or elsewhere. Himler himself never owned more than 3% of shares, according to Turley.

Himlerville

Himler Coal’s unique structure was also reflected in its company town, Himlerville. Unlike standard coal camps, Himlerville’s miners owned their own houses. Himler also did away with the oppressive “scrip” system at the company store.

“The company stores in most of Appalachia were terrorist organizations. You either purchased from them or you didn’t survive,” said Turley. “But there it was just one of many stores. You could go someplace else.”

Himlerville was known for its relative luxury. Each house had electricity and indoor plumbing, which was almost unheard of in Appalachian coal camps in those days.

In his autobiography, Himler writes that his personal objective in developing Himlerville was “to raise the standard of living of my people in every respect. My people were encouraged to live up to the standard in their modern and much-appreciated homes, and visiting Americans were astounded to see coal miners eating off white tablecloths and using white napkins.”

More than 100 miners’ homes were built in Himlerville in the 1920s. The town was lively; social events included movies twice a week, lectures on European and American history, and shows and dances put on by a 24-piece brass band. (George Gunnoe Papers, Marshall University)

Himler also put great emphasis on education. The local school was soon rated the top school in the state of Kentucky. And because such a large percentage of miners and residents were Hungarian, the school was bilingual. Himler also considered Himlerville to be a great Americanization project and organized a night school to teach civics and prepare miners to become U.S. citizens.

According to the Himler House’s registration form for the National Register of Historic Houses, Himlerville was found to be the nation’s second most livable coal town by the U.S. Coal Commission.

“One of my miners told me that life on the camp would have been paradise were it not for the mine,” Himler wrote in his autobiography. “And he was right.”

Of course, Himlerville was not free from controversy. The Hungarian press was divided on Himler’s exploits – he was too conservative for the Left and far too radical for conservatives. Additionally, there was often tension between American-born Appalachians and Hungarian immigrants in Martin County. Linguistic and cultural differences played their part, as did nativism and negative stereotyping on both sides.

Martin Himler and his nephew, Andrew Fisher, on the scaffolding of the Himler Coal Company Store. Privately-owned homes and a non-exclusive company store made Himlerville unlike any other coal camp in the region. (George Gunnoe Papers, Marshall University)

But like so many American utopian experiments, Himlerville would prove to be short-lived. After World War I, the coal industry fell into a depression. Supply continued to increase as mines got more efficient, but without the demand driven by the war, prices fell steeply. Like many coal companies in the 1920s, Himler Coal could not survive the downturn in the market and the company struggled financially. A devastating flood in 1928 marked the end of an era. Himler Coal went bankrupt and Himler and most of his miners left the town.

Preserving legacy

Today, nearly 30 original miners’ homes are still standing and in use in Beauty, along with the original Himler Coal company bank, powerhouse, railroad bridge, and Hungarian Cemetery.

Himler House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, but the Martin County Historical Society is aiming to upgrade that status to a National Historic Landmark — a much rarer designation that indicates national significance. The Historical Society also hopes that the rest of Himlerville could eventually be declared a National Historic District. The National Historic Landmark application for Himler House is currently under review.

“Each of these sites are very important to Martin County and to Eastern Kentucky,” said Corbin. “If the house does receive National Landmark designation, this is a tremendous asset for this area of Appalachia, which has been hit hard by lack of coal mining.”

The Himler Project’s goals go beyond rebuilding and restoring the house itself. Celebrating Himlerville’s history and legacy has become an international affair, with Hungarian musicians and scholars participating in cultural and scholarly exchanges in Appalachia.

The Historical Society hopes to develop a museum, and potentially add a restaurant and event space to make the house into a destination for school field trips and tourism alike. Himler’s later work interrogating Nazis for the Office of Strategic Services makes him a local entry point for Holocaust history, a topic that is mandatory in Kentucky public schools. Some other ideas to generate tourist traffic include adding Beauty to a National Scenic Byway like the Coal Heritage Trail, or connecting it physically to a network of local hiking trails.

But historical preservation is never a cheap proposition, especially in the case of a house that has to be rebuilt from its foundations. Charlotte Anderson, president of the Martin County Historical and Genealogical Society, said funding is the biggest obstacle.

The project is estimated to cost nearly $1.9 million dollars, and in one of the poorest counties in Kentucky, that kind of funding is hard to come by. The Historical Society puts on a number of annual fundraisers, selling Polish sausages, sweets, and soup beans at various events.

“One of our board members is somewhat famous in our area for his soup beans, so that’s a big fundraiser for us. Now, when I say big, I mean a thousand dollars or so. That’s about as much as we get at any one time,” Anderson said. “It’s been a slow process, trying to come up with things in order to make the money to get at it.”

Jim Hamos is Martin Himler’s great-great-nephew, and one of several family members involved in the Himler Project. He worries that Beauty is too inaccessible to attract much out-of-state tourism.

Today Beauty is an unincorporated town in Martin County with a population of around 900 people. (Photo by Andrew Gess, 2024, courtesy of Martin County Historical and Genealogical Society)

“I don’t know how many people will make that sort of trek. It’s one thing when you’re off an interstate highway, but it’s another thing when you’re so remote” Hamos said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “I find it really interesting. But how it becomes someplace where lots of people will go and pay money, I don’t know. But I’m hopeful.”

The National Parks Service lists tax incentives, access to grants, and assistance with preservation as some of the key benefits of National Historic Landmark status. Corbin is hopeful that such a designation will give the Himler Project the support they need to rebuild Himler House and manage the site as a tourist destination.

In the meantime, Hamos, who was himself a refugee during the Hungarian Revolution, takes inspiration from the lessons that can be learned from Himlerville.

“I’m thrilled that the people of Martin County want to do this. They’re trying to claim a piece of their history,” Hamos said. “I do believe this country is a family of immigrants. So I think that’s what we should be continuing to accept in this country.”

This story is republished from The Daily Yonder under a Creative Commons license.

Federal regulator: Pharmacy middlemen appear to be raising prices, hurting patients

Marty Schladen — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 14:49:30 +0000

Each of the three largest pharmacy benefits managers — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx — is part of a much-larger corporation that also owns a top-10 health insurer. They also own pharmacies, doctors offices and other links in the health chain, prompting the FTC to say they’re “vertically integrated.” (Photo by Lynne Terry, Oregon Capital Chronicle)

The federal trade watchdog has released an interim report Tuesday saying that sprawling health care conglomerates are driving out competition in the pharmacy sector and appear to be increasing prices in the process.

The interim report comes after the Federal Trade Commission in 2022 announced that it was undertaking a sweeping investigation of pharmacy middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs.

Bill would save Kentucky consumers money, help independent pharmacies survive, says sponsor

Each of the three largest PBMs — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx — is part of a much-larger corporation that also owns a top-10 health insurer. They also own pharmacies, doctors offices and other links in the health chain, prompting the FTC to say they’re “vertically integrated.”

The corporations’ pharmacy benefit managers act as insurers’ representatives in pharmacy transactions. They decide which drugs are covered, they create pharmacy networks, and through an opaque system, they decide how much to reimburse pharmacies for the drugs they dispense.

The three biggest PBMs together are handling nearly 80% of prescription-drug transactions on behalf of insured Americans, the FTC report said. The largest six PBMs manage nearly 95% of all such prescriptions in the United States, it said.

The summary adds that the big PBMs “wield enormous power and influence over patients’ access to drugs and the prices they pay. This can have dire consequences for Americans, with nearly three in ten surveyed Americans reporting rationing or even skipping doses of their prescribed medicines due to high costs.”

For its part, and industry group representing PBMs said the businesses “have a proven track record of reducing prescription drug costs” and that they “recognize the vital role pharmacies play in creating access to prescription drugs for patients.”

JC Scott, president of the industry group,?the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, said the FTC had treated the PBM industry unfairly.

“Throughout this process, FTC leadership has shown that they have pre-determined conclusions that they want to advance irrespective of the facts or the data, and this report demonstrates an intention to follow through on their agenda regardless of the evidence,” Scott said in a statement.

But many independent and small-chain pharmacies dispute that PBMs have their interests at heart.

Because they control access to so many patients, most pharmacies — especially small operations — feel they have little choice about signing the contracts the big PBMs offer them. For years, they’ve been complaining of declining reimbursements and seemingly arbitrary clawbacks from the huge PBMs. Many have been fleeing the business, saying they’re unable to cover their expenses.

Late last month, for example, news broke that Rite Aid would close hundreds of stores in Ohio and Michigan, with many more likely to close in the other 14 states where the bankrupt chain operates. The company tends to operate in smaller communities and the FTC says pharmacy closures in such communities are particularly harmful to patients.

“PBMs also exert substantial influence over independent pharmacies, who struggle to navigate contractual terms imposed by PBMs that they find confusing, unfair, arbitrary, and harmful to their businesses,” the agency said in a statement accompanying the interim report. “Between 2013 and 2022, about ten percent of independent retail pharmacies in rural America closed. Closures of local pharmacies affect not only small business owners and their employees, but also their patients. In some rural and medically underserved areas, local community pharmacies are the main healthcare option for Americans, who depend on them to get a flu shot, an EpiPen, or other lifesaving medicine.”

CVS operates the largest retail chain, so when its PBM decides how much to reimburse pharmacies for drugs, it’s using what the FTC called an “extraordinarily opaque” system to pay its own pharmacies and its competitors for the drugs they dispense.

Similarly, all three of the biggest PBMs operate mail-order pharmacies for expensive “specialty” drugs such as cancer medication. And they often encourage — if not require — patients to get their medicine from them. That has resulted in PBM-affiliated specialty pharmacies controlling 70% of sales in that class of drugs, the FTC report said.

Using mail-order for complex, quickly changing cancer drug regimens has led to horror stories among patients forced to get their drugs that way. Meanwhile, the FTC report uncovered evidence that in at least some instances, PBMs are paying their own companies’ pharmacies more for drugs in those transactions than they do their competitors.

“Our analyses also highlight examples of affiliated pharmacies receiving significantly higher reimbursement rates than those paid to unaffiliated pharmacies for two case study drugs,” it said. “These practices have allowed pharmacies affiliated with the three largest PBMs to retain levels of dispensing revenue well above estimated drug acquisition costs, resulting in nearly $1.6 billion of additional revenue on just two cancer drugs in under three years.”

Such practices have already prompted Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to sue Express Scripts under the state’s antitrust law, the Valentine Act.

PCMA, the industry group, accused the FTC of using an unrepresentative sample in its analysis.

“Today’s interim FTC report falls far short of being a definitive, fact-based assessment of PBMs or the prescription drug market,” Scott, the group’s president said. “Members of the commission themselves disagree with the content of the report and the decision to release it. This report is based on anecdotes and comments from anonymous sources and self-interested parties, and supported only by two cherry-picked case studies that are implied to be representative of the entire market. The report completely overlooks the volumes of data that demonstrate the value that PBMs provide to America’s health care system by reducing prescription drug costs and increasing access to medications.”

The FTC report also slammed arrangements under which the big PBM’s negotiate huge rebates and other discounts from drugmakers.

Because PBMs control access to so many patients, they have great leverage when they negotiate rebates and other discounts from makers of patented or “branded” drugs. The middlemen control the “formulary,” or list of covered drugs, and manufacturers have to cough up big if they want their products to be on it.

The system of granting huge, non-transparent discounts has already been shown to increase the “list” price of drugs. That’s the amount you would pay if you didn’t have insurance — and often the price on which your copayment or deductible is based.

The FTC said it came across another way the rebate system appears to be costing patients — by locking them out of cheaper generics that would work just as well.

“While this interim report principally focuses on the relationship between PBMs and pharmacies, we share evidence that PBMs and brand pharmaceutical manufacturers sometimes enter into agreements to exclude generic drugs and biosimilars from certain formularies in exchange for higher rebates from the manufacturer,” the report said. “These exclusionary rebates may cut off patient access to lower-cost medicines and warrant further scrutiny by the Commission, policymakers and industry stakeholders.”

FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan in March said that some of the PBMs weren’t cooperating with the investigation. Those problems apparently persist.

“The report notes that several of the PBMs that were issued orders have not been forthcoming and timely in their responses, and they still have not completed their required submissions, which has hindered the Commission’s ability to perform its statutory mission,” the agency said in a statement. “FTC staff have demanded that the companies finalize their productions required by the 6(b) orders promptly. If, however, any of the companies fail to fully comply with the 6(b) orders or engage in further delay tactics, the FTC can take them to district court to compel compliance.”

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Driving surge in demand for power, data centers eye Kentucky

Liam Niemeyer — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 09:50:13 +0000

An Amazon Web Services data center under construction in Stone Ridge, Virginia, on March 27, 2024. Amazon plans to spend almost $150 billion in the coming 15 years on data centers, giving the cloud-computing giant the capacity to handle an expected explosion in demand for artificial intelligence applications and other digital services. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

LOUISVILLE — The boom in artificial intelligence is fueling a proliferation of new data centers? — the computer clusters that power the internet — in “places that maybe we hadn’t thought of before,” an industry spokesman told utility regulators gathered in Louisville last month.

Kentucky could be one of those places in the not-so-distant future.

The state’s largest utility and the legislature have taken steps to attract the investments — potentially billions of dollars — that come when companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon develop data centers. The data center boom is also fueling surging demand for power at a time when climate change has upped the pressure to reduce heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels.

In an earnings call in May, the CEO of the parent company of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities said it is “actively working with several large data centers” in Kentucky. PPL Corp. CEO Vince Sorgi said the prospective centers would each need 300 megawatts to 500 megawatts of electricity.

For comparison, one prospective data center could consume the entire power generation of one of LG&E and KU’s coal-fired units. E.W. Brown Generating Station, the utility’s coal-fired power plant in Mercer County, has a net power capacity of 457 megawatts.?

Kentucky lawmakers are among those who see economic potential in these large-scale computer hubs. The GOP-dominated state legislature earlier this year sweetened the enticements for data centers to locate specifically in Jefferson County through House Bill 8, a broad tax policy law passed over the veto of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear.?

HB 8 gives sales tax breaks on data center equipment if a data center owner or operator makes a capital investment of at least $450 million or a “project organizer” invests at least $150 million. Those tax breaks would need approval from the state’s incentives board, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority.

Rep. Jason Petrie, chairman of the Kentucky House budget committee. (LRC Public Information)

The Kentucky Lantern requested an interview with Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, the chair of the Kentucky House Appropriations and Revenue Committee and the leading sponsor of HB 8. In response, Petrie in a statement said the incentives in HB 8 were “consistent with our ongoing efforts to make sure Kentucky remains competitive as we continue to explore potential economic investments.”

WDRB reported in April that Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said he was excited about a “transformative” economic development project involving a data center that could locate in the southwestern part of the city but declined to discuss additional details about the project.

?The prospect of attracting data centers to Kentucky, however, also raises concerns among advocates for the environment who follow utility policy: Would Kentucky consumers be forced to shoulder the financial burden of building new transmission lines and power plants to supply data centers with power? Does the state have enough clean energy to attract data center companies that want access to it?

Randy Strobo, a Louisville attorney focusing on environmental issues and litigation, said state and federal governments ultimately have the responsibility to analyze how new data centers would impact Kentucky’s regional electric grid and local communities “from all different perspectives.”?

“There’s going to be other impacts other than just energy,” Strobo said, mentioning how some data centers use large amounts of water to cool computers. “They really need to weigh all the different costs and benefits and try to balance it out in a way that helps more people than hurts them.’

What are data centers — and what can they bring?

In addition to the highly publicized boom in AI services, other factors are also driving the surge in new computer hubs, including the demand for “cloud” storage space and computation power along with a slew of data-driven enterprises across the globe.?

Josh Levi, the industry spokesperson and president of the Data Center Coalition who addressed the Louisville conference, put growing data usage in simpler terms: Sending emails. Using search engines. Streaming video. Credit card transactions. Sending high-definition medical records to help make diagnoses in health care.

Speaking at a conference of state utility regulators in Louisville in June were, from left, Kevin Hughes, vice president of public affairs for STACK Infrastructure; Josh Levi, president of the Data Center Coalition, and Pamela Quinlan, a principal at GQ New Energy Strategies. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

“We’re doing it in more places: our home, our office, our home office, the plane, the train. We’re doing it all hours in a day,” Levi told the Louisville audience. “It seems like we’re fairly ubiquitous in our command to generate data, and our companies are very much responding to that.”?

The payoff, at least in terms of capital investment and potential tax revenue, can be significant for communities and states that have the power, internet connection and workforce.?

Communities in Northern Virginia — a nucleus of data center development? — could reap tens of millions of dollars from local taxes on the operations. Critics, however, say that Virginia’s state tax breaks for data centers generally cancel out any new revenue brought in by local governments.?

States outside the data center hubs of Virginia and Atlanta have already benefited from the boom. In Mississippi, Amazon is spending about $10 billion to build two data center campuses. In Southern Indiana across the Ohio River from Louisville, Facebook’s parent company Meta is investing $800 million in a data center.?

Levi in a statement to the Lantern also asserted data centers have a job multiplier effect beyond their direct employment, pointing to a Data Center Coalition-commissioned report by consulting group PricewaterhouseCoopers that found that nationally each data center job supports six jobs elsewhere in the broader economy.?

“By prioritizing investments in local communities, data centers also boost supply chain and service ecosystems, creating jobs for thousands of construction professionals during the building phase and providing quality, high-wage jobs for ongoing operations,” Levi said in his statement. “Further, every data center comes with years of reliable support for local economies by promoting job creation at restaurants, hotels, rental car agencies, fiber and HVAC installers, steel fabricators, and many other businesses.”

What do data centers need — and at what cost?

Levi said data center developers are looking for fiber internet connections, a workforce to build and run the centers and places less at risk for natural disasters.

They also need power, and lots of it.

According to a January 2024 report from consulting firm McKinsey and Co., electricity demand by data centers in the United States is expected to go from 17 gigawatts in 2022 to 35 gigawatts in 2030. For comparison, Kentucky’s net summer capacity — the maximum amount of electricity produced in the state during peak summer electricity demand — in 2022 was 17.6 gigawatts, according to federal data.

Would ratepayers get handed the bill for expanding electricity generation and transmission to accommodate energy-hungry data centers? (Getty Images)

“Reliable power is incredibly important to the data center industry,” Levi said at the conference. “This is an industry who is relied upon to provide non-stop access to the data.”?

But in weighing potential investments and jobs, some environmental advocates in Kentucky worry about who would pay for new transmission lines and power plants if they’re needed to run data centers.?

“As these new data centers are coming online, how are we going to pay for them?” said Strobo, the environmental attorney. He questions whether states should offer “huge incentives” to data centers given the possibility that the costs to accommodate them could fall on electricity ratepayers.?

Two utilities, including American Electric Power, the parent company of Kentucky Power, are protesting before a federal regulator an agreement between Amazon and an independent power producer to use electricity from a Pennsylvania nuclear plant because of concerns that up to $140 million in electricity transmission costs for the agreement could be shifted onto ratepayers. Talen Energy, the independent power producer, is pushing back against AEP’s protest.

Some environmental advocates also worry about heat-trapping carbon emissions connected to new data centers, particularly that demand from new data centers could be keeping older coal-fired power plants online when they could be retired. In Georgia, the state’s largest utility is building new natural gas-fired or oil-fired generators along with some solar battery facilities in part to meet the future power demands of data centers.

Levi told the Lantern that access to clean energy is a consideration for where data centers locate. For example, Amazon is helping pay a local utility in Mississippi to build solar farms to pair with its new data center campuses but will also power the data centers with a new natural gas-fired turbine.?

Lane Boldman

Kentucky currently has very little in the way of renewable energy, notwithstanding hydroelectric power, with about 70% of electricity generated in the state coming from burning coal, the “dirtiest” fossil fuel in terms of heat-trapping carbon emissions, as of February 2024 according to federal data.?

Lane Boldman, the executive director for the environmental advocacy group Kentucky Conservation Committee, says Kentucky must build more renewable energy to compete for new industries, including data centers and an aluminum smelter, which prioritize climate-friendly technology.?

“We just haven’t taken the time to build out the power. But we have the potential to build up the power. We certainly have the right mix of ingredients to do that. I mean, that’s just simply a political problem to work through,” Boldman said.?

The unique circumstances of data centers

John Bevington, senior director of business and development at LG&E and KU, says manufacturing companies looking to locate in Kentucky usually ask about the availability of land and nearby railroads or highways.?

Not so with data centers.?

“They’re so energy intensive, they tend to start asking questions of utilities first,” Bevington told the Lantern. “They really need proximity to power lines and power lines that have capacity.”?

It’s unclear at this point whether LG&E and KU would seek to build more power generation, fossil fuel-fired or renewables, to meet the demands of prospective data centers coming into the state.?

Chris Whelan, a spokesperson for LG&E and KU, told the Lantern that the potential power demands of data centers will be analyzed in the utility’s future energy planning documents to be filed later this year with the Kentucky Public Service Commission, the state’s utility regulator.?

Bevington with LG&E and KU said the higher energy demands of prospective data centers coincide with the overall higher energy demands of new economic development projects in Kentucky, including battery plants being built by Ford. For the time being, Bevington said, the number of existing data centers in LG&E and KU’s territory is “pretty minimal.”

Strobo, the environmental lawyer, says tech companies like Google appear to be a safer economic development bet than cryptocurrency mining operations that are similarly energy-intensive. The PSC last year in multiple? cases denied or approved electricity cost discounts sought by utilities to serve Bitcoin mining operations across Kentucky.

“It seems like Google and Microsoft and all of them are being intentional about trying to do it in a way that tries to minimize impacts, although, of course, there’s still going to be some pretty major ones from all of it,” Strobo said. “We all know they’re coming. Everybody wants them to come for the most part.”

Bloomberg News recently reported the parent company of Google, which has seen its heat-trapping carbon emissions rise due to its investment in AI, is no longer claiming its operations are carbon neutral, and the company plans to be carbon neutral by 2030. Google also recently announced an investment into solar power in Taiwan among other renewable energy endeavors.

While data centers may not create a large number of jobs, Bevington of LG&E and KU said, the tax revenue brought in could be a boost to communities.?

“Whether that’s a data center or a new automotive supplier or an electric vehicle battery manufacturer or a new bourbon distillery, I think we really tend to look at all of it as, ‘What can we do to enable growth in our communities?’” Bevington said. “We sort of look at data centers as, you know, another very competitive project.”?

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Beshears traveling to Japan, Korea next week on economic development mission

Lantern staff — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 17:58:12 +0000

Gov. Andy Beshear and First Lady Britainy Beshear, photographed at his inauguration in December 2023, will travel to Japan and Korea with other members of the administration next week. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will travel next week to Japan and Korea on what his office describes as “an economic development trip to bring new jobs to the state.”

Also on the trip will be ?First Lady Britainy Beshear, Cabinet for Economic Development Secretary Jeff Noel, Transportation Cabinet Secretary Jim Gray and other members of the executive branch. They will be meeting with “companies and trade organizations to determine future investment and job-creation opportunities in the state,” according to a news release from the governor’s office.

The news release says Kentucky has nearly 540 internationally owned operations that employ more than 117,000 people statewide; Kentucky is home to 200 Japanese-owned facilities that employ 47,000 people and seven Korean-owned facilities that employ 1,200 people.

Beshear and Gray will also meet with the National Police Agency of the Republic of Korea to sign a Driver’s License Reciprocity Agreement, allowing employees relocating to the United States for an extended period to have effective transportation to jobs.

“There is no better place to do business in the United States than right here in Kentucky, and this visit will allow us to share that message directly with business leaders in Japan and Korea,” says Beshear in the release. “We look forward to meeting with existing employers and developing new relationships that will bring good jobs to the commonwealth.”

Dollar stores’ entry into rural communities adds to rural grocery challenges, says USDA study

Liz Carey, The Daily Yonder — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 09:40:11 +0000

Local grocery stores and pharmacies struggle to compete with dollar stores but rural residents view the chain stores positively. (Ohio Capital Journal photo by Graham Stokes)

The influx of dollar stores into the rural landscape can have a devastating effect on grocery stores and other small businesses in rural areas, research has found.

When dollar stores move into a rural area, independent grocery stores are more likely to close, says a new study released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Employment and sales fall at grocery stores wherever a dollar store is located, the researchers found, but in rural areas the effects are more profound.

“They’re going after the low hanging fruit… when it comes to being able to capture consumer sales,” Kennedy Smith, senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), said in an interview with The Daily Yonder. “These are the communities that tend to be too small for a Walmart to have been there, but small enough that if there was a major grocery store chain there at some point, it’s probably gone now. They see an opportunity.”

The proliferation of dollar stores in rural areas is not an accident, Smith said. In ILSR’s 2023 report, The Dollar Store Invasion, researchers said dollar stores are more likely to be located in low-income and rural areas.

The likelihood a rural grocery store would exit the area after a dollar store moves in was three times greater than in an urban area, the USDA researchers found. Rural grocery stores saw nearly double the decline in sales (9.2%) than urban grocery stores, and saw bigger decreases in employment (7.1%). The researchers also found that in urban areas, the impact of a dollar store waned after about five years, but the effects latest longer in rural areas.

Two companies – Dollar General and Dollar Tree — own most of the dollar stores across the country, with Dollar Tree also owning all of the Family Dollar stores. Over the last four years, Dollar General has added about 3,500 locations, bringing to 18,000 the number of locations for the chain, and cementing the company’s status as the largest retailer in the U.S, according to the ILSR report.

And the number of dollar stores across the country has grown over the past two decades. Between 2000 and 2019, the study found, the number of dollar stores – including Dollar Tree, Family Dollar and Dollar General – has doubled to more than 34,000. However, earlier this year? Dollar Tree announced plans to close 1,400 of its 16,700 stores due to corporate losses in 2023. Even after those closures, there will be more dollar stores than all of the Walmarts, Targets, McDonalds and Starbucks in the U.S. combined.

ILSR’s Smith said that the companies chose places where they feel there will be little pushback to the stores opening.

“I think that they are a little predatory in choosing places where they think that political resistance is going to be weak and where it’s easy for them to come in and request that a piece of land be rezoned for commercial purposes and not get a lot of blowback from the community,” Smith said.

Kathryn J. Draeger, adjunct professor of agronomy and plant genetics at the University of Minnesota and statewide director of the university’s Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, said dollar stores don’t just affect grocery stores.

“It’s not just the grocery stores that are hurt when a dollar store comes in,” Draeger said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “We’re also hearing that pharmacies can suffer because, instead of getting Tylenol and cough medicine at your pharmacy, you’re getting it at the Dollar Store, and that is cutting into the business of small town pharmacies as well.”

Dollar stores also affect sales at small town hardware stores, pet stores and other retailers, she said. The closure of a small town grocery store can impact the culture of a community, she said.

“Grocery stores are part of the heart and soul of a community,” Draeger said. “It is such a hub in the community for people to connect and talk with each other. These small town stores, yes, they’re private businesses, but they do so much public good.”

Dollar stores can have a positive impact in communities, though. In a 2022 study from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, dollar stores are generally viewed by residents to provide access to food in food deserts.? To gauge the public perception of the stores, the CSPI surveyed 750 residents who live near dollar stores and have limited incomes.

“Most survey respondents (82%) indicated dollar stores helped their community,” the CSPI survey found. “Overall, dollar store chains were viewed favorably, ranking third after big box stores and supermarkets, but ahead of convenience, small food, and wholesale club stores.”

Additionally, non-profit work by the corporations give back to the communities they are in. Dollar General Inc.’s non-profit foundation, the Dollar General Literacy Foundation, provides grant funding to literacy and education initiatives at schools, libraries and other non-profit organizations near its stores. Dollar Tree also participates in community giving by partnering with dozens of charitable organizations across the country, including Operation Homefront, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and United Way of South Hampton Roads near the company’s corporate headquarters in Chesapeake, Virginia.

Still, researchers found, some local communities are working to keep the stores out. According to CSPI, more than 50 communities across the country have passed ordinances to “ban, limit, or improve new dollar stores in their localities.”

ILSR’s Smith said one thing communities can do to prevent the intrusion of dollar stores is to work with county planning and zoning commissions to stop the spread of the stores. From assessing traffic issues to addressing water table problems, communities can stop dollar stores from coming into communities and causing harm, she said.

By supporting local grocery stores instead of larger chains, Smith said, community leaders and elected officials can keep profits generated by those stores in the community instead of heading out of state to corporate headquarters. Supporting the local stores also supports good wage jobs, local families and economic development. Like the closure of a rural hospital, she said, the closure of a rural grocery store can impact a community’s ability to attract new people and new businesses to the area.

Rial Carver, program director for the Rural Grocery Initiative at Kansas State University, said it’s not just dollar stores that cause the exit of rural grocery stores.

According to research by RGI, one in five rural grocery stores closed between 2008 and 2018. In half of the 105 Kansas communities that lost grocers, no new store had opened up by 2023.

“Rural independent grocery stores are facing a myriad of challenges and those have been building for years,” she said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “When a dollar store comes in, those challenges come to a head.”

Aging infrastructure, population decline, aging equipment and older technology add to the hurdles rural grocery stores face to succeed.

“They are less able to take advantage of new programs like SNAP and online ordering,” she said. “Dollar stores can come in and be the last straw facing a rural grocery. It’s not a foregone conclusion that rural groceries will close when a dollar store comes into the community, but it can be harder for a small, independent grocery store to adapt to face yet another challenge.”

This article first appeared on The Daily Yonder and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

For child care workers, state aid for their own kids’ care is ‘life-changing’

Elaine S. Povich — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 09:30:31 +0000

Child care worker Marci Then helps her daughter, Mila, 4, put away toys to get ready for circle time at the Little Learners Academy in Smithfield, Rhode Island. A state program for child care workers subsidizes Mila’s tuition. A handful of other states, including Kentucky, have similar programs, which advocates say has beneficial ripple effects through the state economy. (Photo by Elaine S. Povich/Stateline)

SMITHFIELD, R.I. — Child care worker Marci Then, 32, looked over at two 4-year-olds in her care who were tussling over a toy plate in a model kitchen set. “Are we sharing?” she gently asked them. They both let go.

Then works at Little Learners Academy child care center near Providence, Rhode Island. Her daughter, Mila, 4, is enrolled there, so Then is able to keep a watchful eye on her in addition to about a dozen other 4-year-olds. Mila calls her mother “Miss Marci” at school, but “Mom” at home.

Most of the time, Mila is in another room with a different worker at the center, adhering to rules that don’t allow parent caregivers to watch their own children in a licensed setting. But for today, Mila is around her mom for a bit to show a reporter around.

If every state followed Kentucky’s lead, some 234,000 workers with children under age 6 could benefit, estimates a research center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Mila proudly chirps her age, then helps put toys away so the kids can quietly gather for circle time.

Then said that without help she would not have been able to afford the $315 a week for Mila to come to Little Learners. But she is taking advantage of a one-year state pilot program that authorizes the use of federal funds to pay for care for the children of early education workers.

“It’s been life-changing for me,” said Then, a single mom who is also responsible for a disabled young adult whom she adopted. Without it, “I’d have to rearrange my life.”

In 2022, Kentucky lawmakers changed the employer child care assistance program to specifically include child care workers at all income levels who work at least 20 hours a week. Other states, including Rhode Island, have since launched programs modeled after the one in Kentucky. The Kentucky program was to end Sept. 30, but Stephanie French, spokesperson for the state’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services, wrote in an email that the state will be using a combination of federal and state funding to continue the program.

At least half a dozen states now have similar programs or are considering legislation to start them, according to EdSurge, a news site that covers education issues.

Supporters, including Republicans and Democrats, see retaining child care employees as a benefit not only to the workers and the centers facing worker shortages, but also to the states’ economies. For many people, the lack of affordable child care is a barrier to joining the workforce.

Charlene Barbieri, founder and owner of four Little Learners Academy locations in Rhode Island, said in an interview that it is difficult to hire and keep qualified employees. The child care subsidy program helps, she said.

“Early learning here is very expensive as we know, right?” Barbieri said. “So any supplemental programs, monetary or otherwise, are exceptionally beneficial.

“We have had many teachers come to us to say that if this program wasn’t here, we could not afford to send our children to child care and still help our families by bringing in additional income,” she said.

Rhode Island lawmakers added the child care subsidy to its fiscal 2025 budget this spring, moving the program out of the “pilot” category. Democratic Gov. Dan McKee is expected to sign the budget this week.

Rhode Island state Reps. Mary Ann Shallcross Smith, left, and Grace Diaz, both Democrats, confer this month over the proposed budget, which includes funding of a program to subsidize child care for caretakers’ kids. (Photo by Elaine S. Povich/Stateline)

“It’s a good program, and we’ve seen great results with it,” Rhode Island House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi, a Democrat, said in an interview. “We have a labor shortage across the whole spectrum of our labor market. So, by giving [caregivers] free child care, they’re able to get back in and take care of other kids, which allows more people to enter the workforce.”

Other states that have launched programs or are considering them include Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska, according to EdSurge.

The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, a research center at the University of California, Berkeley, estimated that if every state followed Kentucky’s lead, some 234,000 workers with children under age 6 could benefit.

“We see it as a no-brainer,” said Anna Powell, senior research and policy associate at the center, who co-authored a report on the program. “The educators are parents — why shouldn’t they be at the front of the queue? Every time an educator stays in the field, it benefits many parents.”

Budget challenges

In some states, though, budget woes are challenging lawmakers who want to make their pilot program a permanent one.

Arizona had a one-year Education Workforce Scholarship program that assisted child care workers and public school teachers with paying for their own kids’ child care, but that program was funded with federal pandemic dollars and ends June 30. It’s unlikely to be renewed because of state budget shortfalls.

Child care workers who now get that assistance would instead need to apply for aid through the state’s broad child care assistance program. That program, administered by the Arizona Department of Economic Security, is based on income levels, Tasya Peterson, a department spokesperson, wrote in an email to Stateline.

Barbie Prinster, executive director of the Arizona Early Childhood Education Association, a nonprofit that represents child care centers, said 3,541 children were approved for care subsidies under the early educator program this year, about three-quarters of them from families with a child care worker. The rest are from teachers’ families.

She predicted that hundreds of workers may have to quit if the subsidy isn’t renewed.

“I think providers are employing more moms that have young children because of this subsidy,” she said.

In Nebraska, state Sen. John Fredrickson, a Democrat and the dad of a 5-year-old son, introduced a bill this session that would have granted no-cost child care to employees of state-licensed child care programs, whether in-home care or at centers, who work at least 20 hours a week.

He estimated the potential subsidy, which he modeled on Kentucky’s idea, could have brought in 2,175 parent-providers. If each worker cared for eight children, there would be 16,000 children receiving care, and at least that many parents working, he estimated.

Fredrickson said the initial fiscal estimate for the bill was about $20 million, which proved to be a heavy lift, so he halved it to $10 million. But even that proved to be too much, he said, and the effort failed. He plans to reintroduce his bill next year.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, approved a bill May 1 extending a child care subsidy pilot program for early childhood caretakers and educators, regardless of income, for two years at a cost of $10.2 million using the state’s Childcare Development Fund.

Colorado agreed to continue a program for child care providers with children ages 6 weeks to 13 years old, giving them full child care benefits, regardless of the employee’s income.

And Indiana agreed to study the issue of child caregiver and early educator compensation.

‘Good for Rhode Island’

Sitting together in a hearing room just off the Rhode Island House chamber earlier this month, Democratic state Reps. Mary Ann Shallcross Smith and Grace Diaz said they understand the issue of caring for children firsthand. Both are mothers, though their children are grown now, and both are experienced child care center owners.

Shallcross Smith remembers putting up flyers in the local drug store, advertising her in-home care. She now owns 15 centers. When the issue of paying child care workers for their own kids’ tuition came up this year, she was all for it, and went to House Speaker Shekarchi with her arguments.

“No. 1, it’s good for Rhode Island,” she said, adding that it’s also good for business.

Diaz, a mother of five, said she, too, talked to the speaker. But perhaps the biggest driver in getting the program into the state budget, she recalled, was the day that they brought a bunch of little kids from various child care settings to the Capitol to be a living example of the need.

“When they saw the little kids at the State House, they all wanted a picture,” Diaz said.

Child care worker Kayla Champagne watches her son, Jaxson, 3, climb at the Little Learners Academy in Smithfield, R.I. (Photo by Elaine S. Povich/Stateline)

Back on the Little Learners playground, care worker Kayla Champagne, 39, of Lincoln, Rhode Island, smiled up at her 3-year-old son, Jaxson, who peeked over the top of a climbing structure. Champagne, who has three other children ages 18, 14 and 8, is relieved that she can take advantage of a program that helps her pay for Jaxson’s care.

She used to work at another day care place but could only afford to send Jaxson there a few days a week, she said. At Little Learners, staff helped her apply for the state subsidy.

“That’s one of the reasons I left my other child care to come here,” she said. “Now I can work full time while having four kids.”

Rhode Island Current reporter Nancy Lavin contributed to this report.

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Judge upholds Kentucky’s ban on ‘gray machine’ gambling devices

Liam Niemeyer — Fri, 28 Jun 2024 19:01:02 +0000

Rep. Killian Timoney, R-Nicholasville, sponsor of the bill outlawing "gray machines" says the ruling will put enforcement on firmer ground. (LRC Public Information)

A Kentucky judge has upheld the legislature’s 2023 ban of so-called “gray machines,” agreeing with the attorney general that the law does not violate free speech or equal protection guarantees and isn’t unconstitutional special legislation.?

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip Shepherd in his ruling Friday sided with arguments made by Attorney General Russell Coleman defending House Bill 594, which banned the slot-style machines commonly found in many bars and gas stations around the state.?

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd

The machines’ moniker is derived from their murky legal status, an “allegedly gray area” that Shepherd referenced in his 52-page ruling. Opponents characterize the games as illegal gambling. Proponents refer to them as “skill games” and have argued a ban would let the horse racing industry monopolize gambling in the state. Churchill Downs had filed an amicus brief in defense of HB 594.

Shepherd in his ruling wrote that plaintiffs, including “skill-based” gaming company Pace-O-Matic, had not proved their claim that HB 594 violated the constitutional right to free speech by targeting the “Burning Barrel” game because the legislature didn’t like the ideas the game expressed.

“The Court is not persuaded that HB 594 targeted Burning Barrel because of its expressive content, but rather enacted HB 594 to target the conduct of unregulated wagering,” Shepherd wrote.?

Shepherd also wrote that while HB 594 did appear to benefit Kentucky’s horse race tracks, which had supported the ban, that appearance in and of itself didn’t make the law unconstitutional special legislation.?

Coleman in a statement said lawmakers “took a bold and bipartisan step to protect Kentucky children and families when they outlawed gray machines.”

“After the law was challenged, our Office launched a vigorous defense of the statute and the General Assembly’s fundamental role as our Commonwealth’s policymaking body,” Coleman said. “The resounding victory in the Franklin Circuit is a testament to the top-flight work of our attorneys, and I’m honored to work alongside them every day.”

Guthrie True, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, told the Lantern he was disappointed in the ruling but hadn’t had time to review it in detail. True said he planned to talk to his clients about a potential appeal.?

Lobbying efforts around? HB 594 dominated spending in the 2023 session of the Kentucky legislature, with two groups on opposing sides spending nearly $600,000 in ads over two months, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. The legislation sharply divided Republicans in the GOP-dominated legislature as it eventually got final passage and was signed by Democratic Gov. Andy Behsear.?

Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville. (LRC Pubic Information)

House Majority Whip Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, opposed the ban while also representing a “gray machine” company as an attorney. Nemes told the Lexington Herald-Leader an ethics opinion he requested and received from the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission said it was ethical?to advocate and vote on HB 594 because the legislation affected the entire “gray machines” industry, not just his client. House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, was a co-sponsor of HB 594.

Louisville Public Media reported earlier this year that slot-style machines had begun to reappear in gas stations, with “skill based” machine companies arguing the machines were changed to become “no risk” games as to not run afoul of HB 594.?

Rep. Killian Timoney, R-Nicholasville, the primary sponsor of HB 594, told the Lantern the companies essentially haven’t changed. He believed Shepherd’s ruling will give the attorney general and county attorneys “a whole lot more teeth” to enforce the law.?

“They’re just an extension of the gray machines because there’s still an element of chance — it’s just a secondary element,” Timoney said. “Russell Coleman will have a much more clear direction on how to relay messaging to the county attorneys pertaining to [House Bill] 594.”

Timoney, who was defeated in a primary election last month, said he didn’t believe additional policy was needed in a future legislative session, saying the key now will be enforcing the law that’s already on the books.?

This story was updated with a statement from Attorney General Russell Coleman. Additional context was also added regarding an ethics opinion Rep. Jason Nemes received.

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Federal regulators approve controversial Louisiana gas terminal project

Robert Zullo — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 20:15:51 +0000

This map from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission shows planned locations for CP2, a a giant liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and an associated pipeline. FERC issued crucial approvals for the projects Thursday. (Photo courtesy of FERC)

A massive and contentious liquefied natural gas export project in coastal Louisiana and an associated pipeline got a key approval from federal regulators Thursday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order granting permission for Venture Global to build and operate the CP2 terminal in Cameron Parish along the Gulf Coast and construct and operate the CP Express Pipeline connecting the terminal to the gas pipeline network in east Texas and southwest Louisiana. Earthjustice, an environmental law group, said the terminal would “export more liquefied methane gas than any U.S. terminal ever approved.”

Commissioner Allison Clements, who was taking part in her last meeting on the commission after she opted not to seek another term, was the lone dissent. Clements has consistently urged the commission to more fully vet greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas projects.

“The commission has not adequately addressed the project’s environmental and socioeconomic impacts, including adverse impacts on environmental justice communities,” Clements said.

“These projects will have enormous emissions of greenhouse gasses equivalent to putting more than 1.8 million new gas fueled cars on the road each year. The order does not meaningfully assess those emissions.”

The project will still need an air permit from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and other permits, and it cannot begin exporting gas to countries lacking free-trade agreements (which constitute about 90% of the global liquified natural gas market) without authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Sierra Club noted.

President Joe Biden’s administration implemented a pause on LNG export approvals in January in order to allow the DOE to update its authorization analyses.

“Today, we have an evolving understanding of the market need for LNG, the long-term supply of LNG, and the perilous impacts of methane on our planet,” the White House said at the time. “We also must adequately guard against risks to the health of our communities, especially frontline communities in the United States who disproportionately shoulder the burden of pollution from new export facilities.”

In April, 25 Republican governors called on the administration to end the freeze.

“It creates instability and threatens future energy security throughout the world at a time when our allies need us the most. It sends a message that the U.S. is not a reliable energy partner,” they said in a statement released by the Republican Governors Association.

In a statement reported by an industry publication, Venture Global’s CEO applauded “the commission and FERC staff for their independent and thorough review and approval of CP2 LNG.”

Friends of the Earth, an environmental group, called the CP2 terminal a “carbon bomb” and the Sierra Club said CP2 is a “disastrous project that puts polluters over people.”

The terminal is planned next to the existing Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG facility that has already racked up air pollution violations and about two miles from the proposed Commonwealth LNG facility. The Sierra Club noted that the area “has more low-income residents than 88% of the country.”

In a news conference after the FERC meeting, Chairman Willie Phillips, who voted to approve the project, said he’s made environmental justice, which aims to protect low income and minority communities from polluting infrastructure projects, a priority.

“I believe we have a duty to those communities. We also have a duty to abide by the law,” Phillips said, adding that FERC’s evaluation of environmental impact goes “above and beyond” what’s required by the National Environmental Policy Act. The order, he said, has “over 130 conditions regarding public safety, engineering and environmental impacts.”

The Sierra Club said that while FERC has acknowledged the need to do more to protect overburdened communities from environmental injustices, “it will take more than lip service, and this approval is a clear step in the wrong direction.”

Royal Theater revitalization focus of community discussion Tuesday in Louisville

Lantern staff — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 09:45:00 +0000

Royal Theater, 1801 - 1815 West Broadway in Louisville. (OneWest)

Revitalizing the historic Royal Theater in Louisville’s West End will be the focus of a community discussion Tuesday afternoon.

OneWest, a community development nonprofit, will host the event in collaboration with Luckett & Farley Architects.

“Opened in the 1920s, the theater quickly became a cultural landmark, known for showcasing the latest films and hosting community events,” according to a news release. “Its elegant design and vibrant atmosphere made it a central hub for entertainment and social gatherings in the West End. However, over the decades, the theater has fallen into disrepair, and OneWest aims to revitalize this landmark and collaborate with community members to shape a next chapter,” says the release.

The discussion on June 25 will be structured to accommodate different groups:

1 p.m., city officials;

2 p.m., community groups and schools;

3 p.m., business Leaders;

4:15 p.m., community residents.

The event will be held at 1803 W. Broadway, with parking available on the side and back of the building.

Attendees are strongly encouraged to RSVP using the following link: RSVP for The Royal Project Discussion.

One of several Royal Theater concepts. (OneWest)

‘Free market health care:’ Boon or bane for rural Kentucky?

McKenna Horsley — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 19:46:39 +0000

Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield (Photo by LRC Public Information)

Experts and lawmakers continue to split over whether Kentucky should reform its controversial certificate of need process.?

Two Republican lawmakers on different sides of the issue — Sen. Stephen Meredith of Leitchfield and Rep. Marianne Proctor of Union — spoke Thursday during a meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, & Administrative Regulations.

Rep. Marianne Proctor, R-Union, said her Northern Kentucky constituents want more choice in health care providers. (Photo by LRC Public Information)

Meredith, who was previously a hospital executive, said that repealing certificate of need (CON) would create more competition among for-profit providers and would harm patients who rely on Medicare and Medicaid. He said the amount of dollars Americans spend on health care is already a “crisis that’s truly of biblical proportion.”?

As of 2022, Americans were spending more than $13,000 per person on health care. Meredith said he recently got a bill of $39,000 for an emergency room visit and hospital stay.

“We have to address the cost, but the problem is, what’s going to be presented today, I believe, will not address that issue. It’s going to be suggested that by implementing free market principles in health care, we can reduce costs and increase access to care,” Meredith said, adding that the opposite would happen in rural areas of the state.

However, Proctor argued that rural hospitals are already facing challenges. She said that since 2005, four rural hospitals have closed in Kentucky. Nationwide, 104 rural hospitals have closed since 2005, according to Becker’s Hospital CFO Report, including 14 in Tennessee and five in West Virginia.

In her Northern Kentucky district, Proctor said, constituents are “??clamoring for choices in their health care hospitals.” She added that she is concerned that dominant providers can “swoop in” communities and close rural hospitals, and gave an example of a Northern Kentucky provider, St. Elizabeth Healthcare, purchasing an Owen County hospital and then closing it.

She said Meredith had valid points but that under the certificate of need law, Kentucky imposes restrictions on health care providers that apply to no one else. “What other industry do we allow that?” she said. “But we’re doing it with our most important, which is health care.”?

Proctor appeared alongside Jaimie Cavanaugh, legal policy counsel for the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public-interest law firm that defines its mission as defending “Americans from government overreach and abuse.” Cavanaugh said that federal administrations — from Reagan to Biden — have repeatedly recommended that states repeal CON laws since the 1980s.

What to know about the certificate of need debate in Kentucky

Eric Friedlander, the secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, was set to testify Thursday, but did not appear because he had COVID-19, according to co-chairman Sen. John Schickel, R-Union.?

CON in Kentucky??

The certificate of need requirement is a mechanism for reviewing and approving or rejecting major capital expenditures by certain health care facilities, based on an area’s need, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).?

Kentucky health care providers defend certificate of need

Many legislative attempts to reform the CON process in Kentucky have failed in recent years. The Kentucky Hospital Association supports the current law, warning that without CON protections, out-of-state companies would come in and “cherry pick” privately-insured patients, leaving Kentucky hospitals even more dependent on lower-paying government insurance programs and rendering them no longer able to afford to provide unprofitable but needed medical services.

Sometimes called the “competitor’s veto,” certificate of need (CON) laws are in effect in 35 states and Washington D.C. As of Jan. 1, NCSL reports 12 states either repealed CON or allowed their state programs to “expire.”?

Last year, a legislative task force spent six months studying CON and concluded more study was needed. A resolution filed to reestablish that task force for the summer of 2024 did not pass in this year’s session. Schickel said he had spoken with legislative leadership about renewing the task force, but the leaders wanted to cut back on task forces and use established interim committees to review issues like CON.?

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Feds OK Kentucky plans to roll out $1 billion for broadband. Here’s what happens next.

Liam Niemeyer — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 22:18:01 +0000

One of the next steps in deploying the money is ensuring the accuracy of Kentucky's broadband access maps. (John Lamb/Getty Images)

Federal officials have approved Kentucky’s plan to deploy almost $1.1 billion?to expand broadband, a key step toward connecting homes and businesses throughout the state.?

The funding was given to the state last year. Earlier this month the National Telecommunications and Information Administration approved the second volume of Kentucky’s proposed plans for using the money through the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Program, or BEAD, created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.?

Those approved plans include how grants will be awarded to internet providers, what affordability mechanisms will be available to help Kentuckians pay for internet service once it’s expanded, and how workers will be trained to help build broadband connections.?

Kentucky will require internet providers applying for the funding to offer a “low-cost” option, which would be $30 a month or less, though internet providers could negotiate the price of that “low cost” option to a max of $65 a month. No charges for installation, maintenance or repairs are to be allowed in the monthly cost.?

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in a Monday press conference said the internet expansion spurred by the funding “should provide a route” for more Kentuckians to have affordable internet.?

“If broadband and high speed internet is just as important as roads and bridges, then everybody needs to be able to use it. So, affordability is absolutely critical,” Beshear said.?

Some providers will offer low-cost internet even as federal program ends, White House says

Beshear also called the recent expiration of a federal program that provided up to $30 a month to low-income households for internet access “a shame.” Approximately 1 in 4 Kentucky households were enrolled in the Affordable Connectivity Program.?

The next steps to roll out Kentucky’s funding include a process for ensuring the accuracy of the state’s broadband access maps. Meghan Sandfoss, the executive director of the Kentucky Office of Broadband Development, said her office has received more than 400,000 challenges to the maps from internet providers, nonprofits and local governments, and the challenge process should finish by July.? Accurate maps will better identify underserved and unserved parts of the state and make sure broadband expansion isn’t duplicative, Sandfoss said.?

From there, the state has less than five years to distribute broadband grants and build internet connection. Sandfoss said the state has until 2028 to distribute the more than $1 billion in BEAD funding. She said broadband projects underway that were previously funded by the state with hundreds of millions of dollars through the American Rescue Plan Act have to be finished by the end of 2026.

Sandfoss said about 12% of Kentucky is either underserved or unserved by internet providers,? according to federal data, and the BEAD funding should “close the gap all the way.”?

“There’s quite a lot of activity going on right now, and it will continue for the next four years,” Sandfoss said.

Stuck in idle: Kentucky Speedway falls short of once high hopes 4 years after last NASCAR race

Tim Sullivan — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 09:50:47 +0000

The Kentucky Speedway is now home to Ford trucks awaiting distribution after NASCAR abandoned the track in 2020. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Tim Sullivan)

SPARTA — By the end of the year, the owners of Kentucky Speedway will have paid Gallatin County more than $900,000 for tickets never sold to races never run.

NASCAR abandoned the racetrack following the 2020 Quaker State 400, but a 20-year PILOT agreement (Payments In Lieu Of Taxes) obligates Speedway Motorsports Inc. to two annual payments through 2031: a $180,000 lump sum and a $1 per ticket fee with a $230,000 minimum, even if the venue remains vacant.

Which may well be the way to bet.

Set in a sparsely populated stretch along Interstate 71, far enough from both Cincinnati and Louisville to discourage repeat business from fans who encountered epic traffic, parking and weather problems as the track slowly got up to speed, Kentucky Speedway will mark the fourth anniversary of its last NASCAR race on July 12. The $178 million facility now serves mainly as a temporary home for the Ford Motor Company’s excess inventory and, in turn, as a long-standing frustration for Gallatin County Judge-Executive Ryan Morris.

Gallatin County Judge-Executive Ryan Morris would like to see the 1,000-acre site put to better economic use. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Tim Sullivan)

“We should race in Kentucky,” Morris said. “We should race right here in Gallatin County. That’s my expectation. That’s what I want to see happen. I think it’s good for the community, brings people in, hotels fill up, campgrounds fill up, (generates) tax dollars.

“(But) If we’re not going to race, I don’t want that property to sit empty for another five or 10 years, just used as a parking lot. I want them to talk to us and economic development advisors that we have to market some of the ground for industry. Do you need 1,000 acres if you’re not going to race? Maybe 900 would be enough.”

Running on state subsidies

Though rumors persist that stock car racing may eventually return to Kentucky Speedway, they generally come with caveats. In calling for a return to more 1 1/2-mile tracks during his “Actions Detrimental” podcast last month, driver Denny Hamlin said, “Kentucky’s still out there,” but then added, “Kentucky is definitely not top-notch when it comes to facilities there. It needs — it would need some major work.”

Kentucky Speedway will mark the fourth anniversary of its last NASCAR race on July 12. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Tim Sullivan)

At present, the state appears conspicuously short of the political will and financial muscle necessary to underwrite that undertaking. Meanwhile, Speedway Motorsports and a Tennessee-based subsidiary have assigned higher priority and 11 registered lobbyists to doing a deal at the Nashville Fairgrounds.

And as NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell has pointed out in multiple form letters, the big-league stock car circuit is essentially a zero-sum game. Each addition requires a subtraction.?

“The annual assignment of specific racetracks is made on a highly competitive basis, and there is always competition among tracks in different states to obtain a second race (by removing a race from another facility),” O’Donnell has written. “Further, there is competition when a track is currently without a NASCAR race and desires to obtain one, which, due to finite supply of dates, would necessarily have to be taken from another state. In addition to the criteria described above, NASCAR obviously looks more favorably on facilities that, in addition, have the support of their state or local communities.”

Translated: government subsidies can help get you to the finish line.

Reviving stock car racing in Sparta would almost certainly entail poaching a race from another track and would likely require a political push and a funding mechanism not currently in evidence. While other states are providing multi-million-dollar incentives and infrastructure improvements to attract and maintain major motor races, Kentucky lags so far behind that it risks being lapped.

Greg Fante (Louisville Sports Commission)

“As far as a pure war chest or bucket of money that we are tapping into, it doesn’t exist,” said Greg Fante, president and CEO of the Louisville Sports Commission. “We would love to see monies funneled into a bid pool allotment to get us in a more competitive spot statewide, but that’s going to be a long, hard trudge based on where we currently sit.”

The only incentive program available through Kentucky’s Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet is the Tourism Development Act, which enables operators to recoup up to 25% of a project’s cost through refunded sales tax. Though Kentucky Speedway has twice been approved for refunds that potentially totaled more than $44.5 million, the actual payouts have been much more modest. Annual refunds peaked at $1.14 million in 2011 following the first Quaker State 400 staged in Sparta, but they subsequently fell sharply and steadily as attendance atrophied, hastening Speedway Motorsports’ decision to move the race to Atlanta.

Between 2011 and 2019, Kentucky Speedway realized $5.3 million in sales tax refunds, and just $353,000 in 2019. (COVID-19 caused the 2020 race to be run without spectators.) By contrast, Texas’ Major Events Reimbursement Program records show Texas Motor Speedway was able to extract $26.4 million in subsidies between 2016 and 2022.?

In North Carolina, home to multiple NASCAR races and most of the circuit’s race teams, the state’s Motorsports Relief Fund provided $45.8 million in grants to 17 racetracks in 2022, including an $18 million allocation that enabled small North Wilkesboro Speedway to land and retain NASCAR’s All-Star Race after more than a quarter-century of inactivity. According to a press release from the North Carolina governor’s office, the 2023 All-Star Race increased the value of the state’s economy by $42.4 million.

‘Still pretty raw about them pulling up stakes and leaving’

Andrew McNeill

Whether Kentucky has the means, the motivation or the political support for policies that could provide similar incentives is at best unclear. Waving a caution flag is Andrew McNeill, president of the Kentucky Forum For Rights, Economics and Education (KYFREE).

“I’m not sure that the promised economic impact of NASCAR in Kentucky and that racetrack in Sparta has ever really delivered,” McNeill said. “I simply think over the long run, no matter the amounts or the duration of subsidy, there’s just a limited market for that race in that location to be successful.?

“I think they probably got a little bit over their skis in thinking what the market was for NASCAR racing in the country. I don’t see that there’s any reason to put together any type of subsidy package with the hope of bringing NASCAR back.”

Crystal Staley, spokeswoman for Gov. Andy Beshear, told the Lantern, “Supporting economic development and tourism growth is a top priority for this administration.” Still, Staley said Beshear had not been contacted by track owners or local officials.

Senate Republican Floor Leader Damon Thayer, a former Kentucky Speedway consultant, says the state has done enough to support the stock car track. ( LRC Public Information)

“I feel like the state has done its part over a 20-year period to make (Kentucky Speedway) a first-class sports and entertainment destination and I’m still pretty raw about them pulling up stakes and leaving,” said Damon Thayer, the Kentucky Senate’s majority floor leader and a former Kentucky Speedway consultant. “I don’t think there needs to be any more incentive than what already exists.”

Thayer points to the widening of Interstate 71 along the approaches to Sparta and the completion of Kentucky 1039 to the Indiana line as proof of Kentucky’s commitment to the speedway’s success. Gallatin County’s industrial revenue bond with Speedway Motorsports spares the owners from paying property taxes through 2031.

“Speedway Motorsports just up and pulled out of Kentucky and took the race back to Atlanta with no warning, no explanation,” Thayer said. “So I don’t know why the taxpayers should be on the hook for bringing the place back to life when the owners decided to kill it in the first place.”

McNeill’s response to Thayer’s statements: “If Kentucky Speedway has lost Damon Thayer, they don’t really have anywhere else to go to get the General Assembly behind them.”

Leases with Ford, Amazon

Speedway Motorsports, which acquired Kentucky Speedway from a group headed by Jerry Carroll in 2008, declined an interview request from the Lantern, as did the track’s former general manager, Mark Simendinger. “At this time, we are not granting media interviews regarding Kentucky Speedway,” said Scott Cooper, the company’s senior vice president for communications. Instead, Cooper provided a prepared statement.

“Kentucky Speedway is a modern, multi-use facility which remains open to host music festivals, regional and national motorsports events, corporate entertainment and hospitality, driving schools, RV rallies and storage rentals,” it said.?“While there is not a major motorsports event on the calendar for the immediate future, the facility and property is well-maintained and is utilized for track rentals on an annual basis.”??

With 10 other racetrack properties that are all on NASCAR’s schedule, Speedway Motorsports does not appear to be feeling a significant financial pinch from Kentucky Speedway’s prolonged dormancy. The track is not known to be for sale and has been able to offset a significant portion of its overhead by leasing land to Ford and Amazon.

On a recent visit to the track, thousands of Ford vehicles were parked behind the speedway’s grandstand, awaiting distribution. And though the terms of Ford’s speedway deal are not public, a similar arrangement with a Ford subcontractor has generated more than $1.2 million over the last 10 years for the Kentucky Exposition Center.

Still, parked cars would not seem to be the highest and best use for a facility built for speed. Not indefinitely, at least.

“If it’s just not in the cards to race, it could be worse,” said Ryan Morris, the Gallatin County judge executive. “We’ve got 1,000 acres in that location filled with infrastructure. We’ve got water. We’ve got sewer. We’ve got electric, high-speed internet, access to the interstate, good roads in the area. . .

“The urgency for me is I don’t want it to sit idle. I know there are tracks that have sat idle for years and years and years and then they got a race back. I don’t want that track to sit there for 10 years.”

This story has been updated with a quote from driver Denny Hamlin.

Ford vehicles are parked behind the speedway grandstand awaiting distribution. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Tim Sullivan)

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Trauma, poverty, COVID-19 causing high rates of chronic absenteeism in Kentucky?

Sarah Ladd — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 09:30:50 +0000

Chronic absenteeism has risen among students in Kentucky's public schools. (Getty Images)

The number of Kentucky youth who are chronically absent from school skyrocketed during the 2022-2023 school year.?

The reasons for chronic absenteeism are interconnected and complicated — and the negative fallout potential is widespread, from mental health to the economy.?

Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) staff and child welfare advocates point to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its ongoing fallout, as a key culprit in this crisis.?

Building a habit of absenteeism in school carries over into work, said Florence Chang, a KDE program consultant.?

“Chronically absent students, high school students, … are likely to be significantly higher in absences from work,” she said. “There’s some habits there built up that the same people who miss school are the same people that may call in and miss work.”?

Absenteeism can also hurt a child’s ability to get a high school diploma or higher education.?

“Even if a student were to drop out at 18 and pursue a GED, their earning power with the GED is not the same as it is with a high school diploma,” said Christina Weeter, KDE division director.?

Child welfare advocates are keen to turn the trend around. They say doing so starts with parental communication and investments in comprehensive community services that serve kids outside the classroom.?

By the numbers?

In the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years, about 17% of Kentucky children were chronically absent, according to Chang.?

During the 2022-2023 school year, that number increased to 30%. (Data for the 2023-2024 school year is not yet available). This is even more critical for Eastern Kentucky, where 20% of students were chronically absent before COVID-19 and back-to-back deadly floods.?

Now, half or more of the kids in Eastern Kentucky are chronically absent from school, Chang said.??

“Even before the pandemic, that has been an issue in Eastern Kentucky,” she said. “And after the pandemic, and after the disaster hit that region … we can see that they have skyrocketed in absenteeism.”?

In West and Western Kentucky, too, where deadly tornadoes hit in 2021, absenteeism rose.?

Florence Chang (Photo provided from KDE)

“My suspicion is: it has to do with economically disadvantaged, poor counties maybe having less access … to resources, both learning resources and community resources,” said Chang.?

A student is chronically absent if they miss more than 10% of their enrolled time at school, according to KDE. Absenteeism is different from truancy, which has legal implications, explained Weeter. A student can be absent for any reason.?

The increase “is not specific to Kentucky,” Chang said. Chronic absenteeism is usually linked to barriers a student faces, like lack of transportation, a health condition or a work responsibility; aversion to school because of anxiety or lack of connection; disengagement from school following a time during the pandemic when children studied from home; and the idea that school is unsafe or one must stay home for every cough and sneeze.?

“It’s likely it is complicated and a combination of the four reasons — not just one,” Chang said.?

The 2024 Kentucky KIDS COUNT Data Book, released by Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) Monday, links these chronic absences to widespread trauma and poverty. Kids Count is part of a national initiative from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

What does the KIDS COUNT report show??

The 2024 Kentucky KIDS COUNT Data Book, released by Kentucky Youth Advocates Monday, links these chronic absences to widespread trauma and poverty. Kids Count is part of a national initiative from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. (Screenshot from report)

The new Kids Count report shows there are more Kentucky children not proficient in reading and math. It also shows more high school students are not graduating on time and more 3- and 4- year-olds aren’t in school.?

According to the report, which tracks child welfare year to year:?

69% of 4th graders scored below proficient in reading in 2022
79% of 8th graders scored below proficient in math in 2022
10% of high school students did not graduate on time in 2020-21
25% of children were chronically absent in 2021-22
In 2022, 85% of Black students and 78% of Latino students were not at 4th grade reading proficiency
1% of English-language learners were at or above 8th grade math proficiency in 2022.?

Terry Brooks, the executive director of KYA, said kids need enough food, good sleep, a reliable and safe way to get to school, and other supports like mental health services and tutoring to meet educational goals.?

Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

“To be clear, kids are more than their test scores,” Brooks said. “But these scores give us the tools to understand the realities of our classrooms and a roadmap around imaginative reforms and targeted interventions. Innovation in classroom rhythms, school culture and community collaboratives are key to ensuring children meet their milestones, as is recruiting and retaining a strong K-12 and early childhood education workforce.”

Chang with KDE said that the ongoing educator shortage can lead students to feel disconnected from school. If they cannot rely on having a consistent teacher, she said, they may feel less obliged to show up.?

Brooks also called on legislators to “reclaim that legacy” of putting public education first in Frankfort and find common ground on education policy.?

“We need to move from where we are – when seemingly public education is the most politicized and divisive policy issue in Frankfort – and? reclaim the ethos of Kentuckians joining together when it comes to K-12 classrooms,” he said. “That kind of common ground agenda is essential for our children and just as critical in building a strong workforce and economy for the future. That means resources for sure, but it also means engagement by us all and a fundamental restructuring of how we do ‘school’ in Kentucky.”?

What are child welfare advocates seeing throughout the state??

Olivia Raley is a social worker embedded in the Bardstown Police Department. She and therapy dog Maverick work with kids. (Photo provided)

Olivia Raley, a social worker embedded with the Bardstown Police Department, says COVID-19 “set a lot of families and kiddos back” in their social skills and interpersonal relationships.?

“That isolation period of a year or two was very detrimental to kids’ prefrontal cortex … not developing on track, as it should,” Raley said.?

She and her 80-pound sidekick, a certified therapy Siberian Husky named Maverick, help kids who need to report assault feel more comfortable. Maverick, 4, also escorts children in the courtroom when they need extra emotional support. She said having Maverick helps break through defenses easier.?

“I’m a woman, I have a dog,” she said. “We don’t have that initial barrier sometimes where some kiddos are afraid of law enforcement or they’ve been involved in the system so many times.”?

In her work, she’s seeing more and more children disconnected from school and community. During the worst of the pandemic, all these children had to do was sit and look at a screen. Now, she said, they’re reluctant to leave their homes.?

Therapy dog Maverick works at the Bardstown Police Department. (Photo provided).

“If kiddos come from a complex trauma-associated family, that’s all they have,” she said. “And they don’t have the school ally, they don’t have gym, they don’t have all these extra curricular activities (where) they could blossom.”

The pandemic further isolated students who lacked internet access, which Raley said became part of their “hierarchy of needs.” If children didn’t have the ability to participate in remote learning, they fell behind.? This makes it more difficult to catch up in person — both educationally and socially.??

This period of time also allowed abused kids to “slip through the cracks,” Raley said.?

Separated by a screen or less, school staff couldn’t see if a child had a bruise or other indicators of mistreatment.?

Additionally, if a child learns, during their formative years, that the outside world is a dangerous place, they may not want to report abuse happening in the home or even go to class surrounded by their peers, Raley said.?

“Because of COVID, a lot of kids were missed,” Raley said. “They’ve been taught that the outside world is scary. Now they have this. And so there are a lot of kiddos that are suffering, emotionally, physically, because of COVID.”?

Where are the parents in this?

Parents play a part in making sure kids are in school, Chang with KDE said. Parental and familial apathy is emerging as a concern, she said.?

During the early years of the pandemic, “parents got an inside view into the instruction and seeing so many of the assignments that could get completed through Google Classroom or … their Chromebook devices,” Chang said. “So they can see ‘oh, well they can just complete this at home,’ thinking … it’s not a big deal if you miss.”?

At other times, a parent keeps a child out of school out of concern for their health, Weeter said.?

“Even before the pandemic, there was a lot of conversation about how some students … wouldn’t show up at school because … it was a bad air quality day,” she said. “And if they didn’t have a school nurse that could give them an inhaler … their parent might keep them home … for health reasons.”?

Not every school district has a nurse, state data obtained by the Lantern shows.?

Additionally, parents’ mental health issues and substance use “can be, absolutely, contributing to absenteeism,” Chang said.?

That’s because if parents are dealing with addictions or other distractions, they’re not monitoring their children, social workers explained. This means no one is making sure those kids get to school.?

Substance use making for ‘very scary time for kids’?

Access to deadly drugs, too, make it “a very, very scary time for kids,” Raley said. The 27-year-old already knows several people from her high school graduating class who died after overdosing.?

In her social work, too, she sees a lot of substance use among youth.?

“Substance use disorder can kill you and kids see that. A lot of kids have lost so many relatives, so many friends, to substance use disorder. And they don’t have a way to tell anybody or to reach out or because they are in this isolated mode right now because of COVID,” she said.?

Olivia Raley is a social worker embedded in the Bardstown Police Department. She and therapy dog Maverick work with kids.

And yet kids who experiment with substances are exposed to dangerous combinations, she said. The 2023 Drug Overdose Fatality Report shows that in 2023, 92 Kentuckians between the ages of 15 and 24 died from an overdose.

Nine children — between the ages of 0 and 4 — died from overdoses. Between 0 and 5 children between the ages of 5 and 14 met the same fate.??

“Party drugs aren’t a thing anymore — it’s moved on to heroin, fentanyl. High schoolers right now are at a very high risk for overdoses because of how many drugs are cut with fentanyl nowadays,” Raley said. “Narcan is a huge push right now – to make sure it’s in schools, it’s in homes right now.”?

Exposure to substance use disorders is an adverse childhood experience (ACE), which? are traumas minors live through that have far-reaching impacts on adulthood. Survivors are more likely to have chronic health conditions including cancer, diabetes and heart disease. They’re also at higher risk of experience poverty, having pregnancy problems and suffering from stress. Some even go on to perpetuate ACEs, feeding a reciprocating spiral of illness and violence.?

What do kids need right now??

The new KIDS COUNT report recommends these action steps for Kentucky to “get kids back on track:”?

Make sure children arrive in the classroom ready to learn by ensuring? access to low- or no-cost meals, a reliable internet connection, a place to study, and time with? friends, teachers, and counselors.
Deepen investments in school wrap-around services to support student success and family connection. Family Resource and Youth Service Centers, tutoring programs, mental health services, nutrition? programming, after school care, and other services support young learners and encourage parent engagement, which leads to better outcomes for kids.?
Address chronic absence, so more students return to learn. Lawmakers should embrace positive approaches rather than criminalizing students or parents due to attendance challenges, because they may not understand the consequences of even a few days missed.?
Expand access to intensive tutoring for students who are behind in their classes and missing academic? milestones.?

KDE is pushing the message to school districts and parents that “being in school is important,” Chang said, to counter absenteeism. Getting more kids in school desks starts with communication, she said, and making sure parents understand attendance policies.?

Staff are also “changing the lens of how we look at absenteeism from … a punitive approach … to a family engagement approach,” she said. “So, making sure that we can talk to families about supports and understanding the reasons. Because: every chronic absenteeism student has a story to tell.”??

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.

States beg insurers not to drop climate-threatened homes

Alex Brown — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 09:45:35 +0000

A man pulls a boat through a flooded neighborhood in Barataria, La., in August 2021 after Hurricane Ida hit the area, one of several storms that have battered Louisiana in recent years. Amid billions in losses, many insurance companies have left the state or increased premiums. As climate change intensifies natural disasters, policymakers across the country are trying to convince insurers to stick around. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

In the coming years, climate change could force Americans from their homes, not just by raising sea levels, worsening wildfires and causing floods — but also by putting insurance coverage out of reach.

In places including California, Florida and Louisiana, some homeowners are finding it nearly impossible to find an insurance company that will cover their property. Others have seen their premiums climb so high that they can no longer pay. Experts say the trend is spreading throughout the country as natural disasters increase.

Most mortgage lenders require homeowners to maintain insurance. Without access to coverage, millions of Americans could find themselves forced to reconsider where they live. Consumer advocates say long-overdue conversations about development in areas prone to natural disasters are being driven by property insurers, not governments.

“Insurance companies have basically become our land-use officials,” said Doug Heller, director of insurance with the Consumer Federation of America, a research and advocacy nonprofit. “In 2023, the industry suddenly seemed to wake up and say, ‘There’s climate change, forget all those times we’ve nodded our head yes and told you that you can live there.’”

As the crisis escalates, state leaders are desperately trying to convince insurance companies to stick around. States are offering them more flexibility to raise premiums or drop certain homes from coverage, fast-tracking rate revisions and making it harder for residents to sue their insurance company.

Meanwhile, a flood of new policyholders are joining state-backed insurance “plans of last resort,” leaving states to assume more of the risk on behalf of residents who can’t find coverage in the private sector.

(Getty Images)

“Insurers are the climate change canary in the coal mine.” – Dave Jones, director of the Climate Risk Initiative, University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment ? ?

Industry leaders note that insurance companies have been hammered by heavy payouts — last year, 28 separate U.S. natural disasters caused at least $1 billion each in damage, according to federal figures — and say they simply can’t afford to provide coverage in the areas that face the highest risk.

Disaster costs are soaring. In the last five years, there have been 102 disaster events in the United States that caused at least $1 billion in damage. In the entire decade of the 1990s, there were 57 billion-dollar events (adjusted for inflation), and in the 1980s there were 33.

Natural disasters are increasing at the same time risk-prone areas are becoming ever more populated, and as property values are climbing. The price of repairs and replacement have skyrocketed due to inflation, workforce and supply chain issues. Insurers say costs also have been driven by an uptick in litigation and fraud.

Month-by-month accumulation of billion-dollar disasters for each year on record. The colored lines represent the top six years for most billion-dollar disasters. All other years are colored light gray. (NOAA image by NCEI)

“We’re experiencing record-breaking losses as it relates to natural disasters,” said Adam Shores, senior vice president for state government relations with the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, an industry group. “We want to be there, but when the math doesn’t work for a company, they have to make those decisions.”

While the insurance crisis is most acute in certain coastal states, climate experts say every region will face similar challenges, especially as severe storms batter the middle of the country. While some states have made marginal gains in stabilizing the insurance market, some experts say that progress may be short-lived.

“Insurers are the climate change canary in the coal mine,” said Dave Jones, the former insurance commissioner in California and director of the Climate Risk Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment. “While these policy and regulatory interventions might help in the short run, they’re likely to be overwhelmed by the increasing risk and loss.”

‘The perfect storm’

In some hard-hit states, policymakers have focused on giving insurance companies more flexibility to adjust their rates and coverage options.

Four hurricanes walloped Louisiana in 2020 and 2021, causing $23 billion in insured losses. Twelve insurance companies became insolvent and dozens left the state. Residents in southern Louisiana especially have struggled to find coverage, and some have moved elsewhere because they couldn’t afford their premiums.

This map depicts the total estimated cost borne by each state from billion-dollar weather and climate events from 1980-2023. (Screenshot from NOAA NCEI Billion-dollar Disasters web mapping tool)

“It’s the perfect storm,” said Louisiana state Rep. Gabe Firment, a Republican. “We just do not have companies willing to write business in Louisiana right now, and you can’t blame them.”

Firment sponsored a measure, enacted this year, repealing a state rule that had blocked companies from dropping long-standing customers. Those dropped can join a state-run plan. Lawmakers hope that — given the ability to cancel the highest-risk policies — insurance companies will remain in the state and avoid massive rate hikes on their remaining customers.

Legislators passed a suite of other laws aimed at the crisis, speeding up the process for insurers to adjust their rates, extending a grant program to help residents fortify their homes and giving companies more time to pay out claims. Firment said the changes are designed to attract more companies back to the state, “but if we get two or three hurricanes this year, all bets are off.”

In California, many major insurers have canceled policies or stopped accepting new applications due to wildfire risk. Regulators there have proposed a rule that would allow companies to incorporate climate change projections into the models they use to set their rates.

“Insurers are not going to continue to write in every market if they can’t price accurately,” said Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications with the Insurance Information Institute, an industry-backed research group.

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has put forth a measure that would speed up regulators’ approval of the rate revisions proposed by insurance companies. While seeking to give insurers more flexibility on rates, California leaders also have sought to protect residents by establishing a one-year moratorium on policy cancellations in disaster areas following a wildfire.

Officials at the state Department of Insurance did not respond to Stateline interview requests.

Homeowners’ insurance rates in Texas spiked 23% last year, twice the national average. The state has endured a myriad of disasters in recent years, but consumer advocates fear insurers are weaponizing climate change to jack up rates and demand looser regulations.

“[Insurance companies] are putting a gun to our heads, telling us, ‘Do it our way or we’ll pull up stakes,’” said Ware Wendell, executive director of Texas Watch, a nonprofit advocacy group. “They’re going to cherry-pick the country and only insure parts of the country that have less climate risk.”

The Texas Department of Insurance did not grant a Stateline interview request.

‘Last resort’

Kentucky AG gets funding to fight Biden administration on climate, air and water pollution rules

In several states, homeowners who can’t find private coverage are joining state-run plans. Originally intended to be a last-ditch option, because they generally offer limited coverage, these plans are seeing more and more residents signing up.

Florida has seen more than 1 million residents join the plan offered by the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. The plan, which is meant to be a “last resort” option, now stands as the largest in the state.

Insurance rates in Florida have climbed to four times the national average, following hurricanes Ian and Nicole in 2022. The state also has seen an uptick in claims lawsuits that insurance companies characterize as legal abuse.

Legislators changed state law in 2022 to disincentivize such lawsuits, ending homeowners’ ability to collect attorneys fees from insurers in claims disputes. State regulators say insurance rates have stabilized in 2024, and new companies are joining the market. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation did not grant an interview request.

But some lawmakers say state leaders are eager to help insurance companies while ignoring the underlying issue of climate change.

“Stabilization is important, but [premiums] have stabilized at high rates,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat. “Floridians can’t afford Florida anymore, and if we’re not taking climate change seriously, then we’re missing the point.”

Eskamani called for leaders to change land-use policies to limit development in high-risk areas.

Even as some Florida homeowners are now shifting from the state-run plan back to the private market, industry experts say the nationwide surge in state-backed policies is troubling. If such plans exhaust their reserves, states impose an assessment on either all insurance companies or all individual policyholders — known in Florida as the “hurricane tax.”

Jones, the former California insurance commissioner, noted that insurers there are worried that growing wildfire risk could force them to bail out the state plan. Nearly 400,000 Californians rely on the state plan for insurance, and state officials have warned that a catastrophic event could wipe out its reserves.

While Californians struggle to find insurance on the private market, Jones called out the insurers that are dropping policies even as they retain financial ties to fossil fuel companies.

“Why are insurers investing in and writing insurance for the very industry that’s making it increasingly challenging for them to write insurance in certain parts of the country?” he said.

In Colorado, lawmakers voted last year to create a state-backed insurance plan like those in more than 30 other states. State Sen. Dylan Roberts, the Democrat who sponsored the bill, said he heard from constituents who were getting dropped by their insurers following the Marshall Fire that swept through Boulder County in 2021.

Lawmakers hope to use this emerging climate science to charge oil companies for disasters

“We’re going to have more and more Coloradoans every year who are unable to find insurance for their property on the private market,” he said. “To have an insurer of last resort is something we hope isn’t used widely, but it’s something we need to have.”

Some consumer advocates believe states will have to get more involved. Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a nonprofit that advocates for insurance customers, said governments face the same difficult risk calculations as private companies but are tax-exempt and don’t face the same pressures to return high profit margins to shareholders.

“Publicly supported insurance programs are here to stay,” she said. “It behooves us to build them as smart as we can.”

In Washington state, regulators say they have only a few hundred policies on the state-backed plan, a sign that residents can still access coverage on the private market. David Forte, senior property and casualty policy adviser with the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, said the agency has added actuarial staff to speed up insurers’ rate revision approvals.

He also credited the work of state leaders who have invested millions to reduce wildfire risk. But he cited a 2022 wildfire that nearly swept through the town of Index, before shifting winds changed its direction.

“If that had happened, I think our property market would be different,” he said. “Are we just one bad event away? Probably.”

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

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New rules protect pregnant workers, but red states sue over abortion provisions

Anna Claire Vollers — Thu, 30 May 2024 09:50:34 +0000

Women work in a restaurant kitchen in Chicago in March 2023. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a new workplace anti-discrimination law that was passed by Congress with wide bipartisan support, has become fodder in the abortion rights battle between Republican-led states and the federal government. Nam Y. Huh/The Associated Press

Natasha Jackson was four months pregnant when she told her supervisor she was expecting. It was 2008, and Jackson was an account executive at a rental furniture store in Charleston, South Carolina — the only female employee there.

“I actually hid my pregnancy as long as I could because I was scared about what could happen,” she said.

When her doctor recommended that she not lift more than 25 pounds, her employer wouldn’t let her move temporarily to a role where she didn’t need to lift furniture, even though those roles were available, she said. She was forced to go on leave and then lost her job. Her marriage unraveled and she spent time after the birth in emergency housing.

“That hardship affected me years on, and it took away the joy of being pregnant,” said Jackson. “They made me feel guilty and ashamed for having a baby.”

Pregnant workers have new protections. Here’s what to expect from your boss.

Jackson, now 41 and a mother of four who owns her own cleaning company, has spent years working with advocacy groups to fight for better laws to protect pregnant workers. Last year, she was invited to speak at a White House event celebrating the passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a new workplace anti-discrimination law for which she had advocated.

But now this law, passed with wide bipartisan support, has become fodder in the bitter battle over abortion rights between Republican-led states and the federal government.

The act fills gaps in state and federal protections by requiring employers with 15 or more employees to provide “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant workers and those who have recently given birth or have related medical conditions — unless the employer can prove it would cause “undue hardship” on the business.

Accommodations can include allowing an employee to take additional bathroom breaks, carry a water bottle, or sit instead of stand while on the job. After years of lobbying by nonprofit organizations and business groups, the federal law passed in December 2022. It went into effect last June.

In its rulemaking process, the Biden administration included abortion as a “related medical condition” covered by the law. That means employees seeking abortion care can ask for accommodations from their employers, such as time off work for an appointment or recovery.

This year, 19 Republican attorneys general — including from Jackson’s home state of South Carolina — have sued the administration over that interpretation.

(Getty Images)

“It seems quite ridiculous to me that some employers want so much control over employees to the point that they feel like they have the right to threaten their job security because of pregnancy or anything associated with it.” – Natasha Jackson, mom of four who once lost her job after asking for pregnancy accommodations? ? ?

The AGs argue the Biden administration is forcing abortion accommodations even in states where abortions are illegal.

“Under this radical interpretation of the PWFA, business owners will face federal lawsuits if they don’t accommodate employees’ abortions, even if those abortions are illegal under state law,” Arkansas Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement last month announcing the lawsuit filed by Arkansas and 16 other Republican-led states.

But some advocates say the lawsuit threatens protections for all pregnant workers covered under the new law — not just the small subset who need abortion care.

“These states are cutting off their noses to spite their faces,” said Elizabeth Gedmark, an attorney and vice president of A Better Balance, a national nonprofit advocacy organization that provides legal services and has long pushed for a national Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

“These attacks have very real consequences for peoples’ lives and for their economic security and health,” she said.

Jackson fears the lawsuit could lead to fewer workers accessing the care they need to be healthy.

“[Workers] should have the right to proper medical care during pregnancy, after childbirth, after having a miscarriage, or having an abortion,” she said. “It seems quite ridiculous to me that some employers want so much control over employees to the point that they feel like they have the right to threaten their job security because of pregnancy or anything associated with it.”

Into the fray

After Congress passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency known as the EEOC, had to hammer out a set of rules that clarify what employers can and can’t do under the law.

So last summer, the EEOC sought public comment on its proposed rules for how the new law would work. More than 100,000 comments were submitted over a two-month period.

The flood of comments stemmed from opinions about whether the EEOC should include abortion in its definition of “pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions” that are covered under the new law.

The vast majority were nearly identical form comments, according to the EEOC. About 54,000 of the comments urged the EEOC to exclude abortion, while about 40,000 supported its inclusion.

In a 3-2 vote, the EEOC ultimately adopted new rules that included abortion care in its definition of conditions covered under the law. The rules are set to go into effect June 18.

But in April, a week after the EEOC announced its final rules, the 17-state coalition of GOP attorneys general argued in its lawsuit that the agency’s “erroneous interpretation” of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act creates an “abortion accommodation mandate.”

Jonathan Skrmetti

“When the law was passed by Congress, it was explicitly understood not to address abortion at all, and the text of the statute does not address abortion,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, who is co-leading the lawsuit with Arkansas’ Griffin.

Skrmetti and the other Republican attorneys general point to comments made by lawmakers during debate on the measure that appear to signal Congress’ intent was not to impose abortion-related requirements in states where those abortions would be illegal.

Pennsylvania Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who sponsored the pregnant workers bill, said during debate that the EEOC “could not issue any regulation that requires abortion leave, nor does the act permit the EEOC to require employers to provide abortions in violation of state law.”

The 15 other states joining the lawsuit are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia.

More states have jumped into the fray. In mid-May, Louisiana’s and Mississippi’s attorneys general, both Republicans, filed their own lawsuit challenging the same provision.

And in February, a federal judge in Texas blocked the EEOC from accepting complaints filed by Texas state employees under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. It was a win for Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who had sued the Biden administration last year.

Protections at risk

Skrmetti, the Tennessee attorney general, believes the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act is a good law.

“It was passed with a degree of bipartisanship that you rarely see,” he told Stateline, “and it undermines the efforts of Congress and the popular will when agencies take laws and change them without the authority of the people’s representatives.”

“The optimal outcome would be for the abortion-related pieces of the rule that aren’t supported by the statute to be vacated. But the law remains the law regardless of what the [EEOC’s] rules are.” – Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee attorney general ?

But Gedmark, of A Better Balance, said decades of legal precedent support including abortion as a related medical condition for pregnant workers. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, a federal law passed in 1978, prohibits sex discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions — a definition that the EEOC has long interpreted to include abortion.

Proponents of the new Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the EEOC’s rules worry the lawsuits will sow confusion among employers and employees. There’s concern, Gedmark said, that a court could render more of the regulations invalid, beyond those that mention abortion.

Skrmetti doesn’t think the 17-state lawsuit will hurt the law’s protections for pregnant, postpartum and lactating workers.

“The optimal outcome would be for the abortion-related pieces of the rule that aren’t supported by the statute to be vacated,” he said. “But the law remains the law regardless of what the [EEOC’s] rules are.”

While states and the feds clash in court, Jackson said she’s focused on making sure as many women as possible know about their new rights.

Whenever she’s out shopping and spots a pregnant store employee, she asks how they’re doing. She asks if they know about their workplace rights, and how to ask their employers for the accommodations they need.

“Whether a mother decides to have an abortion or not, she still needs medical care after the procedure, the same as she would need medical care if she had a miscarriage or regular childbirth,” Jackson said. “I believe that employers need to know the difference between personal [ideology] and business.”
This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the States Newsroom network of nonprofits.

This story is republished from Stateline, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Celebrating new UK lab, McConnell calls for building up US industrial base, defense spending

McKenna Horsley — Wed, 29 May 2024 19:48:58 +0000

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new research laboratory at the University of Kentucky, May 29, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)

LEXINGTON — U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell spoke about the need to “improve the country’s industrial base” during a ribbon-cutting at the University of Kentucky for a new research laboratory that will work with the U.S. Army.?

McConnell, who graduated from the university’s law school in 1967, spoke on Wednesday about his support for increasing defense spending as Ukraine continues to defend itself from an invasion launched in February 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In recent visits to his home state, the longtime Kentucky senator has emphasized his view that the U.S. should continue to aid Ukraine against Russia, an ally of China, and did so again Wednesday.?

He called the present “a very, very dangerous period” as Russia and China work together against democratic nations.?

“What we need to do is to rebuild our industrial base,” McConnell said, calling the laboratory an example of that. “We sort of took a holiday from history for a while, and our allies in Europe did as well, but we’re awake now.”?

McConnell congratulated the university on the Next Generation Additive Manufacturing Research Laboratory, which is part of UK’s Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing. Researchers in the lab will work to develop products and components for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and civilian use.?

Under a five-year, $50 million collaboration between UK, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory, UK’s project will receive about $24.5 million from the DOD.?

S. Jawahir, the director of the institute as well as UK’s principal investigator and project director, said the new space for the lab will allow the university to educate both undergraduate and graduate students for the manufacturing workforce regionally, nationally and internationally.?

UK President Eli Capilouto said in a statement that the university is “deeply thankful for members of our Congress who continue their steadfast support, which ensures we advance Kentucky and fulfill our promise.”?

“As an institution driven by discovery and innovation, we are dedicated to advancing our community and the world,” Capilouto said. “Through this partnership, we can harness our top talents to turn groundbreaking research into real-world solutions — achieving far more collectively than we ever could alone. As Kentucky’s institution, we are stronger and more effective when we collaborate in meaningful ways.”?

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, McConnell did not take questions from the media.?

On Tuesday, McConnell was in Ashland to visit Pathways Journey House, a residential transitional facility for women, as well as speak to the Northeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.?

Earlier this year, McConnell announced he planned to step down as Republican leader of the Senate in November. He plans to serve the remainder of his term, which ends in January 2027.

Kentuckians’ access to mental health care lags. Paying providers more would help, says report.

Sarah Ladd — Tue, 28 May 2024 09:40:05 +0000

The report recommends that states and health plans expand their behavioral health networks by raising reimbursement rates — “as they do for medical/surgical providers.” (Getty Images)

Kentuckians are far more likely to pay out of pocket for mental and behavioral health services than for surgical or other medical care.?

This insight comes from a recent American Psychological Association report, which examined health insurance claims made by millions of Americans who sought care.?

Need mental health care in Kentucky???

If you are in immediate crisis, text or call 988.?
To look for a mental health therapist near you, visit: Psychology Today and search by ZIP Code.
Check out the Kentucky Psychological Foundation’s Behavioral Health Roadmap.?
Find a support group through Kentucky’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.?

The report showed that as COVID-19 peaked in the commonwealth, the number of Kentuckians forced to go out of their insurance network for acute inpatient care also increased.?

Eric Russ, the executive director of the Kentucky Psychological Association, told the Lantern the numbers are likely higher than the report reflects because not everyone who seeks out of network care will file an insurance claim.?

Overall, the report shows that Americans were 10.6 times more likely to go out of their insurance network for psychological care than they were for medical care. The paper cites lower reimbursement rates for mental health care providers as a major culprit.?

The report’s findings are “gravely disappointing,” Arthur C. Evans Jr., the CEO of the American Psychological Association, said in a statement. “The federal parity law, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, passed in 2008 and it has still not achieved its goal of equitable access to care for mental health patients.”?

“The fact that so many patients are forced to go out of network to receive mental health and substance use care is unacceptable,” said Evans.??

“We have room to go before we have something that looks like real parity between our mental health and medical systems.” – Eric Russ, Kentucky Psychological Association executive director

The report recommends that states and health plans expand their behavioral health networks by raising reimbursement rates — “as they do for medical/surgical providers.” Having access to more network providers, the report says, would ease the financial burden on patients who now, if they cannot afford to pay out of pocket, may go without care.

The COVID-19 effect: a ‘sledgehammer’?

Eric Russ

The report showed that from 2019 to 2021, out of network utilization of acute inpatient behavioral health care increased from 2.5% to 4.0% in Kentucky. That’s much higher than 0.4% in 2019 and 0.2% in 2021 for medical and surgical care.?

In 2021, Kentuckians were 17.2 times more likely to get out-of network care for behavioral health than they were for medical or surgical care. But the percent of Kentuckians going out of network for outpatient behavioral care care decreased from 2019 to 2021 — 11% to 5%.?

“One thing we’ve seen out of COVID is an increase in behavioral health needs,” Russ said. Even before the pandemic, there was an increased need for mental health support. “And then COVID just took a sledgehammer to everybody’s mental health.”?

Because there were not enough in-network providers, Kentuckians had to look elsewhere for help, a burden Russ said “falls harder on minority populations.”???

“Structural discrimination puts minority populations at an increased risk of mental health issues generally,” he said. “And then the clinical field tends to be a pretty white dominated field,” which makes it more difficult to find providers who are culturally competent to treat someone from a particular background or identity.?

Stigma worsened by lack of access: ‘demoralizing’??

Usually when people seek care for a mental health issue, they’ve often already been struggling for a while, Russ said.?

“Usually they’ve been feeling down, depressed, anxious, having relationship problems, having eating disorders for quite a long time before they even start seeking treatment,” he said. “When you start looking, finally ready to get help, and then call your insurance company or call your primary care provider and say, ‘hey, where do I go?’ And they give you a list of providers and everybody’s full and you can’t get in — that’s incredibly demoralizing.”?

This can add to the stigma that already surrounds mental health issues, Russ said. It can also put people’s well being in jeopardy while they wait for help. This can be worse for people with conditions like ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), who may already struggle with organization and time management.?

Kentucky is doing slightly better than other states, the data show.?

“No one is doing well” though, Russ said. “We have room to go before we have something that looks like real parity between our mental health and medical systems.”?

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

Beshear makes Juneteenth a Kentucky holiday, protects natural hair in state workplaces

Sarah Ladd — Thu, 23 May 2024 20:47:58 +0000

Gov. Andy Beshear signed executive orders during a gathering in the Capitol Rotunda Thursday. (Screenshot)

Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday signed executive orders making Juneteenth an executive branch holiday and protecting natural hairstyles like braids, locs and twists from discrimination.?

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have tried and failed to pass bills on both of these issues.?

CROWN Act stalls in legislature

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, is among those who have championed the CROWN Act, which is an acronym for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.” His latest bill stalled this session after being passed over in the Senate several times and recommitted to the Judiciary Committee.?

Democratic Floor Leader Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, also filed a bill this session to make June 19 — Juneteenth — a state holiday. It did not get a hearing.?

The Juneteenth executive order?

Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021, commemorating the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in the United States learned they were free in Galveston, Texas. President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years earlier, in 1863, but it was not immediately enforced in many areas of the south.?

“I’ve decided I can no longer wait for others to do what is right,” Beshear, a Democrat, said Thursday ahead of signing the order.?

“It is our responsibility to look back at one of the ugliest chapters in our history. We must look at it straight on and not hide from our own history, even the parts that are painful.” Beshear said. “Instead, we recognize it, we attempt to learn from it and we work to repair the lasting damage and heal our nation’s wounds so we can make progress for a better tomorrow.”??

His executive order will make Juneteenth an official holiday in Kentucky, in line with actions taken by at least 28 other states, according to the Pew Research Center.?

Sen. Gerald Neal

“It is impossible for me to ever fully imagine the horror and lasting scars and legacy of slavery and Jim Crow,” Beshear said during a gathering in the Capitol Rotunda. “But as governor, I’m committed to listening, to learning, to trying to hear and then to take intentional action.”?

Neal joined Beshear Thursday. He said Juneteenth symbolizes “both jubilation and a solemn reminder of the struggles and achievements of African Americans.” He has tried for several years to pass a bill codifying Juneteenth and said he’s committed to keep trying.?

“I urge my colleagues in the General Assembly to support legislation in the upcoming session, recognizing the pivotal role Black Americans have played in shaping our country,” Neal said. In doing so, “we honor our shared history and demonstrate a commitment to equality and justice for all.”??

Natural hairstyles protected

As of 2023, 22 states had enacted CROWN Acts, according to the Legal Defense Fund. The national CROWN Act campaign found, based on a 2023 study, that about half of Black women feel pressured to straighten their hair in job interviews, professional headshots and on the job.?

Melinda Wofford

They also found more than a fifth of Black women between 25 and 34 were sent home from their work because of their hair. Additionally, the survey found that Black women with textured hair are two times more likely to report microaggressions at work than Black women with straightened hair.?

Beshear’s executive order applies only to state government workers and job applicants. Effective immediately, it prohibits discrimination in state government workplaces based on “traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to natural hair texture and protective hairstyles, such as braids, locks and twists.”?

“The way my hair looks is not a reflection of my work ethic,” said Melinda Wofford, an assistant director in the state’s Transportation Cabinet. “It definitely (is) not a reflection of my character. This order makes possible the freedom needed for me to continue to wear my hair in its natural state, the state that God blessed me with, without fear of discrimination in the workplace.”

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

Rail yard is $5 million closer to again serving as an economic engine

Liam Niemeyer — Thu, 23 May 2024 09:50:54 +0000

A steam engine at the repair shop owned by the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. (Photo provided)

For Chris Campbell, Estill County is where almost everyone has a connection to the rail lines that run by the “twin cities” of Irvine and Ravenna, the latter founded by a railroad in the early 20th century.?

Campbell, while not an Estill County native, is a train enthusiast and president of the Irvine-based nonprofit Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. that is trying to transform the county’s long-time rail yard into an “economic incubator” that can be a draw for his part of Appalachian Kentucky.?

The vision: turning the rail yard into a community greenspace, dubbed the “The Yard,” featuring a pavilion for music, a campground, jogging trails, a museum and a renovated repair shop where historic steam engines are restored. Campbell foresees thousands of people coming in for music shows, spending the night, spending money at local restaurants and stores, and visiting other Eastern Kentucky attractions.

The nonprofit is getting a big boost ?toward making that a reality in the form of a nearly $5 million federal grant announced this week to clean up the rail yard, remediating decades of industrial use from hauling coal out of Kentucky’s mountains.

Visitors to the new community space could help “a new economy spring up” on ground where the economy has long been based on coal mining and railroading, says Campbell.?

The newly constructed stage for music and other events at the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp.’s site in Estill County. (Photo provided)

“None of these ideas can even come to fruition if you don’t do the literal groundwork to make it possible. So, the literal groundwork is moving dirt around and to make it legal to have the general public on it,” Campbell told the Lantern.?

The almost $5 million grant is from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields program, which has more funding to distribute thanks to passage of federal spending bills such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Two area development districts and the city of Barbourville also recently received grants through the program to assess properties and create an inventory of properties to be potentially remediated and restored.?

Campbell said the work already done toward the project — which includes a music stage that could start hosting music as soon as this fall — has been made possible through private donations and other state and federal funding in recent years.

Along with building that community space, Campbell said, those at the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation want to preserve the legacy of the region’s railroading into the future.?

A steam engine repair shop supplied jobs in Ravenna before trains moved to diesel-electric engines, and the nonprofit is restoring a 20th century steam engine that’s seen plenty of time in Kentucky. Campbell said the nonprofit, which owns the rail yard, ?hopes to acquire the tracks from CSX in the future to be able to bring tourists into town by train. He said trains occasionally come down the tracks if they need repairs but the runs are no longer regular.

“People that worked for the railroad were really passionate about it,” Campbell said. “We’re interested in the history of railroading and preserving it but also doing it in a way that’s marketable and has some longevity.”?

Campbell said the nonprofit, which owns the rail yard, ?hopes to acquire the tracks from CSX in the future to be able to bring tourists into town by train. He said trains occasionally come down the tracks but the runs are no longer regular.

YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.

Workers at Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama reject union after months-long campaign

Jemma Stephenson — Fri, 17 May 2024 20:36:35 +0000

A union volunteer removes pro-union t-shirts from the back of his car at UAW headquarters on Friday, May 17, 2024 in Coaling, Alabama. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)

Workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama, voted Friday to reject a union after a months-long campaign to organize the plant.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which oversaw the election, said 2,045 workers (44%) voted for the union, while 2,642 workers (56%) voted against it.

The results, the first setback for organized labor after a string of recent victories dating back to last fall, came after an intense battle between the United Auto Workers, who have tried to unionize the plant for decades; Mercedes-Benz, which opposed it, and Alabama state officials and business groups, who waged an aggressive anti-union campaign. The “no” comes after state leaders advocated against the union amid a series of labor victories nationwide.

Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, said at the Coaling UAW office on Friday that the result was not what they were hoping for, but the workers made gains in their campaign.

“Justice isn’t just about one vote or one campaign,” said Fain. “It’s about getting a voice and getting your fair share.”

Mercedes-Benz United States International (MBUSI), the entity overseeing the plant, said in a statement Friday that they wanted “to ensure every eligible Team Member had the opportunity to participate in a fair election.” The company thanked “all Team Members who asked questions, engaged in discussions, and ultimately, made their voices heard on this important issue.”

Workers who supported the union said they had concerns about work-life balance, pay, benefits and policies, such as a doctor’s note not excusing time off when a worker is out of days.

Rick Webster, a two body panel adjuster, told reporters ahead of the vote counts becoming public on Friday that he hoped a union would allow employees to negotiate on an equal playing field.

“We’ll be able to sit down at the table with the company, and we will be able to negotiate what we need as workers and not have it dictated to us by the company,” he said.

He also said that if the union vote fell short, supporters would try again.

As the votes rolled in, pained sounds came from people in the room as the vote count swung to “no’s” as the votes came in chunks throughout the day. The early vote counts did not look favorable for unionization.

Near the end of count, the running vote totals on the white board were changed to “ONWARD!”

The vote at Mercedes, whose arrival in Alabama in 1993 is credited with creating the state’s automotive industry, was the first defeat for organized labor after a string of victories.

Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted to unionize in April. UAW won a major strike against the Big Three automakers last year, and secured a contract with 25% wage increases at Daimler Truck earlier this month.

Volkswagen employees had first rejected the union in close votes in 2014 (712 yes’s to 626 no’s) and 2019 (833 no’s among around 1,600 who voted), according to the Washington Post and New York Times, respectively.

Drew Hall, team lead in the paint shop at Volkswagen in Chattanooga drove down with his wife, Kristina Hall in support of the drive on Friday.

Hall, who was also involved in the 2019 Volkswagen union drive, said that it was “exhilarating” after the more recent vote.

“The amount of time that you’ve actually put into it that once it’s over and done with all you want to do is cry,” he said ahead of the vote counts becoming public.

The UAW has tried to organize the plant for years, but none have made it as far as the current effort. While the wages had stagnated, autoworkers still make more on average than others in the state. Workers who did not state support of the union told the Reflector at a recent shift change that they were not sure where they would find better work.

The union drive has faced push back from state leaders, with both Gov. Kay Ivey and the Business Council of Alabama opposing the union.

Ivey recently signed legislation sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, which would require companies to forfeit state economic incentives if they voluntarily recognize unions.

In a statement released Friday afternoon, Ivey called the automotive industry a “crown jewel” industry in the state and wrote that she was grateful for the companies.

“The workers in Vance have spoken, and they have spoken clearly!” she wrote. “Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the Sweet Home to the UAW. We urge the UAW to respect the results of this secret ballot election.”

A message was left with BCA Friday morning.

In February, the UAW said that a majority of the workers had signaled support for the union. The union called for a vote in April and had previously said that they would call for a vote when 70% of workers had signaled support for the union, though they did not disclose their level of support at the time.

A November report from the progressive non-profit organization Alabama Arise found that wage growth had stalled for the workers. The report found that real wages had declined 11% from 2002-2019 and that Alabama workers made less than autoworkers in other states. Hispanic, Black and women workers also made less on average.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

This story is republished from the Alabama Reflector, a sister publication to the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Biden administration proposes ending future federal coal leasing in Powder River Basin

Blair Miller — Fri, 17 May 2024 16:24:26 +0000

Some of the coal mined in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming comes from surface mines like this one. (Photo courtesy of Wyoming BLM via Flickr | CC-BY-SA 2.0)

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday released plans to end future leasing of its managed coal resources in the Powder River Basin in eastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming in a move that has angered Montana’s Republican political leaders but is being cheered by environmental groups who fought for changes to leasing plans over the past decade.

The BLM issued final supplemental environmental impact statements and amendments to its land use plans for the Miles City Field Office in Montana and the Buffalo Field Office in Wyoming, both of which recommend an end to future federal coal leasing in the regions despite the bureau considering alternatives that would allow for some future leasing.

The official plans will be published in the Federal Register on Friday, which opens up a 30-day window for people to file protests. After the window closes and the protests are resolved by the director of the BLM, which does not have a specific timeframe but in recent years has taken about nine months, the final Record of Decision and Resource Management Plan will be published and take effect.

People who wish to file protests over the plan can find out more information on how to do so on the BLM’s website.

The decisions by the BLM are key because the Powder River Basin in the two states accounts for 85% of federal coal production and about 40% of U.S. annual coal production, but the bureau says coal production in the Miles City Field Office region has declined over the past decade as more utilities move toward other energy sources for power.

The environmental groups that pushed for the end to new coal leasing called the decision a “sea change” in federal efforts to move toward cleaner energy sources.

“This decision opens new doors to a future where our public lands are not sacrificed for fossil fuel profits and, instead, can prove a bulwark of ecological and community resilience in the face of global warming,” Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, the executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, said in a statement.

The plan for Montana would close about 1.2 million acres to new coal leasing but would allow current coal production at the Spring Creek Mine, owned by the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, to continue through 2035. It would allow production at the Rosebud Mine, owned by Westmoreland, through 2060 under their current leases, the BLM said in the notice in the Federal Register. The Absaloka Mine lost its final customer in April, the Billings Gazette reported.

Existing mines in Wyoming would be able to produce coal until 2041. The current period for the new plans runs through 2038.

The new environmental impact statement and land use plan amendments come eight years after the Western Organization of Resource Councils first challenged the 2015 Record of Decision for future leasing operations, alleging it violated the National Environmental Policy Act. In 2018, a judge found the BLM had violated NEPA, which led to another coal screening for the plans and a new NEPA analysis released in 2019 under the Trump administration.

But the Miles City plan was challenged again by the same group in 2020. In August 2022, a U.S. District Court of Montana judge also found the BLM had violated NEPA by failing to address public health and environmental effects from the mining. He ordered another new coal screening and NEPA analysis that this time considered no-leasing and limited-leasing alternatives as well as impacts to public health from burning fossil fuels in the area.

Trains loaded with Powder River Basin coal, pictured in 2006, at Union Pacific’s Bailey railyard in North Platte, Nebraska. (Dustin Bleizeffer | WyoFile)

“Coal has powered our nation for many decades, but technology, economics and markets are changing radically,” Western Organization of Resource Councils Board Chair Paula Antoine said Thursday in response to the decisions. “BLM’s announcement recognizes that coal’s era is ending, and it’s time to focus on supporting our communities through the transition away from coal, investing in workers, and moving to heal our lands, water and climate as we enter a bright clean energy future.”

The BLM said in its announcement that the Spring Creek and Rosebud mines produced a combined 18.5 million short tons (37 million pounds) of coal in 2022, which was down from 28 million short tons (56 million pounds) in 2007, “as older coal-fired electric power plants have closed and generation has shifted to natural gas and renewable energy sources.”

“Both U.S. total coal production and Powder River Basin coal production peaked in 2008 and have since declined steeply, according to the Energy Information Administration,” BLM spokesperson Mark Jacobsen said in the bureau’s announcement.

Montana Republicans unhappy with another Biden energy move; Tester reviewing

Montana’s Republican governor and three GOP members of the state’s federal delegation, who have for years been saying the Biden administration’s efforts to move the U.S toward more renewable and clean energy and away from using fossil fuels for power, sent out a joint news release decrying the BLM’s decision and blaming the “far left” for the proposed plans.

Gov. Greg Gianforte in August wrote to BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning that accepting few or no future leases would harm the state’s coal trust, Colstrip and the economy.

The group of Republicans expressed similar sentiments recently regarding the EPA’s singling-out the coal-fired plants at Colstrip with new emissions standards and believe that efforts to move away from coal and oil and gas to power the state will hurt the state’s power grid and cost workers jobs.

“Every action taken by the Biden administration is driving up the cost of affordable energy and threatening the reliability of our electrical grid. Affordable power generated by coal keeps the lights on in Montana and fuels manufacturing across the country and world,” Gianforte said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is nothing more than a gift to China and our adversaries and a slap in the face to hardworking Montanans.”

U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale, who represents eastern Montana, blamed the decision on appeasing “climate extremists” and said the plans would jeopardize Montanans’ way of life.

“BLM either does not understand or does not care that their unreliable green new deal energy sources are not feasible in places like Montana and pose real threats to our economy and national security,” Rosendale said.

A spokesperson for Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, said Tester was reviewing the proposal and calling on Montanans to submit comments during the 30-day protest window.

“Senator Tester will always stand up to President Biden’s energy policies when they don’t make sense for Montana,” spokesperson Eli Cousin said in a statement.

The new proposal comes on the heels of the BLM publishing a final rule that will allow two new types of leases on federal public lands: restoration and mitigation leases, which put those uses on the same footing as extraction. The rules have already been criticized by the same group of Montana Republican leaders who say the changes will also harm Montana’s energy industry.

The different alternatives BLM considered

But the parameters of the court-ordered review meant that three out of four of the proposed alternatives the BLM considered for the Miles City Field Office would have closed off significant acreage to new leasing.

The first alternative was to take no action and keep the 2019 plans in place, which would have made 1.2 million acres available for possible leasing.

But the three other options applied screens, multiple-use considerations, and climate change scenarios that greatly reduced the available acreage. Alternative B would have left about 69,000 acres available for possible leasing, while Alternative C would have made about 810 acres available.

A truck carrying a load of Powder River Basin coal (Photo by Dustin Bleizeffer of WyoFile).

But the alternative the BLM decided to pick makes no coal available for leasing. The Miles City planning area encompasses 2.7 million acres of BLM land and 11.7 million acres of federal coal mineral estate over 17 counties in eastern Montana.

The environmental impact analysis says the alternative the BLM chose would mean no new impacts to air quality caused by new or pending coal leases. The report forecasts Spring Creek and Rosebud would continue to support about 620 jobs through 2035 resulting in nearly $50 million in average annual income.

Utilizing Alternative D would also mean the Spring Creek Mine would run out of coal reserves about 53 years earlier than under Alternatives A and B, which would eventually lead to a loss of economic revenue and programs funded by federal coal production, the report says.

But Montana environmental groups that have fought for the changes say the new plans are a step forward in moving away from coal and cutting down on pollution.

Mark Fix, a Miles City rancher who is a member of the Northern Plains Resource Council, said the new plans reflect reality in 2024.

“Coal companies in this region already have decades of coal locked up in leasing, and it’s hard to imagine they’ll find buyers that far into the future given the competition from more affordable energy sources,” Fix said. “This plan protects taxpayers from wasting publicly owned resources on lowball leases to subsidize an industry in decline. It’s time we take a clear-eyed look at the future and start investing in a transition away from coal.”

The story is republished from the Daily Montanan, a sister publication of the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

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Hazard, some other Kentucky towns may enact restaurant tax, judge rules

Jack Brammer — Thu, 16 May 2024 00:38:15 +0000

Hazard, the Perry County seat, on March 26, 2024. (Photo by Austin Anthony)

A Franklin Circuit judge has given a legal victory to Hazard and several other Kentucky cities interested in imposing a restaurant tax.

The tax, created by the legislature in 1980, is levied in about 50 of Kentucky’s 418 cities on retail sales of food and beverages in all restaurants in the city. The tax rate is not to exceed 3% and revenue from it is to be used to promote tourism.

Hazard sued the state, claiming it was being discriminated against by not qualifying to enact the tax. Several other cities joined in the suit.

Hazard Mayor Donald “Happy” Mobelini

Hazard Mayor Donald “Happy” Mobelini on Wednesday said he was “elated” with the judge’s order and hopes that the city commission will take up implementing a restaurant tax at Monday night’s meeting. He said amenities that appeal to tourists can improve the quality of life for residents as well.

“I don’t think there will be a ‘no’ vote,” he said. “We’re in such a disadvantaged position here. We want to take care of our kids. We want to do for our kids what other communities are doing with things like recreational areas” that the mayor said will also draw visitors.

Logan Fogle, spokesman for the state Department for Local Government, said the court ordered the department “to take all necessary and appropriate steps to implement the order, specifically by including Hazard on the list of eligible cities to impose the tax and by including all similarly situated cities, like Ashland, on the list.”

Gov. Andy Beshear was dismissed from the case earlier by agreed order and the attorney general’s office intervened to defend the state.

Kevin Grout, a spokesman for Attorney General Russell Coleman, said Wednesday the office is reviewing whether to appeal the order.

Unconstitutionally arbitrary

Meanwhile, a director of the Kentucky League of Cities warned that no city should immediately try to impose the tax based on the Franklin Circuit Court ruling because it was not final.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd

In a 21-page decision issued Monday, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd took issue with parts of a state law — KRS 91A.400 — that says which cities may impose the tax.

Before 2015, Kentucky’s cities were divided into six classes based on their population at the time of classification. There were more than 400 classification-related laws on the books that affected issues like public safety, alcoholic beverage control and revenue options.

After Jan. 1, 2015, that classification of cities was changed, making Louisville and Lexington 1st-class cities and others home rule class.

The amended restaurant tax law allowed the state Department of. Local Government to maintain a list of “authorized cities” that as of Jan. 1, 2014, were classified as cities of the 4th- or 5th-class.

Cities_with_Restaurant_Tax-2021

The law said in addition to a 3% transient room tax placed on lodging, the legislative body in an authorized city could levy a tax on tourism.

Shepherd said the restaurant tax law makes an unconstitutionally arbitrary distinction of cities eligible to enact the restaurant tax based on population and classification status on an arbitrarily chosen date, Jan. 1, 2014.

“The statute arbitrarily fails to provide a means of migration for cities whose population after January 1, 2014, either enters or exits throng of 4th and 5th class cities.”

The judge added that the law “fails to provide a pathway to correct the misclassification of cities like Hazard, whose population has always met the statutory criteria for belong tin in the 4th class (with the authority to enact the restaurant tax) rather than the 3rd class.”

But Shepherd declined to hold all of the law unconstitutional, especially in light of the financial reliance some cities have on the tax.

He noted that many tourism projects have been funded by cities authorized to levy the restaurant tax and that many bonds are financed using proceeds generated by the tax.

He said “the proper remedy” is to sever parts of the statute that violate the Kentucky Constitution’s prohibition on arbitrary legislation.

Those parts arbitrarily authorize some cities to impose a restaurant tax based on historical class and leave similarly situated cities without the ability to impose the tax.

The judge also ordered that the Governor’s Office of Local Government include on the list of eligible cities to levy the restaurant tax all similarly situated cities, like Ashland, with population ranges within the parameters of cities that had been classified 4th- or 5th-class.

Hazard and similarly situated cities with populations under 8,000 should be included on the list of cities eligible to levy the tax, the judge said.

“This ruling does not declare that those cities like Elizabethtown or Oak Grove, with current population totals over the 4th class population cap of 8,000 are no longer authorized to levy and rely on the tax,” said Shepherd.

He stressed that the Governor’s Office of Local Governments is directed to include Hazard on the list of cities eligible to impose the tax.

Shepherd said the state’s previous classification system for cities “is frozen in time based on population figures that have now changed or were initially misclassified.”

For clarity, he wrote, the now-repealed city-classification system directed that 3rd-class cities have populations between 8,000 and fewer than 20,000. Cities of the 4th class have populations of 3,000 or more, but fewer than 3,000.

Shepherd said Ashland maintains it has never had a population in this century or last that was as low 8,000, and it was misclassified.

Cities advised to proceed cautiously

Morgain Patterson, director of municipal law for the Kentucky League of Cities, said in an article on the KLC website that the cities of Bardstown, Beaver Dam, Berea, Elizabethtown, Kuttawa, Madisonville, Morehead, Pikeville and Prestonsburg intervened in the lawsuit as former 4th- and 5th-class cities eligible to assess the restaurant tax.

“These cities argued that the restaurant tax statute is constitutional and that invalidating it would cause catastrophe economic harm to those cities that impose the tax,” she said.

But, said Patterson, the judge’s order “purports to expand the number of cities that can assess there restaurant tax on a prospective basis, but the language of the ruling is unclear as to which cities that may include, except that it specifies the city of Hazard is eligible.”

She stressed that the order “is not final and should not serve as a basis for a city to adopt a new restaurant tax.”

Patterson said the order “clearly preserves the right of cities that currently assess a restaurant tax to continue to do so.”

She said the parties in the lawsuit have 10 days from the date of the order to file motions to alter, amend or vacate.

If a motion is filed, that extends the deadline for a party to appeal the decision, she said. Once the court rule on that motion, the parties have 30 days to file an appeal.

Hazard, along with Perry County Fiscal Court, filed the suit in ?January 2023. Shepherd dismissed Perry County as a plaintiff.

Judge’s order in City of Hazard v. Commonwealth of Kentucky

Restaurant Tax Order

New federal rule will overhaul transmission planning as electric grid strains

Robert Zullo — Tue, 14 May 2024 19:56:53 +0000

Electric power lines are seen attached to transmission towers on Sept. 28, 2023, in the Everglades, Florida. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday issued a long-awaited overhaul of how regional electric transmission lines are planned and paid for. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A divided Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday issued a long-awaited overhaul of how regional electric transmission lines are planned and paid for, a move cheered by clean power groups but blasted by a conservative commissioner who said it was driven by “special interests” and exceeds the commission’s authority.

The commission’s final rule on transmission planning and cost allocation, intended to prod utilities and grid operators across the country into more forward-looking, comprehensive and cost-effective planning of large electric transmission lines and better account for the broad benefits those wires provide, was nearly three years in the making. It passed on a 2-1 vote, with the commission’s two Democratic appointees voting yes and the lone Republican opposed.

FERC Chairman Willie Phillips said an aging grid, increasing severe weather, demand growth from new manufacturing, data centers and increasing electrification as well as a changing generation mix all threaten reliability at a time when construction of the high voltage transmission lines that help get power to where it’s needed has slumped to a record low.

“This rule cannot come fast enough. There is an urgent need to act to ensure the reliability and the affordability of our grid,” Phillips said. “We simply will not be able to address these converging challenges and continue to supply the reliable, abundant and affordable power the American people depend on without taking a clear-eyed, long term, forward-looking approach to transmission planning.”

But Commissioner Mark Christie, a conservative former Virginia utility commissioner, vehemently dissented to the rule, calling it “a pretext to enact a sweeping policy agenda that Congress never passed” and one that will “facilitate a massive transfer of wealth from consumers to for-profit special interests.”

Christie has long opposed transmission cost allocation schemes that he claimed would force customers in some states to pay for the pro-renewable policies of their neighbors. “I was perfectly prepared to vote for this final rule if it were a bipartisan compromise, if it preserved the state role that everyone sitting up here voted for two years ago,” he said.

The genie and the bottle

The sprawling rule requires transmission operators to conduct transmission planning at least every five years, looking out along a 20-year horizon using “best available data to develop well-informed projections” of needs, according to a staff presentation. To identify those transmission needs, providers need to consider state laws and regulations, utility planning documents, fuel cost trends, power plant retirements, requests from developers looking to connect to the grid as well as “policy goals and corporate commitments.” They also must consider “grid-enhancing technologies,” a suite of potentially cost-saving tools common in other countries that have been slow to take root in the U.S., despite years of prodding from advocates, as well as identifying opportunities to upgrade existing lines, called “right-sizing.”

Transmission providers, including utilities and the organizations that manage the grid in much of the country, are also required to use a list of seven economic and reliability benefits as they evaluate and select long-term regional transmission projects as well as establish an evaluation process with transparent selection criteria that are not “unduly discriminatory or preferential, aim to ensure that more efficient or cost-effective long-term regional transmission facilities are selected and seek to maximize benefits accounting for costs over time without over-building transmission facilities.”

Christie criticized those “mandated inputs” and said states have no ability to consent to those criteria.

A major big problem FERC is trying to fix is that even as construction of large transmission projects has nearly ground to a halt, utilities in many parts of the countries are on a building spree of smaller — potentially duplicative and inefficient — projects that are easier to get approved and paid for, increasing customer bills.

“The absence of this type of regional transmission planning is resulting in piecemeal transmission expansion that addresses relatively near-term transmission needs,” the staff presentation reads. “The status quo approach results in transmission providers investing in relatively inefficient or less cost-effective transmission infrastructure, with the costs ultimately recovered through commission-jurisdictional rates. This dynamic results in, among other things, transmission customers paying more than is necessary or appropriate to meet their transmission needs, and customers missing out on benefits that outweigh their costs, which results in less efficient or cost-effective transmission investments.”

“Not everything is about politics. It is not the commission’s job to try and force the genie that is the energy transition back in the bottle. It is our legal responsibility to protect consumers in light of whatever is going on in the world around us.”

– Allison Clements, Democratic member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

For example, proponents of the new rule point to hundreds of millions of dollars in transmission costs that will result from the closure of a Maryland power plant in the region overseen by PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, as an example of poor planning.

“It is hard to imagine the region could not have found a more cost-effective solution had it begun planning for that retirement along with other anticipated shifts further ahead of time,” said Democratic Commissioner Allison Clements, who took Christie to task over his dissent. She said he was pushing the commission to take a “fraught voyage” to decide which public policies are appropriate for creating transmission demands.

“All transmission needs are inherently influenced by state policies of all stripes,” she said. “The truth is that enormous sums of money are going to be spent on transmission investment regardless of whether or not it’s done within the framework of this new rule.”

She argued that the new rule will protect customers from the pricey, fits-and-starts transmission buildout happening in much of the nation now.

“Not everything is about politics,” she said. “It is not the commission’s job to try and force the genie that is the energy transition back in the bottle. It is our legal responsibility to protect consumers in light of whatever is going on in the world around us.”

Neil Chatterjee, a Republican former FERC chairman, posted on X that he would have voted for the rule if he was still on the commission.

“Today’s @ferc rule was voted out 2-1 but that does NOT mean it’s a partisan rule making,” he wrote. “Had I authored this rule as chair would it have looked exactly like this? Of course not. But it would have been in the range. Regulatory rule making is hard.”

‘Benefit of having a big grid’?

Competitive transmission providers and clean energy groups were celebrating Monday. Organizations ranging from the American Council on Renewable Energy and the National Audubon Society to the Conservative Energy Network and Americans for a Clean Energy Grid issued statements applauding the order.

Some renewable power organizations had privately wondered whether a drive for a unanimous vote might produce a more watered-down rule to get Christie onboard. That might have left states with big renewable power goals paying for all the transmission costs necessary to accommodate them, as New Jersey is doing for its planned offshore wind buildout, even though that power generation could mean cheaper, cleaner electricity for its neighbors, also, along with other benefits.

The U.S. Department of Energy has found a “pressing need” for new transmission infrastructure across the country to alleviate congestion and improve reliability. Grid congestion costs electric customers billions of dollars a year, according to some reports. And because of the more diffuse nature of renewable power, getting it from where it’s produced to where it’s needed, as in the vast amount of wind power in the Great Plains, can require large, multi-state transmission lines.

“Families and businesses are paying the price for utilities’ and grid operators’ failure to address our critical electricity infrastructure needs,” said Heather O’Neill, president and CEO at national clean power business association Advanced Energy United. “Building more multi-state transmission lines unclogs the traffic jams on America’s electricity superhighways and unlocks our ability to keep up with our growing energy needs.”

Justin Vickers, a senior attorney for the Sierra Club, said the rule appears to be firmly within FERC’s jurisdiction, despite Christie’s concerns to the contrary.

“I think the commission is on very strong footing here,” he said. “This is a way of maximizing the benefits of living in a big country. We can send power around the country. It increases reliability and it lowers price. That’s the benefit of having a big grid. .. Let’s take advantage of it.”

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities, said it was “disappointed” that FERC declined to include a “right of first refusal” policy for some transmission projects, which would have given their members first crack at some of the lines. The organization also said the rule lacked “regional flexibilities for evaluating project benefits.”

“A one-size-fits-all approach does not work, as different regions have different needs and different states have different policies,” said Phil Moeller, an executive vice president at the institute.

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Kentucky American Water rates going up, but not by as much as company sought

Liam Niemeyer — Mon, 13 May 2024 21:46:20 +0000

For residential ratepayers, the PSC decision means a 9% increase in monthly service fees for water meters — $15 to $16.40 — and about an 11% increase in water consumption charges. The company had sought more. (Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — Kentucky American Water customers are due a refund after the state utility regulator rejected part of a rate increase the company began charging in February and chastised it for not doing more to stem water loss from its system.

Kentucky American Water, serving more than 138,000 customers in Lexington and more than a dozen counties, had asked last year for a revenue increase of almost $26 million or more than 22%.

In a May 3 order, the Public Service Commission (PSC) pared the revenue increase to $10.6 million. The regulator also rejected expenses that Kentucky American Water sought to recoup to cover inflation, food and gifts for employees, and excess fuel and power costs.

For residential ratepayers, the PSC decision means a 9% increase in monthly service fees for water meters — $15 to $16.40 — and about an 11% increase in water consumption charges. Customers will also receive a refund from when the water utility began on Feb. 6 to collect rates under its proposed increases. The company had asked for a 33% increase in service charges for residential meters to $20 a month, along with an across-the-board 36% increase in the water consumption charges.

Susan Lancho, a spokesperson for Kentucky American Water, a subsidiary of publicly-traded American Water, said in a statement that the utility is reviewing the order and communicating with the PSC about next steps following the order.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban Government and Attorney General Russell Coleman collaborated in the rate case, raising concerns about the size of the rate hike request and the utility’s? proposed expansion of a program originally meant to replace “high-failure” water lines creating leaks.?

Susan Straub, a spokesperson for the Lexington mayor’s office, in a statement said the city always intervenes in Kentucky American Water’s “frequent rate hike requests” in an effort to “keep the cost of living low in Lexington.”?

Coleman specifically took issue with the increased monthly water meter service charges, saying in a filing that it could be a “financial hardship” on “customers already struggling to make ends meet.”?

Water loss rises even as company replaces aging infrastructure

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman (Kentucky Lantern photo by Mathew Mueller)

Coleman and the LFUCG opposed a proposed expansion of what’s called a Qualified Infrastructure Program (QIP), created in 2019 with the PSC’s permission, to help Kentucky American Water recoup more quickly the costs of replacing “high-failure” cast iron and galvanized steel water main pipes. At the time, according to the utility, such water main pipes accounted for nearly two-thirds of water main breaks despite only making up 15% of the utility’s distribution system.?

The utility had argued it needed to expand its QIP to be able to recoup costs on more miles of water pipeline each year and to be able to replace more types of water pipeline, beyond just galvanized steel, in order to to be able to replace its aging water infrastructure in a reasonable timeframe.?

But Coleman and the Lexington-Fayette Urban Government pushed back against those arguments. They hired a consultant who argued in a filing the expansion of the QIP would more than double the scope of the pipe replacement program and burden ratepayers with the cost.?

Greg Meyer, a senior principal with the Missouri-based firm Brubaker and Associates Inc., said in a filing the QIP allows Kentucky American Water to recoup costs to replace water pipes on its own without oversight.?

“[T]he company is asking the commission to broadly expand the amount and type of pipeline replacement. It does not appear that the Company has given adequate thought to rate affordability,” Meyer said in a filing.?

The PSC in its order also noted that even with an existing QIP to fix water leaks in specific, problematic water mains, Kentucky American Water has seen increased rates of water loss in recent years. Kentucky American Water’s percentage of unaccounted for water loss in its system has inched up from 19.95% in 2018 to 21.59% in 2022, according to the PSC.

Under state regulations, a water utility can’t recoup costs through rates for unaccounted water loss if the percentage of water loss exceeds 15%, though a utility can ask for a different standard to follow.

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Kentucky American Water requested their water loss standard be raised to 20%, saying the 15% limit was “unrealistic” given that there’s no one solution to fixing water loss. The PSC wasn’t convinced, denying the request and asserting the utility hadn’t done enough to address existing water loss.?

Specifically, the regulator in its order wrote Kentucky American Water hadn’t developed a formal plan to reduce water loss nor had requested from the regulator additional personnel or equipment to deal with water loss.?

“This signals to the Commission that Kentucky-American does not appear to take the increasing water loss as a serious matter. This is a cause for serious concern,” the PSC wrote.?

Lancho, the Kentucky American Water spokesperson, in an email did not answer Lantern questions about criticism of its water loss or its QIP.

Kentucky American Water service area. (Source: Kentucky American Water)

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Still awaiting noise relief, some rural Kentuckians point to Arkansas’ new crypto mining law

Liam Niemeyer — Fri, 10 May 2024 09:50:09 +0000

The Artemis Power Tech facility, photographed last year before noise canceling blankets were installed, sits among the Wolfe County woods, power lines connecting it to a nearby substation. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Nine months after a suspected cryptocurrency mine moved into her previously quiet part of Wolfe County, Brenda Campbell says noise canceling blankets installed by the operator are not helping and she still doesn’t know where to turn for relief from the constant, intrusive whirring.

Brenda Campbell (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Wolfe County Judge-Executive Raymond Banks agrees the noise blankets haven’t been very effective, though he said the data center company told him the noise levels are so low it wasn’t necessary to “even have to put what they put up there.”

“I think the sound will always be there regardless of what they do,” Banks recently told the Lantern.

Campbell and Banks are looking to Frankfort for answers and point to recent action by Arkansas lawmakers as a possible roadmap.

Spurred by rural communities’ complaints about noise and disruption, Arkansas lawmakers passed and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation this month requiring cryptocurrency mining operations to obtain state permits and when they operate near homes to implement “noise-reduction” techniques. The new law also bans some foreign governments, most notably China, from owning a cryptocurrency mining operation in Arkansas and restores authority to local governments to pass regulations related to cryptocurrency mines.?

To do this, the Arkansas legislature had to reverse a law that it had passed just last year, in part at the urging of a pro-crypto lobbying group, the Satoshi Action Fund. The earlier law had limited local governments’ authority to regulate noise from the facilities.?

Earlier this year, the Satoshi Action Fund lobbied the Kentucky legislature to pass House Bill 741, which was approved by the House but died in the Senate.

Rural counties without zoning most vulnerable

Crypto mining uses tremendous amounts of electricity to run high-powered computers that solve complex mathematical equations to secure online transactions of cryptocurrencies through a digital ledger called the “blockchain.” Mining companies that, for example, solve these equations for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin are rewarded with Bitcoin itself; one unit in Bitcoin was worth more than $60,000 earlier this month.

Electric fans used to cool the computers can generate a lot of sound.?

Rep. Adam Bowling

The Kentucky sponsor of the industry-sought bill, Rep. Adam Bowling, R-Middlesboro, said the legislation would steer noisy, large-scale cryptocurrency mining operations to industrial parks and other designated places for industry.?

But others said the bill would leave the many rural Kentucky counties that have no zoning laws without protection or recourse from crypto mining noise.

As recently as 2020 a little more than half of Kentucky counties had no planning and zoning offices or boards, according to a presentation that year by the Kentucky Association of Counties. Wolfe County is one of them.?

Bowling appeared before a legislative committee on March 13 with representatives from Satoshi Action Fund and Kentucky Blockchain Council, both groups supporting the bill.?

Bowling told the Lantern that some local governments are reactively trying to “change the rules and kind of patch it together” once cryptocurrency mining operations are already established and that the bill would put regulations in place before operations move into a community.?

“They want to get the rules and the regulations set out on the front end before they make multimillion dollar investments and then things are changed after the fact,” Bowling said.?

An? environmental group expressed concerns at the time that the bill would still allow for intrusive noise pollution from mining operations. Audrey Ernstberger, a lobbyist with the Kentucky Resources Council, told members of the House Banking and Insurance Committee in March that the bill “would selectively override the ability of local communities” to reasonably regulate off-site noise impacts from asset mining operations.

Ernstberger said the bill would have held crypto mines to the community’s most “lenient” noise regulations, instead of a more protective standard, and set no specific noise level parameters.

The bill cleared the Kentucky House with Republican support in a largely party line vote, but upon reaching the Senate was never assigned a committee.

In an interview with the Lantern, Ernstberger said the bill would have blocked communities from implementing more stringent noise or zoning regulations after a cryptocurrency mining operation has moved in. The bill provides no conditions for operating cryptocurrency mining facilities in a county without noise or zoning laws, which Ernstberger said could allow facilities to establish themselves anywhere without zoning.

Eric Peterson, the director of policy for the Satoshi Action Fund, in response to a question from a lawmaker at the committee hearing, said the group doesn’t want large-scale mining operations to set up “next to our house, next to a school, next to a church.”?

“Businesses in industrial zones, they create noise, they use a lot of energy. That’s where we want these things,” Peterson said.

The Satoshi Action Fund didn’t respond to emails requesting an interview about their advocacy on HB 741.

Arkansas state Sen. Missy Irvin

‘Just really no business like it’

In Arkansas, one of the new law’s sponsors, Republican state Sen. Missy Irvin, said the measure will provide “great legal standing” for those opposing nuisance cryptocurrency mines, referencing a legal battle between residents of an Arkansas community and a crypto mine.?

Another Arkansas Republican, Sen. Bryan King, of Green Forest, wanted the legislature to go even further by providing communities more notice of where crypto companies plan to mine. King unsuccessfully tried to require mining companies to file a notice with the state six months before buying or leasing land.

Arkansas state Sen. Brian King

King doesn’t see zoning, which local governments traditionally use to decide where industry and business can locate, as a solution, in part because rural communities like those he represents do not want zoning. He also points to the unique nature of crypto mining.

“There’s just really no business like it,” King told the Lantern. “You may have a mill or industry that may emit noise from 8 to 5, but not 24-7, 365 (days a year).”

‘Just one day it’s there’

In Kentucky, Banks, the Wolfe County judge-executive, remains firmly opposed to zoning or a noise ordinance, fearing such laws could hamper future economic development in a county where many struggle with poverty.?

But Banks told the Lantern he wishes the county had received some notice that Artemis Power Tech’s data center was moving into his county before it powered up.

“We’re clueless — just one day, it’s there. Nobody ever mentioned it to me,” he said.

“I don’t have the answer to it. If I had known the thing was going in before it went in, I could have maybe have done some kind of ordinance to stop it.”

Artemis Power Tech paid East Kentucky Power Cooperative more than $200,000 to upgrade the electrical substation to meet the power demands of the operation. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Campbell and her neighbors, which include her daughter, grandson and cousins, are still bothered by the high-pitched noise from the data center that set up shop next to an electrical substation in August 2023. Her efforts to curb the noise haven’t gained traction.?

An Artemis Power Tech representative in an email said the company in January installed “noise canceling blankets” after a “third-party construction site noise control assessment” and “have heard no further complaints since then.”

The representative added the company is “willing to take reasonable measures through open communication to ensure we are a long-term trusted partner here.”?

But Campbell said the blankets “have not helped at all.” She says the noise seems worse on days when the weather is warmer because the cooling fans run harder.

The Artemis Power Tech representative told the Lantern it decided to install noise blankets instead of a physical noise barrier because building such a barrier would require trees to be cut down and “reduce noise absorption effectiveness.”

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Banks had told the Lantern in October the noise issue would be fixed with the company promising to install a “noise barrier.”?

Campbell said that what started as her concerns about noise have expanded to broader worries about regulation of the cryptocurrency industry as a whole — who owns and runs cryptocurrency mining operations, how cryptocurrency is being used and more.

“I just feel like that somebody has dropped the ball and that they’re just not paying attention,” Campbell said. “It just seems like the whole situation is being ignored, not only at the local level but also, you know, at the state and national level.”

She applauds what Arkansas is doing to protect local communities.?

“They changed their mind that something needed to be done,” Campbell said.

Lane Boldman, executive director of the Kentucky Conservation Committee, a statewide environmental advocacy group, said Campbell’s situation is an example of a crypto mining operation taking advantage of a rural county’s lack of zoning.??

Boldman noted that solar energy projects must promise to mitigate excessive construction noise as part of a hearing before the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

Cryptocurrency mining operations don’t have any similar process to mitigate local impacts, she said..

“They probably cause just as much noise, if not worse noise in some ways, because it doesn’t stop,” Boldman said.?

An Eastern Kentucky road leads to Artemis Power Tech’s facility in Wolfe County. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Governor’s Derby guests?

Tom Loftus — Thu, 02 May 2024 09:50:53 +0000

Gov. Andy Beshear, left, chats with quarterback Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Brittany Mahomes at the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6, 2023 in Louisville. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT —? Unlike his predecessors, Gov. Andy Beshear has declined to identify friends and political supporters who buy prime tickets to the Kentucky Derby made available by Churchill Downs each year for the governor’s guests.

The Louisville racetrack sets aside large numbers of Derby tickets for sale at face value to Kentucky elected officials, including hundreds to the governor’s group — many of them coveted hard-to-get prime seats.?

One purpose is to allow the state’s chief executive to entertain corporate executives considering investments in the Bluegrass State on that one day of the year when Kentucky shines in the national spotlight.

News articles about this time-honored practice over the past 25 years emphasized that Churchill Downs set aside far more tickets for the governor’s group than are needed by the state’s official corporate guests.?

Over those years, when asked by reporters, Beshear’s four immediate predecessors — including his father Gov. Steve Beshear — withheld the names of the official economic development guests but released lists of names of others who were able to buy the tickets from the governor’s batch. In each case, many of the tickets wound up in the hands of political donors, lobbyists and other supporters.

Those governors took some heat from ethics watchdogs who questioned why Churchill Downs — a major political contributor and potent lobbying presence in Frankfort — needed to give the governor control over enough hard-to-get tickets to take care of his friends.

But Beshear’s office says it has no lists of friends and supporters who got those tickets last year. Like his predecessors, Beshear has set-up a nonprofit corporation to broker his ticket allotment and manage his Derby events “for the promotion of economic development in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”?

Beshear’s nonprofit — called First Saturday in May Inc. —? declined to say how many tickets it purchased from Churchill last year and declined to release records showing who it sold those tickets to.

Churchill Downs failed to respond to questions emailed to it by Kentucky Lantern and numerous follow-up emails and phone calls.?

Though Kentucky Lantern had no luck in learning from Beshear who bought tickets from his allotment in 2023, other public records show that a large number of tickets from the governor’s batch may have been purchased by his political supporters in the Democratic Governors Association.

‘Why are you not letting us know…?’

Norman Ornstein, an authority on ethics in government and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said he has no serious problem with the underlying story of Churchill Downs setting aside so many tickets for the governor’s group.

“My only question now would be: Why are you not letting us know what other governors have let us know?”? Ornstein said in a phone interview.

Delaney Marsco, director of ethics at the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center, had a similar observation. “If this sort of information is not released it raises an appearance that something nefarious may be going on,” Marsco said.

Demand for good Derby tickets exceeds supply, even as the face-value cost of tickets has soared in recent years.?

Doug Dearen, owner of DerbyBox.com a Kentucky Derby tour, travel package and ticketing business, explains on his company’s website, “Horsemen, corporations, families and government have had Kentucky Derby tickets in their possession for over 130 years, which makes this one of the most difficult tickets to obtain in all of sports.”

As such, many Derby fans must go online to the secondary market to buy tickets at prices set by sellers. (A Courier-Journal story on Monday said Ticketmaster listed the prices of reserved Derby seats that day “starting at $923 and selling upward of $10,781.”)

But six news articles over the past 25 years (by The Courier-Journal, Lexington Herald-Leader or Associated Press) reported that many friends of the governors over that era got their tickets at face value from the governor’s batch.

Those articles say that the practice of past governors has been — upon request of a reporter — to release the number of tickets allotted to him and the names of those who bought them. They released the names soon after the Derby arguing that any list of names released before the Derby was preliminary and subject to last minute changes. Also, news articles show Beshear’s predecessors declined to release names of the official corporate guests on the grounds that doing so could damage prospective negotiations.

Those news articles reported that Churchill sold as many as 553 tickets to the governors group while Paul Patton was governor in 1999, and as few as 237 in 2016 under Matt Bevin. In between, the number was about 360 tickets.

Kentucky Lantern filed a request under the Open Records Act with the governor’s office in August for documents showing the names of who got tickets for the 2023 Derby from the governor’s batch.

The response of Beshear’s office was the opposite of his predecessors: Beshear’s office released documents showing names of 38 official corporate guests of the state’s economic development and tourism agencies in 2023. But it said it had no lists of names of anyone else who bought the 2023 Derby tickets.

First Saturday in May, Inc.

Detailed information about who buys tickets from the governor’s batch is retained by First Saturday in May Inc. But its treasurer, Melinda Karns, refused Kentucky Lantern’s request to review its records that would show how many tickets it got in 2023 and who bought them.

Karns, a Lexington certified public accountant who is also treasurer of the Kentucky Democratic Party and was treasurer of Beshear’s campaigns for attorney general and governor, did release the group’s most recent tax return (Form 990) for its fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2022. (That form showed annual revenues in 2021-22 of $820,057 and expenses of $758,531. But no names of Derby ticket buyers or donors to the nonprofit are on that form.)

In response to emails that pressed for specifics, Karns said in an email, “The Form 990 that we have provided to you shows the amount of money spent by the First Saturday in May on the Kentucky Derby. Additional tickets to the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby were privately purchased from Churchill Downs by the First Saturday in May at no expense to the Commonwealth.”

One of the iconic Churchill Downs spires frames a field of Thoroughbreds on that one day of the year when Kentucky shines in the national spotlight. (Photo by Tom Eblen)

Democratic Governors Association

A disclosure report the Democratic Governors Association filed with the Internal Revenue Service last year shows that it apparently purchased many of those additional tickets.

The report shows that in early 2023 it paid $209,608 to First Saturday in May Inc. for “catering facilities.”

The Democratic Governors Association is a well-heeled national political fund dedicated to electing Democratic governors. The group’s priority last year was to reelect Beshear. It donated a massive $19 million to a super PAC called Defending Bluegrass Values that financed an independent campaign that helped Beshear win reelection in November over Republican Daniel Cameron.

DGA spokesman Sam Newton declined to say what exactly the DGA bought from First Saturday in May for $209,608. His emailed response to a question asking if the payment was for Derby tickets was that the money was for “a very successful event at the Kentucky Derby” that the DGA had hosted for several years.

Barren County boo-boo

The DGA’s involvement with Beshear’s 2023 Derby festivities briefly surfaced during the governor’s race last summer, causing some embarrassment to Beshear, the DGA, and especially for the Glasgow Barren County Industrial Development Economic Authority.

A disclosure form the DGA filed with the IRS listed the authority as a donor of $12,500, and that donation was included in news stories about donors to the DGA.

Officials of the authority board said during their August meeting that the donation was a mistake. The authority is partly taxpayer funded and barred from making political contributions, the authority’s chairman said.

Board member Larry Glass took responsibility. According to several news reports, Glass said he was approached by a person with connections to the Beshear administration and asked if he would be interested in representing Barren County at the governor’s Derby events where he could network with executives considering investment in Kentucky.

Glass said he was personally not interested, but suggested that it would be good for the board’s executive director to attend. Glass said he personally paid $12,500 to the authority — the cost for the executive director and her husband to attend the governor’s Derby Eve party, the Kentucky Oaks on the day before the Derby, and the Derby. The authority, in turn, wrote a $12,500 check to the DGA.

Glass told the Lexington Herald-Leader it was a mistake to funnel the money through the authority instead of paying the DGA himself. He said he could not remember who from the Beshear administration had approached him, but said he was not pressured to make the donation, the Herald-Leader reported.

The DGA later refunded the $12,500 to the authority, and an authority official said that amount was in turn refunded to Glass.

Republicans winning race for Churchill political dollars

Churchill Downs is a very big donor to political committees, and it backed Beshear’s reelection in a big way. More than 40 of its officials and employees combined to contribute $85,500 to Beshear’s reelection committees, and Churchill itself gave $275,000 last year to the DGA.

But Churchill and its executives have given far more to Republicans than Democrats in recent years, particularly to committees supporting incumbent Republican state legislators. And support of the Republican lawmakers was crucial in 2023 when the General Assembly passed a sports betting bill favorable to Kentucky’s racetracks and a bill to ban a game proliferating in parts of Kentucky — called a “gray” machine by opponents — that race tracks saw as illegal competition.?

This year alone Churchill has donated $200,000 to a political action committee called Commonwealth Conservative Coalition that is supporting mainstream Republican candidates for the legislature against their “liberty” opponents in upcoming ?primary elections. Also this year, Churchill has donated $100,000 to the Republican Party of Kentucky’s fund drive to renovate its headquarters in Frankfort.

Yes, other officials have access to Derby tickets

Churchill Downs has long made tickets available for sale to not just the governor, but also to all 138 state legislators, the statewide elected officials other than the governor, Kentucky’s members of the U.S. House and Senate and Louisville’s mayor.

Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne, a Prospect Republican, said each state legislator is given the opportunity to buy a box of six Derby seats. He sees no problem with the practice. “It’s the premier annual event in Kentucky and people expect state leaders to be there,” Osborne said. “… A more common reaction I get from people is that they are surprised to learn that we have to buy the tickets.”

Where Gov. Andy Beshear’s unknown guests won’t be sitting: The infield at Churchill Downs. (Photo by Tom Eblen)

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Avalanche of aid could help Kentuckians reinvent mountain economy

Al Cross — Thu, 02 May 2024 09:40:45 +0000

Downtown Hazard sits on the North Fork of the Kentucky River. The Perry County seat redoubled its efforts to fix up Main Street when prospective non-coal employers came to town and saw there were no good gathering places for them to take employees or have business meetings. (Photo by Austin Anthony)

CORBIN — Eastern Kentucky is about to get an avalanche of federal and state money to help it transition from its largely disappeared coal economy, but some of its towns are already lifting themselves up and setting examples for the region.

That was the upshot of the 36th annual East Kentucky Leadership Conference in Corbin, where Main Street is pretty much full again and New Orleans-style balconies show that young professionals are migrating there.

“A lot of younger people have wanted to move closer to downtown,” Corbin City Commissioner Allison Moore said during one panel discussion.

Conference attendees also heard about the revitalized downtowns in Hazard and Pineville, and about the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for which governments and nonprofits are already applying.

“There are now more resources than we have seen in our entire careers,” said Peter Hille, chairman of the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation and president of the Mountain Association, a nonprofit community-development lending institution based in Berea. He’s been doing community-development work in the region for more than 30 years.

In addition to federal money, state government now has a program to help provide matching funds that local governments often need to get grants, noted Casey Ellis of the Kentucky Council of Area Development Districts. Originally targeted to coal counties, its outlay of $1.5 million helped generate $12.8 million in grants last year, Ellis said.

After the conference, held April 25 and 26, Hille gave some examples of the funding opportunities for governments, nonprofits and others:

U.S. Energy Department funds to reduce energy consumption and bring renewable energy to census tracts where coal mines have closed since 1999, as well as adjacent tracts.
New programs through the Appalachian Regional Commission, most recently one for multi-state collaborative projects funded by the bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s rural energy program, which covers half of the installed cost for efficiency and renewable energy for rural businesses.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s? Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, to bring solar energy to homes of low-income people, and money to build the capacity and workforce needed to install the equipment.
Several other agencies have money for workforce development and infrastructure, including broadband.

Hille also talked about the federal money at the conference’s closing lunch, but also pointed out the efforts by local leaders, often helped with government grants but mainly spurred by local initiative.

“We’ve been seeing our communities come back to life,” he said, “because they are recreating themselves as places where people can live and choose to live.”

That’s essential as communities look for employers to replace coal jobs, said Bailey Richards, downtown coordinator for the City of Hazard. She said the Perry County seat redoubled its efforts to fix up Main Street when prospective non-coal employers came to town and saw there were no good gathering places for them to take employees or have business meetings.

“We realized you have to build a community,” Richards said in one panel discussion. In the last five years, downtown redevelopment has brought 70 new businesses, 62 of which are still open, accounting for more than 250 jobs. Richards noted proudly that Hazard’s population rose 18 percent from 2010 to 2020, while Pikeville, which has the region’s best-known revitalized downtown, grew 12 percent.

In the Bell County seat of Pineville, Mayor Scott Madon looked out the window of his second-floor insurance office a few years ago and saw a public square with 20 percent of its buildings occupied. Now it’s 100 percent full, after a redevelopment plan that will hit its second big phase this summer, Madon said during a panel discussion.

One key was a five-year moratorium on property-tax assessment increases, which required the cooperation of the county government. Madon said the first property to emerge from the moratorium will pay $10,000 in property taxes this year, after generating only $400 a year before it was redeveloped. To help businesses succeed, Southeast Community College helps them work up business plans, and checks with them each quarter to see how they’re doing.

Hille said successes like Pineville’s and Corbin’s usually have “spark plugs” like Andy Salmons, who is both Corbin’s Main street manager and owner of a former drug store converted into a local-food restaurant and bar with apartments above. He did that 12 years ago, when half of downtown buildings were empty.

Skeptics, and there were many, “said nobody’s going to come to a farm-to-table, craft-beer bar in Corbin,” Salmons said. He ran out of money just before it was time to open, and people who wanted to see him succeed rounded up the last thing he needed for the Wrigley Taproom and Eatery: chairs.?

More openings followed, the town went fully “wet,” not just for restaurants, and other towns noticed and followed suit. “Corbin was a game changer in this region,” said Jacob Roan, the city’s parks director.

Some relief coming for housing shortage

Much of the conference focused on the region’s chronic housing shortage, which has been worsened by floods, inflation and high interest rates, which have also raised rents and home prices. But wait. “Help is on the way,” said Pam Johnson of Fahe, formerly the Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises.

Using flood-relief money and other funds, and donated land, the state has started seven housing developments in the counties hit hardest by the 2022 flooding. It recently started taking applications for $298 million in federal disaster-recovery money intended for housing and infrastructure to support it.

The application deadline is June 1, said Matt Stephens, general counsel of the state Department for Local Government. The five counties hurt most by the floods – Breathitt, Letcher, Knott, Perry and Pike – will get 80% of the money. The other 20% is allocated to 15 other counties flooded in 2022.

“We’re looking at a summer and fall of housing starts that we have not seen,” Johnson said. “That’s going to give a boost to the communities.”

Eastern Kentucky has a housing shortage partly because it has shortages of three things related to housing: developable land, infrastructure and contractor, said Wendy Smith, a deputy executive director of Kentucky Housing Corp., a state agency.

Smith said rents have climbed so much that landlords who once took federal Section 8 housing vouchers no longer do so, to avoid inspections required by the program, and more than half the people who got vouchers from KHC turn them back in because they can’t find housing in the 210 days the voucher can be used.

She said there is little new “middle housing” such as duplexes and triplexes, on which developers make less money. And while there is money for apartment buildings and rent subsidies, many people in Eastern Kentucky don’t like apartment living.

“It’s because we’re connected to the land,” Corbin Mayor Suzie Rasmus said, unlike “the rest of the nation, that is so transitory.”

This story is the first in the latest series of stories about Appalachian Kentucky from the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky. If you have story ideas, contact Director Emeritus Al Cross at [email protected] or Jenni Glendenning, the institute’s David Hawpe Fellow in Appalachian Reporting, at [email protected].?

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‘Panicked rush to gas’ could hike energy costs, report warns regulators

Robert Zullo — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 09:40:47 +0000

A natural gas plant in Florida. Utilities, particularly in the South, are pushing to add new natural gas plants. (Getty Images)

The nation’s largest public power company, the Tennessee Valley Authority, which serves 10 million people in Tennessee and parts of six neighboring states, has put forward plans for eight new natural gas plants since 2020.

In South Carolina, Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper are pushing the state legislature to pave the way for a 2,000-megawatt natural gas power plant. Farther north, Dominion also plans new gas generation in Virginia. In its most recent plan filed with state regulators, Georgia Power is looking to add new gas turbines. Likewise, Duke Energy in North Carolina is proposing new gas plants and delaying coal power retirements.

The companies point to spiking electric demand, driven by data centers, new manufacturing facilities, increasing transportation electrification and other sources.

Georgia Power’s CEO said new businesses are creating a thirst for new power at “both a record scale and velocity.” Duke and TVA both cited “tremendous” economic and population growth in their service areas.

But a new report by an energy and climate policy think tank warns that some utilities, particularly in the South, are making a “panicked rush to gas” and calls on state officials to explore cheaper options and carefully vet plans that could saddle electric customers with billions in costs.

”What we really want is for policymakers to ask good questions,” said Eric Gimon, a senior fellow at Energy Innovation, and one of the authors of the brief for utility regulators, in an interview with States Newsroom.

‘Less risky alternatives’

After about 15 years of stagnation, U.S. electric demand is growing. A December report by an electric sector consulting firm noted that the utilities and regional transmission organizations that run the North American electric grid had almost doubled growth projections. At the same time, transmission line construction has nearly ground to a halt and there’s limited ability to move power between regions as the generation mix increasingly shifts to renewables and batteries in many parts of the country.

That’s been coupled with a growing dependence on natural gas power plants, which have taken the role coal used to play in the nation’s power mix but which have also failed in large numbers during recent severe weather.

Gimon said gas plants are often treated as a magic bullet solution to resource adequacy — an electric industry term for having enough power to meet peak demand. If the vision of the utilities pushing for lots of new gas power comes to pass, one of two things will happen, Gimon contends.

“Either they don’t get used very much,” he said, and thus become a stranded asset customers are stuck paying for anyway. “Or they get used a lot and they’re busting through their climate goals and EPA regulations.”

In a recent post , two Natural Resources Defense Council staffers warned that the huge planned Southeastern gas buildout will jeopardize emission reduction targets and hike electric costs, “leaving customers on the hook for potentially expensive, dirty and ultimately stranded assets that may or may not be usable for their typical, carbon-intensive lifespans.”

Gimon and one of his co-authors, Mike O’Boyle, Energy Innovation’s senior director for electricity, also pointed out that gas plants can’t always be counted on when they’re needed most. In the region run by PJM, the nation’s largest grid operator, gas plants accounted for 70% of the power plant outages it suffered during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022.

“We’re not talking about a capacity resource that is dependable for 100% of its nameplate capacity during a winter peak either,” O’Boyle said. “I think regulators’ jobs are to help ensure that utility investments are prudent and part of that means have they considered more affordable alternatives and less risky alternatives.”

Sarah Durdaller, a spokesperson for the Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned utilities like Dominion Energy, Southern Company and Duke Energy, said its member companies “are committed to delivering reliable, affordable and resilient clean energy to their customers.”

Durdaller said carbon emissions from the power sector are at their lowest point in almost 50 years, despite electricity generation doubling in that time frame. Natural gas power, she said, “is an essential partner for deploying renewables and maintaining grid reliability.”

As far as the thousands of megawatts of gas plants companies are proposing, she said that utility plans “always evolve as new technologies emerge, as costs decline, as demand forecasts change and as new policies are fully implemented.”

‘Better solutions’

One aspect for policymakers to consider is the reliability of the demand projections themselves.

“Utilities consistently over forecast,” said Gudrun Thompson, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which has been tracking southeastern utilities’ gas plant proposals. “I would not be surprised if that is happening now.”

Transparency is also a concern, she added, noting that a single data center project could be in negotiations with multiple utilities and get counted by all of them in their load projections.

In 2007, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted 1.5% annual growth in electric demand, which would have been a 21% increase over 15 years. It never materialized, mostly because of energy efficiency programs, federal and local building codes and appliance standards and voluntary industry efforts, the Energy Innovation report says.

“Efficiency was a primary cause of flat demand after 2008 and could be a major factor in mitigating the pressure that new demand growth puts on the electrical grid,” the report notes.

Coming electric load increases aren’t illusory but the report’s authors argue that “better near-term and long-term solutions exist and should be deployed first.”

For example, Gimon said, battery storage is growing by leaps and bounds in Texas and California, and it’s already playing a growing role in helping to meet peak demand. However, in their planning some Southeastern utilities are treating battery storage “like it’s some new technology from Mars,” Gimon said.

The Energy Innovation report’s other recommendations include:

Taking advantage of existing locations with power infrastructure onsite to build renewable power and battery storage, skipping the long wait times to connect to the grid plaguing many new power projects across the country. The Rocky Mountain Institute, a green energy nonprofit, calls it “clean repowering” and says there’s 250 gigawatts (the rough equivalent of 250 large power plants) of new renewable potential at former fossil sites scattered across the country that could be harnessed to create billions in savings and cleaner power generation.
Look to meet large customer demands with onsite power, such as solar panels, and take better advantage of demand response programs, which enroll large customers who voluntarily agree to reduce power consumption in exchange for savings. Many of those customers include large corporations that have their own carbon reduction targets. Shaving that large customer demand could avoid some or all new peak gas capacity, the report says. “The utilities’ responses to load growth are coming into conflict with the explicit goals of their own customers who are driving that load growth,” O’Boyle said.
Improve how the existing electric system is used by implementing grid-enhancing technologies like dynamic line ratings, power flow controllers and other systems. They’re common in other countries but have been slow to take root in many parts of the U.S. where utilities make the most money by building the most expensive solution they can get approved, not necessarily the one that’s most cost-effective for customers. “The fact is any data center is hooking into a system,” Gimon said. “That system is remarkably underutilized.”
Improve regional connections, particularly in the Southeast, which is fast becoming one of the few remaining parts of the country without any real regional wholesale electric market. In 2022, Southeastern utilities created the Southeast Energy Exchange Market, but it’s been criticized as a market in name only, since the volume of actual trades has failed to amount to much. “Research from Energy Innovation and Vibrant Clean Energy found that sharing capacity between non-RTO states in the Southeast would yield more than $10 billion in cost savings annually, revealing a region replete with spare capacity if utilities can figure out how to share it,” the report says.

It will fall to state utility regulators and policymakers to gauge how desperately their residents actually need all the new gas power being proposed and whether there are cheaper ways to meet climbing demand.

Adding more rooftop solar, energy efficiency programs and residential batteries, known as distributed resources, which can be aggregated into what’s known as a virtual power plant, might mean lower electric sales, the report noted.

“In some states, the electric utility is also the gas utility and can benefit from rate-basing new gas infrastructure. These circumstances create incentives that can skew utility decisions toward well-worn solutions like gas plants and typically disincentivize regional coordination,” the report says. “Ultimately, policymakers need to demand more from their utilities and be skeptical of the ‘usual suspect’ solutions.”

Thompson, the SELC attorney, called the amount of new gas southern utilities are proposing “staggering.” The organization estimates that if all the new gas plants proposed get built, it will eclipse the amount of coal generation southern utilities plan to retire over the next 15 years by roughly 8 gigawatts. Regulators, she said, need to “look very hard at the load growth projections and take a hard look at choices that the utilities are making,” including pending EPA carbon regulations that could require expensive carbon capture technology or co-firing with hydrogen and whether the plants will require new pipeline infrastructure. “If all of these plants get approved and built we’re just not going to achieve the carbon reductions that we need to be on a path to averting the worst effects of climate change.”

Black voters key to electing Biden in 2020. Money woes make some question their support in 2024.

Casey Quinlan — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 09:40:30 +0000

Black voters overwhelmingly supported President Joe Biden in 2020, but some polls show their support now wavering. (Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images)

The economy is top of mind for caregiver and driver Jennifer Garner as the U.S. heads toward the November presidential election.

Garner, 46, lives in Cleveland and can bring in about $800 a week working extra hours at both jobs. But between debt payments on $56,000 in student loans and $1,300 in rent — among other monthly bills — the money doesn’t go far enough.

She voted for Biden in 2020, but says now that she’s researching other candidates — although she has ruled out former President Donald Trump.

Black voters overwhelmingly supported President Joe Biden in 2020 and were key to his win, but as many like Garner struggle to make ends meet now, there is some evidence that Black voter enthusiasm for Biden may be slipping. And Trump is hoping to capitalize on that. He spoke last month at a meeting of the Black Conservative Federation and he argues that Black voters were better off financially when he was in office. Even if Black voters don’t buy that message, voters’ frustration could result in them turning to a third party candidate, Cornell Belcher, a pollster who worked for Barack Obama, told The New York Times.

To counter Trump, the Biden campaign is spending millions on radio ads in swing states at Black-owned and Latino-owned radio stations to point out the administration’s accomplishments, including investments in historically Black colleges and universities through grant funding and the American Rescue Plan Act, the cancellation of student loan debt for 3.9 million borrowers, and reducing Black child poverty in 2021, which it has connected to the then expansion of the child tax credit.

“I have to work two jobs overtime just to even try to cover my rent, which means I have no time to be able to enjoy life, period,” Garner said. “The only way things are going to get better is if people start talking and just let them know the economy sucks. We need better jobs and more money.”

According to a January NBC News poll, 75% of Black voters said they would vote for Biden in the general election this year. In 2020, 92% of Black voters cast their votes for Biden, a Pew Research Center report shows. This criticism of the economy lines up with surveys about Black voters’ financial experiences.

A May 2023 report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that 30% of Black people said their financial situation had worsened over the past year, compared to 44% who said it had stayed the same. Although key economic indicators that economists look to to understand the state of the economy have shown a stable labor market, slowing inflation, and rising wages, it’s clear that many Black voters are still feeling the financial pressure of high prices at the grocery store, an expensive housing market, and the burden of student debt payments restarting.

On Monday, Biden announced another student debt relief proposal to cancel accrued interest for 23 million borrowers, with up to 25 million receiving some kind of interest cancellation. Under this new plan, 4 million borrowers would also have their student debt canceled entirely and 10 million borrowers could benefit from $5,000 in relief. It’s unclear when exactly the Biden administration will release a formal proposal.

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Keisha Deonarine, director of opportunity, race and justice at the NAACP, shares the frustrations many Black voters say they have with the financial burden of student debt. She said before Biden’s Monday announcement that the president needs to push harder to cancel student debt to have a lasting impact on the economic experiences of Black Americans and many other voters.

“If we really want to think about four-year degrees and we want to think about middle class America, we’ve got to cancel student debt,” she said.

Deonarine said she’s encouraged by the Biden administration’s work to reduce and provide more transparency on junk fees, however, which includes regulations to reduce credit card late fees. She said that could help reduce costs that put stress on voters’ household budgets.

Audrianna Lewis, who voted for Biden in 2020, is one of those voters. She has to budget for high rent and healthcare costs.

Lewis, 32, works in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, as a customer service representative for Maximus, a government contractor that helps administer Medicaid, Medicare, and other programs. She makes $17.78 an hour and has about $9,000 in student debt. Her rent has gone up from $860 last year to $1,000 this year.

On top of her climbing rent and student debt, Lewis has asthma and said her healthcare doesn’t sufficiently cover her breathing treatments, which has required her to go into her savings. She said her coworkers are also struggling financially.

“Some of my coworkers are homeless,” she said. “People are not able to pay for doctor visits and prescriptions.”

In March of last year, Black people’s unemployment rate hit a record low and the economic recovery shows that by historical standards, Black and Hispanic workers have had faster wage growth these past few years. The unemployment rate for Black people has begun to tick up again, but economists say they’re waiting for more data before considering it a long lasting trend.

But Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said the unemployment rate for Black Americans does not tell the whole story.

“The other part of that message has to do with, ‘OK, I may be employed but I’m still working three jobs just to pay my rent,’” she said.

Sarah Wallace, 49, a Philadephian who lives on Social Security Disability Insurance, says she has to spend the lion’s share of it on $1,500 in rent each month. She voted for Biden in 2020, but said she may vote third party this time.

“I think Biden sold all of us on his dream to get into the office … And that was that,” she said.

Wallace said she doesn’t believe the economy has improved under Biden and that she doesn’t see inflation easing enough to make a difference for her at the grocery store.

“Buying food, you’re never buying the most healthy [food] because they’re more expensive. So you kind of have to improvise what you can do, you know?” she said.

Wallace, who has more than $200,000 in student debt and said she struggles to get Ozempic to treat her diabetes, wants to see political leaders do more on student debt relief and make healthcare more affordable and accessible.

Workforce data from 2021 shows that 48% of frontline workers at Maximus — where Lewis, of Mississippi, is employed — are Black and Latina women.

Although Lewis said her pay is better under Biden than it was when Donald Trump was president, she said she still isn’t sure if she’s voting for Biden. Although like Garner, the Cleveland caregiver, she ruled out voting for Trump, she hasn’t ruled out voting for someone other than Biden.

Garner, who is civically engaged as a member organizer through One Fair Wage, a group that wants to end subminimum wages, said she wasn’t “leaning towards anybody just yet.”

Garner said that although she knows the courts have stopped Biden from moving forward with his more ambitious student debt cancellation plan, she wants to see him do more on the issue and other financial burdens she faces.

“Don’t tell me what you’re going to do. Show me what you’re going to do,” she said.

Billionaire TikTok investor, charter school advocate puts $8 million into Paul affiliated PAC

Tom Loftus — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 03:31:10 +0000

Sen. Mitch McConnell is raking in less money for his reelection campaign than at this time four years ago. But he is sitting on a comfy $8 million cushion. (Getty Images)

Jeff Yass, the Pennsylvania billionaire and major investor in the parent company of TikTok, contributed $8 million last month to a super PAC affiliated with U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

The super PAC is called Protect Freedom PAC, and a report it filed with the FEC on Wednesday says Yass gave the $8 million on March 31.

Yass has bankrolled Protect Freedom since it was created in 2017 by former Paul campaign operatives to support conservative candidates across the country. (The recent $8 million brings to about $30 million the total that Yass has given to Protect Freedom, about 80% of all receipts during the lifetime of Protect Freedom.)

Yass, like Paul, espouses a libertarian style of conservatism. And, besides Protect Freedom, the primary beneficiaries of his past political donations have been the big anti-tax PAC Club for Growth and super PACs that support Yass’ favorite cause of school choice. Kentuckians will be voting in November on an amendment ending the state Constitution’s ban on spending public money on nonpublic schools, potentially paving the way for charter schools and private school vouchers.

On Wednesday Bloomberg first reported the $8 million contribution to Protect Freedom in a story that noted that Yass’ political contributions are getting close scrutiny now because Yass holds a 15% stake in TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance as Congress debates whether TikTok should be banned in the United States.

And since that debate began about a year ago, Yass made his first contributions to Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC dedicated to electing Republicans to the U.S. House. FEC records show Yass gave $10 million in the last half of 2023 to Congressional Leadership Fund. He also is the biggest donor to a political committee of U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson — contributing $250,000 to Johnson Leadership Fund in December.

In August 2020, then-President Trump signed an executive order that banned transactions between the parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, and U.S. citizens due to national security reasons. Trump recently reversed his position on TikTok after meeting with Yass.(Getty Images)

During his last year in office, former-President Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok unless it was sold to a U.S. owner, saying that data collected by TikTok threatened to give the Chinese Communist Party access to “personal and proprietary” information about Americans.

But Trump reversed his position in March and now opposes banning TikTok. His reversal came just days after a meeting with Yass. Trump has since said in an interview with MSNBC that he and Yass did not discuss TikTok during their meeting.

Kentucky Lantern emailed questions about the recent $8 million donation Thursday morning to Protect Freedom PAC and to the Pennsylvania trading firm headed by Yass, Susquehanna International Group. Neither immediately replied.

Bloomberg lists Yass as the 32nd wealthiest person in the world, worth $41 billion. He is also the largest political donor in the United States, according to the website Open Secrets which in February reported Yass made $46.7 million in political donations during the 2023-24 election cycle. The March 31 contribution would raise that total to $54.7 million.

Protect Freedom was founded in 2017 by former members of Rand Paul’s campaigns. Its website prominently displays a photo of Paul and says it exists for “the purpose of supporting pro-freedom and liberty-minded candidates.”

From left, Bernie Moreno, Vivek Ramaswamy, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Donald Trump, Jr. speaking before a campaign rally before Ohio’s primary election in March. (Photo by Ohio Capital Journal)

It has run independent advertising campaigns supporting candidates for the U.S. House and Senate across the country. And last year it spent at least $2.4 million on promoting the election of Republican Daniel Cameron as Kentucky governor, according to records filed with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance. Cameron lost that race to Democratic incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear.

More recently, Protect Freedom donated $500,000 in February to an Ohio super PAC called Buckeye Values that ran a campaign to support Bernie Moreno in the recent Republican primary for the U.S. Senate in Ohio. Buckeye Values sponsored a rally for Moreno attended by Trump’s three days before the election. Moreno won that primary over two candidates backed by Ohio’s establishment Republicans.

And Protect Freedom’s recent report filed with the FEC shows that in March it spent about $181,000 to promote three conservative Republican candidates that have publicly been endorsed by Rand Paul: Cameron Hamilton, of Virginia; Stewart Jones, of South Carolina; and Rick Becker, of North Dakota.

Protect Freedom’s recent report to the FEC shows that as of March 31 (after the $8 million contribution from Yass) it has a cash balance of about $10 million.

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Covington breaks ground on mixed-use development at former IRS site

Kenton Hornbeck — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 13:52:35 +0000

Covington Mayor Joe Meyer speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Covington Central Riverfront project. (Photo by Kenton Hornbeck | LINK nky)

Nearly two years ago, O’Rourke Wrecking crews busted a hole into the wall of the derelict Internal Revenue Service processing center, which had sat vacant since 2020.

Today, the building’s demolition is complete. The former IRS site is now a barren 23-acre plot awaiting development. The city’s plan is to transform the site into a mixed-use development, complete with offices, housing, retail, a public plaza and parks. Its name? The Covington Central Riverfront project.

The development is part of what Covington Economic Development Director Tom West calls the “$5 billion mile” — a grouping of public and private investments spanning from Covington to Newport that promises to reinvigorate the Northern Kentucky riverfront.

The city hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the new project on Tuesday, during which city leaders touted its economic viability and potentially transformative impact. Covington Mayor Joe Meyer said the city’s vision was to create a new neighborhood on the site – one that would weave into the existing fabric of the city.

“We saw the opportunity to unwind the urban renewal mindset of the 60s with a vision of the creation of a new neighborhood that would reintegrate with the urban fabric,” Meyer said. “A neighborhood that would complement Mutter Gottes, MainStrasse, Roebling Point and Licking Riverside – a neighborhood that would be authentic, reestablish the urban grid to ensure connectivity, that would be mixed-use, like all the surrounding neighborhoods.”

The IRS processing center was once an economic powerhouse within the city, employing thousands of people. It was promised to the city by then-President John F. Kennedy to Congressman Brent Spence, according to Meyer.

“The IRS center was viewed as Covington’s salvation during the 1960s,” Meyer said. “It promised to bring suburban amenities and a lot of jobs to a city losing its economic base and population to the appeal of suburbanization.”

After 62 years, IRS shut down the center in 2016 due to technological obsolescence in the age of online tax filing. Meyer said the city was “gobsmacked” by the agency’s announcement.

Fast-forward eight years, and Covington is on the verge of undertaking one of the largest economic development projects in the city’s history.

“I think long term, the way we’re approaching this is going to be more sustainable over time,” West said. “It’s going to be a neighborhood again that will become part of that Covington we all love.”

Over the winter, 27,000 cubic yards of fill dirt were moved onto the site to raise its profile to the height of the Ohio River floodwall. Now, Alexandria-based Bray Construction is set to begin building out the development’s horizontal infrastructure, including adding streets, sidewalks, utilities and a public plaza.

The next steps in developing the site’s horizontal infrastructure will be to add an additional 30,000 cubic yards of fill soil, lay new sanitary and storm sewer lines under the entire 23 acres, lay gas, electric, water, and communications lines, restore the street grid between Third and Fourth streets, and build out the median/public plaza space near a new Russell Street promenade.

The first round of infrastructure construction is expected to be completed by September 2025.

“We are excited to take all the planning and hard work done to this point and begin making the project a reality for the city” said Scott Fryman, senior project manager at Bray.

No money to build new nursing school raises old question: ‘When will it be Kentucky State’s time?’

In March, several key developments regarding the site were published. On March 13, LINK nky reported that Northern Kentucky University’s Chase College of Law and a branch of the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine could open at the site. A draft of the state’s biennial budget outlined $150 million worth of funding for the project. The legislature approved the appropriation.

Northern Kentucky state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights), who chairs the Kentucky Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke at Tuesday’s groundbreaking.

“It has not been a short journey nor an easy one and certainly sometimes the hardest thing is just getting the first shovel in the ground,” McDaniel said.

On March 26, Fort Mitchell-based homebuilder Drees Homes and the City of Covington entered into an agreement to buy land and develop 16 townhomes on a .88-acre block of land.

This story is republished from LINK nky.

‘We cannot hold on:’ Kentucky child care providers plead for more help from lawmakers?

Sarah Ladd — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 20:35:51 +0000

A father and child at the iKids Childhood Enrichment Center, a child care center, in Benton, Nov. 28, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Abbey Cutrer)

More than 250 Kentucky child care providers responsible for 150,000 children across the state sent lawmakers a letter Tuesday pleading for more support, saying what’s been proposed in the state budget “is not enough” as their industry is “at risk of collapse.”?

The letter asks lawmakers to pass a supplemental lifeline funding bill in the final days of the 2024 legislative session Friday and Monday.

Such support, the providers said, should “at a minimum:”?

Provide routine, direct sustainability payments to child care providers to help keep doors open, stem tuition hikes and prevent wage cuts.
?Maintain Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) eligibility at 85% of state median income to prevent thousands of parents from losing access to this aid, which could result in many dropping out of the workforce and withdrawing kids from child care. The current version of the budget hold eligibility at?80%.?
Provide enrollment-based CCAP reimbursements to providers.?

“Without these crucial supports, there is no chance of survival for many of our child care centers and home-based care providers,” the letter states. “Families will be left with even fewer options that are more expensive, quality will suffer, and many will decide it is better to leave the workforce.”?

Kentucky’s child care industry — which some would like to rebrand under an “early childhood education” umbrella — is about to lose the federal COVID-19 dollars that helped stabilize the industry during the last few years. This leaves many centers to cut pay for their workers, raise tuition for parents, cut services and even close, the Lantern has reported.?

The budget that the legislature passed ?includes $42 million in new spending on child care in 2025 and $50 million in 2026. That includes $1.3 million a year to cover the cost of background checks for potential employees and ?$1.5 million a year to add a six-month adjustment period for families who are no longer eligible for CCAP.

The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy previously estimated that $300 million is needed to replace the federal aid that’s ending. The state Department for Community Based Services says the need is closer to $100 million.

In its analysis of the legislature’s budget, the center says: “While all of the policies the budget funds are necessary to support?child care providers?and the?parents they serve,?more is needed?in light of the coming fiscal cliff, particularly with the loss of quarterly stipends to child care providers previously funded with federal dollars.”

The largest legislative proposal for child care this year, the Horizons Act, died. Its sponsor cited its $300 million price tag as the main reason behind the demise.?

Lawmakers return to Frankfort on Friday and Monday for the last two days of the 2024 session, during which they could pass additional legislation. But they must send Gov. Andy Beshear veto-proof bills at that point, since they will no longer have the ability to override him.?

“An investment in child care is an investment in the commonwealth’s present and future,” the child care letter states. “The Kentucky General Assembly should step up and make that investment now, before you gavel out on April 15. We cannot hold on until the next budget.”?

Letter to lawmakers from child care providers

Child Care Provider Sign-on Letter 2024

Some states are cutting higher ed in rural areas. What if Kentucky tried the opposite?

Kelly Field, The Hechinger Report — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 09:50:10 +0000

Haley Autumn Dawn Ann Crank poses for a photo with her hometown of Hazard behind her on March 25, 2024. (Photo by Austin Anthony for The Hechinger Report)

A feasibility study of transforming Hazard Community and Technical College into a four-year residential university is a House vote away in the Kentucky legislature.

Senate Joint Resolution 132, directing the Council on Postsecondary Education to conduct the study, was approved 38-0 in the Senate. It awaits House action in this session’s final two days, Friday and Monday.

The goal, says sponsor Senate President Robert Stivers: “Get further information about both the viability from an economic development standpoint, the competition of other institutions and the impact on them, and the overall costs and feasibility of developing something of that nature and what the governmental structure should be.” — McKenna Horsley

HAZARD — Haley Autumn Dawn Ann Crank thinks she might like to become a teacher. There’s a shortage of teachers in this corner of Kentucky, and Crank, who has eight siblings, gets kids.

“I just fit in with them,” Crank said during a shift one February day at the Big Blue Smokehouse, where she works as a waitress.?

For now, the recent high school graduate is taking some education courses at the local community college. But to pursue a teaching degree at a public, comprehensive university, she’ll need to commute four hours roundtrip or leave the town she grew up in and loves.

Neither of those options is feasible — or even conceivable — for many residents of Hazard, a close-knit community of just over 5,000 tucked into the hills of Southeast Kentucky. Like many rural Americans, the people here are place-bound, their educational choices constrained by geography as much as by cost. With family and jobs tying them to the region, and no local four-year option, many settle for a two-year degree, or skip college altogether.?

Until fairly recently, that decision made economic sense. Mining jobs were plentiful, and the money was good. But the collapse of the coal industry here and across Appalachia has made it harder to survive on a high school education. Today, just under half the residents over the age of 16 in Perry County, where Hazard sits, are employed; the national average is 63 percent. More than a quarter of the county’s residents are in poverty; the median household income is $45,000, compared to $75,000 nationally.?

Now, spurred by concerns that low levels of college attainment are holding back the southeastern swath of the state, the Kentucky legislature is exploring ways to bring baccalaureate degrees to the region. The leading option calls for turning Hazard’s community and technical college into a standalone institution offering a handful of degrees in high-demand fields, like teaching and nursing.

The move to expand education here comes as many states are cutting majors at rural colleges and merging rural institutions, blaming funding shortfalls and steadily dwindling enrollments.

The town of Hazard, Ky., on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. (Austin Anthony for The Hechinger Report)

If successful, the new college could bring economic growth to one of the poorest and least educated parts of the country and serve as a model for the thousands of other “educational deserts” scattered across America. Proponents say it has the potential to transform the region and the lives of its battered but resilient residents.

Aaron Thompson

But the proposal carries significant costs and risks. Building a residence hall alone would cost an estimated $18 million; running the new college would add millions more to the tab. Enrollment might fall short of projections, and the hoped-for jobs might not materialize. And if they didn’t, the newly-educated residents would likely take their degrees elsewhere, deepening the region’s “brain drain.”

“The hope is that if you build the institution, employers will come,” said Aaron Thompson, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, which has studied the idea on behalf of the legislature. “But it is somewhat of an experiment.”

Still, Thompson said, it’s an experiment worth exploring.?

“To say you need to move to be prosperous is not a solution, and that’s pretty much been the solution since many of the coal mines disappeared,” he said.

At the airport in Lexington, there’s a sign greeting passengers that reads, “You’ve landed in one smart city.” Lexington, the sign proclaims, is ranked #11 among larger cities in the share of the population with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

But drive a couple hours to the southeast, and the picture changes. Only 13 percent of the residents of Perry County over the age of 25 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, well below the national average of 34 percent.?

Study: Building a new public university in Southeastern Kentucky ‘problematic’

Michelle Ritchie-Curtis, the co-principal of Perry County Central High School, said the problem isn’t convincing kids to go to college, it’s keeping them there. Though nearly two-thirds of the county’s high school graduates continue on to college, just over a third of those who enroll in public four-years graduate within six years, compared to close to 60 percent statewide, according to the Council on Postsecondary Education.?

In Hazard, as in many rural places, kids grow up hearing the message that they need to leave to succeed. But many return after a year or two, citing homesickness or the high cost of college, Ritchie-Curtis said. Sometimes, they feel ashamed about abandoning their aspirations. They take off a semester, and it becomes years, she said.?

Those who make it to graduation and leave tend to stay gone, discouraged by the region’s limited job opportunities. This exodus, and the lack of a four-year college nearby, have hampered Hazard’s ability to attract employers who might fill the void left by the decline of coal, said Zach Lawrence, executive director of the Hazard-Perry County Economic Development Alliance.

Ritchie-Curtis said that having a local option would solve the homesickness problem and could save students money in room and board. It could also help stem the region’s brain drain and alleviate a teaching shortage that has forced the school to hire a growing number of career changers, she added.

Hazard Community and Technical College President Jennifer Lindon poses for a photo in a lecture hall on campus on March 26, 2024. (Photo by Austin Anthony for The Hechinger Report)

To Jennifer Lindon, the president of Hazard Community and Technical College, “it all boils down to equity.”

“If we can provide a [four-year] education, and make it affordable, perhaps we can break the cycle of poverty in Southeast Kentucky,” she said.

MIT, Yale and other elite colleges are finally reaching out to rural students

Converting Hazard’s two-year college into a four-year institution wasn’t among the options initially considered by the Kentucky General Assembly. When lawmakers asked the state’s Council on Postsecondary Education to study the feasibility of bringing four-year degrees to Southeast Kentucky, it offered three approaches: building a new public university; creating a satellite campus of an existing comprehensive university; or acquiring a private college to convert into a public one.?

But the council concluded in its report that each of those alternatives was “in some way problematic.” A new university would be prohibitively expensive and might fail; a new branch campus could suffer the same enrollment challenges as existing satellites; and acquiring a private college would be legally complicated.?

The council considered the possibility of allowing the community college to offer baccalaureate degrees — something a growing number of states permit — but worried that doing so would lead to “mission creep” and “intense competition” for the state’s dwindling number of high school graduates.

Instead, the council recommended that the legislature study the idea of making Hazard’s community college a standalone institution offering both technical degrees and a few bachelor’s programs “in line with workforce demand.” Starting small, the council suggested, would allow policymakers and college leaders to gauge student demand before building out baccalaureate offerings.

Robert Stivers (LRC Public Information)

That approach makes sense to Sen. Robert Stivers, the president of the Kentucky Senate, and the sponsor of the bill that commissioned the council’s study.?

“I don’t think you can just jump off the cliff into the lake,” he said. “You need to be a little more measured.”?

But Andrew Koricich, executive director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges at Appalachian State University, said the region’s residents deserve a comprehensive college. He likened the limited offerings envisioned by the council to former President George W. Bush’s “soft bigotry of low expectations.”

“There’s this idea that rural people should be happy they have anything,” he said.?

Koricich pointed to the recent merger of Martin Methodist University, a private religious college, with the University of Tennessee system as proof that the legal hurdles to acquiring a private college aren’t insurmountable.?

But Thompson, the CPE president, said that the private colleges in southeast Kentucky are located too far from most residents and the schools weren’t interested in being acquired, anyway. He argued that while a comprehensive university might be “ideal,” it wasn’t realistic.

“In an ideal world, I’d be young again with a great back,” he said. “But in reality, I work with what I’ve got. And that’s what we’re doing here.”

Rural universities, already few and far between, are being stripped of majors

When Stivers was growing up in southeastern Kentucky in the ’60s and ’70s, coal was king. A high school graduate could get a job paying $15 an hour — good money at the time — without ever setting foot in a college classroom, he said.?

With mining jobs so abundant, “there wasn’t a value placed on education,” Stivers recalled.

Coal production peaked in eastern Kentucky in 1990, and has been on the decline ever since. Today, there are just over 400 individuals employed in coal jobs in Perry County.

The shrinking of the sector has had ripple effects across Appalachia, hurting industries that support mining and local businesses that cater to its workers. Many residents have migrated to urban centers, seeking work, and once-thriving downtowns have been hollowed out.

By the middle of the last decade, most of the buildings in downtown Hazard were either empty or occupied by attorneys and banks. The only place to gather was a hole-in-the-wall bar called the Broken Spoke Lounge, recalled Luke Glaser, a city commissioner and assistant principal at Hazard High School. When the Grand Hotel burned down, in 2015, a sense of resignation settled in, Glaser said.

The region has also been hard hit by opioids, which were aggressively marketed to rural doctors treating miners for injuries and black lung disease. In 2017, Perry County had the highest opioid abuse hospitalization rate in the nation.

Then, in 2021, and again in 2022, the region suffered severe flooding, which washed away homes and took the lives of almost 50 residents of Southeast Kentucky.

Colton Teague, 11, receives a guitar lesson from Luke Davis, the director of operations of the Appalachian Arts Alliance, on March 26, 2024. (Photo by Austin Anthony for The Hechinger Report)

Yet Hazard is also in the midst of what Glaser calls an “Appalachian Renaissance,” a revival being led by 20- and 30-somethings who have come home or moved to the area in recent years. Though Appalachian Kentucky lost 2.2 percent of its population between 2010 and 2019, Hazard grew by 13 percent.?

A decade ago, a group of long-time residents and young people began meeting with a mission to revitalize Hazard’s main street. The group, which called itself InVision Hazard, hired a downtown coordinator and brought free Wi-Fi and improved signage to the downtown area.

Over the past four-and-a-half years, close to 70 new businesses have opened within a three-mile radius of downtown, and only eight have closed, according to Betsy Clemons, executive director of the Hazard Perry County Chamber of Commerce. There’s an independent bookstore, an arts alliance that will put on seven full-length productions this year, and a toy store — all run by residents who grew up in Hazard and returned as adults.

The Grand Hotel, which stood as a burned-out shell for years, has finally been torn down, making way for an outdoor entertainment park with space for food trucks and a portable stage, and plans for live entertainment on Friday nights.

Main Street in Hazard, Ky., on March 26, 2024. (Photo by Austin Anthony for The Hechinger Report)

As the downtown has transformed, collective feelings of apathy and resignation have given way to a new sense of possibility, Glaser said. Brightly colored murals reading “We Can Do This,” and “Together” adorn the sides of two downtown buildings.

To Mandi Sheffel, the owner of Read Spotted Newt bookstore, the creation of a four-year college feels like a logical next step for a place that was recently dubbed “a hip destination for young people” (a description that both delights and amuses people here).

“In every college town I’ve been to, there’s a vibe, a pride in the community,” she said.

These days, Hazard is feeling that pride, too.

On the vocational campus of Hazard Community and Technical College in February, Jordan Joseph and Austin Cox, recent high school grads, stood alongside a tractor trailer truck, pointing out its parts. In as little as four weeks, they could become commercially licensed truck drivers, a career that pays close to $2,000 a week.

Both men followed dads and grandads into the profession and said they couldn’t imagine sitting in a classroom for four years after high school. Like the sign on the side of the truck they were working on said, they want to “Get in, Get Out, and Get to Work.”

Students in the commercial truck driving program identify parts of a tractor trailer truck. (Photo by Kelly Field for The Hechinger Report)

Inside one of the campus’ labs, a pair of aspiring electricians said they doubted many local residents would be able to afford a four-year degree.

“I don’t think you’d get a lot of people,” said Walker Isaacs, one of the students.

Their skepticism underscores a key risk in creating a four-year college in a place that’s never had one: There’s no guarantee students will enroll. Larger forces — including a looming decline in the number of high school graduates, an improved labor market, and public doubts about the value of higher education — could dampen demand for four-year degrees, forcing the college to either cut costs or seek state funding to cover its losses.

Recognizing this risk — and the possibility that employers won’t show up, either — the Council declined to give an “unqualified endorsement” to the idea of turning the community college into a four-year institution, saying further study was needed. In February,? Stivers, the state Senate president, introduced a bill that calls on the council to survey potential students and employers about the idea and to provide more detailed estimates of its potential costs and revenues.

Converting the college could also cause enrollment to fall at the state’s existing public and private four-years. Eastern Kentucky University, the hardest hit, could lose as many as 250 students in the seventh year after conversion, the council estimated in its report. While the council did not examine the possible effect on private colleges in the region, the president of Union College in Barbourville, Marcia Hawkins, said in a statement that, “Depending on the majors added, such a move could certainly impact enrollment at our southern and eastern Kentucky institutions.”

But on the main campus of Hazard Community and Technical College, there’s growing excitement about the prospect of the two-year college becoming a four-year.

Ashley Smith, who is studying to become a registered nurse, said the proposed conversion would make it easier for her to earn the bachelor’s degree she’s always wanted. With three kids at home, she can’t manage an hours-long commute to and from class.

Another nursing student, Lakyn Bolen, said she’d be more likely to continue her education if she could do so from home. She left Hazard once to finish a four-year degree, and is reluctant to do so again.

A digital sign urging students to register for classes at Hazard Community and Technical College campus on March 26, 2024. (Austin Anthony for The Hechinger Report)

“It’s not fun going away,” Bolen said. “We definitely need more nursing opportunities here.”

Dylon Baker, assistant vice president of workforce initiatives for Appalachian Regional Healthcare, agrees. His nonprofit, which operates 14 hospitals in Kentucky and West Virginia, has struggled with staffing shortages and spent millions on contract workers. The shortages have forced the system to shutter some beds, reducing access to care in a region with high rates of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

“We are taking care of the sickest of the sickest,” Baker said. “We have to give them access to quality health care.”

Hazard’s community college already offers some higher-level degrees, such as nursing, through partnerships with four-year public and private colleges in Kentucky. But most of the programs are online-only, and many students prefer in-person learning, said Deronda Mobelini, chief student affairs officer. Others lack access to broadband internet or can’t afford it.

If the conversion goes through, the college will continue to offer online baccalaureates and a wide range of certificates and associate degrees, said Lindon, the HCTC president. She envisions a system of “differential tuition” where students seeking four-year degrees would pay less during the first two years of their programs.

Though the college would still cater to commuters, a residence hall would attract students from a wider area and alleviate a housing shortage made more acute by the recent floods, Lindon said.

Ultimately, the future of the institution will rest with the Kentucky legislature, which must decide if it wants to spend some of its continuing budget surplus on bringing four-year degrees to an underserved corner of the state.

But Lindon is already imagining the possibilities, and the Appalachian culture course that she’d make mandatory for students seeking bachelor’s degrees.

“For too long, we’ve been taught to hide or even be ashamed of where we’re from,” she said. “We want to teach young people to be proud of our Appalachian heritage.”

This story about access to higher education was produced by?The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our?higher education newsletter. Listen to our?higher education podcast.

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For families that need the most help, child care costs are about to drop

Chabeli Carrazana, The 19th — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 09:35:39 +0000

Many families that receive government assistance for child care still pay a lot out-of-pocket. A new Biden administration rule will lower those costs and improve payments to day care providers.(Getty Images)

Originally published by The 19th.

For more than a decade, Erin Farias has watched the low-income families who send children to the day cares she runs navigate America’s broken child care system. Many of those parents had government assistance for school tuition, but half the time, Farias couldn’t count on them to make their co-payments. They were still too high.

Subsidies are supposed to make care more accessible for those with the most need, but families in many states still struggle to pay child care bills. To be considered affordable by the Department of Health and Human Services, they must cost no more than 7 percent of a family’s income. But in more than half of states — including Michigan, where Farias runs two day care centers — families on assistance are required to pay much more than that.

Farias said many times, she’d just eat the cost of the co-payments, or let families rack up a large balance until, eventually, she’d have to ask them to find alternate care. “I was generous because I’m passionate about people who are at a disadvantage. I want to help those kids break through barriers and become something different. I don’t want to give up on them,” Farias said. “But I was barely making a profit, and my employees were making so little.”

Several times, those challenges led her to question whether to take on more low-income children, she said. About 40 percent of kids at Little Smiles Daycare, which Farias opened in 2013 and where she is the director, are on subsidies. Some 25 percent of kids in her second center, Little Smiles Christian Learning Center, are also low-income.

But the landscape of child care assistance is about to change — and costs are finally coming down.

At the end of February, President Joe Biden’s administration announced it was going to require every state to cap its co-payments so that families that receive subsidies pay no more than 7 percent of their income towards child care.

That’ll make a big difference in places like New Hampshire, West Virginia and Ohio, where those costs are eating up 18 to 27 percent of families’ budgets. Though the new rule doesn’t apply to the thousands of other families whose incomes are too high for a subsidy but are also paying exorbitant costs, it does address the acute need among the lowest-income families, most of whom are families of color. More than 100,000 families are expected to benefit.

With the change, families are expected to save about $200 a month on average, according to the White House. The new rule is effective April 30. Some states will be able to make the changes quickly; others will need approval from their legislatures. All will need to be in compliance by 2026.

“The affordability is key — that one is always the hardest thing that families are experiencing,”? said Nina Perez, the early childhood national campaign director at MomsRising, a national network pushing for child care and other family policies. “It won’t be the same in all states, but how amazing that in some of the states where folks are struggling the most, this will make an impact.”

The Biden administration announced last summer that it was looking at ways to cut child care costs by making updates to the Child Care and Development Block Grant, the federal day care funding system. The block grant sends federal dollars to states to help cover the cost of care for those in need — about 800,000 families. The administration proposed changing some parameters of the grant, specifically improving savings for families and boosting payments for providers to stabilize an ailing child care system.

Child care has been in crisis for years, but COVID-19 took the industry to the brink of collapse. Day cares shuttered, and it took the child care workforce nearly four years to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Congress passed additional child care assistance during the pandemic that temporarily helped keep centers open, but those funds ended in September.

During the pandemic, states used the additional funding to test out new ways to improve their child care systems, or to cap or entirely eliminate families’ co-payments and improve provider pay structures. Both were popular changes that will now be made permanent for all low-income families and the day cares that serve them.

Only about 14 percent of families eligible for the child care subsidies are actually enrolled in the program, according to a report from the First Five Years Fund, a child care and early learning advocacy group. Co-payments are part of the reason why: Between 2005 and 2021, the cost of co-pays rose at a faster rate than inflation, increasing about 18 percent, the Administration for Children and Families found.

Because of those high co-pays, low-income families that qualify for the program haven’t used it, said Anne Hedgepeth, the chief of policy and advocacy at Child Care Aware, a national advocacy group. Instead, those families may be putting their children in more informal care, or losing the opportunity to work because they don’t have child care at all.

“The sheer existence of a co-pay is, for some families, a barrier,” Hedgepeth said. “Even if it’s only 100,000 families who will see a decrease, that’s still 100,000 families for whom scraping together that co-pay may have been challenging.”

Improving stability for providers is the other part of the equation. The new rule would iron out a disparity between how families that use the subsidy — and higher-income ones that don’t — pay for care. That change could ensure that day cares receive funding sooner and more regularly, making it easier for them to budget and hire staff.

Families outside the subsidy system pre-pay when they enroll in child care, and their tuition doesn’t change if a kid misses a day because they got sick, for example. But that’s not how it works for students on subsidies in half of U.S. states. For those kids, states pay the child care providers based not on enrollment but on the children’s daily attendance — and that comes after the care is rendered. That means providers might base their budget on expectations for consistent attendance, but receive less money than expected if attendance drops.

And kids miss child care often, especially due to sickness. But day cares have fixed costs they need to cover, including payroll and rent. It’s hard to manage those when state payments fluctuate and can result in a shortfall.

The rule change will require states to use the same payment structure for both higher-income families and those on subsidies. About 140,000 child care centers and in-home day care providers are expected to benefit, according to the White House.

“I don’t think we can [overstate] the importance of the changes around payment practices for providers,” Hedgepeth said. The change could encourage more providers to participate in the subsidy program because they know they’ll be paid consistently for serving low-income students in the same way they are for other children.

About 73 percent of child care directors and administrators said they’d be more likely to accept families using subsidies if they were paid based on enrollment, according to an August survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a child care advocacy group.

Farias said changing billing practices during the pandemic was transformational for the health of her business. At that time, Michigan used the temporary child care funding to switch to an enrollment-based billing model, a change the state made permanent earlier this month.

Pandemic-era funding is the reason both of her centers are still open, especially the shift to enrollment-based billing, Farias said. “It was almost traumatizing imagining going back.”

For her business, the new rule “is going to change everything,” she said. She’ll be able to better serve more low-income families, and the more consistent funding could also help her improve pay for her staff.

The new rule also makes recommendations about other changes states can choose to adopt to bolster their child care sector. Among the key recommendations is a better digital application process — 17 states still use paper forms — and more prominently informing parents about what exactly their co-payments would be.

States are encouraged to further lower co-payments or waive them entirely for certain families, such as those that are very low-income, experiencing homelessness or who have children in foster care or with disabilities.

“We hear a lot from families of children with disabilities who have just not been able to find care. Or the child care that you can find is so high-cost because the providers have to account for the cost of higher need,” Perez said. “Those are some of the hardest hit on child care, and I think that is a piece here that is really significant.”

Brittany Gregory, a mom in North Carolina whose 3-year-old receives child care assistance, said she thought she understood the subsidy system thanks to her work at a children’s non-profit. But when she had to apply for a subsidy herself, she realized for the first time “how convoluted” the system was. Few centers accepted children on subsidies and the co-payments were higher than she expected. Changes that would make it easier for parents to go through the process are sorely needed, she said.

Gregory has a small co-pay — about 1 percent of her family income — but she said she’s heartened to see change coming for families.

“It’s really encouraging to see something is being done, instead of nothing,” Gregory said.

How much states will do based on the new rule will come down to funding, however. The rule doesn’t come with any additional funds, which means existing money will have to be shuffled from other parts of the child care system.

State legislatures can choose to add funding beyond what the federal government has allocated, as states like New Mexico have done. But making the case that child care is a priority among other competing needs has been an ongoing challenge.

For years, states have struggled to come into compliance with the requirements of the Child Care and Development Block Grant, with some still years past the deadline for compliance on safety issues. Funding is at the heart of that — and this — story.

In Ohio, the state with the highest co-payments, at 27 percent of family income, advocates worry whether the state will be able to comply. Ohio was already ordered by the federal government to improve its payment rates for providers in order to increase child care options for low-income families who receive assistance. Now, it will also have to cover most child care costs for those families.

“Who is actually going to take on the burden of this change? And right now in Ohio, at least, it’s very consistently been child care providers, because our state legislature has not consistently invested the funding in order to help us expand our child care program in a healthy way,” said Kathyrn Poe, the budget researcher with Policy Matters Ohio, a non-profit policy research institute.

A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, which manages the child care program, wrote in a statement that Ohio is “currently comprehensively evaluating the new federal requirements against current rules and processes to assess potential impact and required changes.” The department anticipates applying for the two-year waiver allowed as part of the rule to get more time to make the changes, which means they likely won’t be in place until 2026.

Ultimately, what’s happening in Ohio’s child care system is a lot of stakeholders “squabbling over the same crumbs,” said Ali Smith, the operations specialist and worker center network liaison at Policy Matters Ohio.

How well the state is able to allocate funds to actually comply with the new regulation will determine how widespread its impact is.

“When the federal government actually does something like this, we need them to ask states and really monitor how those funds are being spent,” Poe said. “Because in a state like Ohio, we’re already seeing that risk is there for them not to be completely implemented the way that I think the federal government is actually thinking of.”

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March jobs report shows strong labor market with job gains in health care and government

Casey Quinlan — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 11:01:41 +0000

People work in a donut shop in Manhattan on Jan. 5, 2024 in New York City. As the American economy continues to outperform expectations, the March jobs report showed that employers added 303,00 positions for the month with an unemployment rate of 3.8%. For the first time, hospitality and leisure has returned to its pre-pandemic level after adding 49,000 jobs. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The sturdy labor market continued to chug along in March, with an unemployment rate of 3.8%, marking the 26th straight month of an unemployment rate under 4%.

The economy added 303,00 jobs, according to the monthly report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday. Economists, researchers, and policy experts say that the strong but no longer hot labor market should be encouraging news for the Fed as it decides whether to cut rates after a long campaign to fight inflation.

Aaron Sojourner, an economist and senior researcher at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a nonprofit research organization headquartered in Kalamazoo, Michigan, said the labor market is “strong and healthy.”

“It’s remarkable that the economy added over 300,000 jobs at this point and job growth seems to be accelerating,” Sojourner said.

Which sectors are adding jobs?

Health care and government continued to add jobs in March, with the two sectors adding above their average monthly gains, at 72,000 and 71,000.

Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, an economic policy think tank based in Washington D.C., said government is a sector economists will be looking to see more growth in education jobs. She added that public sector workers can fuel private sector employment growth as well.

For the first time, hospitality and leisure has returned to its pre-pandemic level after adding 49,000 jobs. Researchers and economists took this development as a good sign for the economy and for workers. Gould said it was a “great milestone” but also noted that many sectors have already hit that level and more.

Sojourner said it may be a good sign that it took this long for leisure and hospitality to return to this employment level.

“The fact that it didn’t immediately recover is in a sense, good news, because a lot of people found better opportunities outside the sector and employers had to raise wages and the quality of the jobs that they were offering in order to attract people back to the sector,” he said.

Construction also added about double the average of monthly jobs it added over the past year, at 39,000 jobs.

Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America, a policy research and advocacy group with a headquarters in Washington D.C., said it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what drove that rise in jobs. The CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and bipartisan infrastructure deal have supported employment in construction. Residential construction has been “reasonably robust,” he said. But these jobs could also be tied to a rise in hiring for construction in the spring months.

What do experts make of Black people’s rising unemployment rate?

The last four months of jobs data has shown an increase in Black people’s unemployment rate, from 5.2% in December to 6.4% in March. Black women’s unemployment rate was 5.6% compared to 4.4% last month and 4.1% a year ago. Black men had an unemployment rate of 6.2% versus 6.1% in February and 5.1% a year ago.

Gould said the uptick in the unemployment rate for Black people is concerning to her, because it has happened for a few months now, but not yet alarming because of the volatility in the data collected.

“I think that it’s something that we need to watch,” she said.

Sojourner agreed that while more data is necessary, it’s important to keep an eye on the unemployment rate for Black Americans, particularly if it’s an indication that Black people are having difficulty finding jobs rather than a sign of more people entering the labor market and looking for work.

He added that the effects of a recession tend to hit Black people before other groups.

“That’s very concerning because often you’ll see, Black Americans are on the leading edge … The recessionary stuff hits them first,” he said.

What does prime age employment tell us??

The prime age employment-population ratio, which measures the share of the working-age population, or 25- to 54-year-olds, who are employed, is also pretty high this month, at 80.7%. In April 2000, it reached an all-time high of 81.9%.

Amarnath said this is encouraging news.

“Right now we’re operating at levels that are especially high. Ideally, they can continue to move higher through the year, but these are levels that prior to the last 12 months we haven’t seen since I believe, more than 20 years ago …,” he said. “You think of [prime age employment] as being the best way of evaluating how many people are employed, adjusting for the aging of the population, adjusting for changes in participation.”

Are we seeing healthy wage growth??

Wages have continued to outpace inflation, at an increase of 4.1% over the past year. In March, they rose 12 cents or 0.3%. The wage growth numbers, as well as the number of jobs added, show a steady job market but not one that is threatening the Federal Reserve’s attempts to bring down inflation, Gould said.

“When I look at those wage growth numbers, I think it’s pretty clear that is continuing to normalize very much in line with Fed targets as the inflation rate continues to come down. I think we’re in an economy that is getting where we wanted it to be and, I think, what the Fed is looking for as well. We’re seeing strong job growth, and that’s promising. More people are coming back into the labor force looking for opportunities,” she said.

Trade watchdog: Big retailers used supply-chain problems to inflate grocery costs

Marty Schladen — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 16:00:17 +0000

The Kroger Co. corporate headquarters is seen in downtown Cincinnati. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Looking for someone to blame for increased costs in the grocery aisle? You might not need to look any further than three retail giants, the Federal Trade Commission said in a recent report.

The agency looked at supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and determined that the three largest food retailers — Kroger, Walmart and Amazon — “accelerated and distorted the negative effects associated with supply chain disruption,” the agency said in a statement. It added that “consumers felt the negative effects of supply chain disruptions in the form of skyrocketing prices for groceries and product shortages for essentials, like toilet paper.”

Those prices, the report said, remain high well after most supply-chain disruptions have been resolved.

“As the pandemic illustrated, a major shock to the supply chain can have cascading effects on consumers, including the prices they pay for groceries,” said FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said in a statement. “The FTC’s report examining U.S. grocery supply chains finds that dominant firms used this moment to come out ahead at the expense of their competitors and the communities they serve.”

When the worst pandemic in a century hit in 2020, commerce suffered huge disruptions as policymakers around the world tried to slow the spread of the coronavirus by keeping people at home — and apart from each other. It stands to reason that the price of groceries went up as transportation became more difficult and some items much harder to get.

But the FTC report says the big-three retailers and suppliers made things worse in several ways:

Large retailers used the threat of fines and fees to pressure upstream suppliers to allocate scarce items to them instead of smaller competitors.As retailers realized that having a small supplier base made them vulnerable, they worked to diversify. However, some of the biggest — such as Walmart and Kroger — are buying up some suppliers. That also could disadvantage smaller retailers that don’t have the resources to follow suit, the FTC report said.Manufacturers of scarce items reduced promotional spending, thus reducing smaller retailers’ ability to offer items at temporary discounts — a method they use to compete with the “everyday low price” strategy used by retailers big enough to negotiate low wholesale prices with manufacturers. The latter prices were less affected by pandemic-related disruptions than promotional spending was, the FTC report said.

Thankfully, the worst of the pandemic is past, but grocery prices remain stubbornly high, having jumped by 25% in four years. Retailers have contended that the higher prices merely reflect their greater costs, but the FTC found data that indicate otherwise.

Food and beverage retailers saw their revenue rise to 6% over total costs in 2021 — higher than the previous peak of 5.6% in 2015. Then in the first three quarters of 2023, they went even higher — to 7%, the report said.

“Notably, consumers are still facing the negative impact of the pandemic’s price hikes, as the Commission’s report finds that some in the grocery retail industry seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further raise prices to increase their profits, which remain elevated today,” it said.

A spokeswoman for Cincinnati-based Kroger didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. With 2,800 stores and $148 billion in annual sales, it’s the nation’s largest grocery retailer.

Kroger is trying to increase its dominance by buying Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons for $25 billion. The FTC, however, is suing to block the deal, saying it “will eliminate fierce competition between Kroger and Albertsons, leading to higher prices for groceries and other essential household items for millions of Americans.”

The antitrust watchdog might have bolstered its case with last week’s report about supply disruptions caused by the pandemic.

“The pandemic made clear that supply chain bottlenecks, which can be created or exacerbated by limited competition, can leave markets exposed to major supply chain shocks—and that those shocks, in turn, can allow major firms to entrench their dominance and further harm competition,” the report said. “Achieving more diversified supply chains, including through promoting competition, can both limit the severity of supply chain shocks and, in turn, reduce the opportunity for that entrenchment.”

This story is republished from the Ohio Capital Journal, a sister publication of the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network.

Group alleges ‘hidden-camera’ video reveals ‘cruelty’ in chicken production in Kentucky?

Liam Niemeyer — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 23:56:54 +0000

A national advocacy group says a bill approved by the Kentucky legislature will criminalize investigations of industrial agriculture abuses. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

An animal protection advocacy group released footage from a “hidden-camera investigation” Monday of what it says is cruel treatment of chickens being transported from poultry operations in Kentucky — an investigation the group says would be criminalized under a bill recently approved by the Kentucky legislature.

Mercy For Animals, a California-based nonprofit which describes its mission as to “end industrial animal agriculture by constructing a just and sustainable food system,” in its published video showed workers throwing chickens into cages for transport. Some chickens are kicked and thrown around as workers navigate the enclosure, and at least one chicken is stepped on as a worker tries to catch it. The video narrator says six-week-old birds living in “overcrowded barns” are “kicked, thrown and stuffed into cramped transport cages.”

A separate video the group shared with the Lantern details documentation, including screenshots of GPS locations the group’s investigator visited and video of the investigator allegedly talking with other workers. They appear to show the poultry houses, which the group describes as contract farms, are in Western Kentucky and provide chickens to Pilgrim’s Pride, one of the country’s largest poultry producers with a meatpacking plant in Graves County.

Sen. John Schickel (LRC Public Information)

The group is releasing the footage as part of its opposition to Senate Bill 16, sponsored by Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, which would criminalize using drones or recording equipment at commercial food processing and manufacturing plants and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) without the permission of the operation’s owner or manager.?

The legislation, which is now at the desk of Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear for his consideration, would also criminalize the distribution of such footage at food processing plants or CAFOs. The bill would make exceptions for utility workers and state and federal law enforcement and regulators.

Alex Cerussi, a senior state policy manager for the group, in a statement said “whistleblowing is an important safeguard against unsanitary practices” in the absence of robust government oversight of “factory farms.”?

“Kentucky’s Senate Bill 16 is dangerous legislation blatantly designed to keep the public in the dark about cruelty and hazards in industrial animal agriculture,” Cerussi said. “This bill isn’t about protecting small Kentucky family farms; it’s about shielding massive corporations from accountability for the harms they cause to animals, workers, and consumers. The public deserves to know what happens in factory farms and food-processing facilities.”

The Lantern tried to contact JBS, the international meatpacking company that owns Pilgrim’s Pride, through its online media inquiries form to ask about the footage and whether workers are paid by the number of chickens caught, as Mercy For Animals alleges. The company has not responded. Messages sent to Jamie Guffey, the executive director of the industry group Kentucky Poultry Federation, asking about the standard protocol for handling chickens in poultry houses, were not immediately returned.?

Critics of the legislation have characterized SB 16 as the latest in a long line of so-called “ag-gag” bills enacted around the country to block whistleblowers from investigating the practices and conduct of industrial agriculture. A lobbyist with the Humane Society of the United States has also questioned whether SB 16 is constitutional on First Amendment grounds, and the environmental legal advocacy group Kentucky Resources Council has expressed concerns about the bill’s unintended legal consequences.

A federal appeals court struck down a similar law enacted in 2015 in North Carolina, a decision the U.S. Supreme Court last year let stand.

Legislative debate

Proponents of the legislation, including a lobbyist for Tyson Foods and the industry group Kentucky Poultry Federation, have argued SB 16 is needed to prevent harassment and endangerment of employees and livestock at these facilities. Schickel, the bill’s sponsor, had previously told the Lantern that “agriculture by its nature can be distasteful to some” and that “these businesses have to protect their operations and their customers.”

SB 16 passed on largely party line votes through the GOP-dominated legislature during this legislative session. An email sent to a spokesperson for Beshear asking whether the governor planned to sign, veto or let SB 16 become law without his signature was not immediately returned.?

Democrats in the Kentucky House of Representatives unsuccessfully last week tried to add additions to the bill through floor amendments, one of which would have clarified employees of these facilities would be protected from “retaliation or discrimination” for making public “any wrongdoing or documentation of noncompliance of any federal, state, or local law or regulation.”

Rep. Al Gentry, D-Louisville. (LRC Public Information)

Rep. Al Gentry, D-Louisville, said he had heard Tyson Foods’ lobbyist say it wasn’t the intent of SB 16 to interfere with whistleblower protections for employees, but he hoped his floor amendment would make that clear.?

“If we vote no on this amendment, to me I think it shows there is a lack of concern for this potential situation that could exist and for employees that find themselves in a difficult predicament,” Gentry said.

Rep. Richard Heath, R-Mayfield, whose district includes the Pilgrim’s Pride meatpacking plant in Graves County, said he’d talked with the lobbyist for Tyson Foods along with the sponsor of SB 16 who considered the floor amendment “unfriendly.”?

Gentry’s floor amendment was voted down 27-49.?

Heath on the House floor said the bill protected “food processors” including Pilgrim’s Pride in his district, along with protecting “the farmers who raise livestock and poultry” from an “unauthorized intrusion.”?

“This is a private property protection bill for the folks who produce and process the food of our state and who employ thousands,” Heath said.?

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Experts say the economy is getting better, but consumers don’t feel that way. Here’s why.

Casey Quinlan — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 09:50:29 +0000

A customer shops for food at a grocery store on March 12, 2024 in San Rafael, California. High prices at the grocery store and consumers’ memories of their pre-pandemic budgets may be playing a role in how Americans feel about their finances as recession fears recede. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Americans are still worried about their financial stability even as their recession fears lessen. High prices at the grocery store and consumers’ memories of their pre-pandemic budgets may be playing a role. Here’s what financial and economic experts have to say about what economic indicators tell us about people’s perception of the economy.

What is driving consumer confidence?

The Consumer Confidence Index, released last week by the business nonprofit and research organization the Conference Board, is a survey indicating how optimistic or pessimistic consumers feel about their financial well-being and the economy.

The Consumer Confidence Index fell slightly in March from 104.8 to 104.7, well below some economist expectations of 106.5. Although consumers’ perception of the likelihood of a recession fell this month, consumers were less confident about their family’s financial situation in the next six months. The percentage of consumers who expected their incomes to fall rose from 11.9% in February to 13.8% in March.

Elizabeth Pancotti, director of special initiatives for the Roosevelt Institute, said that consumers’ experience of the economy and their financial situation may come down to crises they’re feeling that may not show up at a macro level but may strike their budgets particularly hard.

“When egg prices finally come down and chicken prices finally come down, but orange juice is high because of some random citrus greening disease or some other shocking food item, your total grocery bill doesn’t come down and that really highlights it,” she said. “There’s one crisis after another at a micro level, which I think is really why we’re not seeing that divergence between overall economic strength and at a very micro level, the feelings of average consumers.”

Pancotti acknowledged that housing is also one of the highest expenses for consumers right now, and those prices aren’t showing as much movement as other areas of consumers’ budgets.

“For most families, it is the largest purchase they make every month,” she said.

Why isn’t consumer sentiment higher?

Consumer sentiment, a smaller survey conducted by the University of Michigan, also gauges people’s sense of the economy overall, the labor market, and how they see inflation. On Thursday, U.S. consumer sentiment jumped to 79.4 from 76.9 in February and 62 a year earlier, making this its highest level since July 2021.

Joanne Hsu, director of the survey, said in the report that this number is an indication that consumers believe the economy is “holding steady.”

“As the election season progresses and debates over economic policy become more salient for consumers, their outlook for the economy could become more volatile in the months ahead,” she added.”

Kevin Kliesen, business economist and research officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said consumer confidence and consumer sentiment are still far below pre-pandemic levels and that it’s a puzzle as to why when the economy has “been growing fairly strongly” in the past year and a half. But like Pancotti, he added that high prices at the store compared to pre-pandemic prices may be playing a role in those measures.

“If you’re like me, you look at something, and you go, ‘Oh my gosh. I remember when it was so much less before the pandemic.’ So I think that calls into question, probably, a lot of people’s perceptions of the overall state of the economy and importantly their consumer finances,” he said.

What can we expect from inflation and the Fed?

As the Federal Reserve looks to its favorite inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures price index, economists are watching the PCE closely for signs the Fed will cut rates in the coming months. This policy change is expected to have effects on the housing market as well as the growth of businesses.

The PCE rose 0.3% from January to February and 2.5% over the past year, according to the? Bureau of Economic Analysis’s Friday release. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell responded to the news when he spoke at the San Francisco Fed and said the numbers were “in line with expectations” but not as reassuring as the numbers Fed officials saw last year.

Despite this reception from Powell, some financial experts believe inflation will ease up soon. Cristian Tiu, associate professor of finance at the University at Buffalo, said that although the economy is adding jobs, he doesn’t believe the quality of those jobs is high enough to sustain this price growth for much longer.

“Prices basically on consumer goods can’t be driven up forever just by the very top of the wage distribution. The rest of the wage distribution actually looks pretty modest. So I don’t think these price increases can actually be sustained,” Tiu said.

For this reason, he doesn’t think the Fed should continue to put brakes on the economy through restrictive monetary policy. Tiu added that he sees inflation as driven partly by corporate profit-seeking, with companies taking advantage of inflation to continue to keep prices higher than they can justify for the American consumer.

Kentucky legislature sends state budget bills to governor, including billions in one-time spending

Liam Niemeyer — Fri, 29 Mar 2024 05:51:00 +0000

House Speaker Pro Tempore David Meade, R-Stanford, (left) confers with House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, about House rules during Thursday’s proceedings. (LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — Bills funding the state executive branch to the tune of more than $128 billion and allocating billions of dollars in one-time investments received final passage through the legislature Thursday in one of the final days of this year’s legislative session.

Republicans in the GOP-dominated legislature hailed the spending plan as making strong, necessary investments while Democrats reiterated their critiques that the bills didn’t go far enough, noting “glaring omissions” in the budget.?

Rep. Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, the chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee, in a statement said the state budget makes sure “investments are made in the future of our communities.”

Rep. Jason Petrie, chairman of the House budget committee, presented the conference committee spending recommendations to the House Thursday. (LRC Public Information)

“The bill reflects our dedication to efficiency and accountability, and should instill confidence in the state’s ability to navigate through challenges and take advantage of opportunities,” Petrie said in his statement.?

Lawmakers passed versions agreed upon by both legislative chambers of House Bill 6, the two-year state executive branch budget that constitutes most ongoing spending, and House Bill 1, allocating about $2.7 billion in one-time spending, largely along party lines. Lawmakers going into Thursday evening also passed budget bills funding the road projects and the legislative and judicial branches of state government.?

Lawmakers won’t reconvene for the final two days of this year’s legislative session until April 12. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear will have until then to consider vetoing specific line-items in the budget bills, along with other vetoes, which could be overridden by Republican supermajorities in the legislature.?

Funding for school districts has increased compared to past versions of the state budget, provided through the statewide funding formula SEEK. The original budget presented and passed by the Kentucky House of Representatives in February allocated $6,440,909,400 through SEEK. The agreed-upon version of the budget sent to the governor allocates $6,627,692,500, a little less than a 3% increase.?

Beshear, who has called for an 11% across-the-board raise for school employees instead, in a Thursday press conference said the budget as a whole has “gotten better” but that he was still “disappointed that there is not mandated teacher raises” and funding for universal pre-kindergarten education in schools.

“We have got to get our educators a real raise if we’re going to be competitive with other states,” Beshear said.?

Democrats on the House floor argued that, if not across-the-board raises, more funding could have been added to SEEK to provide more financial support for raises for teachers.The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, a progressive think tank, in an analysis of the agreed-upon budget said SEEK funding still doesn’t keep up with inflation.?

Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, the chair of the House Education Committee, responded to Democratic criticisms that the state budget still didn’t allocate enough for the state’s needs, arguing that every state representative could write “different versions of the budget.”?

“We’re not here to get everything we might want,” Tipton said, arguing the budget had “historic” funding for education. “We’re here to come up with a compromise and work together for the good of the commonwealth.”?

Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson (LRC Public Information)

Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson, D-Lexington, said she was also worried about newly implemented caps on emergency disaster spending in the budget, echoing concerns expressed by Beshear. In the case of a declared disaster, the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs can request up to $75 million in the current fiscal year and $100 million total over the next two fiscal years.?

“I’d hate to see us have to be called back in for a special session should there be an emergency,” Stevenson said. “I’ve talked about how we are not the emergency response branch, that the executive is.”?

The budget doesn’t come near the original calls by affordable housing advocates to invest $200 million into tackling the state’s housing shortage, particularly in rural parts of the state recovering from natural disasters. Senate leaders, including Senate President Robert Stivers, previously questioned the capacity of housing builders to use substantial amounts of funding.?

HB 1, which provides about $2.7 billion in one-time investments using monies from the state’s ballooning “rainy day” fund, includes $10 million into the Rural Housing Trust Fund established by the legislature last year.?

The amount of one-time spending from the “rainy day” fund had been cut down from the Senate’s version of the budget, which called for $3.5 billion in one-time spending.?

Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, said to reporters the reductions in the one-time spending primarily came from decreasing the amount of funding going toward road projects, from $890 million in the Senate’s to $450 million.?

Among the significant investments of one-time funding include:?

$150 million into a fund for economically distressed water utilities,
Among other allocations to universities, $60 million for Murray State University to build a facility for a veterinarian, technician program and $25 million to Eastern Kentucky University to support its aviation program,
?$230 million invested into paying down debts in various pension funds for public employees,
A slew of local projects, including infrastructure for cities, counties and local utilities.?

When asked about the potential for another income tax cut by the legislature, McDaniel said it was “not definite” but that “the early projections look like it will happen.”?

The legislature in 2022 set a fiscal framework with triggers — determined by state revenues, spending and the amount of funding in the state’s “rainy day” fund — to determine when it can further cut the state’s income tax rate in an effort to eventually eliminate the income tax entirely.?

The state did not meet one of the triggers in 2023. Researchers at the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy have argued GOP leaders have held spending in the budget significantly down in an effort to meet the fiscal triggers, something Republicans have denied the budget is geared toward.?

‘A shame:’ $300 million Horizons Act is ‘dead,’ sponsor says

Sarah Ladd — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 17:30:58 +0000

Sen. Danny Carroll declares his early childhood legislation dead. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

FRANKFORT — The $300 million child care bill called the Horizons Act is “dead,” its sponsor said Wednesday.?

The state budget approved by the Senate failed to allocate all the money the Horizons Act called for — and the final budget that will emerge from a House-Senate conference is also unlikely to do so.

The bill’s death — with three days left in the session — is “a shame for this commonwealth,” said Sen. Danny Carroll, the sponsor. “I don’t know that I’ve seen a piece of legislation that had so much support behind it in my 10 years here.”?

The West Kentucky Republican serves as president and CEO of Easter Seals West Kentucky, whose programs include a child care center, and has been a vocal advocate for child care.?

He said the price tag of $300 million over two years was too much for most lawmakers to get behind. The money alone, he said, “had, probably, the biggest impact on … causing the bill to die.”??

“The reality of it was I never really expected that we would get a full $300 million,” he said. “But my hope was that we would get the opportunity to kind of balance out a lesser amount … to address the most pressing needs, which right now is to keep the current centers open.”?

As federal COVID-19 dollars run out this year, Kentucky centers may be forced to cut pay for their workers, raise tuition for parents and even close, the Lantern has reported.? Kentucky could lose more than a fifth of its child care providers if the state doesn’t help.?

With the state help that is proposed in the House budget — a $52 million a year increase — experts estimated 16,000 kids could lose access to child care in 2024. With the Senate’s proposal, that number dropped to 14,000.?

In his December budget proposal, Gov. Andy Beshear pitched spending $141 million over the next two years to stabilize the child care industry, as well as $172 million to begin funding universal preschool for Kentucky 4-year-olds.

Some lawmakers felt they would be “propping up” a private industry by spending what the Horizons Act asked for, Carroll said. That “couldn’t be further from the truth,” he said.??

To not see child care as education, he said, is “absolutely ludicrous” since so much brain development happens before the age of 5. “We invest in education,” he said. “What’s the difference?”?

“We missed a huge opportunity in our state,” Carroll said. “But my hope is that there will still be significant funding in the right areas. If we do not do some … ongoing funding for the providers, doors are gonna close. We can expand child care assistance all we want,. But (if) we don’t have places for those kids to go … what good is it?”

A Senate committee on families and children approved Carroll’s? Senate Bill 203. It was then recommitted to the Senate budget committee and never received a vote by the full Senate.

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Fed declines to cut interest rates, saying it’s not clear inflation has slowed enough yet

Casey Quinlan — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 20:20:32 +0000

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it has insufficient evidence that inflation is slowing fast enough to justify a rate cut. Chair Jerome Powell said cuts are possible later in the year. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The Federal Reserve declined Wednesday to cut interest rates, saying it remains uncertain inflation is slowing enough, but some economists warned the financial regulators risk waiting too long to make cuts.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed has a lack of sufficient data that inflation is slowing enough to justify taking the pressure off interest rates yet. The Fed started raising the federal funds rate in March 2022 to battle inflation and continued until the? latter half of last year, when it decided to pause rates

The Fed issued a statement that it is waiting until it “has gained greater confidence” that inflation is moving toward its 2% goal to begin cutting rates.

The Fed’s preferred inflation indicator, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index or PCE for short, rose 0.3% from December to January compared to 0.1% from November to December, which some economic experts say may be partly behind the decision to hold off on rate cuts. The PCE climbed 2.4% from a year ago compared to 5.4% from January 2022 to January 2023, an indication that inflation has been slowing in the long term.

Powell said, “We believe that our policy rate is likely at its peak for this tightening cycle and that if the economy evolves broadly as expected, it will likely be appropriate to begin dialing back policy restraint at some point this year.”

He added that the Fed does not want to ease too much or too soon if that would risk a chance that inflation returns. Powell did not rule out pausing the rate for longer.

Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America, an economic policy research group, and a former analyst at the New York Fed, said the Fed should avoid being too reactive to monthly inflation data, particularly in January and February, which have been hotter months for inflation in the past few years. A lot of businesses revise pricing with the new calendar year, Amarnath added, which can contribute to the rise.

Powell acknowledged on Wednesday that seasonal factors could have affected the data but that they didn’t add to the Fed’s confidence in slowing inflation either.

“Inflation is a volatile beast. Month to month, it can do weird things. But by and large, we’re seeing if you look at the year-over-year change in the [Consumer Price Index] and PCE, you’re broadly seeing progress,” he said.

The economy has also not shown signs of overheating for some time, Amarnath added.

“From everything we’re learning from the past, especially the last three to six months, it is a more normalized pace of job growth, a more normalized pace of wage growth … It’s largely moved in totality towards a still respectable and strong labor market,” he said.

Rakeen Mabud, chief economist and managing director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, an economic think tank, said she is worried that the Fed could wait too long to cut rates and damage the economy.

“All the Fed can do at this point is break this really strong recovery that we’ve had … I’m worried now because rate hikes are a really imprecise tool that acts with lags. I don’t know exactly when the full impact of these rate hikes are going to play out and neither does Jerome Powell,” she said.

Amarnath said that because Fed policy, although it is far from the only factor, has played a role in the past three recessions, the Fed should be careful with how it uses the federal funds rate in its campaign against inflation.

“You may not need to cut at this very meeting. But if you press your luck a little too long in terms of ‘OK, the economy is not collapsing right this second,’ and if you wait till something breaks, it may prove to be too late,” he said.

Americans say their top policy priority this year is strengthening the economy, according to a Pew Research Survey taken in January.

The Fed’s interest rate policies also affect housing supply and affordability. Mabud said that the Fed’s approach to meeting one of its stated goals — lowering prices — is helping to drive up housing costs, which in turn affects inflation measures. The Consumer Price Index, another inflation measure, shows that in February, shelter and gasoline were responsible for more than 60% of the index’s rise.

“Shelter costs continue to be a significant driver of inflation,” she said. “We’re seeing high mortgage rates which are driving up the cost of buying a house, which then pushes folks back into the potential rental market, which also pushes rents higher. The Fed’s high interest rate regime is also making constructing new houses more expensive. We have a shortage of 6.5 million homes, at least, in this country.”

The number of people recorded as unhoused on a single night rose to its highest level in January 2023, according to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development data released in December. The department attributed the rise in the number of unhoused people to the rental market, which has had high rent growth, and the ending of programs implemented early in the pandemic to keep people housed during an economic downturn.

Kentucky families face difficult decisions if child care funding doesn’t come through?

Sarah Ladd — Wed, 20 Mar 2024 17:37:20 +0000

Courtney Rhoades Mullins is expecting twins and worries how she will keep working after they're born without child care. (Screenshot)

Courtney Rhoades Mullins faces a difficult predicament: the Eastern Kentucky woman is expecting twins in May but doesn’t know if she can find child care for them any time soon.?

One location, she said, might have openings in April of 2025. Another could take the twins — when they are 3 years old.?

That “leaves the question of what do you do until they’re 3?” Rhoades Mullins said Wednesday. “We’re looking at possibly a year to three years before having any type of child care or day care available to them.”?

She joined other parents on a call with media organized by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, which has released a new survey of 1,357 parents from 88 counties revealing the challenges facing Kentucky families who need child care.

The survey results show:?

Among private-pay families who do not participate in the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), 30% spend $100 to $200 per week on child care; 30% are spending $200 to $300 per week; 28% are spending $400 or more per week for child care.?
67% of parents had reduced non-essential spending in favor of affording child care.?
54% of parents have delayed major purchases to afford child care.?
34% of parents reduced essential spending to afford child care.?
32% of parents used emergency savings to afford child care.?
24% of those surveyed delayed their health care needs in favor of child care.?
20% of those surveyed delayed having children because of the price of child care.?
And more.?

Kentucky’s child care industry — which some are working to rebrand under an “early childhood education” umbrella — is counting on a financial boost from the 2024 legislative session as federal COVID-19 dollars that helped stabilize the industry during the last few years are running out. This leaves many centers to cut pay for their workers, raise tuition for parents, cut services and even close.?

Without help from the General Assembly, Kentucky could lose more than a fifth of its child care providers, the Lantern has reported. Industry experts have said neither the Senate nor the House budget proposals adequately address the problem, nor does Gov. Andy Beshear’s proposal.??

Without adequate child care, families cannot reliably go to work and contribute to the overall economy. Wednesday’s survey revealed 12% of parents who responded had already quit work to stay home.?

Situation is ‘not fair’?

For Rhoades Mullins, being forced to stay home is “not fair” but “it’s also not an option for my family.”?

Her husband is a public school teacher, she said, and she works for a Letcher County nonprofit, which currently provides her family’s medical insurance.?

“The loss of an income would not be able to be sustained in our household,” she said.? “We really are having to have difficult conversations and make difficult choices? as we try to … celebrate the opportunity of having these twins here with us soon but at the same time (wondering) ‘how do I go back to work when my maternity leave ends?’”?

Dustin Pugel

Dustin Pugel, policy director for the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, said about 65% of mothers of young children are in the workforce, a number that jumps to 95% for fathers of young children.?

“The reality is that a lot of mothers are involuntarily staying home because they can’t find or afford child care nearby,” he said. “A constant conversation we hear in Frankfort right now is that we need to get more people working. This seems like a situation where you can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you want to get people into the workforce, the primary group of prime age folks who are not in the workforce are moms and particularly moms of young kids.”???

Rhoades Mullins lives and works in an area trying to recover from deadly back-to-back floods. She still sees a significant “lack of resources in this area” to recover from the disasters.?

“You talk a lot about the need for economic development, but until there is a robust system of child care, we’re not going to see any change in our community,” she said. “Until the state decides to provide sufficient funding for these opportunities, you cannot expect Eastern Kentucky or our state to grow and to thrive economically.”?

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Looser child labor standards revived by committee that had temporarily blocked bill

Liam Niemeyer — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 23:18:31 +0000

Rep. Richard Heath, R-Mayfield, supported a bill loosening Kentucky's child labor laws. (LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — A bill that would allow some teenagers to work longer and later hours advanced out of a Senate committee Friday just a day after the same committee had blocked it.

House Bill 255, sponsored by Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, was passed 7-4 out of the Senate Economic Development, Tourism, & Labor Committee in a special-called meeting. Republican Sens. Phillip Wheeler and Brandon Storm joined the minority of Democrats in opposing the bill. The bill had failed to receive enough votes to pass the committee on Thursday?

State law limits the number of hours that 16- and 17-year-olds can work on a school day to six. That limit increases to eight hours on a non-school day and up to 30 hours total during a school week, unless they receive parental permission to work more and maintain at least a 2.0 grade point average.?

HB 255 would remove those state limits to align with federal child labor law, which doesn’t have any daily or weekly hour work limits for teenagers aged 16 and 17.?

Speaking to the committee, Jamie Link, secretary of the state Education and Labor Cabinet, reiterated concerns that removing the limits could harm young Kentuckians.?

“It may well create greater liabilities for employers who employ 14- to 17-year-olds outside existing safety guidelines and regulations, and potentially cut short promising careers for our young people,” Link said.?

Sen. Reggie Thomas (LRC Public Information)

Rep. Richard Heath, R-Mayfield, the chair of the House Agriculture Committee who was presenting the bill in lieu of the sponsor, said he didn’t “necessarily agree” with Link’s testimony.

“It’s a good thing this wasn’t a law when I was growing up. Our dad wouldn’t have been able to put out a crop,” Heath said. “Obviously I support the bill.” Child labor laws do not apply to children working on their parents’ farm.

The bill also deletes language in state law that mirrors federal prohibitions on employing 14- and 15-year olds in hazardous occupations, such as jobs that require the use of ladders, railroad cars and conveyors and loading and unloading goods from motor vehicles, according to Dwayne Hammonds, the Kentucky Division of Wages and Hours director.?

Education and Labor Cabinet General Counsel Jessica Williamson also said state labor officials wouldn’t be able to enforce those hazardous occupation standards even though they would still be prohibited under federal law.?

Opposing the bill, Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, said, “When it comes to allowing 14- to 17- year olds to engage in labor that’s dangerous, harmful and threatens their life, and Kentucky has no oversight on that — we’re taking away Kentucky’s oversight — count me out on that.”?

Baptist Health, Humana restore ‘in network’ coverage for Medicare Advantage patients

Deborah Yetter — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 01:40:02 +0000

Health activist Kay Tillow led a protest over Medicare Advantage plans last year outside Humana's downtown Louisville headquarters. (Photo by Deborah Yetter)

Baptist Health and Humana have ended a months-long standoff over Kentuckians with health coverage through Medicare Advantage and commercial insurance plans, the two companies announced Thursday.

Effective April 1, Baptist physicians again will accept those patients as “in network”— meaning they would not be subject to potentially higher costs or limits on services.

The news, which affects tens of thousands of Kentuckians including many state retirees, was announced through separate press releases.

“After several months of productive negotiations, Humana is pleased to have reached a new, multi-year agreement with Baptist Health Kentucky,” Eric Bohannon, Humana Medicare regional president, said in the release.

Baptist hailed the move as good for patient care.

“We are committed to improving the health of our communities and our goal is to ensure every patient the high-quality, timely care needed,” said Dr. Isaac J. Myers II, chief health integration officer for Baptist Health.

The news releases didn’t detail how the two resolved differences that led Baptist Health to drop Humana as a network provider for its physicians on Sept. 22.

But Medicare Advantage plans, which oversee health care for many Medicare enrollees, including around 102,000 Kentucky state government retirees, have been a growing source of contention between health providers and the private insurance companies that offer them.

Baptist has cited delays in payments and denial of care by such private insurers as the source of dispute.

“The concerns we face with Medicare Advantage plans are similar to the concerns expressed by many providers across the country and echoed by hospital associations that represent them: coverage criteria applied by the plans result in denials and delays of medically necessary care to our patients,” Baptist spokeswoman Kit Fullenlove Barry said in an email statement in January.

Effective Jan. 1, Baptist also ended agreements with United HealthCare and Wellcare for Medicare Advantage coverage for services including physician and hospital care — meaning all such care is considered out of network.

Barry said Thursday Baptist has not reached agreements with United or Wellcare.

The growth of Medicare Advantage plans, which now cover about half of those 65 or older nationwide, has been a source of increasing concern to health advocates who argue the patients suffer through practices such as denials of care, delays while care is authorized and other restrictions.

Among them is longtime Louisville health reform activist Kay Tillow who told the Lantern in January that such plans are sacrificing the benefits of Medicare for seniors.

“The profit motive is destroying patient care,” Tillow said.

Insurance companies that provide Medicare Advantage plans argue they offer better care at less cost and, in some cases, extra benefits to seniors.

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$150 million plan unveiled for biomedical center in Covington, would include new home for NKU law school

Jack Brammer — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 19:50:23 +0000

Rendering of the new Covington Central Riverfront. (Northern Kentucky Tribune)

A lofty economic development plan for Northern Kentucky was unveiled Wednesday that would create a biomedical center campus in downtown Covington with a new facility for Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law and the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in it.

Sen. Chris McDaniel (LRC Public Information)

Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ryland Heights, chairman of the state Senate budget committee, said the Senate version of the next two-year state budget includes $150 million to establish the Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence at the old IRS site in Covington.?

The site is now called Covington’s Central Riverfront development. The plan calls for it to be an innovation, entrepreneurship and life sciences campus a block south of the Ohio River.

“The Senate’s proposed budget, thanks to the work of Sen. Chris McDaniel,?aided by Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, is a historic opportunity to diversify Northern Kentucky’s economy beyond its core strengths in industrial,commercial, and residential real estate,” said Kenton County Judge-Executive Kris Knochelmann in a release.

Covington Mayor Joe Meyer said, “We appreciate Sen. McDaniel’s leadership and hard work in bringing the parties together to make this happen on Covington’s riverfront. The addition of Chase Law School and the UK School of Medicine will be significant additions to an exciting site.”

Covington is home to an emerging cluster of life sciences companies led by CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting Services, Gravity Diagnostics, and Bexion Pharmaceuticals. Two years ago at the request of the city, McDaniel secured $15 million to build a life sciences laboratory within the OneNKY Center, currently under construction with a planned opening in 2025.

The establishment of the Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence is designed to further support the existing life sciences community and create new opportunities for innovation and economic development.

A key component of the center will be a new facility for Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law.?

?Chase Law’s proximity to the planned SparkHaus, an entrepreneurial hub in Covington designed to foster Northern Kentucky’s next generation of business leaders, is expected to generate opportunities for its students.

“We are excited about Sen. McDaniel’s proposal to make NKU Chase College of Law a cornerstone in the Commonwealth’s Center for Biomedical Excellence in Covington, said NKU President Cady Short-Thompson.

She said it will not only benefit students’ academic and professional development but also strengthen NKU’s ability to serve the region.

The other foundational element of the new Commonwealth Center will be the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine – Northern Kentucky campus.?“Powered by Sen. McDaniel’s stirring vision for the future, we are excited about the opportunity to join with our partners at Northern Kentucky University as cornerstones of the Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence in the heart of Covington,” said University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto.?

“We want to grow with the Northern Kentucky region as we seek to advance this state in all that we do. Through a partnership with policymakers, health providers, NKUand many others, we can educate more physicians to provide care and work collaboratively in ways that will help build an even stronger region.”

The Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence is expected to have nearly 600 graduate students, faculty and staff. “We’ve been working to diversify Northern Kentucky’s economy to add strengths in innovation, entrepreneurship, and life sciences. ?As easy-to-develop land in Kenton County runs out, we must add more knowledge-driven enterprises to continue elevating the region’s prosperity,” said deputy Judge-Executive Knochelmann.

Dan Hassert, Covington’s communications director, said the proposed center “will take years to plan and build.”

He noted that the plan first must be approved by the General Assembly this year.

This story is republished from the Northern Kentucky Tribune, a nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism.

Child labor, food assistance bills stall in Kentucky Senate committee but could get another chance

Sarah Ladd — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 19:22:55 +0000

A House bill to tighten SNAP eligibility fell short Thursday of receiving enough committee votes to advance to the Senate floor. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — A Senate committee on Thursday blocked House bills that would loosen state restrictions on child labor and tighten eligibility for food assistance, but the measures are not necessarily dead.

The committee could consider both bills again at a specially-called meeting Friday, said Sen. Max Wise, chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Economic Development, Tourism, & Labor.?

House Bill 367, which anti-hunger advocates had warned could lead to greater food insecurity in Kentucky fell short of the votes needed to advance to the full Senate, despite changes to the bill made by its sponsor.

The bill sponsor aimed to increase workforce participation with the legislation. It would, among other things, give the General Assembly power over decisions about work requirements for Kentucky’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP.?

Since his bill cleared the House in February, Rep. Wade Williams, R-Earlington, said he made it “a much narrower bill.”?

He deleted a section of the bill that would have restored the federal asset test, ending the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ ability to waive asset limits through the Broad Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE). This would have excluded households with savings worth $2,750 as long as there are no disabled or elderly people in the household and excluded seniors and people with disabilities who had $4,250 saved.

The edits weren’t enough to convince some senators.?

Sen. Jason Howell, R-Murray, said that he does not question the intention behind the legislation. But, he said, it “works against everything that we’ve done in the last few years” to address benefits cliffs.??

“All this does is it places another wedge between people who are working and are trying to do what is best for them and what we want them to do policy-wise for the commonwealth,” Howell said. “It throws another wedge in there to keep them down in a lower economic demographic; keeps them from … being able to build any wealth, to build any assets.”?

“I think it flies in the face of everything that we’ve been trying to do as a policy for the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the last few years,” Howell continued. “And I’m a solid no.”?

Dalla Emerson is the director of food service operations for Bowling Green Schools (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd)

Dalla Emerson, the director of food service operations for Bowling Green Schools, previously told the Lantern the bill could result in children going hungry. Access to free and reduced school lunches is tied to community poverty levels and participation in programs like SNAP.??

“I commend our legislators in making the best decision for the commonwealth,” she said Thursday.?

Jordan Ojile with Feeding Kentucky said his organization feels “encouraged” about the changes to the bill.?

“However, the remaining provision would still leave Kentuckians hungry, and we are glad the Senate Committee chose not to pass through the amended legislation,” he said. “Obviously, the fight to protect SNAP is not over, but today is worth celebrating.”

Rev. James Todd Smith, the chair of the Justice and Advocacy Commission and of the Kentucky Council on Churches and the pastor of Wesley United Methodist Church, also praised the committee members who voted against HB367.?

“It is my prayer,” he told the Lantern, “that the committee will not take it up again and that hungry people in the commonwealth will continue to have access to SNAP benefits without impediment.”?

Child labor

Rep. Phillip Pratt, R-Georgetown, speaks on his bill that would loosen state child labor law. (Courtesy Kentucky LRC)

?Rep. Phillip Pratt’s House Bill 255, which would allow some teenagers to work longer and later hours, also fell short of the votes needed to advance to the Senate floor..?

Lobbyist Jerald Adkins, speaking for the AFL-CIO and Kentucky State Building and Construction Trades Council, told the committee that labor is working with Pratt to improve the bill and asked the members to vote ?“in hopes of making it better on the floor” through amendments.

The measure would repeal Kentucky’s existing child labor laws and align them with federal laws, which are less restrictive for minors aged 16 and 17.

Dustin Pugel of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy testified that the bill would not increase teen employment by opening up the the job market for younger workers but would lower guardrails that protect young workers from hazardous conditions and unlimited hours.???

Jamie Lucke contributed.?

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Bill qualifying more foster parents for child care benefits advances

Sarah Ladd — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:19:28 +0000

Sen. Cassie Chambers-Armstrong, D-Louisville, sponsored a bill allowing more foster parents to qualify for child care assistance. (Photo by LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — A Louisville Democrat’s bill aimed at getting more foster care parents in Kentucky passed a House committee, placing it two steps from law.?

Senate Bill 240 would allow foster parents in Kentucky to qualify for child care benefits while working outside the home or working remotely in the home. Currently they must work 20 hours a week outside the home to qualify for assistance.?

The bill cleared the Senate with no opposition. The House Families and Children Committee approved it Thursday, sending it to the full House for a vote. From there it would to go Gov. Andy Beshear for a signature or veto.?

The sponsor, Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, told committee members that the bill “will decrease barriers to families who wish to participate in foster care.”?

“We desperately need more foster families in Kentucky,” she said, “and Senate Bill 240 can help us achieve that goal.”?

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Kentucky Senate ups House’s one-time spending on projects by more than a billion dollars

Liam Niemeyer — Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:30:57 +0000

(Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — The GOP-dominated Kentucky Senate approved budget bills Wednesday funding the state executive branch and upping the House’s proposed one-time spending by almost $1.8 billion for projects across the state, though some advocates say funding for education and affordable housing still falls short.?

Republican Senators unveiled their changes to House Bill 6, the state executive branch budget and House Bill 1, allocating billions in one-time funding, during a Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee Wednesday morning. The full Senate voted on the bills Wednesday afternoon before the public had access to the committee substitutes that were being approved.?

Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, speaks about the budget bills on the Senate floor. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

The Senate proposes funding nearly $1.8 billion more than the House from the state’s Budget Reserve Trust Fund, also known as the “rainy day” fund. The about $3.5 billion of one-time spending in the Senate version of House Bill 1 includes a number of new projects, including:

$890 million going to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Department of Highways for “select construction projects.”
$75 million for the University of Kentucky’s Center for Applied Energy to make future investments in nuclear energy.
$100 million over two years to Louisville’s local government for “the revitalization of downtown,” citing a number of projects such as Belvedere, Louisville Gardens and a “Butchertown Sports District.”?
$35 million for “capital improvements” at major airports in Louisville, Lexington, and Northern Kentucky.?
$25 million to build rural cancer center in Bullitt County.?
$10 million to support a “Transformational Housing Affordability Partnership” in Lexington.

“It gives us the opportunity to do transformational things,” Senate budget chair Chris McDaniel, told the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee. “We started by recognizing the amazing strides made by our colleagues in the House of Representatives and then added to that by making strategic decisions about how to invest our resources.”?

The state’s “rainy day” fund last year soared to more than $3.7 billion because of healthy tax revenues. A range of advocates had called on the legislature to make investments in affordable housing, education and areas recovering from natural disasters.?

The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KCEP), a progressive think tank which had called for more “rainy day” fund spending, in an analysis of the Senate budget documents said the Senate budget proposal includes much more Budget Reserve Trust Fund spending and would decrease the fund over two years down to about $2.8 billion.?

“However, the budget remains largely austere when it comes to meeting recurring needs, containing still-inadequate monies for education, child care, housing, state and school employee raises and other areas despite additional ongoing funds being available,” the think tank’s analysis stated.?

Budget whisked through in a day

Study: Kentuckians increasingly excluded from lawmaking process by fast-track maneuvers

The full Senate sped through and approved the budget bills Wednesday afternoon, having given them the required “readings” on the Senate floor before the bills were heard in committee.?

The Senate changes in the House budget — contained in committee substitutes — were not available to the public when the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee voted on them Wednesday morning, nor when the bills had their “readings” in the full Senate.?

A report last year by the Kentucky League of Women Voters criticized lawmakers for procedural practices that they say undermine citizen participation with legislation, including having required “readings” for a bill before it’s considered by a committee and replacing bills with new versions through last-minute committee substitutes. The League’s conclusions were disputed by Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne.

After HB 6, a 244-page bill, was approved by the committee, McDaniel told reporters he was “confident in our members to be able to digest it.”?

Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville (LRC Public Information)

Senate Minority Leader Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said pushing the budget bills through a committee and the full Senate on the same day was not “the most transparent process.”?

“I think it’s very important for the public to know what’s happening here,” Neal said. “I’m a great proponent of transparency, but it’s a difficult process.”?

Both HB 6 and HB 1 passed the full Senate on near unanimous, bipartisan votes Wednesday afternoon, with Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, thanking McDaniel for bringing Democrats into the conversation on the budget given that Republicans have supermajority control in the Senate.?

The budget bills will now go back to the House to concur or reject the changes made by the Senate.?

What the Senate budget funds — and doesn’t fund

Unlike the House budget, the Senate’s version of HB 6 doesn’t fully fund school transportation costs in the second year of the biennium budget. Fully funding school transportation costs is something required by state law, but the mandate has been suspended by the legislature in past budget cycles.?

Instead, the Senate’s budget funds transportation costs for school districts at 80% of the required amount in 2025 and 90% of the required amount in 2026.?

McDaniel said transportation isn’t fully funded because not all school districts have transportation costs, and the Senate decided to boost funding for some school districts through the state formula allocating monies, SEEK, while still marginally boosting transportation funding.?

“It largely accommodates for the inflationary effects that a lot of folks have felt,” McDaniel said. “We think it’s important that the funding flow through the SEEK formula.”?

The Senate’s budget doesn’t include across-the-board raises for school staff as advocated for by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, and the analysis by KCEP states that the “modest” increases to SEEK funding still don’t keep up with inflation for school districts.?

Asked what he would say to those who argue the budget neglects Kentucky’s needs, McDaniel said that “taxpayer dollars” have to be spent wisely.?

“We have to balance the ability of the taxpayers to live the life that they want to live and to spend their money how they choose to spend it, with the compelling governmental needs of the commonwealth,” McDaniel said.?

The Senate budget removes funding for a proposed airport at the Bluegrass Station industrial park near Bourbon County, something that created local backlash over land use concerns.?

Sen. Steven West, R-Paris (Photo by LRC Public Information)

Sen. Steve West, R-Paris, who initially backed the state budget funding for the airport project but retracted such support following local pushback, said the removal of the airport funding was an “important deletion.”?

The Senate’s budget bill also removes a mandate included in the House version that some state agencies requesting funding for new vehicles couldn’t purchase electric vehicles.?

Stivers said the House made a “policy statement” that he wasn’t in disagreement with, asserting that electric vehicles haven’t proven to be “cost efficient.”?

“That’s probably something that we should let the executive branch manage the fleet,” Stivers said. “Hopefully they manage it wisely and they don’t go buy all EVs.”?

Generally, charging electric vehicles is cheaper than fueling up a gas-powered vehicle, and a 2020 study by the magazine Consumer Reports found that maintenance costs for electric vehicles are half of similar gas-powered cars. However, another recent survey by the magazine found newer EV models have struggled with reliability problems.?

Additionally, the Senate’s budget removes language that threatened a “takeover” of school districts if they failed to make progress in retaining teachers and staff. The budget also reverses the defunding of an alternative sentencing program, which can steer defendants to drug treatment instead of prison, that was included in the House version.?

McDaniel said lawmakers had “good meetings” with the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy and stakeholders that got to a “good resolution” on the alternative sentencing program. He didn’t directly answer a question about who wanted the program defunded.?

Senate President Robert Stivers (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)

Neither HB 6 or HB 1 meet the calls of affordable housing advocates to invest $200 million into state housing trust funds to tackle the state’s affordable housing crisis.?

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, speaking with reporters after the budget bills were passed, said the Senate is addressing homelessness across the state through a number of investments, pointing to one-time funding being used for the Community Care Campus project in Louisville and an affordable housing project in Lexington.?

“The next question becomes the capacity to build,” Stivers said, referring to the housing developers capacity to spend money allocated to state housing trust funds.?

Adrienne Bush, the executive director of the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, has previously argued that affordable housing developers do have the building capacity to take on hundreds of millions of dollars in funding.

House bill encouraging local governments to meet child care challenges moves to full Senate

Sarah Ladd — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 14:51:50 +0000

Children eat lunch together on Nov. 28, 2023, at the iKids Childhood Enrichment Center in Benton. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Abbey Cutrer)

FRANKFORT — A Kentucky House bill that encourages local governments to examine available zoning for child care centers received unanimous approval by a Senate committee Tuesday.?

House Bill 561 cleared the House in late February. Now that it cleared the Senate Families and Children Committee 9-0, it can go to the Senate floor.?

“A lot of people have talked about how one of the biggest impediments to opening child care centers is local zoning and land use policies,” said bill sponsor Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield.?

The bill requires the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to set up a Certified Child Care Communities Designation Program. Local governments could qualify for the designation by demonstrating they have developed actionable strategies for meeting child care challenges.

Kentucky’s child care industry — which some are working to rebrand under an “early childhood education” umbrella — is a major theme in the 2024 legislative session as federal COVID-19 dollars that helped stabilize the industry during the last few years are running out. This leaves many centers to cut pay for their workers, raise tuition for parents, cut services and even close.?

Without help from the General Assembly, Kentucky could lose more than a fifth of its child care providers, the Lantern has reported. And even with the state help that is proposed in the House budget — a $52 million a year increase — experts say about 16,000 kids could lose access to child care in 2024.?

West Kentucky Republican Sen. Danny Carroll has pitched a $300 million, two-year bill to stabilize and expand early childhood education, which child care experts in the state have widely praised, but which has yet to get a Senate vote.?

“Increasing access to child care benefits everybody,” Heavrin said in Tuesday’s committee. “It benefits kids, working families, our workforce and our economy.”

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Shop owner worried bill limiting vape products will put him out of business

Rebecca Hanchett, LINK nky — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 13:21:06 +0000

The Kentucky legislature outlawed the sale of some vaping products, effective Jan. 1, 2025. (Getty Images)

New limits on vaping products that a Northern Kentucky shop owner says will put his stores out of business passed the Kentucky House Monday with opposition from some Northern Kentucky lawmakers.?

The legislation, House Bill 11, would limit vape sales in Kentucky to products authorized or pending action by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Retailers would have to have official certification on file – called “safe harbor certification” – to sell products that are under review but not yet fully FDA authorized. Failure to comply could result in fines costing thousands of dollars.?

The bill would also create fines of $100 to $5,000 per violation for retailers that sell vaping products to those under age 21, already illegal under current law.?

After debate on HB 11 Monday, the bill passed the House 62-26. Several Northern Kentuckky? lawmakers — Reps. Steven Doan (R-Erlanger), Savannah Maddox (R-Dry Ridge), Marianne Proctor (R-Union) and Steve Rawlings (R-Burlington) — voted no. House Minority Whip Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) also voted against the legislation.

Mike Reichert, the owner of Bluegrass Vape in Cold Spring and Dry Ridge, testified against HB 11 in the House Health Services committee March 7. Reichert said he doesn’t sell to anyone under age. Many products he does sell, he said, would be banned if HB 11 becomes law.

Reichert said that will put him out of business and make legal customers — including a regular customer in his 70s who gave up tobacco and buys vape liquid, or e-liquid, from Reichert at $20 a week — lose access to affordable products.?

Instead of $20, Reichert said the same amount of product from a major brand like Juul “that this bill leaves on the market, and protects it, will cost him between $150 and $300 per week.”?

Saying he got into the vape business “to help adult smokers quit tobacco,” Reichert told the committee HB 11 may push those individuals back into a tobacco habit by making vaping unaffordable.

A factor in the FDA regulatory process of vape products is what is called a premarket tobacco product application or PMTA, regional retailer and distributor Troy LeBlanc told the committee. According to LeBlanc, “there’s a bar set at the federal level” discouraging businesses from getting a PMTA. The result impacts what products come to market.

One lawmaker who railed against HB 11 on the House floor was Maddox. She said the bill would harm Kentucky businesses by keeping vape products out of the hands of adults who now legally use them.?

“Because, as we all know, it is every bit as illegal for minors to buy this product as alcohol,” she said. “This is being proposed as something that is designed to reduce harm in minor children when in reality it will do no such thing. These products are already illegal. What it will do is harm Kentucky’s businesses.”?

“You can talk about the FDA approved list but what each one of us has to know is that when we press the ‘yes’ button we are voting to ban a product simply on the basis that we think we have the right to decide what types of products that Kentuckians should buy. And I want to ask, where does it end?”?

Rep. Rebecca Raymer (R-Morgantown) is the sponsor of HB 11. She told the House before Monday’s vote that the legislation is an attempt to keep vaping products that “are not supposed to be offered for sale per the FDA” out of the hands of Kentucky youth.?

As far as a regulation goes, Raymer said that’s not the General Assembly’s call.?

“The fact of the matter is we are not the regulatory authority over these products. The FDA is,” said Raymer. “I’m sure there are pharmaceutical companies that would like to go ahead and have their product sold in Kentucky even though they haven’t gone through the FDA process. Are we going to start allowing those?”?

Raymer made similar remarks before HB 11 passed committee last week despite objections from Reichert and other business owners.

“I understand that they don’t like the FDA process. But the bottom line is that Congress granted the FDA the authority to regulate these products and these are definitions that are in place. They are clear,” she said March 7.

NKY lawmakers voting for the bill Monday included Reps. Kim Banta (R-Fort Mitchell), Mike Clines (R-Alexandria) and Stephanie Dietz (R-Edgewood), each a cosponsor of the bill. House Health Services chair Rep. Kimberly Poore Moser (R-Taylor Mill) also voted yes.?

HB 11 now goes to the Senate for its consideration. It would be enforced starting Jan. 1, 2025 if it becomes law.?

The bill is one of several anti-vaping bills being considered for passage during the 2024 General Assembly, set to end no later than April 15.

This story is republished from LINK nky.

Kentucky House passes bill weakening safety protection for coal miners

Liam Niemeyer — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 00:25:33 +0000

Rep. Bill Wesley, R-Ravenna, speaks before a committee about his bill to reduce the number of mine emergency technicians for smaller coal mines. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

Republicans in the GOP-dominated Kentucky House of Representatives passed a bill Monday that a long-time coal mine safety advocate says would put miners at risk by weakening a key protection put in place nearly two decades ago.?

House Bill 85, sponsored by Rep. Bill Wesley, R-Ravenna, would reduce the number of required mine emergency technicians (METs) on a shift from two to one for underground coal mines that have 15 or fewer miners working at a time. METs are miners trained to provide emergency medical care and stabilize an injured worker’s condition.

Attorney Tony Oppegard, a former state and federal mine safety official, was part of a team that wrote a 2007 state law requiring two METs for all coal mining shifts. Oppegard previously told the Lantern the added protection was spurred by the death of a Harlan County miner, David “Bud” Morris.?

The one MET on site, along with other miners, failed to provide proper emergency care for Morris’ injuries after an accident involving heavy mining equipment, which was cited in a federal report as a cause of Morris’ death.?

Wesley on the House floor reiterated his past reasoning for the bill, arguing that letting smaller coal mining shifts have only one MET would keep such mines operating consistently.?

“There have been coal mining shifts or basically the whole coal production shut down based on because one MET did not show up for work,” Wesley said. “Nobody got paid. Everyone was sent home, and I think that this is a needed bill to help all the coal miners.”?

Rep. Ashley Tackett Laferty, D-Martin, left, speaks on the House floor in 2023. (LRC Public Information)

Oppegard had previously rebuffed Wesley’s arguments about coal mines shutting down due to a lack of required METs. The former mine inspector had said having two METs on a shift allows for a backup MET to be on site in case the other has been hurt or is unable to perform emergency medical care.?

A couple of Democrats spoke against the bill, including the only House Democrat currently representing Eastern Kentucky. Rep. Ashley Tackett-Laferty, D-Martin, said she appreciated Wesley’s intentions in preserving coal mining jobs, having supported other pro-coal policies passed by the state legislature.?

But she didn’t support HB 85, arguing it could eliminate “much needed safety positions currently available to our coal miners in an inherently dangerous work zone.”

“It truly troubles me to think that we could potentially be trading the safety of our coal mining families for what appears to be a nominal financial benefit, if anything at all,” Laferty said. “The safety practice of having an emergency medical technician on site is not what’s causing these mines to close.”

Laferty said she had reached out to coal miners and those in the industry when researching the bill, mentioning that one miner told her a shift had closed down just once because of a lack of METs over the course of a more than 20-year career.?

Rep. Chad Aull, D-Lexington, invoked the name of David “Bud” Morris in voting against the bill, saying he believed the House was “forgetting” the reasons why previous legislation was passed.?

Rep. Jim Gooch, R-Providence, reiterated his support for the bill, saying he had family in the coal mines when the original 2007 law had passed that required two METs.?

“We were having some experiences that some smaller operators might cut down to 10 or fewer employees,” Gooch said, who voted for the 2007 law. “I don’t think it’s any threat to the safety of our miners.”

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Looking toward November, Biden targets ‘shrinkflation’ in State of the Union speech

Casey Quinlan — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 09:45:25 +0000

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Washington, DC. This is Biden’s last State of the Union address before the general election this coming November. Biden was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA). (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The White House retweeted Cookie Monster about it. The president made his own Super Bowl video about it.

And then President Joe Biden made it a point in his State of the Union speech: “Shrinkflation” must be stopped.

Biden said Thursday during his annual address that he is taking on corporations that are making more money by selling reduced amounts of their products but not lowering the price — giving consumers less bang for their buck. He’s also focusing more on practices of so-called price gouging that are weighing on American families’ budgets.

“Too many corporations raise their prices to pad their profits, charging you more and more for less and less,” Biden said. “That’s why we’re cracking down on corporations that engage in price gouging or deceptive pricing from food to health care to housing.”

The “less and less” Biden referred to is shrinkflation. “In fact, the snack companies think you won’t notice if they change the size of the bag and put a hell of a lot fewer — same size bag — and put fewer chips in it,” Biden added.

Heading into the general election after Biden and former President Donald Trump both racked up needed delegates to secure their parties’ nominations on Super Tuesday, Biden used part of his speech to focus voters on their pocketbooks. A recent Pew Research survey says Americans rank the economy as their No. 1 policy issue for 2024.

The Biden administration recently launched a joint task force of the U.S Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission to focus on corporate pricing.

Some economists have argued that despite some of the labor and nonlabor costs easing, corporate profit remains high, suggesting that corporations are keeping prices much higher than necessary to make juicy profits. Corporate profits as a share of national income rose 29% since 2020 and drove 53% of inflation in the second and third quarter of 2023, according to Groundwork Collaborative’s analysis of Federal Reserve and Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

“What they’re doing during this period of high inflation is actually expanding their profit margins above and beyond historical averages,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of Groundwork Collaborative, an economic policy think tank. “Companies have really been using the kind of cover of inflation and the fact that Americans expect prices to increase to go a little further than they needed to. And they’ve brought in really considerable profits as a result.”

The personal consumption expenditures index, a measure the Federal Reserve focuses on more in its fight to reduce inflation, moved up 0.3% in January and 2.4% in the past 12 months. Wages were up 4.3% over the past year, according to the February jobs report, outpacing inflation.

But slowing inflation doesn’t mean that prices are affordable for most Americans and research has shown that factors other than supply chain issues, the war in Ukraine and climate change — such as a corporate drive for profits — may play a role.

This is having an effect on common household products many families have no choice but to purchase. In the highly concentrated diaper market, Procter & Gamble and Kimberly Clark have helped keep diaper prices elevated for parents despite the cost of a major component of diapers falling, the Groundwork Collaborative report explained. The cost of disposable diapers in 2019 was 16.54 compared to $22.17 as of Feb. 24, according to NIQ’s consumer data. NIQ determines the cost by the average cost of a diaper package not by a specific package size of diapers.

Some economists have pointed out that these high profits during the economic recovery are nothing like the profits businesses have made in past economic cycles. Chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, Josh Bivens, explained in 2022 that, “Evidence from the past 40 years suggests strongly that profit margins should shrink…”

During his speech, Biden shouted out a bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) that he said would help address the problem. The legislation, which he introduced in February, allows the Federal Trade Commission to pursue regulations that establish it as a deceptive or unfair practice. Casey is also a cosponsor of the Price Gouging Prevention Act, which was reintroduced in February and would establish price gouging as an unfair or deceptive practice as well.

Edgar Dworsky, founder of Consumer World, a consumer resource guide, said companies use all kinds of tricks to deceive customers about the size of what they’re buying,? from deep indentations on the bottom of peanut butter jars and large cereal boxes with much smaller bags of cereal inside than packaging would suggest. Paper goods, candy, chips, orange juice, and specialty milks are some of the products that tend to be most subject to “shrinkflation,” he said, although corporations have broadly implemented the practice across product types.

As a consumer advocate who has been focusing on shrinkflation for many years, Dworsky said it was encouraging to see the president use his State of the Union speech to draw attention to the issue.

“I’ve been warning people about the downsizing of products and trying to raise awareness of it,” he said. “And to have the likes of the president and Cookie Monster come out and help raise public awareness about it, I just think it’s sensational.”

Clinging to coal: Kentucky utilities could have more hurdles to clear before retiring power plants

Liam Niemeyer — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 13:02:08 +0000

Coal was loaded in Cumberland in Harlan County in 2019. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — A bill backed by the Republican Kentucky Senate president would create new hurdles for utilities to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants, building on last year’s law that made it harder for utilities to move away from coal and natural gas.

Senate Bill 349, primarily sponsored by Sen. Robby Mills, R-Henderson, was approved Wednesday by the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. It would create an entirely new 18-person commission, separate from the state’s existing utility regulator, charged with examining and making recommendations on requests from utilities to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants. The new commission, which would be attached to the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research, would also study energy issues including “the adequacy of the Commonwealth’s energy supply.”

Robby Mills (Photo by LRC Public Information)

In a Lantern interview, Mills characterized the bill as “continued progress” to ensure “due diligence” so that “we’re not losing capacity too soon.”

“I think this is going further to look at options for sustaining power plants that are here if that’s a possibility, or which direction we should move our state in” with energy, Mills said.?

Investor-owned utilities, environmental advocacy groups and the president of a libertarian think tank all spoke against the bill before the Senate committee on Wednesday. They cited numerous reasons including that it could harm ratepayers by keeping aging coal-fired power plants on the grid when lower-cost alternatives exist, such as natural gas and renewable energy. Utilities and environmental groups also strongly opposed a bill last year that made it harder to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants.?

The chairman of the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC), the state’s utility regulator, and the secretary of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet also expressed concerns in a letter to the committee, including that the bill would burden the PSC with extra work without providing extra funding.?

Amy Spiller, the president of Duke Energy’s utility operations in Kentucky and Ohio, told lawmakers the bill would “create needless review by a new governmental authority comprised of many members having pre-existing biases.”?

“We know the critical role that access to reliable, affordable power plays in Kentucky’s future, but the issues impacting the provision of safe, reliable, resilient electric service in the commonwealth are complex,” Spiller said. “One cannot responsibly evaluate the issues by narrowly concentrating on one input, one fuel source to the exclusion of all other inputs.”?

The bill makes a series of declarations about the need for adequate, reliable energy from all sources, the need to keep fossil fuel-fired power plants from “premature” retirement” and that there is an “electric generation resource crisis” in Kentucky — an assertion that the president of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities (LG&E and KU) has said is “simply incorrect.”?

“We cannot simply suggest that an aging and antiquated unit must be kept online to solve all of the future growth needs in the commonwealth,” Spiller said to the committee.?

Criticisms levied against ‘EPIC’

Under SB 349, utilities would have to give notice of a request to retire a fossil fuel-fired power plant to the new commission, dubbed the Energy Planning and Inventory Commission (EPIC) at least 365 days before officially filing the retirement request before the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC), the state’s utility regulator which has the power to grant or deny such requests.

EPIC would also be required to hold a public hearing in the county where the requested power plant is located, something the PSC has normally done in the past after a utility files a retirement request.?

While EPIC would have 18 total members, a five-member executive committee would be charged with creating a report examining a fossil fuel-fired retirement request, including if alternatives exist for the retirement, whether the retirement would create a “loss of revenue” for local and state government and how it would impact electricity supply.?

A utility’s application for a retirement request wouldn’t be considered complete before the PSC unless it includes the EPIC report, under SB 349, and the PSC isn’t allowed to make a decision on a retirement request without considering the EPIC report. The executive committee of EPIC would also be allowed to intervene in any PSC case.

Critics of SB 349 also took issue with the proposed membership of EPIC. LG&E and KU president John Crockett said membership? representing various fuel sources would make it an “inherently political body” weighing heavily toward utilities and industry with? little representation for ratepayers.?

The 18-person membership of EPIC would include representation for utilities, nuclear energy, the Chamber of Commerce and one member each representing residential customers and the renewable energy industry. But its membership would also have a significant presence from the fossil fuel industry, including members each for coal miners, coal transporters, natural gas transporters, oil and gas producers, and fossil fuel sellers.

Audrey Ernstberger, a lobbyist for the legal environmental group Kentucky Resources Council, said EPIC would be staffed with members “that have a financial interest in advocating against the retirement of fossil fuel plants.”?

Ernstberger also said the bill could violate the due process rights of parties intervening before the PSC by having the PSC consider a report from an entity, in this case EPIC, not subject to cross examination or discovery during the case.

EPIC “does not consider other important issues such as public health, climate change impacts and environmental justice,” Ernstberger said before the committee. “We fear the bill would game the regulatory process against renewable energy.”?

Renewable energy sources such as solar or wind energy are traditionally known to be “intermittent,” or only able to provide energy during some portions of the day, such as when the sun is shining. But renewable energy advocates have argued that renewables paired with utility-scale batteries will be? “dispatchable,” or able to be called up on demand.

Instead, SB 349 defines renewables paired with batteries as “intermittent,” along with including geothermal energy and biomass energy as intermittent.?

Rebecca Goodman (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

In a joint letter sent to the committee, PSC Chairman Kent Chandler and Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman took issue with the definition of “intermittent” in the bill, saying it’s “not the case” that certain energy sources can’t provide “consistent and dispatchable power.”?

Goodman and Chandler also wrote that some of the bill is redundant, considering that utilities already report data on future energy demands and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation already performs reliability assessments of the grid, something that’s available already to the state government.?

Kent Chandler

Their letter also expressed concerns about a provision in the bill that sets a six-month deadline for the PSC to issue decisions in cases about power plant retirements and rate adjustments to reflect the cost of fuel.?

“The commission does not currently have sufficient staff to meet those deadlines and will require additional employees to do so,” the letter read.?

Chandler had previously testified before lawmakers that the PSC was facing more complex cases and more cases in general with fewer staff than in the past.?

Stivers, other Republicans defend need for ‘EPIC’

Republican lawmakers including Stivers, Mills and the Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, the chair of the Senate committee, defended the legislation, asserting that rising energy costs were attributed to burdensome federal environmental regulations on utilities.?

“This is not a coal-focused issue. The reality is we know there are potential alternative fuels out there,” Stivers said, mentioning that utilities have called for creating an energy-focused working group instead. “This is a valid, good-faith attempt to have an energy discussion, and you can see the impacts of it and the need for it soon.”?

Robert Stivers (LRC Public Information)

Stivers also siad EPIC would consider “whether you believe in it or not — decarbonization or global warming.”?

Burning coal is the single largest source of global temperature increase due to emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. Last year, the secretary-general of the United Nations, citing research from climate scientists around the world including from NASA, called on rich countries like the United States to end use of coal by 2030 and have carbon-free electricity generation by 2035, which means no new natural gas plants either, to prevent the worst effects of increasing climate change.

Generally, coal has also been outcompeted on the cost of electricity compared to energy generated through natural gas and renewables. A study last year from the think tank Energy Innovation and Policy found that 99% of existing coal-fired power plants in the country are more expensive to operate compared to adding new renewable energy.?

Mills told the Lantern decarbonization is expected to be talked about under the proposed EPIC but that it wouldn’t be a main driver of the commission’s research.?

“It’s not one of the main things that we’re legislating for them to decide whether, you know, decarbonization is good or bad or whether global warming is a big issue or not,” Mills said. “I don’t think that’s a priority for the [EPIC] commission right now. I don’t want it to be.”?

Asked about critics’ arguments that SB 349 would keep aging, uneconomical coal-fired power plants on the grid, Mills said he would be fine with retiring such plants as long as he can show the public that an “independent voice” through EPIC confirms that.?

“This is a little bit of a government bureaucracy, a layer of government bureaucracy, but I think we’re in such dire shape in energy, as far as reliability and the future of energy, that we’ve got to prove to our constituents that everything’s being done that needs to be done,” Mills said.?

Crockett, the LG&E and KU president, last year rebuffed assertions that Kentucky is in an energy reliability crisis, saying rolling blackouts during Winter Storm Elliott in Dec. 2022 were an unprecedented event, not a regular occurrence. The utility cited a loss of pressure in a natural gas pipeline as reasoning for the rolling blackouts then, though testimony before the PSC also showed some coal-fired power had failed during the winter storm, too.?

Asked about the PSC’s concerns about handling the demands of cases under a six-month deadline, Mills said more funding for the PSC is being discussed to help the regulatory agency meet tighter deadlines for cases.?

Stivers in the committee hearing said SB 349 is just a draft, and Mills told the Lantern, in light of concerns that EPIC’s membership favors fossil fuels, that he’s allowing utilities to “make a list” of who should be a part of EPIC.

“I just think that it’s important for us to look back on the things that historically that Kentucky has done well, and those folks should have representation,” Mills said. “So, that’s coal and natural gas.”

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‘Effectively dead,’ housing discrimination laws in Louisville, Lexington fall to veto override

Liam Niemeyer — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 22:53:40 +0000

Men of the legislature gathered with Senate President Robert Stivers to talk to media after overriding Gov. Andy Beshear's veto of a bill that preempted housing discrimination ordinances in Louisville and Lexington. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

FRANKFORT — The GOP-dominated Kentucky legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill targeting local source-of-income discrimination bans just a day after the governor had issued the veto.?

Ryan Dotson (Photo by LRC Public Information)

House Bill 18, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, immediately became law Wednesday because of an emergency clause in the bill.?

In a gathering with reporters, Dotson said he believed ordinances passed by Louisville and Lexington, aimed at stopping discrimination by landlords based on a tenant’s source of income, were effectively dead.?

“There was nothing discriminatory about this measure,” Dotson said. “It was only to protect property rights, and no one should be forced to do business with the government.”

Beshear in a statement said discrimination should always be opposed, not enabled.?

“The override of my veto hurts Kentuckians by allowing direct discrimination against those with disabilities, as well as our senior citizens, low-income families and homeless veterans,” Beshear said.

Senate President Robert Stivers rejected the assertion that HB 18 would make it harder for veterans and low-income Kentuckians to access housing and took a swipe at zoning and tax policies in the state’s two largest cities.

Robert Stivers (LRC Public Information)

“We, the General Assembly, sets policy, and we, the General Assembly, have the power of the purse,” Stivers said. “The reality is the city of Louisville and the city of Lexington have a homeless problem directly related to their bad policies.”?

Asked what policies in Louisville and Lexington he took issue with, Stivers pointed to zoning laws and property tax rates that “run developers out of the area.”?

Stivers touted the veto override as the first of several in this year’s legislative session,?

HB 18 would prevent local governments from adopting or enforcing ordinances requiring landlords to accept federal housing assistance vouchers from tenants for rent. Such assistance includes low-income housing assistance vouchers known as “Section 8” vouchers and vouchers?that help homeless veterans.?

Housing advocates have said local source-of-income discrimination bans do not force landlords to accept housing assistance vouchers, only that they can’t reject a prospective tenant solely on the use of vouchers to pay their rent. HB 18 preempts local source-of-income discrimination ban ordinances passed by Louisville in 2020 and another passed last month by Lexington.

Sen. Steve West, R-Paris, who sponsored a similar Senate bill whose elements were incorporated into HB 18, said he didn’t believe there was appetite among lawmakers to? “completely do away with zoning or venture too far into local business,” referencing a Republican-sponsored House bill that would revamp local zoning laws to promote housing development.?

West pointed to a bill by House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, that requires housing development plans to follow a set of “objective” standards so that property owners “know what they’re getting into” when setting out plans from community to community.?

Housing advocates have called on the legislature to invest $200 million in state-run housing trust funds to tackle Kentucky’s affordable housing crisis, especially after natural disasters in recent years have depleted housing availability in Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky.?

Stivers said there’s been discussion with those in the private sector to find housing solutions but mentioned that funding for housing was “about timing and sequencing” with what housing developers can actually produce. Stivers asserted there isn’t enough housing development capacity to use hundreds of millions of dollars in a quick time frame.?

Any housing funding the legislature approves would be “within the capacities of what individuals can actually produce during a biennial period,” Stivers said.?

Adreinne Bush, executive director of the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, told the Lantern that developers have been able to use $20 million allocated by the legislature to the Rural Housing Trust Fund in 2023. She said she believed housing developers would be up to the task again.?

That $20 million housing funding was allocated in March 2023, and the first home groundbreaking, thanks to that funding, took place in November 2023.?

“That’s a really quick timeline,” Bush said. “We do have the capacity.”

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Kentucky state employees would gain parental leave under bill approved by Senate

Isabella Sepahban — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 00:52:02 +0000

Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe discusses her bill to get paid parental leave for state workers. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Isabella Sepahban)

FRANKFORT — State employees could take up to four weeks of paid parental leave under a bill that the Kentucky Senate approved 28-10 on Tuesday.?

Senate Bill 142 would entitle state government workers who’ve held their jobs for at least a year to take up to four weeks of paid leave after birth or adoption. State employees would also be able to take two weeks of paid parental leave for a foster care or kinship care placement.?

Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe, the sponsor, called the measure “a step in the right direction” and said it would spare would-be parents from having to hoard sick days and vacation time in order to prepare for the arrival of a child.

The Lexington Republican recalled that when she was a member of Lexington’s council she saw how “incredible young professionals … saved sick time over several years … in order to have a way to pay for the first weeks home with a new baby.”

Bledsoe said employees she knew in Lexington would even go as far as “working when they were sick,” to prevent using a sick day so they could save it for future leave.

According to the nonprofit A Better Balance, Kentucky neighbors Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri have paid parental leave policies in place for state employees. Federal employees can take up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave.?

A Better Balance also found that when people have access to paid parental leave, they are less likely to rely on public assistance programs.?

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‘This is clearly the session for child care.’ Or is it?

Sarah Ladd — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 00:25:31 +0000

Jennifer Washburn at iKids Childhood Enrichment Center in Benton, where she is director and owner, Nov. 28, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Abbey Cutrer)

FRANKFORT — As the Kentucky legislative session approaches “late in the game,” Sen. Danny Carroll said Tuesday the status of his Horizons Act is a “little concerning.”?

The bill, which proposes Kentucky spend $300 million over the next two years to stabilize the child care industry, passed out of the Senate Families and Children Committee Feb. 27. It has not received a vote on the floor.?

Carroll will likely present the bill before the Appropriations and Revenue Committee next, he said while participating in a Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence panel to discuss the state of early childhood education in the state. Tuesday was the 44th day of the 60-day session.?

Carroll spoke alongside Jennifer Washburn, who owns iKids Childhood Enrichment Center in West Kentucky; Zach Morgan with the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers; and Sarah Vanover, a policy expert with Kentucky Youth Advocates. Carroll serves as president and CEO of Easter Seals West Kentucky, whose programs include a child care center.?

Bridget Blom (Kentucky Lantern photo by Isabella Sepahban)

“This is clearly the session for child care,” said Brigitte Blom, the president and CEO of the Prichard Committee. Carroll’s Horizons Act would make “a huge dent” in addressing the needs facing the child care industry in Kentucky, she added.?

Federal COVID-19 dollars are running out, leaving centers to cut pay for their workers, raise tuition for parents and even close, the Lantern has reported.?

Kentucky could lose more than a fifth of its child care providers if the state doesn’t help. And even with the state help that is proposed in the House budget — a $52 million a year increase? — experts say about 16,000 kids could lose access to child care in 2024.

Child care providers are already raising tuition. Washburn said her families will start paying 12.5% more starting on Monday. Without the Horizons Act, she said, those families will face another 7% to 12% tuition increase in June.?

The Horizons Act proposes $300 million in state funding over the next two years to child care providers across Kentucky.?

The price tag, Carroll admitted, is a “huge ask.”?

“I just think there was a lot of sticker shock with that” amount of money, he added. But, “it’s our kids,” he said, and “to me it’s worth every penny of it.”?

The state can afford it, child advocates say. Kentucky has a record revenue surplus in its General Fund.?

Among other things, the Horizons Act — Senate Bill 203 — would allocate $66 million annually to the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), which helps families with child care tuition. It would also create an associate’s degree that aims to educate and train students in early childhood development and set them up to open new centers upon graduation.?

“We were invested in for a little bit,” Washburn said. “And in that little bit of investment, we have been able to feel important. We have been able to do bigger and better things.”?

Without this stabilization money, she and others said, the child care landscape in Kentucky will only worsen, taking the economy and overall child welfare with it.?

“I’m running out of words,” Washburn said. “And my (families) are running out of options. They’re going to get creative in how they get care for their children. And in that creativity, children will be hurt.”?

Isabella Sepahban contributed to this report.

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Beshear’s first veto would protect local housing discrimination laws

Liam Niemeyer — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 18:50:03 +0000

Gov. Andy Beshear addresses a crowd commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Freedom March on Frankfort, March 5, 2024. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer)

FRANKFORT — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear told a crowd gathered to commemorate a historic civil rights march that he has vetoed a bill that would preempt local anti-discrimination ordinances.?

It’s the governor’s first veto of this legislative session. Critics have warned the bill would preempt local ordinances in Kentucky’s largest cities prohibiting discrimination against tenants based on their source of income.?

Beshear said he vetoed House Bill 18 because it “would have made it harder in Lexington and Louisville for people to have a roof over their head.”

He was speaking Tuesday to a crowd gathered outside the Capitol to reenact and commemorate the March on Frankfort that took place 60 years earlier on March 5, 1964.?

“I vetoed House Bill 18 because the governments of Louisville and Lexington came together, and they said landlords had to take Section 8 vouchers to make sure that everyone can have stable and affordable housing,” Beshear said.

A crowd gathering in front of the Capitol to commemorate the 1964 march. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Isabella Sepahban)

HB 18, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, would prohibit local governments from adopting or enforcing ordinances requiring landlords to accept federal housing assistance vouchers from tenants for rent. Such assistance includes low-income housing assistance vouchers known as “Section 8” vouchers and vouchers that help homeless veterans.?

Critics of the legislation have said HB 18 would preempt source-of-income discrimination ban ordinances, one passed by Louisville in 2020 and another passed last month by Lexington, prohibiting landlords from rejecting a potential tenant exclusively on their source of income, including the use of housing assistance vouchers.?

Republicans supporting HB 18 say it would protect landlords’ property rights by preventing them from being forced to accept housing vouchers from tenants. Housing advocates have said source-of-income discrimination bans do not mandate landlords to accept such vouchers, only that they can’t reject a prospective tenant solely on the use of vouchers to pay their rent.

Dave Sevigny, a member of Lexington’s Urban County Council, applauded Beshear’s veto.

“As a sponsor of the well-vetted ordinance in Lexington that was recently passed with overwhelming support and is now in effect to eliminate certain forms of housing discrimination, I applaud the common sense veto by Gov. Beshear, who seems to clearly recognize that each part of government has its role and should stay in its lane,” Sevigny said in a statement.?

The GOP-dominated legislature can easily override Beshear’s veto. Only a majority of each legislative chamber would have to approve the veto override, and HB 18 passed each chamber by large majorities.?

Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, speaking Tuesday at a Louisville radio station said the Kentucky Senate would override Beshear’s veto.?

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, in a statement said Beshear’s veto came as “no surprise.”?

“With today’s veto, he strikes out at the right of a property owner to make a decision about how his or her property will be used,” Osborne said. “Members will consider an override, as they have with almost every other policy vetoed by the governor.”

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Foster parents working from home could qualify for child care subsidies under bill clearing Senate committee

Sarah Ladd — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 17:19:37 +0000

Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong sponsored Senate Bill 240, which would let foster parents in Kentucky get child care benefits while working outside the home or working remotely in the home. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Isabella Sepahban)

FRANKFORT — Megan Hamilton wants to be a foster mom.?

But Hamilton, who lives in Bullitt County, works remotely for a Las Vegas company.?

That means she cannot qualify for a child care subsidy in Kentucky, all because she works from home.?

“Marketing writers do not make enough money to commute by private jet,” she chuckled to members of the Senate Families and Children Committee on Tuesday while testifying in support of a Democratic bill aimed at getting more foster families in Kentucky.?

Senate Bill 240 would allow foster parents in Kentucky to qualify for? child care benefits while working outside the home or working remotely in the home. The bill passed 8-0 and can head to the floor for consideration.?

Sponsor Louisville Democrat Cassie Chambers Armstrong said it “will decrease barriers to families who wish to participate in foster care.”?

“We desperately need more foster families in Kentucky,” she said, “and Senate Bill 240 can help us do just that.”?

Currently, foster families have to work outside the home 20 hours a week to qualify for this assistance, Chambers Armstrong said.?

“These subsidies help foster families so that they can both work and open their home to a child in need,” she added. “Inability to afford child care … should not be the reason a person who wants to provide a loving home to a child cannot do so.”??

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Under threat from industry ‘middlemen,’ independent pharmacies gain allies in D.C., Frankfort

Deborah Yetter — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 01:27:51 +0000

Pharmacy entrepreneur Mark Cuban had nothing good to say about pharmacy benefit managers, who also are the subject of a Kentucky bill filed by state Sen. Max Wise. (Getty Images)

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear joined a White House roundtable discussion Monday on prescription drug costs that also featured U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, pharmacy entrepreneur Mark Cuban and several community pharmacists from around the country.

The main topic was insurance industry middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, and panelists were unsparing in their criticism, using terms like “price gouging” and trying to “kill off community pharmacies” to describe the practices of some.

Andy Beshear (Photo for Kentucky Lantern by Michael Clubb)

PBMs “are sh- – -ing on independent pharmacists,” said Cuban, the colorful and plainspoken former owner of the Dallas Mavericks who founded CostPlus Drug Co. to try to provide affordable prescription medicine to consumers.

In Kentucky, Beshear said the state has saved around $300 million by eliminating outside PBMs from its Medicaid program in 2021 and instead hiring a single company to manage the $1.2 billion a year prescription drug business.

His advice to other states seeking to cut prescription drug costs: “You ought to have one PBM for your state plan, one PBM for your Medicaid plan and they ought to report to you,” Beshear said.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which represents the PBM industry, released a statement on its website Monday accusing the panel of including those with “vocal anti-PBM agendas.”

PBMs work to try to reduce drug prices and ensure quality patient care, the statement said.

Reprieve for Kentucky’s independent pharmacies is saving Medicaid millions

“We share the administration’s goal of lowering prescription drug costs and would welcome the opportunity to work together to make prescription drugs more affordable for patients and employers,” it said.

Panelists were unmoved by such claims, focusing on the PBMs that dominate the prescription drug insurance business.

“The big three PBMs are everything that is wrong with this industry,” Cuban said.

He didn’t name them but they are Caremark, owned by CVS Health; Express Scripts, owned by Cigna, and Optum Rx, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth, according to drugchannels.net, a pharmaceutical business publication.

Two community pharmacists on the panel said the deep cuts and reimbursement below costs from PBMs threaten their livelihoods and service to their patients.

“If community pharmacies like me go out of business, what options do those patients have?” asked Pennsylvania pharmacist Chichi Ilonzo Momah.

Panelists urged officials at Health and Human Services and the Federal Trade Commission to do more to crack down on unfair practices of PBMs.

FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan said her agency is looking into the matter.

“If we find evidence of illegal practices, we will not hesitate to act,” she said.

In Kentucky, PBMs have come under fire in recent years from lawmakers fielding complaints from their local pharmacists alleging predatory business practices.

Bill would save Kentucky consumers money, help independent pharmacies survive, says sponsor

In 2020, the General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 50, sponsored by Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, that directed the state to cut out multiple PBMs from its Medicaid program and instead hire a single company to report directly to the state.

The result was nearly $300 million in savings — despite claims from PBM representatives it would cost the state money, state Medicaid officials told lawmakers in October.

SB 50 was signed into law by Beshear, a Democrat, who Monday hailed it as an example of bipartisan cooperation with the General Assembly, dominated by a Republican supermajority.

Wise now is sponsoring Senate Bill 188, meant to reform practices of PBMs in the commercial insurance market in Kentucky.

Benjamin Mudd, executive director of the Kentucky Pharmacists Association, said further controls on PBM practices could help Kentucky’s struggling, independent pharmacists, some of whom have been forced to close.

“They just continue to siphon money out of the system,” he said.

Wise’s SB 188, he said, “is a last-ditch effort to help a lot of pharmacists barely scraping by.”

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Lawmakers across the U.S. seek to curb utility spending on politics, ads and more extras

Robert Zullo — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 10:45:13 +0000

A coalition of climate justice groups organized a rally Feb. 26 outside the Washington, D.C., hotel where the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners was holding its winter policy meeting. The speakers, including? Christine Pendzich, center, of Montgomery County, Md., took aim in part at energy company and utility sponsorship of the event. (Robert Zullo/States Newsroom)

After a string of scandals and amid rising bills, lawmakers in statehouses across the country have been pushing legislation to curb utilities spending ratepayer money on lobbying, expert testimony in rate cases, goodwill advertising, charitable giving, trade association membership and other costs.

At least a dozen states have considered bills to limit how gas, water and electric utilities can spend customers’ money, according to a tracker maintained by the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group funded by environmental and climate-focused foundations that concentrates on utilities and fossil fuel interests.

Another, Louisiana, has opened a proceeding at its public service commission to investigate use of ratepayer cash on trade association dues, “activities meant to influence the outcome of any local, state, or federal legislation,” advertising expenses and other costs.

Michigan joined the party last week with the introduction of legislation to ban utility political spending. In states like Illinois, the push has been joined by groups like the AARP and the Citizens Utility Board, a state watchdog group, which said the legislation would “stop electric, gas and water utilities from charging us for a long list of expenses they rack up trying to raise our rates and further increase their political power.”

Three states? — Maine, Colorado and Connecticut — have already signed similar bills into law. The legislation comes as natural gas bills have fallen but average residential electric prices in the U.S. climbed from 13.66 cents per kilowatt hour in 2021 to 15.93 cents per kilowatt hour in 2023, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That would mean a monthly bill going from $136.60 in 2021 to $159.30 in 2023 for a house that uses 1,000 kilowatt hours per month.

“It absolutely is a growing trend,” said Matt Kasper, the Energy and Policy Institute’s deputy director. “There’s a lot of eyes on the industry, how it’s operating.”

The institute published a report last year that scrutinized how electric and gas utilities use ratepayer money to “fund political machines that push legislation, curry favor with regulators and alter the outcomes of elections, sometimes even breaking laws in the process.”

Some of the lowlights include:

A massive bribery scandal in Ohio involving FirstEnergy, a utility holding company that? paid nearly $61 million in bribes to the Ohio house speaker’s political organization in exchange for a nuclear plant bailout worth $1 billion to the company. A U.S. attorney called it “one of the largest public corruption conspiracies in Ohio history.”
In Illinois, the state’s largest electric utility, Commonwealth Edison, or ComEd, showered the state House speaker’s allies with jobs, contracts and payments to grease the wheels for the company’s legislation. Three ex-lobbyists and a former CEO of the company were convicted by a federal jury last year for their roles in the scheme. The speaker’s trial is scheduled for later this year.
Florida Power & Light, one of the largest utilities in the nation, is facing calls for a federal investigation over accusations of using political consultants to back “ghost candidates” in legislative races to draw votes away from candidates it opposed. It also took over a news website as “part of an elaborate, off-the-books political strategy to advocate for rate hikes, agitate for legislative favors, slam political opponents and eliminate anything? … (that) might undermine its near monopoly on selling power in the Sunshine State,” the Miami Herald reported. That’s not to mention accusations of hiring private investigators to follow a newspaper columnist who was critical of the company.

Other examples of questionable spending abound. In 2018, South Carolina lawmakers were flooded with bogus emails encouraging them to support Virginia utility giant Dominion Energy’s takeover of SCANA Corp., a company struggling under the weight of a failed nuclear project. Dominion denied having anything to do with the fake emails, which were sent by the Consumer Energy Alliance, a group that was then supported by Dominion. (The company is no longer listed as a CEA member).

Consumer Energy Alliance was also involved in a 2016 campaign to support a natural gas pipeline running through Ohio that involved sending 347 letters to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission using the names of locals — more than a dozen of whom signed affidavits denying they signed the letters —? including “an Ohio man who has been dead since 1998,” The Plain Dealer reported.

In Louisiana, Entergy was fined $5 million by the New Orleans City Council after actors hired by a public relations firm working for the utility showed up at public hearings to support a proposed power plant.

Arizona Public Service, which has 1.4 million electric customers in the state, spent $10 million in 2014 that was funneled to dark money groups to help elect its preferred members of the State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities. That spending wasn’t revealed until 2019, when the company complied with a subpoena to release documents.

“Utilities are often using their ratepayer-funded political machines to slow the nation’s urgently-needed transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy,” the Energy & Policy Institute wrote. “Working hand-in-hand with their trade associations, the Edison Electric Institute and American Gas Association, utilities continue to fight tooth-and-nail against policies that enable the adoption of essential technologies like rooftop solar power, energy efficiency and building electrification.”

‘The appetite is there’

However, bills to curb utility influence spending can face an uphill fight, demonstrating the stronghold that the companies can have on state governments.

In Virginia, for example, another round of legislative attempts to prevent candidates from accepting donations from public service companies like Dominion Energy, the state’s largest electric utility and long the biggest corporate donor in Virginia politics, died in House and Senate committees. Both houses are controlled by Democrats.

“Time will tell what will happen,” Del. Josh Cole, a Democrat who was carrying the House version of the legislation,told the Virginia Mercury.? “The appetite is definitely there for it.”

A separate proceeding at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been looking into the “rate recovery, reporting and accounting treatment of industry association dues and certain civic, political and related expenses.”

The Edison Electric Institute, which represents investor-owned electric utilities and is one of the trade groups affected by some of the state-level legislation, said electric customers benefit when its member companies “have a seat at the table,” adding that they are among the most regulated businesses in the nation.

“We engage on their behalf through lobbying, advocacy and regulatory proceedings as part of our work to ensure that electricity customers have the affordable, reliable and resilient clean energy they want and need. Engaging in discussions with policymakers and regulators is essential to achieving these outcomes,” EEI spokeswoman Sarah Durdaller said in a statement. “We bring unique expertise and insights on how policy proposals will affect business operations, the cost for capital, and, ultimately, our customers. … There are strict laws in place already to ensure that lobbying activities are always funded by shareholders not customers.”

The American Gas Association, which represents natural gas utilities, did not respond to a request for comment.

On Monday, across the street from the Washington, D.C., hotel where the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners was holding its winter policy meeting, a group of climate justice organizations held a rally to call attention to energy company influence, taking aim at corporate sponsorship of the event and a lack of progress on renewable power.

“When we see events like this where utility execs fund gatherings and hobnob with regulators …? we need to speak out,” said Sukrit Mishra, D.C. program director at Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit that helps communities form solar co-ops. He voiced support for state legislative efforts as well as federal legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a Florida Democrat, to prevent utility companies from using ratepayer dollars to fund political activities.

“The public is ready to hold utilities accountable. We need regulators to do the same.”

‘This year’s anti-drag bill’ on its way to full Senate

Sarah Ladd — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 16:48:01 +0000

Sen. Lindsey Tichenor (LRC Public Information)

FRANKFORT — A Senate committee on Thursday approved new restrictions on “adult-oriented businesses” that opponents describe as “this year’s anti-drag bill.”?

Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, filed Senate Bill 147 in late January, saying it was “not intended to impede on any First Amendment rights of free speech, nor to impose limitations on reasonable access to the intended adult market.”?

The bill mandates certain “adult-oriented” performances cannot be closer than 933 feet, about a city block, to facilities that cater to minors like schools and child care providers. Businesses that violate the rules could lose their ability to renew business or liquor licenses and could receive cease and desist letters.?

Performance is “harmful to minors,” according to the bill, when it “taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest of minors.”?

Tichenor filed similar legislation in 2023 that stalled after it passed in the Senate.?

The latest version would:?

Clarify that an “adult-oriented” business is a business that “regularly hosts any performance involving sexual conduct.”?
Clarify that the restriction applies to “drag performance with explicitly sexual content.”?
Remove colleges and universities from the list of protected educational facilities.?

Richard Nelson, the executive director of the Commonwealth Policy Center, told lawmakers “the bottom line with this is that this proposal seeks to promote the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”?

David Walls with The Family Foundation said the regulations proposed protect against the “numerous adverse effects of adult-oriented businesses.”

“It would simply provide reasonable protections for children from exposure and harm from adult businesses,” he said.?

Drag performer Poly Tics, testifying last year before a Kentucky Senate committee, returned Thursday to oppose a new bill that would impose restrictions on “adult-oriented businesses” and drag performances “with explicitly sexual content.” (Screenshot of KET livestream)

The opposition?

Drag performer Poly Tics testified against the bill, saying the “resources, time and money would be better spent ensuring every child in Kentucky has access to affordable health care, well funded education and clean water and nutritional food.”??

“I’m sure that every person in this room would agree that we have a specific need to address the health, safety and well being of children,” Poly Tics said. “With that being said, targeting drag performances is by far one of the least impactful pieces of legislation that could be proposed to meet those needs.”?

And, she said, the “numerous gray areas” in the bill could leave her and others open to legal and other attacks.?

Andrew Schaftlein, who performs drag under the name May O’Nays, also spoke against the bill.?

“I’m not … just the drag queen,” Schaftlein said. “I’m a parent. I have three-year-old twins. This bill has been written allegedly to protect children. Of all the threats of children, of which there are many, drag, I don’t believe is one of them.”?

Michael Frazier with Ban Conversion Therapy Kentucky said there are some “constitutional vagueness” issues with the legislation.?

The bill’s permission for local governments to create more stringent policies about these adult-oriented performances, Frazier said, places “undue burden upon the free speech rights of the drag queen performers.”??

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Bill easing job hunt for ex-offenders clears Kentucky legislative committee

Lantern staff — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 22:48:59 +0000

File photo of Rep. Emily Callaway, R-Louisville. (LRC Public Information)

Kentuckians who have been convicted of crimes would get a better shot at a second chance under a bipartisan bill that cleared a House committee Wednesday, its supporters say.

House Bill 124, sponsored by Rep. Emily Callaway, R-Louisville, would allow individuals to find out in advance if their criminal records would disqualify them from receiving an occupational license or working in a state government job.

Also, if the bill becomes law, a criminal conviction would have to directly relate to the job an ex-offender is seeking to justify disqualification from state employment or an occupational license. The bill also requires hiring or licensing authorities to request information and allow an applicant a hearing before deciding on eligibility and to provide written findings of fact to the applicant upon determination.

“Kentucky has made some important strides on reentry in the last 10 years, but there are still so many obstacles that citizens face when trying to rebuild their lives and be strong contributors to their community,” said Marcus Ray, president of the Kentucky NAACP, ?in a release from the Kentucky Smart on Crime Coalition. “This bill is going to save job applicants the time and expense of preparing for tests and boards when they would be deemed ineligible for their record.”

“We urge House members to support HB 124,” said Kate Shanks, senior vice president of public affairs for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, speaking for the Kentucky Smart on Crime Coalition. She called the bill “another step we can take to address the commonwealth’s workforce issues.? Employment is key to reducing recidivism.”

??Kentucky Smart on Crime is a coalition of 14 organizations working for what they call “common sense justice reforms.”

Twenty-one states already have such laws, according to the coalition’s news release.

The bill was approved by the House Licensing, Occupations, & Administrative Regulations Committee Wednesday morning and now awaits a vote in the House.