By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce hosted the “Where We Stand” legislative agenda preview reception Tuesday at Triple Crown Country Club.
The NKY Chamber previewed its legislative agenda for the upcoming 2020 Kentucky General Assembly at the reception.
The event also identified the Grow NKY funding requests for the year.
GROW NKY is a comprehensive, holistic workforce development/talent strategy initiated by the NKY Chamber in conjunction with key workforce partners .
The goal of GROW NKY is to ensure that NKY can attract future businesses and retain current businesses as a result of a strategic workforce effort, unique to Kentucky. The work is geared toward the high-demand sectors in NKY: Advanced Manufacturing, IT, Advanced Logistics, Health Sciences, Financial Services and Construction.
Kristin Baldwin, NKY Chamber vice president, public affairs and communications, speaks with House Speaker David Osborne and Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer about issues of importance to Northern Kentuckians that will be explored in the 2020 Legislative Session (photos by Mark Hansel).
Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, and Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, participated in a panel discussion related to the upcoming 2020 Legislative Session.
NKY Chamber President Brent Cooper thanked Osborne and Thayer for their ongoing support of the Chamber and its businesses.
“This past year, and really the past two years that I’ve been in this role, they always take time for the business community,” Cooper said. “The economy in Kentucky is important to them and that is clear by the way they engage with us every year.”
Dave Schroeder of Spaulding Construction, chair of the NKY Chamber Advocacy Committee, emceed the event and Kristin Baldwin, NKY Chamber vice president, public affairs and communications, moderated the discussion.
Osborne has served in the Kentucky House of Representatives since 2005 and was sworn in on January 8, 2019 to serve as the Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives. Speaker Osborne represents the 59th House District, which is comprised of part of Oldham County.
In addition to his role as a lawmaker, Osborne owns and operates Deerfield Farm, a thoroughbred racing and breeding operation in Prospect.
Thayer is the Kentucky Senate Majority Floor Leader. Elected to that position by his Republican colleagues in January 2013, he is only the third Republican to serve as Majority Leader of the Kentucky State Senate.
First elected to the Kentucky State Senate in a 2003 special election, Thayer represents the citizens of the 17th District, which encompasses Grant, Scott and southern Kenton Counties.
Baldwin began the discussion by asking about a hot topic in recent weeks, the purchase of Turfway Park by Churchill Downs, Inc.
Thayer, who came to Northern Kentucky 27 years ago to work at Turfway Park, called it the best news for horse racing in Northern Kentucky, and the Commonwealth, in a long time.
“We were there for the glory days in 1990 and we had the best Kentucky Derby prep race in the country, the Jim Beam Stakes, and we created a great Breeders’ Cup prep day called the Kentucky Cup,” Thayer said. “Through various changes in ownership over the years, we all know that Turfway is not what it once was.”
Churchill Downs Inc. plans to tear down the old 1959-era grandstand, build a new facility with1,500 historical racing machines and provide what Thayer described as the kind of horse racing facility that Northern Kentucky deserves.
NKY Chamber members, elected officials and community stakeholders were on hand Tuesday for the annual NKY Chamber ‘Where We Stand’ event focused on legislative priorities for the upcoming session.
Churchill has loaned money from its own account to prop up the purse structure for the current Turfway meet, which has already improved the quality of racing and field sizes.
“We’ve got 100 years of horse racing history here in Northern Kentucky, going back to the old Latonia Race Course,” Thayer said. “With Cincinnati across the river, this is actually the best market for horse racing, from a demographic point of view, in the entire Commonwealth.”
Thayer also talked about a related issue, sports wagering, a bill for which will be introduced by Rep. Adam Koenig (R-Erlanger) that is expected to enjoy bipartisan support, in the upcoming session.
He explained the difference between expanded gambling and sports wagering.
“Expanded gambling, casinos, slot machines, blackjack, roulette, those are games of chance,” Thayer said. “Those require a constitutional amendment and we don’t have the votes in the Kentucky State Senate.”
Thayer brought a bill for expanded gaming in 2012, with support form then-Gov. Steve Beshear, that only got 16 votes (23 are needed). He says there is less support now.
“The air is really out of the balloon in Frankfort on any support for casinos,” Thayer said.
Thayer does support sports wagering because they are games of skill. He said sports wagering already exists in Kentucky, in the form of pari-mutuel betting on horse races.
“I think passing sports wagering is a simple extension of that and I want it the race tracks because, to me, it will bring more people in to our race tracks, and that’s a good thing,” Thayer said. “Can you imagine a new Turfway Park, $200 million facility…in a race and sports book to attract people from around the tri-state. We are sitting on the precipice here of something really exciting.”
Osborne spoke about increasing the gas tax consumption tax in the upcoming session, which the NKY Chamber supports.
NKY Chamber President Brent Cooper presents the Northern Kentucky Community Award to Greg Shumate of Frost Brown Todd at Tuesday’s NKY Chamber “Where We Stand” event. Frost Brown Todd celebrates its 100-year anniversary this year.
He praised Rep. Sal Santoro, (R-Florence) for bringing so many stakeholders to the table to talk about the issue. Santoro is a member of the House Transportation Committee and the Mileage Based Transportation Funding Task Force.
“Our road fund is a very, very difficult thing to get our arms around and the main reason it is essentially funded by motor fuels consumption,” Osborne said. “As we know that’s a declining source. Whether it be hybrids, fully electrics, mass transportation, more fuel-efficient cars, we are doing just as much damage to the roads, we’re driving just as many miles, but we are collecting significantly less revenue off of it.”
The result is a broken formula and while hybrids and electrics represent a small percentage of vehicles now, that number is only going to increase.
Osborne said Toyota has invested $1.3 billion in developing electric vehicles because that is what the market is demanding.
“Regardless of what we do on the gas tax increase, and I do think there is some support for that issue,” Osborne said. “Regardless of what we do, how long that increase is, we still have a broken formula.
Many states have gone to a miles-driven formula, but Osborne said it really doesn’t work well in Kentucky.
“It’s the only revenue source that we have in Kentucky that we get the majority percentage from out of state sources,” Osborne said. “The only way we can capture that is through consumption and it continues to be something that we are going to have to wrestle with.”
The legislators spoke on a wide range of issues, that can’t all be explored here.
The Northern Kentucky Chamber legislative priorities and the Grow NKY funding requests were identified and discussed at the NKY Chamber’s annual “Where We Stand Event at the Triple Crown Country Club in Boone County Tuesday (click to enlarge).
The NKY Chamber has increasingly become the region’s resource for exploring the issues that matter to its residents, individually, through forums such as Eggs ’N Issues and collectively, as with the annual Where We Stand event.
Cooper said one of the Chamber’s main goals is to be a voice for the region, but it must be a collaborative effort.
“Northern Kentucky is a key part of the state of Kentucky, we matter,” Cooper said. “We’re 10 percent of the population, we’re 10 percent of the economy, 20 percent of the tourism…and that’s part of what our ‘One Voice’ effort has been all about. We want folks to join us, speak with one voice and advocate for our neck of the woods, but (also) for the entire state.”
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com
