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John Schickel: Kentucky Chamber of Commerce should reconsider support of cash bail reform


The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce recently released its legislative priorities. Cash bail is something locally elected judges may use to keep someone in jail who they think is a risk to the community. It is also used to ensure court appearances. The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce is calling for reforms of the cash bail system.

This bail policy experiment has been enacted in Illinois, New York, California, and Portland, Ore., which are states and a city controlled by Democrats. The results? Disastrous. Crime has spiked in these areas to historic proportions. Considering the record-shattering homicide numbers in Louisville—where small businesses are still boarded up from rioting last summer. We must ask, what are advocates of this policy initiative thinking?

Sen. John Schickel

Does the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce have a small business agenda or a social agenda? This is a question some business owners in our district are asking, and it is their businesses that the organization’s vision and mission statements profess to support.

Many small business owners in Boone County — which has one of the state’s highest workforce participation rates—share this sentiment about the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s legislative priorities. If the organization wishes to “provide bold leadership” and be a “major catalyst, consensus builder, and advocate for economic growth and for expanding the business community,” perhaps it should reconsider the legislative measures it will place its energy behind during the upcoming session of the Kentucky General Assembly.

As we have already seen in states that have attacked the cash bail system—some eliminating it altogether—this legislative priority works counter to the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce’s mission of “building a dynamic business climate” and its efforts to “provide value to its members.”

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses are the heart and soul of our communities, as they make up 99.9% of all businesses. Mom-and-pop shops cannot operate in a lawless society or at least not in a society that is soft on criminal activity. Small businesses cannot endure the same losses that big-box chains can afford to ignore.

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce claims to represent the business community. To be fair, it has done excellent work in the past concerning workers’ compensation insurance, among other policy efforts. However, on this issue, it is misguided. Bail reform will only work against small businesses’ best interests. The organization is pursuing a social agenda, not a business agenda. I hope that the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce will come to its senses and care less about being politically correct and more about genuinely representing the membership that needs it now more than ever.

Senator John Schickel (R-Union) represents Kentucky’s 11th Senate District in Boone County. He is co-chairman of the Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations. He also serves as a member of the Interim Joint Committees on Banking and Insurance, Judiciary, Natural Resources and Energy, and is a liaison member of the Budget Review Subcommittee on Justice and Judiciary.


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