Monday, January 7, 2008

How else can we solve budget problems?

Gov. Beshear has implemented a 3% across the board cut for much of state government in order to balance the budget. Something has to be done and he has had to make some difficult decisions already. Tough decisions come with the lofty position he now holds and I am glad that he has shown the backbone to make some.

But what else can be done. As I stated in an earlier post, repealing the prevailing wage law would help. Take NKU for instance. NKU has to cut $1.6 million in this budget year. This on the heels of building the Bank of Kentucky Center, a $64 million project. Because of the prevailing wage law, the project cost about $4-6 million more than it would have otherwise. That is our tax money being spent on inflated salaries.

So what could we do with $4-6 million dollars? Well, that would cover the shortfall for NKU, as well as Morehead State University, and possibly Western Kentucky University. All from one project. Imagine the money that could be saved if we eliminated prevailing wage from all public projects.