Now that Kentucky has elected its leaders for the
next four years – and shocked the world by electing Republicans to a majority
of statewide offices for the first time in anyone’s memory – it’s time for the
state to seriously look at some reforms designed to increase voter
participation, streamline government and reduce expenditures.
This state elects too many officials, on both the
statewide and local levels. Most of those elected positions should be hired
jobs instead, whether through executive appointments or civil-service
employment. With the state elections fresh in everyone’s mind, let’s take a
look at the changes that need to be made in the process.
Commissioner
of Agriculture:
Kentucky doesn’t elect its highway commissioner, its property tax commissioner
or its state police commissioner. It also traded in its elected superintendent
of public instruction for an appointed education commissioner several years
ago. Why should it elect its agriculture commissioner? While agriculture is
still an important economic generator for the state, its days of dominance as
the state’s leading industry are past. Plus, it often happens that the
interests of the governor and the separately elected agriculture commissioner
are at odds. This causes duplicity in state services, as there also is a
Governor’s Office of Agriculture Policy in addition to the Department of
Agriculture. It’s time to eliminate the elected position of agriculture
commissioner, make it a gubernatorial appointment, and roll the Department of
Agriculture into an existing cabinet, or make it a cabinet-level agency.
State
Treasurer and Secretary of State: These offices provide administrative functions
that could easily be absorbed by other agencies. The treasurer’s duties would
be a natural fit for an administrative or revenue collection office. The
secretary of state’s duties could easily be divided among other agencies, as
well. Election oversight could be transferred to the State Board of Elections, and
business registration would be a natural fit in any of several cabinets or
departments. Doing away with these positions as elected offices would also
eliminate the possibility of politicians using them as stepping stones for
higher office. This used to be standard operating procedure in Kentucky back
when officeholders were limited to one four-year term in any position.
Politicians played musical chairs with the minor elected offices. They’d spend
four years in one office, then move to another office for a single term, then
to another office, and then the cycle would either rotate back or they’d seek
the governorship. We can probably expect Alison Lundergan Grimes, who was just
re-elected as secretary of state, to run for governor in four years.
Auditor of
Public Accounts and Attorney General: These positions are a little trickier. There are
lots who advocate eliminating the other three lower-level statewide offices but
want to keep these positions independently elected because they perform a
watchdog function on the executive branch. But there is a simple solution to
that: Use the federal model. Make these positions gubernatorial appointments,
like the others previously listed, but make the appointees subject to
confirmation by the Senate. The auditor, like the treasurer, could probably be
absorbed into an agency in charge of revenue or finance. The attorney general’s
office could probably be attached to the governor’s office, or made an arm of
the Justice Cabinet.
There’s precedent for reforming Kentucky’s
statewide elections. Prior to the 1995 races, the state approved changes
allowing officeholders to succeed themselves once, along with requiring
candidates for governor and lieutenant governor to run as a slate. Prior to
that, the governor and lieutenant governor were elected separately. This led to
the awkward situation of Republican Louie B. Nunn having a Democrat, Wendell
Ford, as his lieutenant governor.
Even when the governor and lieutenant governor
have been from the same party but separately elected, there’s been friction.
Wallace Wilkinson and Brereton Jones didn’t particularly get along; neither did
Jones and Paul Patton when Jones succeeded Wilkinson. And even electing the
state’s top two officials as a slate doesn’t guarantee harmony. Ernie Fletcher
and Steve Pence famously split over Fletcher’s pardoning of those targeted by
Greg Stumbo’s partisan persecution and witch hunt. And Steve Beshear relegated
Dan Mongiardo to persona non grata
status as soon as they took office, then jettisoned Mongiardo from his ticket
when “Dr. Dan” chose to run for the U.S. Senate in 2010. It was painfully
obvious that Beshear used Mongiardo solely for geographical balance on his
ticket because other eastern Kentuckians were on opposing slates.
There’s been discussion about changing this setup
to allowing gubernatorial candidates to run independently in the primary
election and selecting a running mate after the nomination is secured, much as
presidential candidates do. This effort failed the last time it was brought up
and at this time it’s not known if the idea will be resurrected in next year’s
legislative session.
This leaves one final reform that should be
instituted. Back in 1989, local officials were elected to a one-time-only
five-year term. Now, their election coincides with the presidential midterm
election for congressional seats. This eliminated an election cycle in
Kentucky, saving state and local agencies 25 percent on their election costs.
Now, we only have elections in three out of every four years. The same thing
should be done on a statewide level. The next time Kentucky chooses a governor,
he or she should be elected to a one-off five-year term and the state elections
should be pushed back a year to coincide with the presidential election. Not only
would this save money on the cost of administering elections, but it would
likely increase turnout since there seems to be more interest in presidential
elections than in statewide elections.
These are bold proposals, to be sure, but they
would serve to improve public service and voter participation in Kentucky, and
decrease costs as well. It’s time for the Bluegrass State to modernize its
state government and the way our officials are chosen.
