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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

E. Ky. leaders consider a severance-tax trust fund, are warned that small-county rivalries must end

Eastern Kentucky leaders trying to get the region's coal-based economy out of a depression seemed interested in ideas from the Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota, presented yesterday to a crowd of 1,500 people at an event in Pikeville convened by Kentucky's Democratic governor and the region's Republican congressman. Coverage from the Lexington Herald-Leader is here.

But as they considered the idea of setting aside part of the state's coal severance tax revenue in a trust fund, and using only the interest for current projects, as the Iron Range does, some wondered if the idea was too late, given the parlous fortunes of the Central Appalachian coal industry. "It probably should have been done 20 or 30 years ago," state Sen. Robin Webb, D-Grayson, told Lexington's WVLK-AM Tuesday.

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear said at a news conference that the next state budget will be so tight, "we can't be fooling" with the current 50-50 split of severance-tax revenue between the state and the region, but he told Bill Goodman of Kentucky Educational Television that the idea of a regional economic planning fund like the one in Minnesota "ought to be on the table" for the future.

The conference moderator, Rural Policy Research Institute Director Charles Fluharty warned summit attendees were that they needed to get over rivalries among counties in Eastern Kentucky, where many counties are small. "These counties and towns are competitive," U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, told Goodman. "It's hard to weld together a regional organization because many of those counties have some animosities from 80 years ago."

Just before the conference began, former Gov. Paul Patton of Pikeville told The Rural Blog that the effort would require a continued commitment by Beshear, who must leave office in 2015, and Rogers, who must give up his House Appropriations Committee chairmanship at the end of 2016. "the congressman and I are committed to the long haul," Beshear said. "We're also committed to some big, broad issues." For coverage from Ronnie Ellis of Community Newspaper Holdings, which has 10 papers in Appalachian Kentucky, click here. For his severance-tax story, go here.

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