Survey for House District 29
For the record, I am a 72 year-old retired veteran with 30 years of service that was born and raised in Louisville with two children and three grandchildren that all reside in Louisville.
1. Do you support the legislature’s work to eliminate the individual income tax gradually as economic and revenue triggers are met? The first decrease was enacted in January of this year and cut the income tax to 4.5%. The next cut will reduce the tax to 4% in January of 2024.
__X_ Yes
____ No
____ Undecided
2. Local governments and business groups would like to let voters decide if the state constitution should be amended to allow the legislature to update how cities and counties raise revenue to compete with neighboring states. Would you support amending the constitution to do so?
____ Yes
____ No
__X_ Undecided
3. Do you support legislation that sets additional work requirements for people receiving public assistance through welfare programs?
__X_ Yes
____ No
____ Undecided
4. Approximately one in seven Kentuckians between the ages of 17 and 24 are not in school or working. What do you believe is preventing these young adults from entering the workforce?
__X_ Desire to Work
____ Education
____ Substance Abuse
____ Transportation
____ Vaccine Mandates
____ Fear of Losing Government Benefits
____ Other: ________________________
5. Do you believe Kentucky schools are safe for children?
____ Extremely Safe
__X_ Somewhat Safe
____ No Opinion
____ Somewhat Unsafe
____ Extremely Unsafe
____ Undecided
6. Would you support amending the Kentucky Constitution to allow parents more flexibility in determining what school their child attends?
__X_ Yes
____ No
____ Undecided
7. How concerned are you about the cost of utilities?
____ Very Concerned
__X_ Somewhat Concerned
____ Not Concerned
8. Do you support early voting, the opportunity to vote before election day?
__X_ Yes
____ No
____ Undecided
9. Are you concerned about crime?
__X_ Yes
____ No
____ Undecided
Response to Question 5.
I believe JCPS schools are somewhat safe. I base this on what I see on the news and what I hear from my granddaughter who is a sophomore in a JCPS school. There have been some incidents at her school, but she is not afraid to go to school; she does not fear for her safety. Regardless, I feel a School Safety Officer should be at every school. There are incidents of mass shooters bypassing schools that have SRO’s or high levels of security for schools that do not. It’s a known fact mass shooters choose Gun Free Zones to attack. Mass shootings do not stop until the arrival and intervention of a good guy with a gun.
I would also support, under proper restrictions, arming schoolteachers. I was surprised to learn that Utah has authorized schoolteachers to be armed for over 20 years. During that time they have had only one incident of an accidental discharge. No one was injured. It’s not necessary to arm every teacher in the building but knowing that ANY employee in the building could be armed would make a shooter think twice.
Utah Allows Arming School Teachers
Response to Question 6.
Parents should be allowed to choose a school for the children that produces the best results. My granddaughter attended the Head Start Program, Pre-K, Kindergarten, and first grade at her local JCPS school. Because of the time we spent with her in her pre-school years, she was advanced for her age. In Kindergarten, she was practically the teacher’s aide, helping the kids that were having difficulties. She enjoyed playing teacher but learned nothing new. In the first grade, her teacher immediately noticed she was advanced in math well above the first-grade level and arranged for her to do math classes with a second-grade class. Within a few weeks it was decided at her current education level, she was a better fit in the second-grade class. She would report to her first-grade class for attendance then go to the second-grade class for the rest of the day. She did this for the remainder of the year. She did not get credit for completing the second grade and was expected to repeat the second grade as if she failed. The next year we put her in a Catholic school where she remained until she completed the 8th grade. We could not afford Catholic high school, so she went back to local public school. She is maintaining good grades, but we are not happy with the education she is receiving.
Response to Question 8.
I support early voting the way Kentucky is doing it. As I understand it, the Friday and Saturday before election day Tuesday are open for early voting. I believe this is done to reduce lines on election day Tuesday. In-person voting is fast. I have not had to stand in line to vote for years.
I do not support polls being open for weeks before election day for early voting. Also not a fan of mail-in voting. Mail-in voting should be very limited mainly to those that physically cannot make it to the polls or will be out of town on election day. I believe Kentucky has one of the most secure voting systems in all the country.
My main concerns about the voting process are how the votes are counted. I don’t know that Kentucky has any issues in this area, but I do know that after the 2020 election, many States election statistics showed that they counted many more votes than the number of people that signed in to vote. Research by the Center for Election Integrity found that in Michigan, over 280,000 more votes were counted than the number of people that signed in to vote. It’s been noted in several elections that a precinct in Detroit routinely has more votes cast than the number of people registered to vote in that precinct.
My other concern is when these discrepancies appear, they cannot be resolved by recounts or reviewing the videos of the vote counting process. They cannot be resolved because in many States the ballots, records and videos have been destroyed which violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that requires all documents related to Federal elections be maintained for 22 months after the election. I don’t understand why this hasn’t been addressed. I don’t know if this is a problem in Kentucky.
National Review of Retaining Election Records from 2020 Election
Response to Question 9.
I am concerned about crime. I feel the Fern Creek area where I live is relatively safe. However, since I have lived here, my neighbor’s house was broken into during a daylight burglary, several residents had things pilfered from their unlocked vehicles late one night and recently there have been several car-jackings in the Fern Creek area. Because this section of Fairmount Road is relatively secluded, heavily wooded and is a dead end, a lot of illegal dumping goes on back here and animals are often abandoned. That’s how I ended up with two cats.
Crime. Where to start. First off, what is most important to me. The Supreme Court and numerous Federal and State courts have ruled many times that “It is well-settled fact of American law that the police have no legal duty to protect any individual citizen from crime”. My favorite quote from a Supreme Court case that exemplifies the paradox in the current thinking on police providing individual protection for crime is from the New York Supreme Court case of Riss vs. City of New York:
“What makes the City’s position particularly difficult to understand is that, in conformity to the dictates of the law, Linda did not carry any weapon for self-defense. Thus by a rather bitter irony she was required to rely for protection on the City of NY which now denies all responsibility to her.” Link to case below. Quote is from paragraph 14.
I’m not saying police departments don’t do their best to protect us, just if they fail, they are not responsible. When the Supreme Court says, “the police have no legal duty to protect any individual citizen from crime”, that would imply to me it’s the individual’s responsibility to protect themselves and their family. If this is the case, why do Federal and many State governments (not Kentucky thank God) spend so much effort making it difficult for citizens to own the best device for self-protection, namely a firearm?
If protection from crime is an individual’s responsibility, the government should be helping citizens, not making it more difficult. Many States (not Kentucky) require completion of eight to 16 hours of firearms training before you can even own a firearm. At one time in Washington D.C. the process to own a gun that will be kept solely in your home for protection had 22 steps, can take up to four months and costs $496.
The 22 Step, 4 Month Process to Own a Gun in DC
Instead of putting an additional burden and expense on an individual that is attempting to take advantage of a Right guaranteed by the Constitution, why don’t local governments provide FREE firearms training to anyone who desires it?
All too often we hear about firearms only in a negative sense, like after they’ve been used in a crime. We rarely hear about the many incidents when they prevent a crime, often without being fired. I’ve asked many people how the woman in this incident would have been better off if she was unarmed:
Dinah Burns was walking her dog on a path near an elementary school when two men approached her with a baseball bat. One of the men said, “You’re coming with us.” Burns asked what they wanted as she reached into her pocket. When the man with the baseball bat came toward her and raised the bat aggressively, Burns pulled out the firearm she carried. She pointed the gun at them and said, “I have this and I’m not afraid to use it.” Both assailants backed off immediately and fled the scene. Burns and her dog were left unharmed, and no shots were fired. “I’m very thankful it turned out the way it did and hope it doesn’t happen again, but I will be prepared, “Burns said. (The Daily Caller, Lancaster, Ohio, 8/30/14)
I’m glad I live in Kentucky where our interpretation of the Second Amendment is what I believe is the correct interpretation. My Company Commander when I was at Fort Knox was originally from California. He returned there after he left military service. After ten years he’d had enough of the insane State politics and moved back to Kentucky. After he got settled, I took him to Kentucky Gun Company to buy his first gun as a Kentucky resident. He could not believe that not only was he allowed to walk out the door with it, instead of coming back in ten days to pick it up, but that he could walk out to his car, put the pistol in a holster and carry it concealed thanks to Kentucky’s Constitutional Carry Law. My thoughts on Constitutional Carry, it leveled the playing field between honest citizens and criminals who do not apply for a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
My only other concern about firearms restrictions is the discussion locally about cities or counties being able to enact their own firearms laws. This would be a disaster waiting to happen. A Mount Washington (Bullitt County) resident decides to drive up Bardstown Road to the Walmart in Fern Creek (Jefferson County). He’s legally carrying a concealed weapon. But when he walks into the Walmart which the local County Government has declared a Gun Free Zone, he becomes a felon. Local gun laws are a bad idea. Kentucky current currently has firearms preemption provisions forbidding local municipalities from passing their own firearms laws. I hope this does not change.
Simply stated, most laws consist of two parts, a limit or restriction (speed limit on the freeway is 65 MPH) and a punishment for violating the limit or restriction ($100 fine for going 10 MPH over limit). If the fine was minimal, like a $1 fine or the law was not enforced, many people would not obey it. I see this every day on the Snyder Freeway. Because of shortage in LMPD staffing, traffic enforcement is often non-existent. The result at certain times, driving the Freeway is like being in a NASCAR race. And I don’t like it, especially now that my 16-year-old granddaughter will soon be getting her driver’s license.
The point is non-enforcement of laws encourages non-compliance. Fortunately, Kentucky is nowhere near the non-enforcement level that many States are, and I hope we never get that way. LMPD does everything they can to solve crimes. Criminals are caught and remain in jail so they can’t commit additional crimes or required to put up an appropriate amount of bail to ensure they appear in court. This is not true in many cities around the country and the result is skyrocketing crime rates. I hope Kentucky doesn’t allow local governments to go down this road.
Governments try to solve problems by continually passing more and more laws. Murder is against the law. Assault with a deadly weapon is against the law. Brandishing a firearm is against the law. Additional firearms laws that try to prevent these crimes are only obeyed by the law-abiding citizen. Lawbreakers who have no problem shooting you in the face will not obey a law on what type of weapon they can carry, where they can carry it, how many rounds it holds and on and on. But these laws will reduce the ability of the law-abiding citizens to protect themselves.