Quote Originally Posted by jcb View Post
I'm saying Bevin did his share of overreaching too, but it didn't all make the papers. They ALL want that KDFWR $$$ and it kills them there's a big chunk of government they don't control.
Paxton Media Group, a large owner of many newspapers in KY, as well as News Channel 6 in Paducah, has a vendetta against Bevin or any other Republican for that matter - if Bevin was doing some kind of overreach to pull money from KDFWR, they would have totally called him out on it. I don't recall that ever being mentioned. I was really shocked that they even mentioned when Beshear tried it earlier this year, but with Lyon County Judge Executive Wade White drawing a lot of attention to it, I guess they felt somewhat obligated considering it's impact to Ballard WMA and the KY/Barkley Lake area with it's ongoing battle of Asian Carp that had just received national attention with the Modified-Unified Method test. I was a little angry when I learned that Stephen Rudy was the sponsor of the measure, as he's a Republican state rep out of Ballard County, but later learned that he's chair of Appropriations and Revenue and his name was tied to it by default.

I know you say KDWFR has a lot of money, but it's actually pretty low when compared to neighboring states. KDFWR has an annual budget of about $90 million, but states like Missouri are up around $150 million....those states have the same financial model with collecting money from license sales and boat registrations and such that totals up to roughly the same, however they get an extra kicker by getting a fixed percentage of the sales tax....I sure wish we could get that in KY! It's pretty amazing what they accomplish over in Missouri with their public land opportunities, and they have the means to create some really unique places. I'm not saying KY is bad in any way, but more funding could certainly go a long ways into enhancing what we've got, as well as create new opportunities. At least we've got the US Fish and Wildlife starting to invest more into KY to help make up the difference, the plans for the expansion of Clarks River Refuge and the Green River Refuge are some monumental projects that are slowly starting to materialize.