In my county we spend over 1 mil in property taxes every year guarding mental patients at the local ER awaiting a bed in the Department of Mental Health. Our tax rate for county general operations is only 66.5 mils so you can see how this impacts our budget. The State Legislature cuts DMH funding to look good, thereby cutting beds, but doesn’t change the law to allow mental patients awaiting a bed to roam the streets. No problem; local government will pick up the tab.

This is just one example of many. Our citizens tell us they want more deputies, paid firefighters, etc. and are willing to pay for them but we can’t give them what they want because of state controls on local spending.

Those of us who are active in the economic and workforce arena, in the HR world and/or as those who serve on ED and WIB boards, can use all the partnership we can from the folks at the State House.

The biggest weakness is our state’s workforce. We’ve offered all the incentives, laid the infrastructure, and those have certainly helped, but those kinds of buyoffs won’t work with companies who want to produce quality products and offer value to their customers.

In manufacturing, there is a saying that the cost of quality improvement is zero - it pays for itself. When it comes to workforce development, when you consider the ability to lighten the welfare rolls and increase the number of taxpayers, real education reform and prudent investments into workforce development efforts, the cost will likewise be zero.

As McConnell points out, such efforts can pay off big dividends for this state - and they certainly beat sitting there and doing nothing.

I’m sure BIN and others will throw bricks shortly, but I appreciate you taking the time to do this series of interviews. Keep it up.