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ONE-ON-ONE - April
'98 by Ed G. Lane Terry McBrayer
About a year ago, you underwent heart bypass surgery. How are you feeling and what suggestions regarding health care would you make for our readers? I had open heart surgery – a quadruple bypass – in December a year ago. I feel great! My weight is 175 pounds. I exercise every day religiously, and I work 12 hours every day – six days a week at least. I am doing very well. I advise my old buddies like Joe Hall, who just came through it, what to expect. It's a fascinating kind of operation, particularly if it is successful like it was on me. I was out of the hospital in three days and back to the office after three weeks. I did not know I felt bad until I started feeling so good. I feel excellent and I am working harder than I did. I was visiting the White House when I had chest pains. I came home immediately and went into the hospital the next morning. I didn't have a heart attack, but I had three series of chest pains over a two-week period. The timing was kind of interesting, because I was talking about taking a major position in Washington. I guess someone didn't want me to do it. It's a political year and candidates are running for the Kentucky General Assembly, U.S. Congress, and local races. Please prognosticate on the following areas: Will a Republican or Democrat replace U.S. Senator Wendell Ford? That is going to be an interesting race because you have three distinctly different Democratic candidates (Scotty Baesler, Steve Henry, Charlie Owen). I think that a Democrat has a excellent opportunity of defeating (U.S. Congressman Jim) Bunning this fall. The biggest problem would be the money. Some kind of campaign election reform is needed. The richest guy should not win the race all the time. Unfortunately it's money, money, money and TV, TV, TV. Bunning is going to have $5 to 6 million and the Democratic candidate will only have $1.5 to 2 million. That's the problem. If the Democrats can overcome that money deficiency, the Democrats will win the race. Bunning is just not that popular in Kentucky. Will Democrats retain control of the Kentucky House of Representatives and a majority (if not control) of the Kentucky Senate? I think so. The Democrats will hold their own. I don't think many people are predicting significant changes in numbers for either the House or the Senate. Who will be the winners of the Republican and Democratic primaries for 6th District Congressman (Scotty) Baesler's seat? On the Republican side there is Ernie Fletcher, who I don't think even has any opposition. On the Democratic side, you have six very bright candidates running. Four are from Fayette County. So it's hard to say. They all have raised basically the same amount of money and it will be a tight race down to the wire. No one at this moment can predict who will win the Democratic primary. How important is the Blue Grass Airport to the economy of Central and Eastern Kentucky? I think the airport is vital to economic development. Without a modem airport, blue ribbon industries will not come to your community. Without a modem airport, Lexington will become a second-class community. I am concerned about it, but I don't have the answer. I am worried about the divisiveness the airport issue has created in Lexington. Lexington should not go into the next century without having addressed the airport's future very specifically. How well do you feel Lexington's mayor and Urban County Council have handled the Blue Grass Airport environmental impact study? There has been too much politics in the whole process. When I was the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, I was concerned about the lack of community leadership. Lexington's leadership used to come from First Security, Keeneland, the newspaper, and the university. Those leaders are no longer there. Lexington is now a branch office for corporate America, For example, most of our banks are now controlled out of state, as are our newspaper and local broadcast stations, with a few exceptions. Lexington has had a real drain of leadership. No longer can a bank step up and say it will put in $100,000 to fund a certain study or project. Some other folks in this community are going to have to step up and provide long-range leadership. It is one thing for the council and the mayor to do it, but you also need community participation. And the community is divided. We don't know what we want to be when we grow up. We use the NIMBY approach – "not in my back yard. I've got mine. I don't want you to get yours." A lot of people don't want to provide affordable housing in this community. Our community has become divided – seriously divided. I don't know at this moment how to bring that back. Some folks have to step up. You just can't expect the mayor or the city council or the head of the Chamber of Commerce to do it. It takes more than that. It takes the leaders of this community to make an absolute commitment to do it. Not superficially, but to take the time to do it. It is not being done at present. Do you feel moving Blue Grass Airport to a site on I-64 (east of Lexington) would boost economic development in Eastern Kentucky? Should the airport be used as an economic development tool to attract industry? I don't know whether that is a feasible concept or not. The airport would have to be close to I-75 and I-64, with easy access to both interstates. But when you do that you don't get close enough to Eastern Kentucky to do much good. Recruiting industry up in the mountains is a difficult problem. I was commissioner of commerce once and that was my main objective. That's what Governor Patton is trying to do now and it is a tough assignment. How would you rate Governor Paul Patton's job performance? I am prejudiced. I believe history will show him to be one of the very, very great governors. He has surprised many people. He is a governor who is maturing and developing in office. He works full-time, seven days a week, 12 to 15 hours a day. I am just exceptionally pleased and proud that I was able to participate in his election. We don't agree on every issue. He has an outstanding reputation nationally. Paul Patton is just an outstanding governor. What are the chances that the governor's mandatory collective bargaining legislation will be enacted by the Kentucky legislature? That is going to be a very difficult piece of life doesn't come naturally. You have to legislation to pass. Probably labor expects buy quality of life, and you have to pay the governor to be able to deliver too much. In recent years legislators have had to become far more independent and they are going to vote for their constituents. They are just going to vote their own feelings and what they are hearing back home. Whether that is pro or anti-labor, I don't think the governor can influence the legislators that much. As the governor's advisor and confidant, did you make any recommendation regarding this legislation? On that, I did not. Enabling legislation was introduced in the General Assembly to allow taxpayers to vote on raising the payroll tax, real property taxes, and hotel/motel room taxes in Fayette County in order to create a fund to purchase land development rights from horse farms in Fayette County. Do you feel this is an equitable tax program and a realistic approach to restraining owners from developing their property for residential or business uses? The bill as proposed may have a difficult time passing, but it might be the middle ground. Lexington has become almost a no-growth community and the little growth that is allowed has obstacles that are almost insurmountable. Even after Lexington's governing bodies allow an element of growth, the obstacles for developers are major. This legislation could be of some benefit, but any tax increase is going to be difficult to get passed. If this tax increase were enacted, taxes in Fayette County will be the highest of major cities around Kentucky. Do you feel high taxes would be detrimental to Lexington's overall business environment? Yes, but Lexington's quality of life is probably higher than any other area of Kentucky. And the higher quality of life doesn’t come naturally. You have to buy quality of life, and you have to pay for it. If this legislation was enacted by the taxpayers, do you see one benefit being that the urban service boundary line would be eliminated? I think it would take some pressure off of land-use concerns. Somehow Lexington has to get back to making it easier for people to do business in this community from the process standpoint. Once a matter is approved, you should be able to move quickly to commence development. Obstacles should not be put up all along the way from planning and zoning, council, staff, or any governmental agency. I have heard a number of people say how expensive it is to try to do business in this community. In essence, you have to go through the process twice. You have to go through the planning and zoning commission and then if they approve it you have to go in front of the Urban County Council for another hearing. There is a lot of micro-managing of projects that really don't need to be micro-managed. Do you have any thoughts of why the local government is opposed to building a water pipeline from Louisville to Lexington? There might be additional cost to the users of the water. One serious drought closes down Toyota, and causes mega-problems for this community. The Kentucky River is not a long-range solution to the water problem, as rapidly as this community is growing. So something has to be done. We can politic it all to death and say it is going to cost four dollars more a month, therefore it is not good for this community. We must look at the long-range benefits. An increased water supply is extremely important to the community. The pipeline is economically feasible. Otherwise, Kentucky-American Water will have to build a water purification plant that is not needed when you can buy potable water from Louisville and 100 million surplus gallons of water a day are available. Do you find it a fallacy that legislation is being proposed to raise taxes so that local government can buy the rights on farms and yet there is opposition to an increase in the water fee? Absolutely, because one of the alternatives to the pipeline is damming up the Kentucky River, which would just flood farmland. It's sort of a Catch 22. There is a proposal pending by the state highway department to do a study to construct a limited-access roadway from Richmond to Nicholasville to Versailles as a south by-pass that would increase the efficiency of the roadways and decrease the number of commuters who now drive through Fayette County to reach the interstates. A citizen's group has announced plans to protest even doing the feasibility study. What comment do you have on that? Anybody who has ridden to work on New Circle Road or Man O' War knows they are almost outdated. They are certainly over used and we have to get some of that traffic off those roads. I think it is an excellent opportunity to do that with a south by-pass. How should the money from the state's surplus funds be invested at Coldstream Research Park? We need upscale industry in this community. If investing in Coldstream helps bring it, I think it is money well spent. Lexington ran the sewer out to Coldstream five or six years ago and spent $7-8 million on it and nothing much has happened since. Investing tax dollars for truly upscale, white-collar, high-paying jobs is a good idea. McBrayer McGinnis Leslie & Kirkland PLLC is a Lexington-based law firm. Two areas in which its legal services are concentrated include lobbying for major corporations around the United States as well as work in economic development matters. In what other areas does your firm specialize? Our firm also does an extensive amount work in health care reimbursement, over-utilization, and Medicaid fraud, so that is the third area in which I feel we excel. Our firm does a lot of government relations, not only in Kentucky but in other states as well. Do you have any interest in a political office? I get asked that question a lot. I ran for governor in 1979. On reflection, I doubt that I would have been a good governor at that time. For a governor to be effective – as I believe I would be now – he or she has to develop an independence and a philosophy of government that a lot of younger candidates don't have. A lot of candidates have the zeal. The outstanding candidate is one who can blend zeal, maturity and a strong political philosophy together. Patton is one of those guys. Now I have maturity, but not the zeal to do it anymore. I don't have the energy. It is really tough to be a candidate. I don't choose to go through that. Do you have a comment on the Commonwealth Merit Scholarship Trust Fund? Get a B and go free? Education just cannot be for the wealthy. We should do whatever is necessary to get our kids educated. What is your vision for Kentucky's future? We are finally coming together and addressing our educational system in Kentucky. But educational reforms are going to take ten, 12, 15 years. There are no quick fixes. We finally have gotten our business leaders in this state concerned about our educational system and our training programs. This is the computer age. Kentuckians have to be computer literate. We not only have to compete with Tennessee. We compete with Taiwan. We are a global economy now so we have to compete with everybody. Education is a long-range commitment and our state is on the right course. Education is our vision for the future!
Ed G. Lane is chief executive of Lane Consultants, Inc. and publisher of The Lane Report.
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Copyright 1996-98, by Kentucky Business Online, LLC. All rights reserved. Editorial content is copyright
1998, Lane Communications Group Buzzword and the Buzzword balloon are registered trademarks of Buzzword, Inc. The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
W. Terry McBrayer is the senior partner of
McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland, a law firm made up of 30 attorneys with offices
in Lexington, Frankfort and Greenup. A 1962 graduate of the University of Louisville
School of Law, McBrayer has held numerous offices in state government including state
representative, speaker pro tempore and majority leader of the Kentucky House of
Representatives, commissioner of the Kentucky Commerce Department, and chairman of the
Kentucky Board of Tax Appeals. McBrayer served as chairman of the Kentucky Democratic
Party in 1995 and was President Bill Clinton's official Kentucky representative during the
1996 presidential election. He is also the co-founder of the State Capital Law Firm Group,
a national association of 50 law firms that have extensive practices in connection with
law and regulation-making procedures and processes in each state.