ILLEGAL DRUG TAX PROPOSAL VIOLATES CONSTITUTION

ILLEGAL DRUG TAX PROPOSAL VIOLATES CONSTITUTION    

Your Page 1 headline article on Saturday, “Illegal drug tax proposed”, concerned a bill before our legislature that would enable seizure of any property owned by an alleged “drug dealer” if he/she had not previously purchased a tax stamp from the Kentucky Department of Revenue.

This idea should be totally opposed by Kentuckians, and all Americans, for that matter, on constitutional grounds.

It violates the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - an individual  shall not be deprived “of property without due process of law.”  There is no due process available if a suspect’s property is confiscated (stolen) by the government before a guilty verdict is handed down.

There is also a serious violation of the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “excessive fines” being imposed.  Losing all your assets because you failed to purchase a tax stamp is very excessive.

Keep in mind that a mass murderer in Kentucky will have no assets confiscated (except for the murder weapon) because it is not necessary for him to conduct business with the revenue department.

Why do we have a Constitution that is so ignored, both in spirit and in truth?

Melinda Albright  (alias for Marilyn Titschinger)
Bowling Green

New Arena: A Fantastic Folly

After receiving a mass email from the office of the governor inviting me to a rally in the Capitol Rotunda supporting a waterfront arena (vs. the Water Company site), I'd suggest we take a few steps back from the emotionally charged debate to examine the goals and premises that engendered the idea.

Concurrent with the estimated cost of the new arena project doubling from an initial $225 to $450 million, government leaders have redoubled their efforts trying to convince taxpayers that the project makes good financial sense.

Even if the arena could show a positive return over the next 30 years (which is highly doubtful), that alone doesn't justify the project. Because there may be alternative uses of the money that would bring much higher returns.

Merely investing the same amount of money in a risk-free 6% bond would yield a sum of over $3 billion on maturity. Wide-eyed consultants hired by the governor claim only $1 billion in revenues -- and more than half of that amount consists of government "funny money" (tax incentive financing and Metro guarantees). At best, there is only $400 million of real money coming in from ticket sales, sponsorships, and parking fees.

If the arena was such a great investment, why don't businessmen such as Papa John Schnatter and David Jones simply build the arena instead financing consulting studies favoring the Water Co. site? (Though I appreciate their privately financed efforts to save taxpayers $114 million.)

At risk of pointing out the obvious, let me suggest an even better plan:

Don't build a new arena at all.

We've already got one at the Fairgrounds. One we already remodeled and upgraded, complete with 24 corporate luxury boxes. That can host over 20,000 people for a basketball game.

There's only one problem that needs fixing at Freedom Hall -- the diabolically designed Ring Road. Let's save the $450 million, tear up Ring Road's confining concrete curbs, and open up all 12 gates after a game like the olden days.

When I was a child, Freedom Hall's parking lot emptied in less than 20 minutes as cars scattered like mice from a burning barn along the back streets surrounding the Fairgrounds.

Getting back home after the game is what Louisville sports fans really want, not being trapped downtown for hours, having to gorge themselves on expensive food and drink waiting for traffic to disperse. (Coincidentally, it's tax revenue from those sales that officials use to cost-justify the arena.)

City planners have never liked the chaos theory of evacuation; too many motorists making their own decisions just couldn't be right. Similarly, government planners have never liked letting free markets dictate where investment capital should flow.

Here's my plan: fire the planners. Let each of metro Louisville's families decide how they wish to spend the roughly $1,000/family saved by not building a new arena. Some might prefer a new TV to watch games at home; some might spend more on educating their children; some might choose to save their money for retirement.

Absurdity in the current debate reached its pinnacle with the assertion that UofL's recruiting efforts would be severely hampered by locating on arena at the Water Co. site -- and that UofL won't move into that arena if located there.

I might point out that one certain University plays their games in an 8,800 seat arena built in 1940, yet reaches the final four of the NCAA tourney almost perennially. Is it just coincidence those boys in Durham are also considered a cut above us in the brains department?

Central planners generally don't solve problems; they create them. And it seems every new solution always costs more than the previous one. Ring Road is a good example of what government generally gives us in an attempt to make the world orderly: more expense, more trouble, less freedom. We brought our government into existence to guarantee the rule of law -- not to build fancy sports arenas.

Grand visions of the future bring me telling images of the past. I see the ruins of a massive, crumbling Coliseum where ancient gladiators once fought. I see pompous white robed senators and a local politician declaring himself "dictator for life". I see working class citizens laboring to pay more and heavier taxes as government's reach expanded. I see the fall of the world's first great democracy as the Roman empire grew weak from excess.

Let us not suffer the same fate.

George Conrad Dick
Chairman LPKY