The Bluegrass and Beyond

Kentucky doesn’t just produce writers; it celebrates them.

The biggest annual celebration is Saturday, when about 200 writers — 150 of whom are Kentuckians — will gather at the Frankfort Convention Center for the 28th annual Kentucky Book Fair.

Authors will sit behind long rows of tables so thousands of readers can stop by, meet them, buy their books and get their autographs.

This year’s lineup includes pop ular Kentucky writers Silas House, Erik Reece, Bobbie Ann Mason, Ed McClanahan, Thomas Parrish, Richard Taylor and David Dick.

Also there will be retired Courier-Journal columnist Byron Crawford, who has put together a 30-year collection of his work in Kentucky Footnotes, and journalist Leslie Guttman of Lexington, who writes about a year in the life of a race horse hospital in Equine ER.

Coach Rich Brooks and co-author Tom Leach will sign their book, Rich Tradition: How Rich Brooks Revived the Football Fortunes of the Kentucky Wildcats.

And retired Keeneland chairman Ted Bassett will autograph his memoir.

National authors at the fair will include George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, who has written a book about Abraham Lincoln.

“I’m always so proud to live in a state that supports literature the way Kentucky does, and the Kentucky Book Fair is real proof of that,” said House, who will sign his new novel, Eli the Good.

“Everywhere I go, all over the country, people assume that Kentuckians are illiterate,” House said. “And I always take that as an opportunity to correct them and tell them about our long literary history and how great the support for writers is in our state.”

When you think about that tradition and support, it makes perfect sense. Writing is about telling stories, and there are few things Kentuckians love more than a good story — and storyteller.

Jesse Stuart and me at his home, summer 1963. Photo by Marion Eblen

I’m the son of a school librarian and a bookstore manager. Writers, especially Kentucky writers, enjoyed celebrity status in our home. My first memorable encounter with that celebrity came the summer I turned 5, when my mother’s parents came up from far Western Kentucky for a visit.

My grandparents were Jesse Stuart fans and wanted to see the Greenup County he wrote about. While my father was at work one day, my mother took us to Greenup, thinking we could drive past Stuart’s home. What she didn’t know was that the narrow gravel road ended at his home.

It didn’t look as if anyone was home, so before she turned the car around, my grandparents urged her to look in the window beside the front door. When she did, Stuart looked back. Then he opened the door and invited us in to visit.

I had just learned to do somersaults, and, much to my mother’s horror, Stuart encouraged me to practice on the braided rug in his living room. I was barefoot, so when he took us to see the cabin where he wrote, he carried me out there, giving my mother a Kodak moment.

Writers such as Stuart and James Still found rich material in the people and places of Eastern Kentucky, just as Mason has explored the land and psyche of her native Jackson Purchase region, in far Western Kentucky.

I asked Mason last week about the importance of Kentucky writers, past and future. As you might expect, her response was well worth reading:

“Kentuckians have been confused about our identity, who we are and how others see us, what we have here and what there is in the larger world. Sometimes we feel smugly superior, sometimes inferior. Kentucky writers have always walked a tightrope between Kentucky and the Outside.

“Now even though the boundary lines are easing, and Kentucky is part of the wider mainstream, our writers can continue to lead the way on the most critical issues of our time, because we can write firsthand with passion and with historical perspective about what is happening to the land and its people. Our land of contrasts is an example and a warning to the rest of the world.”

Our plan was to ride Kentucky from top to bottom, but Mother Nature had other plans.

Storms on Friday forced organizers of the Governor’s Autumn Bicycle Ride Across Kentucky to cancel the first day’s journey — 60 miles from the Ohio River at Carrollton to Frankfort.

A few brave souls did it anyway. “We came to ride, so we rode,” said John O’Cull, a Vanceburg dentist. He and three buddies arrived in Frankfort soaking wet.

The other 65 of us started Saturday morning from the Grand Theatre in downtown Frankfort. The annual ride began in 2004 to raise money for the Grand’s restoration. This year, it became part of Gov. Steve Beshear’s “adventure tourism” initiative.

We spent Saturday night at a church camp near Campbellsville, where a truck had ferried our luggage. We left from there Sunday morning and finished the ride by dipping our wheels in Dale Hollow Lake on the Tennessee line.

Saturday’s ride was 90 miles or so; Sunday’s was 70 or so. I say “or so” because some of us missed a couple of the orange Gs that had been spray-painted on the road to mark turns, so we unintentionally enjoyed a few extra miles of Kentucky scenery.

We avoided big highways whenever possible. Many roads we traveled barely rated mention on a map.

The rain stopped early Saturday, but most of the weekend was cloudy, cold and breezy.

I never know how to dress when biking this time of year. I was burning up in a light fleece jacket as we climbed a big hill Sunday on Little Cake Road in Adair County, but I felt good a couple of miles later as we passed Bearwallow Cemetery. Then I was cold as we flew down a hill on Bull Run Lane.

Only two hills got me off my bike: One was Saturday, too soon after a delicious lunch of fried chicken, corn and apples that I wanted to keep. The other was a steep, milelong climb Sunday. I made it three-fourths of the way up, but I had to stop long enough to get my heart out of my throat so I could resume pedaling.

I enjoy the camaraderie of riding with old friends and making new ones. I also like the challenge of going from place to place under my own power. Bicycle touring is like hiking, only the scenery changes faster. By the end of a long ride, my legs are burning and my butt is getting numb, but I feel as if I’ve accomplished something.

Kentucky always seems more beautiful when viewed from a bicycle. There’s nothing between you and the passing landscape. The only noise is your own heavy breathing as you go uphill and the smooth spin of your freewheel as you go down.

After Sunday brunch at Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, we saw a chapel designed by architect E. Fay Jones, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s a piece of world-class modern architecture that you don’t expect to find in small-town Kentucky.

Most of the ride’s sights were more subtle, and 15 miles an hour was slow enough to study them.

Tire swings hung from front-yard trees, and wood stoves were getting back to work. There was a hint of smoke in the air, and long stacks of split logs waiting to be devoured.

Golden tobacco hung from barn rafters. Amish buggies sat parked in sheds. Pumpkins were arranged in yards, and Halloween ghosts made of white trash bags dangled from trees and porches.

Morning mist blanketed still-green pastures and fading fields of cornstalks. Red sumac and yellow walnut trees stood waiting for the rest of the forest to catch up.

Old farmers and children called out and waved. Dairy cows stood and stared. Dogs watched, too, or gave chase, depending on their age, temperament and how many cyclists they had already gone after.

Riding back roads makes you realize how much of this state is made up of small farms, modest rural homes and crossroads communities barely big enough to support a store or church.

As you roll quietly from one little town to the next, there’s so much to see. Then your burning legs remind you that there’s a hill coming up and, beyond it, another colorful piece in the patchwork that is Kentucky.

FRANKFORT — Margaret Robinson Robertson lived in the Old Governor’s Mansion in the early 1840s, when son-in-law Robert Letcher was the governor. Legend has it that her ghost appears whenever evil befalls the house.

The way the place looks now, don’t expect to see her any time soon.

The 211-year-old mansion has just undergone a privately financed $1.5 million face lift so it can take on a new role as the state’s guest house and official entertainment space for the governor.

The magnificent renovation was a statewide, all-volunteer effort involving more than 300 people, including designers, decorators, contractors and donors who each adopted small parts of the mansion.

The renovation will be unveiled later this month with a series of big-ticket events, proceeds from which will benefit the Kentucky Executive Mansions Foundation and Kentucky Equine Humane Center. The home will then be open for $10 public tours Sept. 19 to Oct. 3.

“We wanted the house to be a welcoming spot for people who come to Kentucky,” said David Buchta, state curator and director of the Division of Historic Properties. His office oversaw the renovation with the mansions foundation and Kentucky Historic Properties Advisory Commission.

“It’s a great shrine to Kentucky’s history,” said Steve Collins, chairman of the commission and son of former Gov. Martha Layne Collins.

The home was first occupied in 1798, two years before the White House. For many years, it was the nation’s oldest executive residence.

The mansion housed 33 Kentucky governors until 1914, when the current governor’s mansion was built beside the “new” Capitol. From 1956 to 2002, the old mansion housed 10 lieutenant governors.

Eight U.S. presidents have visited the mansion, from James Monroe to Bill Clinton, as well as such notables as Henry Clay, Aaron Burr and William Jennings Bryan.

“There’s no other house in Kentucky that has been used like this one — that has the stories and history and reputation,” said Collins, a Shelbyville lawyer and funeral director.

The General Assembly put up money to build the governor’s mansion in 1795 after the state’s first governor, Isaac Shelby, convinced lawmakers that a rented log cabin just wouldn’t do. It was completed in 1798.

Although the mansion’s federal-style exterior was rather plain, it was called the Palace when Shelby’s successor, James Garrard, became its first occupant. It was the first home in Frankfort with carpet. A crowd gathered when the city’s first piano was delivered to its parlor.

Two men who helped build the house later lived there: Thomas Metcalfe, a stonemason who helped lay the foundation, was governor from 1828 to 1832; and Letcher, who helped lay the Flemish-bond brick, was governor from 1840 to 1844.

The house hasn’t been occupied since 2002, when then-Lt. Gov. Steve Henry moved out to make way for a renovation. Last year, the idea emerged to turn the home into a state guest house, like Blair House in Washington.

(Francis Preston Blair, by the way, was a Frankfort journalist who moved to the nation’s capital in 1830. Seven years later, he took up residence in the Pennsylvania Avenue house that now bears his name.)

First lady Jane Beshear, former first lady Phyllis George and Meg Jewett, owner of the L.V. Harkness & Co. gift shop in Lexington, led the renovation effort. They and others recruited volunteers and donors from all over.

Longwood Antique Woods of Lexington donated flooring for the downstairs powder room. The wood came from the Lexington barn of 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral.

Louisville artist Sandy Kimura donated nine weeks of her time to paint a mural around the main hall in the style of early 19th-century Zuber wallpaper. It incorporates Kentucky scenes, such as Daniel Boone looking across the Cumberland Gap and the gentlemen on the state seal shaking hands, for which Buchta and Collins posed in period wigs.

“I’m going to get it out and wear it to some of the events,” Collins joked.

The house now contains a treasure trove of Kentucky furniture and art. There’s a rare 1815 cherry Sheraton sideboard in the dining room, thought to be the work of a Maysville cabinetmaker. Other items include chairs from Henry Clay’s law office, and modern Appalachian furniture and crafts that furnish a third-floor bedroom.

Other furniture and art has been donated or is on loan from the state, the Kentucky Historical Society, the Speed Museum, the Filson Club, the Art Museum at the University of Kentucky, the Rebecca and Jay Rayburn Collection and several individuals.

Recognizable to many Kentuckians will be four original paintings by Paul Sawyier, whose Kentucky landscapes from a century ago remain popular as prints.

“Every room has something significant,” Buchta said. “Without the generosity of a lot of people, this project wouldn’t have been nearly as successful.”

As a former resident of the mansion, Collins said he is especially appreciative of all of the people who have made it a showplace.

Collins was a student at Georgetown College when his mother was elected lieutenant governor in 1979. He lived in a third-floor bedroom and remembers the mansion as a busy place that was used for many public functions.

Collins said he encountered many people in the mansion, but not the ghost of Margaret Robinson Robertson.

“We never saw her,” he said. “But we felt very safe when we lived here.”

• If you go

  Kentucky Mansion Celebration

  ■ First Ladies’ Luncheon, noon, Sept. 15, $110.

  ■ Brunch in the Garden with Jon Carloftis, 11 a.m. Sept. 16, $110.

  ■ Governor’s Barbecue & Unbridled Spirits, 7 p.m. Sept. 17, $210.

  ■ Preview Gala, 7 p.m. Sept. 18, $300.

  ■ Public tours, Sept. 19-Oct. 3. $10.

  For tickets and more information, go to www.kymansioncelebration.org or call (502) 226-6440.

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FRANKFORT—These guys don’t look like rock stars at first glance.

Or second glance. Or third.

Yet, they travel the world making public appearances, posing for photographs and signing autographs, usually on bottles of Kentucky’s best bourbon, some of which have their picture on the label.

This is officially Bourbon Heritage Month in Kentucky. The 18th annual Bourbon Festival is Sept. 15-20 in Bardstown. The eight-distillery Kentucky Bourbon Trail is expecting a record number of tourists.

So I figured this was a good time to sit down with three of bourbon’s elder statesmen: Elmer T. Lee, 90, former plant manager at Buffalo Trace; and master distillers Jimmy Russell, 74, who has been at Wild Turkey in Lawrenceburg for 55 years, and Parker Beam, 67, who is celebrating 50 years at Heaven Hill in Bardstown.

Bourbon sales have been growing steadily for 25 years, especially in international markets such as Japan, Australia and Europe. Distillery production is up 50 percent since 1999.

Much of the credit is given to Lee, who introduced Blanton’s Single Barrel in 1984, launching the premium bourbon market that has been the industry’s growth engine. Single barrel and small batch recipes have transformed bourbon’s image from a commodity into a craft product, like fine wine.

You also can’t discount the marketing genius of Bill Samuels at Maker’s Mark in Loretto, who taught a conservative industry how to be folksy and hip at the same time.

More than 95 percent of all bourbon is made in Kentucky, creating a $3 billion industry with 3,200 direct jobs. Although some distilleries are now owned by international conglomerates, they’re almost all run and staffed by Kentuckians with old bourbon family trees.

Russell and Beam are third-generation distillers, and their sons are distillers, too. Beam’s grandfather, for whom he was named, was master distiller at the operation owned by his grandfather’s brother, Jim Beam.

I visited with Russell, Beam and Lee around a table at Stony Point, the hilltop home where Col. Albert Blanton once commanded the 110-acre distillery now called Buffalo Trace. These three friends and rivals have known each other for decades. They can, and often do, give each other a hard time—and finish each other’s sentences.

The first thing I wanted to know was how these experts drink their bourbon.

Russell sips his “neat”— or straight—from a brandy snifter so he can enjoy the aroma. In summertime, he might drink it over ice, or chill the bottle in the refrigerator. Beam also is a straight-bourbon man, although he sometimes chases it with a little water. Lee prefers his bourbon mixed with 7Up or Sprite.

Russell, whose personal brand is Russell’s Reserve, and Beam, who developed Evan Williams Single Barrel, have a drink most days, but not every day. Lee is a daily drinker, but, like the others, in moderation.

“I don’t try to drink it all every night,” Lee said. “Just one good highball.”

Does Lee, the namesake of Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel, give bourbon any credit for his living to be 90? “I give it a whole lot of credit,” he said. “It ain’t hurt a damn thing.”

Beam jumps in: “Booker Noe, my cousin (and former master distiller at Jim Beam in Clermont) always said, there’s too much living proof bourbon won’t hurt you. Look at all us old-timers.”

Decades of practice have taught these men what good bourbon tastes like, but they have a hard time describing it — and sometimes chuckle when others try. They talked of hearing bourbon aficionados wax poetically about hints of caramel, vanilla and spice — and even tree leaves, leather and tobacco.

“I’ve always said when you’ve got some of those kind of tastes in your bourbon, you’ve probably got problems,” Beam said with a laugh.

Lee then had to tell one on Russell. One time, at a tasting in Missouri, someone began equating a particular bourbon’s taste to exotic fruits and vegetables. Russell leaned over to another distiller and whispered: “I don’t know about y’all, but we don’t put any of that crap in our bourbon.”

These three seem to enjoy being international bourbon ambassadors almost as much as being distillers. They have a lot of funny stories, such as the time Lee called down to the front desk of a hotel in Japan to ask for a bucket of ice. The bellman delivered a bucket of rice.

Lee, Beam and Russell were born and raised within a few miles of the distilleries where they have spent their lives, and their most common travel stories involve how people sometimes react to their folksy charm.

“One time, at a tasting in California, I introduced myself and after I poured the product this guy kept kind of staring at me,” Beam said. “Then he pointed his finger and said, ‘You’re a real person! … I thought you were just some fictitious character they had come up with in marketing.”

Beam, Russell and Lee are real, all right. But they’re characters, too.

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State Rep. Darryl Owens has a good idea; he just hasn’t taken it far enough.

The Louisville Democrat proposed legislation last week that would end a 160-year-old requirement that Kentucky state officers, legislators and lawyers swear they haven’t been dueling.

The state constitution requires them to swear that: “… (I) have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within this State nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as second in carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person thus offending, so help me God.”

The oath never fails to elicit giggles and snickering at otherwise dignified swearing-in ceremonies, and Owens thinks that is bad for Kentucky’s image. Besides, the state’s last known duel was fought in 1867.

I’m for anything that improves Kentucky’s image. And there’s a lot about our 1891 constitution that needs changing. But this issue is worth a closer look.

The Kentucky Encyclopedia says there were 41 duels fought in the state between 1790 and 1867. Sixteen men died, but there were never any prosecutions. In an attempt to end the illegal practice, the oath has been part of Kentucky’s constitution since 1849.

When you think about it, the oath was a smart idea that worked pretty well. That’s because duels were generally fought by ambitious men, the same men who wanted to be Kentucky’s lawyers, legislators and state officials.

So instead of just deleting the archaic anti-dueling language, as Owens wants to do, let’s think about modern illegal activities that persist among the ambitious men and women who now seek to be Kentucky’s lawyers, legislators and state officials.

With that idea in mind, here’s my proposed rewrite of Section 228 of the Kentucky Constitution:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and be faithful and true to the Commonwealth of Kentucky so long as I continue a citizen thereof, and that I will faithfully execute, to the best of my ability, the office of …. according to law.

And I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that since the adoption of the present Constitution, I, being a citizen of this State, have not lined my pockets nor enhanced my political standing by any of the following means:

■ Paving constituents’ driveways and private roads; buying votes; conspiring with highway contractors to rig or award bids; arranging sweetheart deals to lease or sell my property to public agencies;

■ Accepting money, favors or jobs from lobbyists and special interests; giving government jobs or huge taxpayer-funded raises to my friends, relatives or supporters; steering public work to my businesses; doing special favors for my friends, relatives and campaign contributors; eating high on the hog at fancy restaurants or visiting strip clubs on the public tab; so help me God.

My proposed oath would narrow the field of potential lawyers, legislators and state officials, perhaps urging more honest men and women to get involved in the law and public life. Plus, can you think of a more effective system for term limits?

OK, so maybe it wouldn’t eliminate giggles and snickering at public swearing-in ceremonies. But, like the once-useful dueling ban, it would do a lot to improve Kentucky’s image — and a whole lot more.

FRANKFORT —Frank Lloyd Wright was hired in 1910 to design a Frankfort home for a Presbyterian minister he met during a trip to Europe. But it would be nearly four decades before the architect would visit his creation.

Wright was speaking in Louisville and Lexington, and he asked to be taken by the house. When the man who then lived there answered the door, the story goes, Wright walked in as if he owned the place.

During the visit, the man asked Wright, then 80, what he had in mind when he designed the display case around the top of the living room fireplace. It is the only one like it in any of the hundreds of homes Wright designed.

After a few moments, Wright replied that he couldn’t remember what he was thinking at the time, “But I’m sure it was very advanced.”

Ed Stodola, who has owned the Rev. Jesse Zeigler house at 509 Shelby Street for nine years, smiles when he tells the story. Wright was almost as famous for his outsize ego as for his innovative architecture, so Stodola thinks the story of that 1948 visit just might be true.

One thing is for sure: Of the more than 1,000 structures Wright designed during his 70-year career as perhaps America’s greatest architect, only one was built in Kentucky.

Wright is getting a lot of attention this year, the 50th anniversary his death in 1959 at age 91. It also is the 50th anniversary of Wright’s last great building, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The art museum on Fifth Avenue marked the occasion with a retrospective of Wright’s work.

Wright is best known for his “prairie” style buildings that blend into the natural landscape. His most famous creations might be the Guggenheim and Fallingwater, a house built over a waterfall in rural Pennsylvania.

Wright’s ideas about architecture had a profound influence on 20th-century home design, from the bungalows of the 1920s to the ranch-style homes of the 1950s. He pioneered and popularized open floor plans, built-in cabinets and carports. He experimented with pre-fabrication and even designed furniture and fixtures for his houses.

Stodola and his wife, Sue, are Wisconsin natives who were taught in school about native son Frank Lloyd Wright the way Kentucky children are taught about Abraham Lincoln.

Stodola, a psychologist, was living in Lexington in 2001 but doing most of his work in Frankfort. He vowed he would move to Frankfort if the Zeigler house ever came up for sale. Driving by one day, he noticed a “for sale” sign in the yard. He soon bought the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The four-bedroom Zeigler house, which like most Wright houses is of modest size and distinguished by strong horizontal lines, was built by a Frankfort contractor. The leaded-glass windows and Roman brick on the fireplace came from Wright’s studio in Chicago, Stodola said.

Zeigler, who had a wife and three children, economized in a few places: the upstairs floors are heart pine, rather than oak, and plain glass was used in rear, upstairs windows.

All but one room open to an outside terrace or deck. That and the windows help accomplish Wright’s goal of “organic” architecture that visually brings the outside environment inside.

There are many small design touches, such as the pink dogwood blooms painted on the shades of wall-mounted light fixtures in the master bedroom, echoing the pink dogwood tree that has always been in the front yard.

Although Wright’s designs are an architect’s dream, they can be a structural engineer’s nightmare. Fallingwater has been jokingly called “Fallingdown” because it has required costly repairs over the years.

Luckily for the Stodolas and the four previous owners, the Zeigler house hasn’t had many such problems. One reason could be that its roof is more steeply pitched than those of many Wright houses. It also has a basement, a rarity in a Wright house.

“This home is very livable,” Sue Stodola said. “I never feel crowded in the rooms, because they feel bigger than they really are.”

Light shines through the wavy, leaded-glass windows and reflects off the oak woodwork differently depending on the weather and season. Ed Stodola loves sitting on the back, upstairs terrace with a glass of wine during a summer rain; the drops make an interesting sound on the roof overhang.

“There’s this ongoing discovery with the house,” he said.

The Zeigler house also has another claim to fame: Woodrow Wilson slept here.

Soon after the house was built, and three years before Wilson became president, he was Zeigler’s guest while attending a National Governors Association meeting in Louisville. Wilson was then president of Princeton University and had just been elected governor of New Jersey. The two men had known each other at Princeton.

The Zeigler house has had a state historical marker out front for many years. The Stodolas added a small “private home” sign after more than a few curious sightseers knocked on their door or looked in their windows, thinking the house was a museum.

One woman came to the door and explained that she was a schoolteacher visiting Wright houses as part of a cross-country trip. As it turned out, she was from Denmark, Wis., Stodola’s tiny hometown. After a few minutes of conversation, they discovered that his mother had been her fourth-grade teacher and she now taught in her old classroom.

The Stodolas have come to accept that the occasional stranger at the door is the price you pay for living in a Frank Lloyd Wright house. His designs are so iconic, his influence on architecture so great, that it feels natural for some people to want to walk right in as if they owned the place.

There seems to be a fund-raising walk, run or bicycle ride for just about every cause, charity and disease.

So when Ed Stodola was looking for a way to raise money to restore the Grand Theatre in downtown Frankfort, the avid cyclist decided to organize a ride.

But what a ride.

The Grand Autumn Bicycle Ride Across Kentucky is a three-day trek that covers 11 counties and more than 200 miles, from the Ohio River at Carrollton to the Tennessee line at Dale Hollow Lake. Dip your wheels at each end.

In each of the past five years, the ride has attracted no more than 35 riders, but Stodola is hoping for the maximum 60 this year. For more information, go to www.gabraky.com.

So far, the GABRAKY has raised more than $68,000 for the Grand Theatre’s $5 million renovation. It has not been a lot of money in the Grand scheme, Stodola admits. But it has provided cash flow at critical times during the seven-year effort.

“The ride also helped keep the Grand efforts in the public eye,” he said, explaining that the first ride, in 2004, came when other fund-raising efforts had plateaued.

Organizers are planning the sixth ride for Oct. 9-11, with a couple of differences.

Instead of “Grand,” it’s now the “Governor’s” ride, reflecting its designation as the Beshear administration’s first Kentucky Adventure Tourism bike tour. Also, the theater’s renovation is almost finished. An open house is planned Aug. 7.

The Grand on St. Clair Mall was built about 1910 as a small vaudeville house and enlarged as a movie theater in the 1940s. It closed in 1966, and the building was put to other uses, from a dollar store to an auction house.

There was an effort to restore the Grand in 1983, but it failed. Then, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a group of Frankfort citizens began looking for a project to build community spirit. They remembered the Grand.

Since then, several other restoration projects have begun in downtown Frankfort, which has many beautiful old buildings. “I think it’s going to have a transformational effect,” Stodola said.

The renovated Grand will show movies, host concerts and be a venue for small stage shows. None of its 420 seats is more than 50 feet from the stage.

“We’re going to market it as Kentucky’s most intimate performance venue,” said Bill Cull, chairman of the non-profit Save the Grand Inc., which owns the building and is managing the restoration.

Cull and Stodola gave me a tour of the theater last week as workmen were installing seats and putting on other finishing touches. Sections of original plaster from the 1910 vaudeville house and 1940s theater have been preserved as part of a beautiful, modern theater that includes a small art gallery upstairs.

A mid-1800s house that shared a wall with the theater also has been restored. It will be used for administrative offices and performers’ dressing rooms.

The project was put together with a patchwork of government money, grants, corporate and private donations, volunteer labor and, of course, money raised from the bicycle ride.

A concert by R&B groups The Platters and The Coasters is planned for the theater’s grand opening on Sept. 25. Other bookings so far include the New York Theatre Ballet’s production of Sleeping Beauty.

Singer John Sebastian will perform at the theater during the Alltech Fortnight Festival on the first night of this year’s GABRAKY. And when the cyclists ride south the next morning, they can take a little pride in having helped the Grand’s marquee light up the Frankfort sky again.

I’ve had several seriously ill friends and relatives suffer through chemotherapy. They do it because it is a short-term poison that often results in a long-term cure.

With the General Assembly now meeting in special session, I can’t help but wonder if the proposal to allow slot machines at horse-racing tracks doesn’t amount to chemotherapy in reverse: a short-term cure that could turn out to be long-term poison.

It’s easy to dismiss some of the arguments for slot machines, such as balancing the state budget and funding new school buildings. Expanded gambling won’t pay for state government and education in the long run any more than it has in other states.

The proper way to do that is a modern tax system that raises enough money so Kentucky can invest in creating a successful 21st century economy and society. The only way to create that modern tax system is for citizens and politicians to be honest with themselves and one another, and make some tough choices.

The problem I have with gambling as a substitute for honest taxation is that it’s based on the myth of easy money.

Sure, slot machines at racetracks would prompt some Kentucky gamblers to lose their money here rather than in other states. It also might attract some out-of-state gamblers.

But a lot of that money would go into the pockets of gambling interests, soak up discretionary income now spent elsewhere in Kentucky’s economy and create more social costs. If slot machines at racetracks were a panacea, the states that now have them wouldn’t be struggling with many of the same problems Kentucky faces.

The only reason to even consider slot machines, in my view, is to preserve Kentucky’s horse industry. It is one of Kentucky’s claims to fame and a vital piece of an agricultural economy that protects irreplaceable rural land from development.

As the Herald-Leader’s John Cheves reported last Sunday and Monday, the horse industry’s arguments for slot machines may be overstated, but the problems are real. Kentucky’s race purses and breeder incentives are no longer competitive with other states. No business can survive if it’s not competitive.

While the horse industry’s public face may be the wealthy owners of Central Kentucky’s showplace farms, its heart and soul are the small breeders and owners, merchants, farriers, veterinarians and others who make their living in the industry. They will follow the money, and who can blame them?

For Kentucky’s horse industry to be healthy, racing and breeding must be economically competitive. Other states have become more competitive with money generated by expanded gambling. That might be a quick cure for Kentucky’s horse industry, but could it be a long-term poison?

The danger, as Cheves’ articles pointed out, is that slot machines at racetracks can go from subsidizing horse racing to crowding it out. Kentucky’s long-term economic interests aren’t tied to the owners of racetracks so much as to the horse breeders, owners and workers who depend on them.

Horse racing thrived during the 20th century because it was the only way many people could gamble. That’s no longer the case. There are now many quicker, cheaper and more accessible ways to gamble — and, it seems, new ones are being invented every day.

The only way for horse racing to survive is for the industry to build a fan base around the enjoyment of watching and wagering on competition among equine athletes.

Putting slot machines at racetracks would clearly be in the best short-term interests of both state government and the horse industry. But what about the long term? That’s the real issue the General Assembly must face.

In the long run, will slot machines improve Kentucky’s economy and quality of life or detract from it? Will they help save the horse industry or hasten its demise?

At age 25, Ben Sollee has gained a national following with his heartfelt songs, his soulful voice and his unconventional cello technique.

Sollee can do amazing, unexpected things with a cello. He’s doing one this week, and it also involves a bicycle.

“I was looking for something a little bit different in touring,” he said. “I had gotten in this habit of flying to one side of the country and flying back for one gig, then hopping in the car and driving six hours for another gig. The pace was inhuman. I wasn’t really feeling the places I was at anymore.”

Sollee is feeling those places this week.

Oh, is he feeling them.

Last Wednesday, Sollee and two friends began riding bicycles from his Lexington home to the annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festval at Manchester, Tenn., where he will perform this weekend.

They rode from Lexington to Frankfort in a steady rain, and Sollee gave a concert when they arrived. The next morning, they officially began the 330-mile Pedaling Against Poverty Tour.

Each day since then, the trio has ridden about 50 miles a day, stopping to play concerts in Danville, Berea, Somerset and Cookeville, Tenn. Another show is planned near McMinnville, Tenn., on Wednesday. Then they ride to Bonnaroo.

In addition to making a statement about environmentally friendly music touring, Sollee said the trip is intended to promote the anti-poverty charity Oxfam America and Xtracycle, the California company that made the bikes he and Marty Benson are riding.

The stretch bicycles have 24 gears, disc brakes and a cargo platform in back. Sollee has his cello case strapped to one side. His gear is strapped to the other side for balance.

Benson is videotaping each day’s progress and posting it on Xtracycle’s Web site.  Benson’s sister, Katie, is with them on a regular road bike.

“Considering I hadn’t really ridden much before this tour, it’s going great,” Sollee said Monday. As he talked on his cell phone, Sollee pedaled Ky. 90 through Wayne County. His voice was occasionally drowned out by the swoosh of a passing truck.

“We had a really hard day going from Berea to Somerset … hauling about 60 pounds of gear up all those big hills,” Sollee said. “Heading into Somerset I didn’t think I was going to make it. We pulled in eight minutes before show time.”

There have been a few minor breakdowns and a couple of wrecks without injuries. Sollee ran off the road near Harrodsburg while trying to ring a bell on the back of Benson’s Xtracycle. It’s a game: Whoever rings the other’s bell the most pays for dinner at the end of the trip.

“Marty rang my bell today and wrecked his bike,” Sollee said. “It was sweet revenge.”

Sollee said he has learned several things on the ride, such as how roads are graded, how diet influences stamina and the importance of pacing yourself. And he has learned it is hard to draw a crowd at small-town concert venues.

Usually, Sollee is good at drawing crowds. National Public Radio named him one of the top 10 “unknown artists of the year” in 2007. He became a lot better known last year with two CDs, If You’re Gonna Lead My Country and Learning to Bend.

He performed on ABC-TV’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! in March and was among those who played at Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday concert last month in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Sollee was the featured performer at February’s “I Love Mountains” rally in Frankfort. His next project is a CD with Daniel Martin Moore to raise awareness about mountaintop removal coal mining.

It is an impressive resume for a native Lexingtonian who not that long ago was studying at Yates Elementary, Winburn Middle, Lafayette High and the University of Louisville school of music.

When I called again Tuesday afternoon, Sollee had 45 miles under his belt for the day and was eight miles from Cookeville.

“We’re within spitting distance,” he said. “We made really good time today.”
With Bonnaroo only two days and about 75 miles away, Sollee seemed to have gotten a second wind.

It’s hard to know if Sollees’ Bonnaroo performances will be as high-energy as usual. Life on the road is hard on a musician, especially when he has to pedal his cello up all of those big hills.

Check out Marty Benson’s daily videos from the trip:

I sat through a long and painful presentation Thursday at a meeting of the General Assembly’s Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue.

It reminded me of a bad trip to a dentist, complete with noise and vibration from workmen drilling into a nearby wall in Frankfort’s Capitol Annex.

The presentation itself was excellent, and it was obvious that Mary Lassiter is a smart and capable state budget director. What made it painful was Lassiter’s step-by-step outline of Kentucky’s financial mess — and the clear but unspoken message that it won’t improve much until lawmakers enact real tax reform.

The national economic recession isn’t the problem, although it has turned state government’s steadily rising river of red ink into a holler-washing flood.

The problem is that Kentucky is trying to operate a 21st century state on a tax system designed for a mid-20th century economy. It hasn’t worked for years, and everyone knows it.

“Clearly we’re going to have to do something,” said Rep. Jesse Crenshaw, a Lexington Democrat, echoing several others lawmakers’ comments. “We can’t come back here every six months or every year without addressing the larger problem.”

Here’s the basic issue: Kentucky has an income tax, but its limited range reflects 1950s income levels. That means low-income people pay too much and high-income people pay too little. Kentucky has a sales tax, but it covers mostly goods and not services, the fastest-growing part of the economy.

The problem and possible solutions have been studied to death for years. But governors and legislators have never found the political courage for anything but quick fixes that ignore the larger issues.

Fortunately, the last half-hour of the meeting was devoted to lawmakers’ first real discussion of two good tax-reform proposals. One comes from Rep. Jim Wayne, a Louisville Democrat, and the other from Rep. Bill Farmer, a Lexington Republican.

The two plans are different in philosophy and approach. But they both meet the four tests of a good tax system: being fair, equitable, efficient and sufficient to meet Kentucky’s needs.

Neither plan will be considered during this month’s emergency special session, which will be yet another quick-fix exercise. But maybe, just maybe, they will set the stage for real tax reform when the General Assembly begins its next regular session in January.

Wayne’s plan would update the income tax range to make it fairer. He would raise the tax on people earning more than $75,000, while providing a 15 percent earned income tax credit for many poorer people.

Wayne’s plan also would tax services used mainly by rich people — such as country club dues, aircraft leasing and limousine rental. He also would restore the “death” tax on estates worth more than $1 million.

Farmer’s plan would eliminate personal and company income taxes and cut the sales tax rate from 6 percent to 5.5 percent. It would extend the sales tax to most personal and professional services, including commercial real estate leases. But there would be no sales tax on goods and services that meet basic human needs, such as groceries, housing and medical care.

While I admire the social justice idealism behind Wayne’s plan, I think Farmer’s approach would be better for Kentucky’s future, for many reasons.

Farmer’s plan makes Kentucky more economically competitive with other states. It encourages people to make money and save money. It encourages businesses and financially successful people to come here and stay here, increasing the amount of money that will be spent on taxable goods and services.

Farmer’s plan would be easy for the public to understand. It also would be an easy, cheap and effective way for the state to collect revenue. As the economy grows, tax revenues would grow with it.

It would be important that lawmakers keep such a sales-tax system “pure” — in other words, not exempt some products and services for reasons other than to protect poor people. Otherwise, the special-interest lobbyists will have a field day and the system won’t be fair.

Also, it would be important to remove many existing state taxes and fees that unfairly target — or exempt — certain businesses, products and people.

Another attraction of Farmer’s plan is that, politically, it would seem to stand a better chance of passage. That’s because it would allow politicians to brag that they eliminated income taxes and cut the sales tax rate, too.

Kentucky’s tax system doesn’t need another bandage; it needs major surgery to make this state the healthy, prosperous place Kentuckians deserve. Lawmakers have two realistic approaches from which to choose, and the timing couldn’t be more urgent.

This could be huge.

In fact, an industry consortium’s selection of Kentucky to become the research, development and manufacturing center for the next generation of high-tech automobile batteries could be the most important news for this state’s economy in a generation.

At the announcement Monday in Frankfort, Gov. Steve Beshear and other officials compared it to Toyota’s decision more than two decades ago to base its U.S. operations in Kentucky.

The comparison seems appropriate. Maybe even be an understatement.

Toyota did much more than build a high-tech assembly plant and other facilities that now employ 8,300 people. It created synergies with other nearby auto plants that attracted more than 100 suppliers and created a big part of Kentucky’s advanced manufacturing economy.

More than 80,000 people in Kentucky now work at making the current generation of petroleum-fueled vehicles. It’s clear, though, that the vehicles of the future will run partially, if not completely, on batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries, with their small size and long life, have enabled big advances in consumer electronics. The next big thing in automobile manufacturing will be figuring out how to make batteries that can efficiently run vehicles.

President Obama has pledged $2 billion toward figuring out how to put more energy-efficient hybrid vehicles on the road.

The National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries, a consortium of more than 50 battery-making companies and related groups, is seeking some of that federal money to build a $600 million advanced battery manufacturing facility in Hardin County.

Construction would create 1,500 jobs, and the facility would eventually employ 2,000. And, like with Toyota, the possibilities for suppliers and associated manufacturers could create many thousand more jobs.

The battery plant will have close ties to the nation’s first high-tech battery research and development laboratory in Lexington, which Beshear announced last week. The lab is a joint venture of the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago.

In describing the significance of this project Monday, the Toyota comparison wasn’t the only one officials used.

They likened what the battery industry wants to do in Kentucky to what the semiconductor industry did in Austin, Texas, beginning in the late 1980s.

Like the battery industry now, the American semiconductor industry then was losing its edge to Asian competitors. The industry formed the SEMATECH consortium to focus research, development and manufacturing efforts. SEMATECH was a big success, and it did wonders for Austin’s economy and high-tech image.

Battery innovation and development isn’t just key to the future of automobile manufacturing, said Kris Kimel, president of the non-profit Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. There’s an urgent need for better batteries to store energy from all kinds of sources for all kinds of uses.

“Battery technology and the quest to develop better batteries is a key aspect of the whole emerging alternative energy market,” Kimel said. “It’s an excellent place for Kentucky to play.”

The history of economic development in Kentucky has often been one of missed opportunities, of selling the state short. Rarely have Kentucky’s leaders recognized the next big thing and successfully gone after it.

That’s why former Gov. Martha Layne Collins’ pursuit of Toyota two decades ago was such a milestone, and why Beshear’s pursuit of this deal could be another.

This effort puts Kentucky at the center of research, innovation and development for an entire industry trying to solve one of technology’s biggest challenges.

For a state hoping to be a player in the 21st century economy, this could be huge.

I’m not much of a gambler, but I don’t have anything against it.

I’ll probably lose a few dollars at Keeneland this month, and a few more dollars at Churchill Downs on Derby Day, and have fun doing it. Plus, I’ll know I did my small part to keep beautiful horses grazing in bluegrass fields.

I buy a lottery ticket every now and then — when the jackpot gets really big — even though I know I probably have a better chance of being struck by lightning than cashing the ticket.

With the economy hurting and state government revenues far below the budget, the governor is likely to call legislators back to Frankfort this summer to consider tax reform. I hope they create real reform, because we badly need a tax system that produces enough reliable revenue to meet Kentucky’s needs.

Odds are, the discussion will lead to more talk about expanded gambling. The drumbeat for slot machines at racetracks and casinos has been getting louder for years, and this economy is causing more people to listen.

I wish I knew the answer to the big question: Would more options for gambling be good or bad for Kentucky?

Let’s look at the pros and cons. We won’t get bogged down in numbers, because I think most of the numbers thrown around are little more than wild guesses. It’s like many forms of economic forecasting: They make weather forecasting look like exact science and voodoo almost seem respectable.

First, let’s take an easy argument: Slot machines or casinos would keep many Kentuckians from driving across the Ohio River to gamble. That’s probably true.

Here’s another argument: Expanded gambling would bring a lot of additional revenue to state government, perhaps reducing other tax burdens. That may be true, although I suspect it would generate a lot less money than supporters claim.

The trouble is that the extra revenue reflects only one side of the ledger. For each million of gambling revenue that comes into state coffers, how many million more must be shifted from the pockets of Kentucky gamblers into the pockets of the gambling industry?

What’s the social cost of expanded gambling? In other words, how many children will go unfed? How much rent and child support will go unpaid? Sure, some of that new state revenue will go to offset gambling’s collateral damage, but it probably won’t be enough. When has Kentucky ever adequately funded social services?

Will expanded gambling grow Kentucky’s economy? We will keep many of our current gamblers from taking their money across the Ohio River. We may even lure some gamblers to Kentucky from neighboring states.

But we won’t be making Kentucky’s economic pie much bigger; we’ll just be slicing it differently. For the most part, new money spent on gambling would be money now spent on something else in Kentucky.

For all of those reasons, I’ve never thought government-assisted gambling was good public policy. Besides, gambling sends taxpayers the same unrealistic message it sends gamblers: You don’t need to work for the success you want, you just need to have Lady Luck on your side every now and then.

The best argument I’ve seen for expanded gambling in Kentucky is that it would help keep those pretty horses in bluegrass fields — and all of the jobs and economic activity they create. Not to mention the positive image the horse industry gives Kentucky. Horses are our international brand — and a good one, at that.

Kentucky’s thoroughbred industry wants racetracks to be allowed to have slot machines to provide more money for higher race purses and breeder incentives. That’s because other states with expanded gambling are doing that, threatening Kentucky’s preeminence.

Anyone who has been the parent of a teenager is suspicious of the “but everyone else is doing it” argument. In this case, though, the problem seems legitimate, even if the proposed solution is, at best, a short-term fix.

For one thing, I think it’s naïve to think Kentucky’s thoroughbred industry will be able to keep gambling to itself. There’s just too much money at stake. Other powerful interests will want slot machines, or full casinos, or some of the gambling money the horse industry hopes to keep for race purses and breeder incentives.

Besides, what’s the long-term future of any industry that depends on something else to prop it up? If thoroughbred racing hopes to survive and thrive in the long term, it must create more fans. Other tracks must cater to fans the way Keeneland and Churchill Downs do. Racing must find a way to support itself, not find something else to support it.

Of course, all of that is easier said than done. And if it can be done, it won’t happen quickly. Racing, like the economy, is where it is. So what should we do now?

Would more options for gambling be good or bad for Kentucky?

It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves, ask each other and ask our elected leaders. Because if there were ever a year it could happen, I’ll bet this is it.

Since I turned 50 last summer, I have received several letters from AARP urging me to join. The solicitations even include a little membership card with my name on it.

They always go straight into the recycle bin.

It’s not that I’m sensitive about my age, or have anything against the retiree advocacy organization. Besides, I know the AARP is just trying to increase its political clout and sell its insurance, travel and investment products.

I throw the letters away because I think 50 is too young for any healthy person to retire — at least in the familiar play golf, go fishing, putter around the house image of retirement. Slowing down too young is bad for individuals and even worse for society.

Of course, most of us will have no choice but to work more years than the previous generation. People are living longer. Health care costs are soaring. Defined-benefits pension plans are disappearing. And, if you haven’t looked at your 401k or other investments lately, don’t — your aging heart might not survive the shock.

Public employees have been shielded from some of these market forces, but taxpayers are demanding that change. Generous government retirement plans are no longer affordable.

The General Assembly met in special session last summer to shore up Kentucky’s state employee pension system. But the economy has slid so much since then that legislative leaders say more changes are needed. The system faces a $30 billion unfunded liability, both because of the system’s rich benefits and two decades of legislative underfunding.

Part of the problem is that the system has allowed many state employees to retire at 50, as a childhood friend of mine did last year. During the special session, the full retirement age for newly hired employees was raised to 57.

State Sen. Charlie Borders, a Grayson Republican who frequently speaks about pension reform, thinks the full retirement age should be 62. “Life expectancy is increasing,” he said. “For people age 50 and 55 to be able to retire, I just don’t think that’s acceptable.”

Retirement at 50 or 55 might make sense for people in dangerous public safety jobs or those whose work involves strenuous manual labor. But for most state employees, who work in offices and use their brains more than their backs, it’s hard to justify.

One justification has been that state jobs sometimes pay less than similar positions in private industry. Borders and others would like to see public employees’ pay and benefits, including pensions, more closely aligned with those in private industry.

Almost everyone agrees that any significant changes should affect only future hires, not current state employees.

Borders said young retirement has contributed to a “brain drain” in state government — although that’s more a management failure than anything else. Proper training and succession planning could lessen the problem, plus give young state workers clear paths to advancement.

Still, taxpayers should be getting the benefit of public employees’ training and experience for more years than they often do.

Likewise, society should be making the most of everyone’s training and experience. Some retirees devote their golden years to community service and volunteer work. But a life of retirement leisure is a common dream, even though some studies show it can be bad for your health.

A 2005 study of Shell Oil employees, published in the British Medical Journal, found those who retired at age 55 were 89 percent more likely to die within 10 years after retirement than those who retired at 65. The results didn’t vary significantly by gender or socioeconomic status.

If people are going to be working longer, we need to get serious about devising more flexible retirement options and creative opportunities for part-time work that is fulfilling, both economically and emotionally. Good examples include phased retirement for university faculty, the state and federal senior judge programs and programs that train professionals to teach.

One critical piece of this will be fixing the nation’s health care system. In most other industrialized nations, health care coverage is the responsibility of government rather than business. Those centralized systems cover more of the population, give workers more flexibility to change jobs and make companies more competitive in the global economy.

Opponents of change like to complain about “socialized medicine.” But if there is a better market solution, somebody needs to figure it out soon.

Although it makes sense to bring the retirement benefits of government workers more in line with private industry, we must avoid a race to the bottom that risks diminishing everyone’s quality of life.

Rather, let’s use this economic crisis as an opportunity to rethink retirement and find creative, entrepreneurial ways to keep our most experienced workers active and contributing. It will be good for them, and good for the rest of us.

One of the first pieces I wrote after beginning this column nearly a year ago was about Marcus Osborne, a Frankfort native and Transylvania University graduate, who is now a senior executive at Wal-Mart looking for ways the retail giant could use its business-efficiency expertise to improve the nation’s mess of a health care system.

On Tuesday, The New York Times carried this update on one of Osborne’s efforts involving electronic medical records. Efficient electronic medical records is a priority of the Obama administration, and the economic stimulus package has dedicated $19 billion toward the effort. “We’re a high-volume, low-cost company,” Osborne says in the Times story. “And I would argue that mentality is sorely lacking in the health care industry.”

Second Sunday, the effort to get Kentuckians off the couch and exercising in the street, is gearing up this week for a statewide event in October that will be bigger and better than last year.

Second Sunday organizers will rally at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort to promote the effort. House and Senate resolutions supporting Second Sunday will be introduced by en. Katie Stine, a Republican from Southgate,  Rep. Tanya Pullin, a Democrat from South Shore, and Rep. Susan Westrom, a Lexington Democrat.  Gov. Steve Beshear also plans a declaration.

A major street was closed for the afternoon last Oct. 12 in 70 of Kentucky’s 120 counties and more than 12,000 citizens got out to walk, run, bike, rollerskate and participate in other health-related activities and programs. In Lexington, Limestone Street was closed from Third Street to the Avenue of Champions and it was filled by more than 2,000 people, including Mayor Jim Newberry, several Urban County council members and their families.

This year’s statewide event is planned for Oct. 11, although promoters hope to open a major street to pedestrians in some communities more often – ideally, on the second Sunday of every month. Related activites are being organized throughout the year.

The Second Sunday movement began in Bogotá, Colombia, and has been copied by many other cities, including New York. Kentucky’s Second Sunday last year was the nation’s first coordinated statewide event. It is being coordinated by the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture’s extension service, and the statewide coordinator is Diana Doggett of the Fayette County extension office.

Jay McChord, an Urban County Council member and one of the forces behind Second Sunday, sees the event as a low-cost, fun way to get notoriously unhealthy Kentuckians to be more physically active and more involved in their communities.

The late Sen. Russell B. Long of Louisiana famously described the politics of tax reform this way: “Don’t tax you, don’t tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.”

Kentucky needs real tax reform, because what Long described is the way we have funded government for years.

We have known for more than a decade that Kentucky’s tax system is broken, because each year comes with another big deficit. (Government spending has increased, too, but Kentucky’s per-capita state and local spending is almost 20 percent less than the national average, according to the Kentucky Long Term Policy Research Center.)

Economists say annual deficits, even in good times, show that Kentucky needs a tax structure that reflects the modern economy — and one that is fair, equitable, efficient and sufficient to meet the state’s needs.

Recent governors and legislatures have settled for a series of politically expedient quick fixes, usually hashed out behind closed doors and pushed quickly through the General Assembly. And they do it knowing that another crisis is just around the corner.

Think this year’s $456 million shortfall was bad? State officials say it’s nothing compared to what we’re likely to see in the next two years.

Gov. Steve Beshear’s proposal for the current deficit was another quick fix, but at least it made some long-term sense. Beshear proposed raising Kentucky’s incredibly low cigarette tax by 70 cents, to $1 a pack. In addition to raising revenue, he hoped to save millions, if not billions, in future healthcare costs by reducing the high number of Kentuckians who smoke.

Raising the cigarette tax closer to the national average attracted support from a broad coalition of business, health and education groups. But they underestimated the devotion to cheap smokes. A compromised rammed through the General Assembly and quickly signed by the governor Friday raised the cigarette tax by only 30 cents, and made up the difference by adding more tax to alcohol.

The liquor industry cried foul, saying that while Kentucky’s tobacco taxes are among the nation’s lowest, alcohol taxes are among the highest. While the abuse of alcohol certainly has health and social costs, they’re much smaller than those caused by the use of tobacco.

Was the additional alcohol tax fair? Probably not, but it was politically expedient. Nobody could argue that it would be better to slash money for education, healthcare and social services than to raise taxes on alcohol, a discretionary product that many Kentuckians consider evil.

Liquor is always an easy target. Forty-nine of Kentucky’s 120 counties don’t allow alcohol sales, and another 41 place restrictions on it. Rep. Steve Riggs, a Louisville Democrat, suggested that only “wet” counties should receive the benefits of future alcohol taxes. Of course, that idea went nowhere.

Riggs’ proposal was similar to the logic, if not the reality, of the coal-severance tax. Speaking of which, Kentucky’s severance tax rate has been 4.5 percent since the 1970s, smaller than in other major coal-producing states. The tax is 5 percent in West Virginia and 7 percent in Wyoming. Raising Kentucky’s severance tax would seem to be a good idea. But don’t expect it to happen, given many legislators’ allegiance to King Coal.

There have been several studies over the years suggesting ways to improve Kentucky’s tax system. Two legislators have made comprehensive tax reform proposals at opposite ends of the political spectrum that could serve as conversation-starters.

Rep. Jim Wayne, a Louisville Democrat, has proposed making the state income tax more like the federal one by more directly linking tax levels to income levels. He would raise the tax on people earning more than $75,000, while providing a 15 percent earned income tax credit for low- and middle-income people.

Rep. Bill Farmer, a Lexington Republican, has suggested eliminating sales tax exemptions. He says that would simplify the system and bring in enough additional revenue to reduce the 6 percent sales tax to 5 percent and eliminate the income tax, too. Farmer’s plan needs to be analyzed to see if the numbers work, and if it would be fair to poor people.

Both plans would tax some services, something economists say is necessary to keep tax revenues growing with the economy.

With Kentucky’s perpetual budget crisis bandaged up for a few more months, what will our leaders do now? Will they hope for a windfall from the federal economic stimulus? Will they decide that slot machines can make state government richer without making Kentuckians poorer?

What they should do is quit looking for quick fixes and easy answers. Otherwise, they’ll just have to keep dipping into reserve funds, hacking away at vital social services and putting off investments in education and infrastructure that are Kentucky’s only hope for a bright future.

We must get serious about real tax reform. We must create a modern tax system that is fair, equitable, efficient and sufficient. Because even if there is a fellow behind the tree, he’s a Kentuckian.

FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear, Senate President David Williams and House Speaker Greg Stumbo paused a few moments from trying to solve today’s problems to mark Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday Thursday by laying a wreath at the feet of his bronze statue in the center of the state capitol rotunda.

Then, like thousands of tourists before them, they rubbed Lincoln’s shiny left toe for good luck.

The early-afternoon ceremony was delayed so Beshear could get back to Frankfort from Hodgenville, where he participated in festivities in Lincoln’s hometown.

The capitol ceremony included musical performances by gospel singer Kenny Bishop and the Kentucky State University Concert Choir Ensemble. Actor Greg Hardison recited some of Lincoln’s famous second inaugural address, and Kentucky Poet Laureate Jane Gentry Vance read her poem about Lincoln, based on the famous 1863 portrait of the Civil War president by Alexander Gardner.

Kent Whitworth, executive director of the Kentucky Historical Society, noted that 100,000 Kentucky fourth- and fifth-graders were spending the day in a joint study of Kentucky’s most famous native son.  Historian John Kleber of the University of Louisville reminded the gathering that Lincoln always loved his native state, although most of its residents during his lifetime had little regard for him.

“In no ‘northern’ state was he so vilified and hated,” Kleber said, adding, “He belonged to us, the people of Kentucky, because no claim shall come before the mother.”

I’ll have more to say about the Lincoln-Kentucky paradox here later today, and in Friday’s Herald-Leader.

When was the last time you pondered the concept of the rule of law?

I never thought about it much, either — until Friday. That’s when I joined 130 other Kentuckians from the fields of law, business, education and government who participated in the Rule of Law Symposium in Frankfort.

The Kentucky Bar Association organized the day-long program because its leaders thought the concept needed to be better understood.

“The rule of law is not for lawyers,” said Charles Ricketts, a Louisville attorney who helped organize the symposium. “It’s for all of us.”

What is the rule of law? To colonial pamphleteer Thomas Paine, it was the idea that the law should be king, rather than the king be the law. John Adams saw it as “a government of laws and not men.” Abraham Lincoln explained it as government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

It doesn’t just mean that people should obey the law. It also means that the law should obey the people’s right to fairness and justice.

Kentucky State University President Mary Evans Sias, who hosted the symposium, underscored that point by explaining why she had never learned to swim. When she was growing up in Mississippi, local officials responded to challenges of the state’s segregation laws by filling public swimming pools with concrete rather than allowing black and white children to swim together.

The concept of the rule of law, which emerged during The Enlightenment of the 1700s, was a founding principle of the United States. In recent years, it has been actively promoted abroad to spread economic prosperity, protect the interests of multinational corporations and secure human rights.

“We are becoming a small, global neighborhood,” said the keynote speaker, Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of the American Society of International Law in Washington, D.C. Spreading the rule of law worldwide is increasingly important, she said, because geography no longer insulates Americans from terrorism in Afghanistan or toxic manufacturing in China.

Both at home and abroad, the rule of law can be easier to describe than to create, because there are often conflicting interests, values and interpretations. For example, judges are supposed to be fair and impartial, not bend to public opinion or special interests. Do elections and campaign contributions undermine that goal, or does electing judges make them more accountable to the public?

Such conflicts quickly became apparent in six small-group discussions on specific topics, each led by a justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court. I sat in on two sessions: One was about business, labor and the workplace; the other about civil rights and social justice.

Jim Chen, dean of the University of Louisville law school, said digital technology has made it easier for citizens to hold their leaders accountable as they make and enforce laws. But Heather Mahoney of the citizens’ group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth said the rule of law is often compromised because wealthy corporations and individuals have more influence over lawmakers and regulators than other citizens do.

Bill Londrigan of the Kentucky AFL-CIO said labor laws in the 1930s helped create a balance of power between workers and management, all but eliminating the violent strikes and riots of earlier decades. But he complained that since 1980, labor law enforcement has favored management, leading to the decline of unions and the American middle class they helped create.

He said it’s vital that the rule of law not only restore workers’ rights in this country, but protect workers abroad from exploitation. Otherwise, we will have a “race to the bottom” that will lower all workers’ standard of living.

“The rule of law is absolutely essential for us to have a global economy that benefits workers and not just the owners of the capital,” Londrigan said.

Not surprisingly, Mike Ridenour of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce had a different point of view. Businesses must make a profit, and consumers want the highest quality at the lowest price.

“So we’re caught with a values conflict even within ourselves,” he said. “All things have a price. We don’t always want to pay the price.”

Merl Hackbart of the University of Kentucky School of Management said cultural differences are a major challenge to expanding the rule of law globally. Laws are effective only when a culture values them, he noted, which explains why Prohibition in the 1920s was a miserable failure.

Ron Crouch, a sociologist who heads the Kentucky State Data Center at the University of Louisville, said the rule of law is essential to keeping the marketplace free and fair.

Crouch blamed much of the current economic mess on government deregulation.

“We used to hire police to keep people from robbing banks,” he said. “Now we need to hire police to keep banks from robbing people.”

The biggest threat to the rule of law is corruption, said Andersen of the American Society of International Law. And you don’t have to go to Third World countries to find it; it’s often as close as your county courthouse.

The way to fight corruption, Andersen said, is for citizens to become more involved in how laws are made and enforced. It’s the only way to make the rule of law a reality and not just an ideal — and to create culture of responsibility, accountability and justice.

FRANKFORT — Kentucky legislators began their annual session Tuesday in a snowstorm, and that was the least of their worries.

Much of Kentucky is still reeling from last week’s ice storm, which many are calling the biggest and most costly natural disaster in modern state history.

Worse still, the nation’s biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression has helped blow a $456 million hole in the state budget that must be filled by June 30.

To paraphrase our new president, Kentucky’s financial challenges are serious, they are many and they are real. As I stopped to chat with legislator after legislator, many just shook their heads and said there are no easy answers.

“It’s going to be ugly,” said Rep. Reginald Meeks, a Louisville Democrat. “But I look at it as an opportunity for us to show some leadership. The question is, are we going to continue to play politics as usual or do the heavy lifting it takes to improve the lives of Kentuckians in the future? We play politics at our peril.”

Kentucky’s part-time legislators are just like the rest of us: They’re reluctant to do anything unpleasant today that can be put off until tomorrow. But options for further procrastination are quickly disappearing.

Lawmakers face two big challenges. First, they must plug the hole in this fiscal year’s budget, because the constitution requires the budget to be balanced. That’s likely to require a lot of painful cuts to education and social services, as well as some higher taxes, most likely on cigarettes and alcohol.

Gov. Steve Beshear faces an uphill battle on his proposal to raise the state cigarette tax by 70 cents, to $1 a pack, which would raise $81.5 million this year and $144 million next year. The proposal has broad support among the public, education leaders, health advocates and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

Studies consistently show that higher cigarette taxes lead to fewer smokers, which leads to a healthier population and lower long-term health care costs. It’s an economic no-brainer.

Still, some lawmakers are nervous, especially now that congressional Democrats are talking about raising the federal cigarette tax. They fear that poor people addicted to cigarettes will buy them anyway, no matter what the tax is, and that will hurt families.

But at some point Kentucky lawmakers must decide what they value: Education and health or cheap smokes.

Once the immediate crisis has passed, lawmakers must find a long-term fix for a tax system that doesn’t work in a 21st-century economy. They’ve known it doesn’t work since at least 2001, when an independent economist predicted the rising budget deficits the state has seen since the mid-1990s.

What’s the long-term fix? There are two competing visions, neither of which is likely to get much of a hearing until the 2010 regular session or a special session on tax reform.

One is being pushed by Rep. Bill Farmer, a Lexington Republican, who also thinks state spending needs to be scaled back.

Farmer has proposed removing virtually all sales tax exemptions, except on food, and taxing services used by individuals (as opposed to businesses), with the exception of medical care. He thinks that would raise enough revenue to allow the sales tax to be cut from 6 percent to 5 percent — and allow the state income tax to be eliminated.

Critics of Farmer’s approach say a system based on sales taxes would be too “regressive,” meaning it would hit poor people harder than those with higher incomes.

“We don’t have a progressive income tax system,” Farmer counters, noting that Kentucky’s 1950s-era income tax rate is capped at 6 percent for people making more than $8,000 a year, which is virtually everyone.

Jim Wayne, a Louisville Democrat, has a different approach. For the fourth year in a row, he filed a bill Tuesday that would make the state income tax more progressive — and more like the federal income tax system.

Wayne’s plan would raise taxes slightly on people earning more than $75,000 a year and provide a 15 percent earned income tax credit for low-income people. It also would restore the tax on estates worth more than $1 million and add sales tax to services used by wealthy people, such as limousine rides, charter air flights and country club fees.

“This is not a dramatic shift in income tax rates,” Wayne said. But even after the earned income tax credit returned about $90 million to the “working poor” it would increase state revenues by $250 million a year, he said.

No matter what approach lawmakers take, it’s clear they need to do something — and soon. Any change will involve political risk. But, as Wayne said, “The riskiest position is to not fix the system.”

Kentucky has no shortage of organizations trying to lift the state up from the bottom of various national rankings of social and economic progress.

So I thought I would report on one of the first and most successful of these groups, the Committee for Kentucky, and what today’s do-gooders — and public officials — might learn from it.

I hadn’t heard of the Committee for Kentucky until last month, when I was rummaging through the shelves of the used-book store in the basement of Lexington’s Central Library.

I came across a tattered copy of Kentucky on the March, which was published in 1949 to tout the committee’s work. The book had endorsement blurbs from Vice President Alben Barkley and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The cover illustration cracked me up: A Kentucky colonel, lit cigar in hand, purposely striding toward “progress.”

The Committee for Kentucky was formed in 1944 and headed by Harry Schacter, the book’s author and president of the now-defunct Louisville department store Kaufman-Straus. Even without the sanctimonious tone of writing so popular in that era, the book makes clear why the committee was formed: Kentucky was a mess.

One in four native Kentuckians had left the state in the early 1940s for jobs elsewhere. One in three Kentucky children received no education; seven of eight never graduated from high school. Kentucky had the nation’s second-highest rate of illiteracy. Poverty and ill-health were rampant.

The committee’s founders, hardened by the Great Depression and energized by World War II, began by engaging the state’s academic community in studying how Kentucky had gotten in such sorry shape.

The conclusion was that Kentucky in the early 1900s hadn’t invested in education or in developing a modern economy and infrastructure. Like most other Southern states except North Carolina, Kentucky had looked backward rather than forward. There was a “clannish family society” and a lack of diversity in the work force.

The committee concluded that among the biggest issues facing Kentucky were these: Health, education, economic development, the use of natural resources, a hopelessly outdated constitution and a visceral aversion to taxes.

And there was this observation: “Somehow Kentuckians diverted to politics the social energy which should have gone into improving business, developing industry, and extending educational and welfare services. Because of our tremendous preoccupation with politics, we seem to have earned the slogan that ‘politics are the damndest in Kentucky.’”

Sixty years later, does any of this sound familiar?

The committee then set out to create what it called a “moral climate” for change, using weekly newspaper columns, radio programs, school essay contests and community meetings and projects.

Schacter wrote that some powerful business interests didn’t support the committee’s work. “Those who were the beneficiaries of the status quo were not at all interested in any change,” he wrote. “Those who were victims of the status quo were too apathetic to be much concerned about change.”

The committee also faced opposition because it included representatives of organized labor and the African American community, an especially radical move in the 1940s.

Still, the committee sparked civic engagement across the state, contributed to the creation of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and spearheaded a bipartisan effort that led to tax increases for better roads, schools and social services. The committee’s efforts lay the groundwork for several progressive governors who followed. (But we’re still stuck with that hopelessly outdated constitution.)

In the book, Schacter cites several keys to the committee’s success:

It didn’t sugar-coat Kentucky’s problems. Evidence was gathered and problems publicized. Real, practical solutions were proposed and fought for.

The committee avoided taking sides politically, always emphasizing that its only agenda was improving the lives of Kentuckians. “This was important because the people of Kentucky take their politics so seriously that they have a tendency to read political bias into every important public activity,” Schacter wrote.

The committee operated on little money and refused state appropriations to maintain its independence.

After almost six years of work and accomplishment, the committee voted itself out of existence in 1950. It wanted to avoid the temptation to become a self-perpetuating bureaucracy.

Kentucky has made a lot of progress since the 1940s, but other states have made more. We remain near the bottom of many national rankings of social and economic progress, despite six decades of good work of many public-interest groups.

At the moment, we seem to have our hands full trying to survive the current economic slump. But once this crisis has passed, what’s the next step, and the next?

What will it take to create the “moral climate” in Kentucky to really invest for success in the 21st Century and beyond?