By Caleb O. Brown
Staff Writer
Attorney General-elect Greg Stumbo had an idea in the fall of 2002 that he’s been pushing ever since: a new division of the Kentucky State Police to focus more directly on drug and terrorism investigations, funded through a new 15-cent-per-pack cigarette tax.
The new agency’s name: the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation.
But questions about KBI and how it would operate are getting lost in the whirlwind of political change in Frankfort. Out with the old regimes and in with the new.
As Republican Gov.-elect Ernie Fletcher recovers from shoulder surgery, his administration is rapidly being assembled.
For Stumbo, his administration is settling in, too, except, spokesmen say, the outgoing House Majority Floor Leader is now saddled with additional duties to help the Democratic Party regroup after it lost the governor’s office, the biggest bully pulpit in the state.
Not familiar
In the year since he floated the idea of the KBI, Stumbo introduced a bill in the Kentucky House to create and fund the agency. It never got a hearing in committee.
Fellow Democrats on the House Revenue and Appropriations Committee don’t know much more about Stumbo’s plan.
“I’m not familiar with it,” said Democrat Bob Cherry, co-chair of the committee. “I do know that it’s been part of his campaign. He is interested in it. I have not seen a detailed plan, including the costs or where the money for it would come from. That would have a lot to do with my position.”
House Speaker Jody Richards declined to comment on the proposal, saying he didn’t know enough about it.
State police have expressed similar questions about the proposal and exactly what Stumbo’s agency would do.
“I don’t think anybody’s had any contact with him to clarify what he wants,” KSP spokesman Phil Crumpton said.
Crumpton said Stumbo had discussed some proposals with state police Commissioner Pat Simpson, but that it was “way back when” and that no contact had been made since Stumbo’s election this month.
Crumpton said the commissioner was attempting to speak with Stumbo last week to clarify the role of the proposed agency.
Pamela Trautner, spokeswoman for the state Justice Cabinet, which oversees state police, said that no proposals have come to the cabinet and what officials know of the KBI is “pretty much what we’ve read in the newspapers.”
“It’s my understanding that we’ve not had any conversations with Attorney General-elect Stumbo,” she said.
Stumbo was on vacation this week and unavailable for comment.
Money problems
Kentucky’s budget situation has worsened since Stumbo first proposed the KBI.
Rep. Cherry said the budget fight in 2004 is “not going to be any easier this time around.”
He added, “If anything, it may be worse. We used many one-time pots of money to balance this budget. We raided the coffers, so to speak.”
Last month, Stumbo told Snitch that he wanted to fund the agency with a 15-cent-per-pack cigarette tax.
An increase in the cigarette tax has been proposed by many groups, most of which want to use the proceeds for a particular project, be it Medicaid or salary increases for public school teachers.
A state bureau of investigation would have to compete with numerous other interests for state dollars.
State Rep. Bob Damron of Nicholasville, also a vice-chair of the House Revenue and Appropriations Committee, said funding will be scarce for any new projects in the next session.
“We’ve got to look at taking care of what we’ve got before we expand into anything else,” he said.
Cherry agrees.
“We’re under pressure to increase education, particularly post-secondary,” he said. “I guess what I’m saying is that the budget problems we faced last year are going to be great, if not greater, this coming winter.”
Failing state funding, Stumbo told Snitch, “I’ve been in contact with (Republican) Congressman Hal Rogers, who happens to be a friend of mine; he just appropriated $13 million for his united effort in his congressional district, which is law enforcement, rehabilitation services, drug courts. He tells me that he’ll try to assist at the federal level to help us get funding for statewide initiatives.”
Concerns
“I think we’re pretty well known in this area for combating drugs, particularly meth,” Daviess County Sheriff Keith Cain said.
“More than anything at all, I need additional bodies, manpower. What I don’t need is another law enforcement entity that tells me that they’re on call, but because of other pressing issues in the Commonwealth, are not available to me.”
Cain had a bit of advice for the attorney general-elect.
“However they envision this entity, their success is going to be dependent on how well they work with local entities,” he said.
Absent a detailed proposal, Democratic state Rep. Jim Wayne of Louisville wondered if the agency was even necessary, given the resources currently available, especially those directly at the disposal of the attorney general.
“The attorney general has an army of investigators at his disposal. Why would you set up a new bureaucracy? The state police have an army of investigators. Local authorities have investigators. Even the state ethics commission has investigators. They’re being used on Gov. Patton right now.”
In addition, Wayne said that because the state police are under the executive branch, the attorney general would have no authority over the KBI.
Damron expressed concerns that current state police resources might be placed at risk if a new division were created.
“Pay raises for existing state police have to take a higher priority than any new spending,” he said. “I’m not going to be willing to sacrifice the Kentucky State Police for some new program.”
Wayne believes the attorney general’s office has powers and resources already in place to conduct the kinds of investigations Stumbo wants the KBI to handle, noting that the attorney general already has subpoena power at his discretion.
“If he wants to reorganize his office, that’s something he can do,” he said. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel here. We just have to roll it.”
