Gatewood Galbraith Questions Steve Beshear's "Business As Usual".

Hello,
Please find the latest press release from the Independent candidate for Governor, Gatewood Galbraith attached and below. This time, we're posing the question to Governor Beshear about his choices in allies and spending in his time in office; topics that will be brought up in the coming debates.

Please feel free to contact me with any further questions.
Thank you,
Nicole

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Nicole Bartlett
Communications Director
Gatewood/Riley 2011
502.542.2204

PRESS RELEASE……………………For Immediate Release
To: Political/News Editors
From: Gatewood Galbraith/Dea Riley
Date: August 23, 2011
Re: Personal Service Contracts

Galbraith calls on the Governor to explain Business as Usual (August 23, 2011 – Frankfort, Kentucky) – Following yet another ethics complaint lodged against the campaign of Governor Steve Beshear and running mate Jerry Abramson, Independent gubernatorial candidate Gatewood Galbraith stated, “The Beshear administration is mired in corruption. Greed, exploitation, and mismanagement continue to be business as usual in Frankfort. From the Transportation Cabinet, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, his cronies in the payday loan business to Medicaid managed care, the Beshear administration has been dishing out hundreds of millions of Kentucky taxpayer dollars in Personal Service Contracts over the last four years. The Governor continues “business as usual. He shovels out Kentucky tax dollars to favored contract recipients at election time as to secure the expected contributions to his campaign.”

Pointing to the Transportation Cabinet in July 2010, the department awarded fifty-five blanket Personal Service Contracts (PSCs) for $10.6 million ($200,000 each) for right-of-way appraisers; forty-five more, at $200,000 each, went to attorneys for miscellaneous legal services accounting for another $9 million.1

From August 2006 through August 2010, various state government cabinets and departments funneled $89 million to the Kentucky Sciences and Technology Corporation in Lexington, which was incorporated by former University of Kentucky president Lee Todd in 1987. The corporation described itself as an entrepreneurial entity developing and applying science and technology to compete in the global economy.
“Folks, state government could have used that money to pay for unemployment benefits instead of borrowing money from the federal
government.2 That $89 million would have made a dent in the $900 million Kentucky has borrowed over the last several years to provide unemployment payments for those out of work. If the governor had cut out a few Personal Service Contracts, he would not have had to scrape to find $29 million to pay the interest on that loan”.3

In addition to the buckets of PSCs being distributed by the Beshear administration, lump sums were given without any requirement of performance. The University of Kentucky contributed $2.5 million to Cornett Integrated Strategic Marketing in June 2010 for student recruitment. There is still nothing claiming success of this business
contract.4

“It was not surprising that the governor wanted to hide the nest of vipers within the Department of Fish and Wildlife where administrators avoid accountability to the outdoor enthusiasts who pay their salaries. Among the problems, the current commissioner who owns a private Kentucky corporation, Kentucky Wildlife Resources, advertises the same services - for pay - as the agency he heads performs the same service at no charge; five of the agency’s top administrators are retirees who returned to double dip.5 It also appears that the governor successfully buried an Executive Ethics Commission complaint, filed in February 2010, against the Fish and Wildlife commissioner
himself.6 Mismanagement in the department is noted that despite $14 million in federal grant revenue and $28 million in licenses and fees paid by boating, fishing and hunting enthusiasts, The Department of Fish and Wildlife ended the 2009-2010 fiscal year with a deficit of
$3.4 million7.

“This governor has contributed to the corruption on his watch just as he has maintained his decades-long association with payday lenders, first as a lobbyist and later as a recipient of their money for his campaigns. These legal loan sharks have been ripping Kentuckians off for years. The payday lender’s loan application form lists the firm’s annual percentage rate as 460.07 percent.”8

“Medicaid recipients are among our most vulnerable citizens and much thought and consideration should go into selecting providers for their care. Passport Health Plan, which calls itself the fifteenth best Medicaid provider in the nation, along with three other companies, were awarded the contract on July 1 for Medicaid managed care for more than 800,000 Kentuckians. Three weeks later, the Attorney General ruled that the $26.4 million Passport, a non-profit organization, paid to their owners—Norton and Jewish hospitals, St. Mary’s Inc., and University Medical Center and University Physicians Associated—was
illegal.9 Passport accumulated a $90 million surplus in 2009, while providing managed care for a 16-county area around Louisville.
WellCare, another company sharing the contract has five former executives indicted this year for Medicaid fraud.10 This is a crisis.”

It’s not only time for the administration to rescind these contracts; it is time for Kentuckians to extend the current ethics complaint to a more critical review of the administration in whole.

For more information contact:

Gatewood Galbraith
Office: (859) 259-1522
Cell: (859) 433-7484





1 Personal Service Contract List, Over $10,000.00, July 2010. That
$19.6 million in PSCs covered two years, 2010-2012.
2 Personal Service Contracts awarded Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, from August 2006 through August 2010, from the Council on Postsecondary Education, Office of the Secretary for Economic Development and Department of Financial Incentives.
3 Glasgow Daily Times, 29 July 2011.
4 Personal Service Contract List, June 2010.
5 Southern Wildlife Resources’ website, southern-wildlife.com.
Secretary of State’s Office, Southern Wildlife Resources incorporation documents. Confidential informants.
6 The Herald-Dispatch, 16 February 2010.
7 Report of Statewide Single Audit of Commonwealth of Kentucky for year ending June 2010, 9-23.
8 Customer Agreement, February 25, 2011, Check Into Cash of Kentucky, LLC, store no. 03034.
9 Lexington Herald-Leader, 21 July 2011.
10 Courier-Journal, 20 June 2011, 9 November 2010. WHAS.com, 12 November 2010. Glasgow Daily Times, 8 July 2011. Lane Report, 7 July 2011.