Thursday, February 24, 2000
Patton's love of labor lost on business
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FRANKFORT — Gov. Paul Patton is making Northern Kentucky's business community nervous.
Several area business leaders are saying privately that Mr. Patton is getting a little too cozy with organized labor these days. They fear recent events indicate the governor is beginning to turn his back on business while leaping into bed with the unions.
“Governor Patton served his first term as a pro-business governor,” said a vice president at one of Northern Kentucky's largest corporate employers. “And he sure ran that way last year.”
But, the VP contends, since he was re-elected in November, Mr. Patton has gone back to courting the labor unions that helped him rise politically from the coalfields of eastern Kentucky and Pike County government to the governor's mansion.
The business people point to a couple of instances they claim indicate Mr. Patton's growing affinity for pro-labor causes:
• The governor proposed changes to the workers' comp reform law he pushed through the legislature during a special session four years ago, a law the business community widely supported. Mr. Patton was praised for the original changes by some of the very business leaders who are now beginning to gripe.
• Mr. Patton is calling for a collective bargaining bill for public employees, though it's not clear at this point whether a bill will be filed.
• The governor enthusiastically appeared at a huge union rally Wednesday afternoon on the steps of the State Capitol. Among the labor leaders on hand was national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
• Mr. Patton's proposed tax plan laid some heavy new taxes on business.
Some Northern Kentucky business leaders think that Mr. Patton, who fell out of grace with unions over the original workers' comp changes, is now trying to mend fences with labor.
The governor is already gearing up for his expected challenge of Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning of Southgate in four years, some in the business community surmise.
They point to last year's governor's race and how poorly Mr. Patton ran in his native eastern Kentucky, where several counties with large amounts of union members went for Republican Peppy Martin over the native son.
While there is no denying Mr. Patton is reaching out to his once dependable constituency of organized labor, he is not turning away from the business community, according to many of the governor's supporters and aides.
Mr. Patton's backers, particularly Democrats in Northern Kentucky, say the business community shouldn't forget that it was Mr. Patton who, during his previous tenures as Kentucky economic development secretary and lieutenant governor, drafted and promoted the policies that brought thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in new investment to the region.
Companies such as Delta Air Lines, Ashland, Toyota, Fidelity, GE Capital and dozens of others gladly took advantage of the tax breaks Mr. Patton helped author and put into practice during his years in Frankfort.
On workers' comp, businesses are forgetting that it was Mr. Patton who stepped up to take on two of his largest constituencies — organized labor and coal miners — in pushing the original reforms, his supporters say. The governor thinks the reforms need to be slightly reformed, but not trashed.
Mr. Patton has also advocated and delivered more money and attention for worker training, one of the major issues in the Northern Kentucky business community.
Relax, Mr. Patton's camp is telling business.
The governor is only paying attention to a large core of Kentuckians with his moves toward organized labor. He has no intention of forgetting the business people in a vibrant, growing economic hotbed like Northern Kentucky.
Besides, if he does take on Mr. Bunning, he'll need labor as well as some support from chamber of commerce types to win.
That's the business of politics.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for The Kentucky Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort, or by e-mail at crowleys@cinci.infi.net.
