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- SUCESS STORIES -
WHEN YOU LOOK GOOD.
WE LOOK GOOD.
MML&K Government Solutions closed out the 2007-2008 biennium with
another wildly successful session of the Kentucky General Assembly. Despite the transition to a new gubernatorial administration, strict budgetary constraints, and amplified partisanship, MML&K lobbyists and staff worked diligently to effectively advocate on behalf of its diverse client list. Some of the highlights include:
Winning One for the Kids
Brooklawn Child & Family Services, a haven for emotionally and behaviorally challenged boys in Louisville, Kentucky, received a $2 million bond fund appropriation for capital expansion in this year’s lean budget. The realization of this funding was several years in the making, following a line-item budget veto from the previous gubernatorial administration in 2006. The $2 million will supplement over $6 million in private funds that have already been raised on behalf of this project. Now that the funding stream is completed, Brooklawn can expand its campus and services, offering:
Kentucky’s first intense treatment program for young girls;
• A separate area of the campus for elementary-aged children
• New beds to reduce waiting lists, serve increasing need, and provide more appropriate treatment settings, and;
• Replace, remodel, and/or equip the older facilities on campus to provide adequate educational, clinical, administrative, residential and recreation space for existing and new programs.
Merging Kentucky onto the Information Superhighway
MML&K Government Solutions worked to usher in a “first-of-its-kind” technological link between education and the next-generation economic development drivers for the Commonwealth by securing $5 million over the next budget biennium for the Dataseam Initiative. Funded through multi-county coal severance, and receiving bipartisan support from the Democratic-controlled House and Republican-led Senate, Dataseam is the cancer research grid that is a unique public-private partnership between private enterprise, the Commonwealth, Kentucky public schools, and two of the state’s finest public universities to support cancer and accelerate research capacity. In addition to the increase in research capacity, the Dataseam Initiative will grant computers to some of the state’s most underserved children and professional development on engaging those students in learning through technology to 2,000 teachers.
Kentucky Works Towards Energy Independence
Following the success of the Emerging Technology and Consumer Choice Act of 2006, which streamlined regulation of Kentucky’s telecom industry and promoted broadband deployment, MML&K Government Solutions was instrumental in passing another piece of landmark legislation in the Kentucky legislature. MMLK lobbyists worked with both sides of the Kentucky legislature as they moved to pass the groundbreaking "Incentives for Energy Independence Act" during two special sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly during the summer of 2007. The law expanded Kentucky’s economic development incentives to include incentives for alternative & renewable energy projects, including alternative coal-derived fuels. MML&K Government Solutions works on behalf of several energy and telecommunications clients, whose needs require an acute understanding of these issues.
Kentucky leads the nation thanks to
telecom industry deregulation
High speed internet access is no longer a divide for rural Kentuckians, thanks to legislation passed by MML&K Government Solutions and the Kentucky General Assembly.
The telecommunications industry is constantly changing, with technology surpassing aging regulation each day. Government has been struggling to keep up to provide consumers up to date, and affordable, internet access.
But that changed in Kentucky. The Bluegrass state is now a leader in internet access for all its citizens. MML&K lead a legislative initiative to promote broadband legislation, providing high-speed Internet access to Kentuckians for improved access to education, healthcare and economic opportunities.
The MML&K government relations teamed up with ConnectKentucky, a nonprofit, independent organization dedicated to technology-based economic development, and BellSouth, the state’s leading telecommunications provider, to promote House Bill 337.
House Bill 337, the Emerging Technology and Consumer Choice Act of 2006, deregulated most retail telephone services, with the exception of basic phone line services. The bill allows telephone providers to compete on an even playing field with unregulated phone, cable and Internet providers.However, the bill still faced opposition from the cable industry and others who fought to keep the status quo. The end result was that the passage of HB 337 freed the telecom companies from the burden of regulation, which now have an environment that is more conducive to investment in rural broadband deployment.
After its passage, Kentucky’s local telephone companies announced that high-speed broadband service would be expanded to more than 530 new locations across the state reaching more than 63,000 previously unserved Kentucky households.
Broadband availability and usage is directly linked to a state's capacity to improve healthcare, expand education opportunities and the potential for economic development and job growth.
Kentucky has led the nation in broadband growth over the past two years with unprecedented growth of availability and adoption across all sectors of the economy. Progressive public telecom policy like HB 337, passed by MML&K, continues to move Kentucky forward by encouraging fair and open competition and innovation and investment for the benefit of consumers.
Churchill Downs cashes a winning ticket
When it comes to horse racing, Churchill Downs is the premiere track in the world and one of Kentucky's most famous institutions. The annual Kentucky Derby, commonly referred to as the "fastest two minutes in sports," is an enormously popular tradition that draws horse fans from around the world.
But Churchill Downs is not only a major sporting venue. It's also a $100 million annual economic impact on Kentucky.
So when other racing states began enacting legislation to boost their own horse industries in an effort to compete more vigorously with Kentucky, Churchill Downs turned to MML&K Government Solutions to remain the dominant force in the world racing community.
The Challenge: Kentucky race tracks are assessed an excise tax on their average daily wagering handle. Churchill Downs and other Kentucky racetracks needed a more equitable tax rate to remain competitive with other states.
The Solution: Even though the state was in an environment where legislators were forced to raise some taxes to meet budget obligations, MML&K successfully lobbied the governor's office and legislative leadership to approve a two-year phase-in of a new tax rate that saves Churchill Downs $1.4 million in tax credits.
The entire industry saves nearly $2 million. The savings are in the form of tax credits allocated for capital improvements and a variety of industry incentives for horsemen, which allows Kentucky’s equine investment to more competitively compete with other states.
Rolling out a win for the Kentucky aluminum industry
A local businessman from Hancock County contacted MML&K about a property tax issue that was preventing him from expanding his warehousing business. After investigating the situation further, it became apparent that there was a bigger issue at stake - one that could have a significant impact on the aluminum industry in Kentucky.
MML&K Government Solutions began working with local riverport warehouse owners, the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and SECAT (Southeastern Consortium for Aluminum Technology) for a solution to the tax issue.
The New York Mercantile Exchange wanted to promote a futures contract that would allow its market users to warehouse much of their aluminum in Kentucky. However, high local property taxes on aluminum stored in Kentucky warehouses prevented NYMEX from contracting with local warehouses. After all, just across the river, both Indiana and Tennessee specifically exempted futures commodities like aluminum from local taxation in their states. However, NYMEX preferred to house aluminum in Kentucky because of the state's large aluminum industry and transportation options.
MML&K researched various possible options to remedy the situation, and found the only long-term solution was to change the state's property tax laws by defining aluminum futures commodities as its own class of property and exempting it from local taxes.
However, the state was facing a multi-million dollar budget shortfall and legislative leaders were wary of allowing any tax bills to be considered.
Despite the long odds, MML&K drafted several versions of legislation and developed a game plan to get the tax bill approved by a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. With the help of SECAT and aluminum industry leaders, two well-respected House members - one a Democrat, the other a Republican - agreed to sponsor the legislation.
MML&K carefully navigated a politically rancorous session and quietly built support for the legislation as a positive economic development incentive. Creating a warehousing industry for aluminum futures helps promote the state's aluminum business and brings worldwide prestige to the Commonwealth by concentrating a valuable component of the world aluminum industry within our borders.
House Bill 284 unanimously passed the Appropriations and Revenue committees of both the House and Senate, winning unanimous approval on the House floor by a 93-0 vote and on the Senate floor by a 38-0 vote. The bill was the first tax bill to pass in the short session, and only three other bills had previously passed both chambers.
As a result, Kentucky is now poised to build more warehouses capable of storing hundreds of millions of dollars in aluminum futures commodities for trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Winning one for the "little guy"
Nestled amid the rolling hills of Kentucky's Bluegrass region is a quaint Methodist retirement village in Wilmore, 20 miles south of Lexington. The non-profit facility is home to more than 80 seniors, who choose to spend their retirement years surrounded by Kentucky's plush horse farms and southern hospitality.
But their retirement community was lacking a crucial element – the lack of skilled medical care on site.
Wesley Methodist Village provided senior couples with independent residential living and assisted residential living. However, if one member of a couple were to become ill or need medical care, he or she would have to be separated from their loved ones and familiar surroundings and be transferred to a nursing home facility, often times miles away in Lexington or Louisville.
State law made it virtually impossible for a retirement community to have skilled nursing beds that provide medical treatment due to the state's bureaucratic Certificate of Need (CON) process and Medicaid requirements. For years, various health care facilities tried to change the law, but without success.
The non-profit Wesley Methodist Village hired MML&K Government Solutions to challenge the powerful nursing home lobby, which had long opposed these changes to state law.
McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie & Kirkland health care attorneys researched the issue and drafted narrowly defined legislation that would allow Wesley Methodist and other Continuing Care Retirement Communities to have a limited number of skilled nursing beds for our increasingly aging population.
With legislation in hand, MML&K's government relations team flooded the Capitol halls in Frankfort, found a credible sponsor for the bill and began telling Wesley Methodist's compelling story to every legislator.
However, time ran short.
The bill was narrowly defeated in committee under the weight of the well-established nursing home lobby. But neither Wesley Methodist nor MML&K gave up.
MML&K's relentless pursuit of the bill forced the nursing home industry to strike a compromise. Minor concessions were made in the bill to gain that industry's support, and in a highly unusual move, the bill was reconsidered in committee and approved.
From there, the bill passed the House of Representatives by a whopping 93 to 1 margin, and later passed the Senate by a 38-0 vote.
Today, retirement communities in Kentucky such as Wesley Methodist may offer "continuing care" to their residents, allowing them to stay with their loved ones in familiar surroundings without disrupting their lives because of illness.