Monday, December 13, 2010

By The Time I Get To...Kentucky?

Add the Bluegrass State to the number of Republican state legislatures eager to put forward an Arizona-style "papers please" law, constitutional questions be damned.

Senate Republicans will file legislation similar to a controversial Arizona law that would allow police to carry out federal immigration law, said Senate President David Williams.

Williams, R-Burkesville, announced the Senate majority's legislative agenda Friday after the 23 members of the Republican caucus met for two days in Frankfort. The legislative session begins in January.

The expansive agenda includes proposals to overhaul the state's tax code, change the state's campaign laws and tweak state government pensions for new employees.

Williams, who plans to run for the Republican nomination for governor in the spring, declined to talk about specifics of the Senate's planned proposal regarding immigration enforcement, saying only that it would be similar to legislation that passed in Arizona.

If it were in effect, Arizona's law would require police to determine the immigration status of people they have stopped and determine whether the person is in the country legally. That law is currently being challenged in the federal court of appeals. 

Keep an eye on David Williams here.  He wants to be Governor, Kentucky's election for chief executive is in 2011, one of the few off-year gubernatorial contests.  He has a lot of "ideas", mostly involving increasing the state's sales tax so he get get around to giving corporations tax breaks, as well as changing the state's primaries from May to August.

Luckily he'll have both a Democratic State House to deal with as well as Democrat Steve Beshear in the Governor's mansion.  And Williams himself is going to certainly face a primary challenge from Tea Party businessman Phil Moffett.

Still, Williams may be able to do a lot of damage in 30 days.  We'll see.

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