It looks like the Louisville Arena will move forward again. A compromise was reached that would allow the labor unions to monitor the construction but won't get to negotiate the ground rules for the project. It appears that all sides are in agreement so there are no further stumbling blocks for this fiscal boondoggle to move forward.

Of course there is enough fiscal stupidity in this proposal to make a bad deal worse.

• It guarantees prevailing wages for every worker
• It sets a goal of 20 percent minority and 5 percent women participation from employees and contractors.
• It sets a goal of 75 percent of construction jobs for residents of Kentucky and Indiana with 60 percent set aside for residents of the Louisville MSA.

The first mistake is the guarantee of prevailing wages. Forget trying to get the best deal for the taxpayers by letting the free market determine wages. No, we are going to artificially inflate the wages of a few people at a greater cost to everyone else. What a great deal!

The second mistake is setting artificial percentages for hiring workers. Whether it is hiring women or minorities or having to hire people from Kentucky or Indiana, one is introducing constraints that may only be met by going with contractors which are more expensive. Again, not a good deal for the taxpayers of the city.

Lastly, what is up with saying the workers have to be residents of Kentucky or Indiana? Is Indiana paying for any of the stadium? Last time I checked they aren't. So why not just focus on residents of Kentucky.

What a great deal for the taxpayers of Kentucky and Louisville! But we can't let the needs of the people get in the way of the dreams of the city's big wigs.

As the campaign season nears, things are starting to look bleak for Yarmuth. During the April 27th to June 30th reporting period, he raised $412,395 dollars. But only $212,395 was from donations and PACs. The rest came out of his pocket. In that same period, Northup raised $312,972 from donations and PACs. Yarmuth's personal wealth is the only reason he stayed ahead of Northup in fund raising.

The totals for the campaign are devastating. Yarmuth only has $417,929 cash on hand while Northup has $1,850,000 cash on hand. Yarmuth has six weeks before labor day and the kick off of the campaign season to get back into this race financially. To do that he will need to raise in excess of $600,000 to be remotely competitive. This could be a problem since he has only been able to raise $520,000 outside of his personal wealth.

In hopes of shaking up his campaign, he replace Dan Borsch as campaign manager with 34 year old Jason Burke from Connecticut. Personally, I feel it is going to be difficult for an outsider to come into town and be able to quickly understand the geopolitical variations of the 3rd district. On top of that Burke is pitted against an excellent and veteran campaign staff that understands the district as well as anyone. It seems to me the road keeps getting steeper and steeper for Yarmuth.

In a surprise move, Mayor Abramson vetoed the Metro Council's plan that would give control to unions and enforce prevailing wages for all arena workers. I didn't think the mayor had the nerve to stand up to the unions on this issue. Of course, I didn't take into account the number of wealthy campaign donors who would be on the other side of the debate. It also keeps Downard from gaining traction on this issue in what is shaping up to be an interesting mayoral election.

The veto came on the heels of Fletcher's vows to not release 75 million in bonds to pay for the project. He believed that the newly inserted "labor agreement" was against Kentucky's laws governing the state's process for open bids in all contracts.

Gov. Ernie Fletcher said that provision will keep the state from issuing $75 million to pay for the project — and he said he’s not going to negotiate that point.

“I’m not here to negotiate at all,” Fletcher said in an interview. “That’s not part of my job. We’ve presented our offer to the council to support this project. The council needs to determine if they want the arena to move forward or not. The ball is in their court.”

I thought this was a bold move by Fletcher that caused the Mayor to blink and capitulate. Once again the Governor has done an excellent job setting the state's policy and making sure money is not wasted. The reality is that the project with union dominance and the demand for "prevailing wages" would have dramatically increased the cost of the project. Fortunately because of Fletcher, it looks like we are going to be saved that fate.

Council member Rick Blackwell, D-12th, who led the effort to insert labor provisions into the resolution that prompted the veto, asked Abramson for a meeting Tuesday, saying he hopes an agreement can be reached that will suit both sides. He conceded that Democrats don’t have the votes to override Abramson’s veto.

Of course the unions freaked out.

“Now there is no one at the table in the process that will advocate for workers. No one,” said Larry Hujo, a union representative. “It’s all about the business community. It’s all about the governor and his appointees, and I don’t think he has the interest of working families at heart.”

Let me translate for you. We will not have anyone at the table that can funnel money to us by fleecing the public. It is all about the commonwealth being able to save money through good leadership by accomplished businessmen. None of those guys will have our best interests at heart regardless of how much we could have fleeced the public.

Of course my favorite quote from Larry is about right to work.

“This is another step in their plan to bring right-to-work to Kentucky, which as everyone knows undermines the living conditions of working families,” he said.

Ummm, Larry you and the labor cronies are the only ones who believe that right-to-work undermines living conditions of working families. In fact good economics would say that right-to-work would actually boost the living conditions by working families by creating more jobs and providing equal opportunity for success. Otherwise the monopolistic unions would horde both the money and opportunities for good paying jobs. They would be the arbiters of who "succeeds" and not the free market.

All in all, it is a good day for the people of Kentucky and Louisville. Well as good as a day is possible considering they have committed to building this silly stadium in the first place.

Update: 5:30 PM I received a letter from GLI (City Chamber of Commerce) today. I have included part of it below.

We finally stand at the threshold of success on this project, with the final decision in the hands of the Metro Council. Unfortunately, the resolution passed last week by the Council will result in the loss of the $75 million instate funding critical for the project's success.

The Council's resolution includes a condition that was not negotiated with the Arena Authority and includes a mandate that was not funded. This situation creates unknown and unacceptable risks for both the public and private sectors.

Because of these changes, GLI and the business community will not move forward with the $45 million in private funding pledged by business leaders in support of a downtown, multipurpose arena. In addition, we will not raise any new dollars from the private sector until the public sector financing is restored.

It appears that all of the major forces except unions are aligned against the 15 Democrats on the council. It will be interesting to see what they do.

Democratic Senator Evan Bayh is starting to focus his message for a presidential bid in 2008. He wants us to believe that he now cares about the middle class.

Yesterday in a National Press Club speech and again later in the day in Iowa, Bayh said he is aiming his possible candidacy at America's middle class. He said the Democratic Party has forgotten how to address the middle class, and the Republicans have ignored it.

...

While the Democratic Party has been, and must remain, a champion of the poor, Bayh said, it must not make issues like increasing the minimum wage "the entirety of our economic agenda."

He said aiding the nation's middle class would be "a centerpiece of my campaign," if he makes one. He left no doubt of his target audience, mentioning the words "middle class" 45 times in his formal remarks.

"We must confront the challenges middle-class Americans face — health-care costs, college affordability, retirement security and more — so that all can build lives of greater prosperity and promise," Bayh said. "And we must reward hard work, thrift and ingenuity so that all who aspire to it can join our middle class."

Bayh's rhetoric sounds hauntingly similar to Bill Clinton. In fact, I used to believe that Bayh was a moderate Democrat that could win the presidency if he could get the nomination. But then there is his pesky Senate voting record. I have already noted that in the last year, he has moved solidly to the left in his voting.

This sudden shift to the left is also found when looking at the 109th Senate's voting patterns. Where he used to be a moderate, his current voting pattern puts him in the same category with well known liberals Kerry, Shumer, and Feinestein. So even though he talks the moderate game, his voting record belies a liberal at heart. Which may help him in the primary but may well prove fatal in the general.

This is surreal. We have yet another story about state's effort to block blogs to state employees.

The article is the same story different day. Paper claims state is not blocking sites even handedly. State responds that they are continuing to update their filtering until it works.

More shamelessly, we get the continued free advertisement for Mark Nicholas's liberal blog. This story had no need to mention his site, but guess what? It is in there with a link to his site. Ridiculous!