100th District Rep. spot up for grabs

By CARRIE KIRSCHNER - The Independent

ASHLAND September 05, 2008 11:41 pm

— This is the first in a two-part series where candidates for the 100th District discuss their views on state issues. Part two will be in Sunday’s edition.

Republican Mike Stewart and Democrat Kevin Sinnette are both campaigning to replace 100th District Rep. John Vincent in the state General Assembly in November.
Stewart, 60, is a longtime activist in the Boyd County Republican Party. He retired last year as director of the Ashland Housing Authority, a position he served in for seven years. Stewart also served four terms as an Ashland city commissioner from 1992 to 2000.
Sinnette is assistant attorney for the city of Ashland, a position he has had since 1990. Sinnette has unsuccessfully run for two other elected offices — Boyd County Attorney and Boyd County Fiscal Court commissioner.
Both candidates were asked a series of questions on a range of state issues. In this story the candidates discuss expanded gaming, prison reform, taxes and state retirement.
Despite their different political parties and backgrounds, both candidates were much on the same page in many aspects of these key issues:
‰Both Sinnette and Stewart said they are opposed to expanded gaming either in the form of table games or video lottery terminals, whether it is limited to race tracks or includes other locations.
“I’m not for it. I don’t think its the economic shot in the arm my that my district needs,” said Sinnette. Instead, he said he thinks the legislature should focus its energy on marketing Kentucky to potential businesses.
“That way we would get the needed tax money through the corporations and also their employees,” Sinnette said.
“I think it’s essentially a tax on the poor and lower and moderate income people,” Stewart said. “They told us when they passed the lottery that that was going to take care of all our needs ... It seems to me the legislature wants to balance its budget by raising revenue from the poorest and those least likely to be able to afford it. Instead of having the courage to look at some of these programs and say ‘This isn’t working. Why are we paying for it and spending the taxpayers’ money on it?’”
—Both also oppose any increase in cigarette taxes or any other state taxes.
“I’m not in favor of any new additional taxes,” Sinnette said. “I understand government is based on revenue — we can only function on revenue — but I think we need to consider cuts within state government before we consider enacting any new taxes whatsoever.”
Stewart took a similar stance.
“I don’t think we need to raise any taxes. When we raised the cigarette tax, did it bring in more revenue? Yeah, but I think in the long run you won’t see the revenue you expected and you hurt a lot of small businessmen in Kentucky in areas bordering other states,” said Stewart.
“Again this is a tax on the low- and moderate-income people who make up the bulk of the smokers in Kentucky,” he said.
—On the challenges the state prison system is facing, Sinnette and Stewart said they were both unsure what the most effective solution would be to relieve the financial strain on counties who house state felons, but both took issue with the recent changes in Department of Corrections guidelines for releasing state inmates early to save tax dollars and relieve overcrowding, which Gov. Steve Beshear requested.
“Instead of some of the sweetheart deals we are seeing, what we need to be building is more jails and more prisons and find a way to do it,” said Stewart. “Whether we redo the system or not, we need to make sure the citizens of Kentucky have a prison system and a jail system that provides justice for honest people and punishment for the criminals and keeps our state safe.”
Sinnette said he doesn’t think there is a quick answer or fix to all the issues. He relates it to a chicken and egg situation and feels the overall justice system in Kentucky, including statutes, sentencing guidelines and policies for incarceration, parole and probation need to be re-examined to ensure punishments actually fit crimes.
“What I don’t support is letting people out on probation that don’t deserve to be out on probation or parole, that’s what I don’t support,” he said.
Sinnette, whose cousin was murdered last year by a paroled felon in North Carolina, said he also plans to introduce legislation that would require all felons convicted of violent crimes to undergo a mental evaluation before being released on probation or parole.
CARRIE KIRSCHNER can be reached at ckirschner@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.