A recent headline from USA Today, “Time for Donald Trump to close, sell, or restructure Kentucky,” caused double takes across the Bluegrass State. Professor Steven Strauss of venerable Princeton University argued with transparent facetiousness Kentucky is “an embarrassing drag on our nation’s budget and economy.” According to Professor Strauss, if the nation is going to be run like a business, with President Trump as our CEO, then it’s time for underperforming divisions to pull their weight or be shut down, like they would be in the private sector. Upon receipt of this dire portent, Kentuckians quickly began assessing available options.
As we rummaged through mounds of data we found the hope we were seeking. Turns out Kentucky is a net producer of energy, automobiles, and aerospace, making it a major contributor to the U.S. economy.
Kentucky consistently ranks in the top ten of energy producing states, coming in at 6th overall. Coal country produces 2.8 trillion BTU in energy annually but consumes only 1.9 trillion BTU a year. Where could all the surplus energy go? Perhaps some of it heats the hallowed halls of Princeton and powers economic production across the nation.
Automobile manufacturing is another cornerstone of Kentucky’s productivity. Kentucky trails only Michigan and Ohio in the production of cars and trucks, earning the #3 spot nationally. With nearly 500 auto firms and manufacturing sites across the state, the odds are good your car was made in Kentucky.
Cars are useful for getting around college campuses or to lecture halls in a timely manner. What undergraduate hasn’t fantasized about driving through campus during a low visibility storm and catching their nemesis (aka professor of choice) crossing the street at just the right moment? We all thought about it, but with full intentions of attending the services afterwards with a bouquet of flowers and regret.
Kentucky exported $10 billion in the aerospace industry in 2016, making it the second highest producing state in the country for aerospace behind Washington. Airplanes are handy for going to academic conferences in remote locations like the District of Columbia. Aerospace products also enable satellite communications and air supremacy making Kentucky a key contributor to commerce, communication, and the ability to win wars.
What then, of the charge that Kentucky is a net recipient of federal tax dollars? We plead guilty because it’s true; more tax dollars come into Kentucky than go out. But is the measure of a state merely the sum of its tax receipts? Nationhood means the whole is larger than the sum of the parts. We know other states send tax dollars here, just like we send energy there. Together we constitute something larger, clearly expressed in the name United States of America.
Kentuckians aren’t standing around with their hands stuck out. Government programs are controversial here. Plenty of people do not want federal largess in their communities and would be happy if government programs left town. The “Fix Appalachia Industry” is often singled out as a leading example of federal dollars that would be better spent elsewhere. Yet critics ignore the reality that those programs have made enormous differences in places like Eastern Kentucky, where poverty rates have fallen by half since the establishment of the Appalachian Regional Commission in 1965. Rising water lifts all boats, but lately the tide has been going back out.
Eastern Kentucky lost over 10,000 coal related jobs since 2012, and if the American Health Care Act becomes law we stand to lose 22,000 more in the field of health care. Doctors are warning regional hospitals could be forced to close while most of Kentucky’s Congressional delegation (with a couple of notable exceptions) pat them on the head and talk about theoretical deficit reductions. Meanwhile the majority of people here are upset about job losses. People are angry about job losses because they want to work, they don’t want handouts. Do we have a problem with a welfare class in Kentucky? We do, but the majority of people want to work.
So what is Kentucky to do? Since sale and closure aren’t options (you can’t afford us or drive expeditiously from Atlanta to Chicago without us) and restructuring 120 counties would eclipse the labors of Hercules, Kentuckians think innovation is the way to go. Innovation means economic diversification, an effort already underway.
Kentucky supports increasing the privatization of space exploration. Last year NASA added Morehead State University to its Deep Space Network, the only non-NASA entity in the world to receive the honor. In February 2017 Amazon announced a $1.5 billion investment in Northern Kentucky which will lead to 2,700 new jobs. Last month Hazard announced the establishment of Droneport USA to further commercial applications of unmanned vehicles. Plus former coal miners have already begun to reach for new economic horizons by retraining to become computer coding experts in Pikeville.
In 1748 Governor Jonathan Belcher of New Jersey granted Princeton University a second charter. Bearing the same last name I feel obliged to give Princeton another chance with respect to my native Kentucky. Our politicians may be ornery, and the inflow of federal taxes higher than the outflow, but we’ll keep our options open, continue to innovate, and in due course forge our own destiny. We might even keep sending students to Princeton.