By Madeline Kitchens, student news writer
CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – Campbellsville University hosted her seventh in a series of gubernatorial candidate forums with Democratic candidate for governor Dr. Steve Henry speaking about his tripod of issues for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Henry’s tripod of issues improve include education, healthcare and better jobs.
“I’m an inventor. I do things in a different way,” Henry said. “Other candidates copy verbatim the ideas from other states. My ideas are Kentucky-born.”
Henry discussed several “areas of waste” in government healthcare where officials could “save money in one area to put in another area.” He wants a surgeon general to be appointed that lays out all of the cabinets and is not confined to certain areas.
Kentucky currently ranks 47 in education, which is unacceptable to Henry.
“We are fighting double digit tuition increases. While we encourage higher education we are making it more expensive,” said Henry.
As governor, Henry would have a renewed statewide focus on getting back to basics in math and science education, including increasing number of math and science majors at Kentucky colleges, and increasing the number of math and science teachers in Kentucky schools.
Henry also believes that as part of a top-to-bottom review of government waste, the Commonwealth can streamline many school bureaucracies and direct dollars into the classroom. With some of the bureaucracy pared away, Kentucky can raise teacher pay while holding them more accountable for the results, he said.
Kentucky industry is an issue that Henry feels is interposed with education and healthcare. Manufacturing is a $9 billion industry. Henry plans on contracting manufacturing jobs in Kentucky to Kentuckians.
“We want people to move here because they want to compete for the business,” said Henry.
In addition to manufacturing jobs, Henry feels it is time for Kentucky to be the leader in energy technologies. His “Coalfields to Cornfields” initiative will be directed by the new cabinet Secretary of Energy.
To help create the demand for new fuels, Henry will mandate that all state vehicles be able to run on 10 percent ethanol blends or two percent bio-diesel fuels by 2009. Henry plans for this to create thousands of jobs over the next four years.
Henry has been an advocate for veterans’ rights, and said, “I am very concerned with how we treat our veterans.”
As governor, Henry said he would establish a new cabinet to present veterans with the benefits they have a right to collect.
“Kentucky loses $70 million a year on lost pensions and healthcare for veterans. This is one of the inefficiencies in our government,” Henry said. With an increase in Veteran Service Officers, veterans will know their rights to benefits, he said.
As for the gaming issue, Henry feels that if the Commonwealth supports the bill, he will have a companion bill where “half of the profit goes to education and the other half to healthcare in new funding dollars.”
Henry is an Owensboro, Ky., native who graduated from Owensboro High School and received his undergraduate degree at Western Kentucky University. He graduated from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1981, completed his internship in general surgery in 1982, and his residency in orthopedic surgery in 1986.
In 1995, Henry became Kentucky’s lieutenant governor with Paul Patton. He was the first physician elected to this position and the first lieutenant governor to serve two consecutive terms.
Henry feels there needs to be changes made in the state government. “(When Patton and I were in office) we had accomplishments. In the last three years I haven’t seen the current government have the same degree of accomplishments.”
Henry is married to Heather French-Henry, the former Miss America of 2000. They have two daughters, Harper and Taylor.
Dr. Frank Cheatham, vice president for academic affairs at CU, welcomed everyone to the forum, and the Rev. J. Alvin Hardy, pastor at Good Hope Baptist Church, provided the invocation for the event. Mark Johnson, president of Citizens Bank and Trust Company, introduced Lunsford.
The sessions are sponsored by CU’s Kentucky Heartland Institute on Public Policy (KHIPP) and Team Taylor County.
For more information on the events, contact Chowning at (270) 789-5520.
Campbellsville University, now celebrating her Centennial year, is a private, comprehensive institution located in South Central Kentucky. Founded in 1906, Campbellsville University is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention and has an enrollment of 2,310 students who represent 100 Kentucky counties, 32 states and 28 foreign nations. Listed in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” 14 consecutive years as one of the leading Southern master’s colleges and universities, Campbellsville University is located 82 miles southwest of Lexington, Ky., and 80 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. Dr. Michael V. Carter is in his eighth year as president.