Kentucky Senator Max Wise is shown above right talking with Horizon Adult Day Care President Kelly Upchurch last Tuesday as Wise was touring the new facility during a stop in Albany. Below, during an afternoon Town Hall type gathering at the Welcome Center, Wise talked with Albany resident Sarah Wilson-Browning about issues the senator will be working on during the upcoming 2022 Kentucky Legislative session.

Wise: ‘seriously considering’ a run for Governor

About a dozen local citizens and officials were on hand last Tuesday afternoon for a brief and informal “Town Hall” style meeting with Kentucky State Senator Max Wise front and center.

Wise (R-Campbellsville), represents Clinton County as a part of his 16th Kentucky Senate District, and makes frequent visits to Albany and Clinton County for meetings, events, and the periodic Town Hall style gathering he uses to inform his constituents about important matters involving the Kentucky Senate and government.

Wise mentioned having spent some time touring a relatively new health care facility recently completed in Albany, Horizon Adult Day in west Albany, prior to the afternoon Town Hall meeting.

During Tuesday’s gathering, Wise addressed several issues and fielded and responded to questions from those attending.

Near the end of Tuesday’s event, Wise also noted that while a firm decision had not yet been made in the matter, he couldn’t rule on or out the possibility that he might become a candidate for the Republican party’s nomination for Kentucky’s Governor during the 2024 primary elections.

After noting earlier in the meeting that incumbent Governor Beshear was about to be involved in anre-election campaign, Clinton County News Editor Al Gibson asked Wise if he himself was considering making a run for the Governor’s seat in that same upcoming primary election.

“I’m seriously considering it,” Wise said, adding that at the current time his family – wife and children- indicated they would support his decision should he decided to run for the nomination.“Right now, I think there are a lot of horses that could go to the stall and we’ll just have to see which ones come out of the gate.”

Among the other subjects covered by Wise Tuesday were the legislature’s dismay and relationship with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, especially in regards to the Governor’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wise said that while he disagreed with the way Beshear shut the economy down when he did early on in the pandemic, he and other legislatures were even more upset with the fact that the Governor failed to consult with members of either branch of the lawmaking bodies before making pandemic related decisions.

Wise noted that the legislature would be dealing with setting a new budget, adding that because of COVID and the federal funding it would bring in to Kentucky,there would be money available to address many issues that in the past had been underfunded.

Still, he said caution must be used.

“We do have a surplus of funding, because of COVID, but don’t let that fool you, that is artificially weighted Monolopy money,” Wise said, further explaining that the excess funding he was referring to were federal funds that couldn’t necessarily be considered as revenue funds.

Wise also talked briefly about the state’s teacher pension system and the need to work on its funding, as well as the need to address pay raises

“We’re going to have a lot of state employees who are going to ask for raises,” Wise said. We’ll have social workers, state troopers, teachers and we’re going to have to make a decision as to do we do something that’s across the board, or do we play winners and losers and I don’t like to play winners and losers because you never make anyone happy with that.”

The senator repeated his support to see the construction of U.S. 127 between Russell County and Clinton County completed, including a new span across the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam.

“You’ve got to have that here,” Wise said. “If you don’t have that, you’re losing out on tourism dollars, you’re losing out on logistics, you’re losing out on employment opportunities, safety and all things that would come with that – we’ve got to get that – we’ve got to get 127 completed.”

He also noted the need to address and repair the state’s unemployment system that failed across the board during the pandemic, when so many of the state’s workforce found themselves jobless, yet unable to receive the benefits they were due.

Wise also talked about the workforce and the unemployment issues that arose from the pandemic situation, noting that he felt several contributing issues needed to be addressed, namely available childcare, better transportation options and the need for better broadband.

“We have to get people back to work,” Wise said. “If not, our society is never going to look the same.”

Wise also talked about the need for more job training programs that would benefit a potential workforce where younger students who weren’t necessarily suited for a college future could look forward to better training in the skills market such as HVAC, electrical, etc.

Wise spoke briefly about the upcoming redistricting of the state’s senate and representative districts that will be addressed due to the new population figures from the 2020 census, but he didn’t offer any insight he might have as to how the new legislative boundaries might actually look.