Rotary Program: 12/15/04

Program Chairperson: Jerry Kanney

Speaker: W.J. (Jim) Host, Secretary of Kentucky Commerce Cabinet

Jim Host is best known perhaps as the founder of Host Communications in Lexington. He began as a sportscaster in 1957 as a play-by-play announcer for UK athletics on WVLK-Radio. He went on to work for Proctor and Gamble and later returned to Lexington to set up a real-estate, building and insurance businesses before entering politics as the youngest member of Governor Louie Nunn’s Cabinet as Commissioner of Public Information and then Commissioner of the Dept. Of Parks. Jim again returned to Lexington to set up his own Host & Associates in 1974 with contracts with UK for their football and basketball radio programs. He is personally credited with implementing the first collegiate corporate marketing contract with the NCAA in 1985. Jim is a UK Distinguished Alumnus and a member of Kentucky’s Athletic Hall of Fame. He was named Kentuckian of the Year by the Chandler Foundation in 2001 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the UK School of Journalism and Telecommunications. Jim is associated with more than 40 boards and civic organizations, serving as Chairman of the Lexington Chamber of Commerce and President of the Lexington Rotary Club. A graduate of UK, he was awarded one of its first two baseball scholarships and played briefly with the Chicago White Sox.

As Commerce Secretary, Jim believes in Kentucky. That is evident from the first few sentences of his speech. Although the people generally have low self esteem, he believes they also have an immense pride about being Kentuckians and would not want to live anywhere else. No other people have as much promise as those right here in Kentucky, but the first ones we must convince is ourselves. Jim believes that the greatest indicator of economic strength is per-capita income level. Since 1969, twelve other states have surpassed Kentucky in economic growth toward the national average in per-capita income. Two examples Jim gave are North Carolina and Tennessee, who were either tied with or lower than the bottom ten percent of the states with Kentucky. Since that time, both states have enacted legislation that has made them more business friendly and have subsequently raised the per-capita income to nearly 90% of the national average. The problem in Kentucky, as Jim sees it, is that the tax structure is too complex, too restrictive on businesses, and in need of massive overhaul. Up to this point, however, no one has had the political courage to tackle the problem and make the unpopular move to modernize the tax code. We have rather tried to spend our way into prosperity for the past 40 years. In 1967, there were 11,000 state employees, but today there are more than 38,000. Jim also says that Kentucky’s energy policy must be changed to allow for more growth in the greatest resources we have - coal and natural gas. He refers to Kentucky as the “Saudia Arabia” of America, but we just can’t market these resources until we revamp the policies that restrict the production and use of coal and natural gas as fuels to produce electricity. Other states and other countries are buying our coal, but Jim thinks we should be using our coal and natural gas technology to produce electricity and then sell it by wire to other parts of the country. 34 states have a better tax climate for business growth and development than Kentucky. Jim says that must change in order to attract new businesses and create more and better paying jobs. This is a worthy, non-partisan issue that the Governor and the General Assembly will definitely address in the coming year. - JMC