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Bob Vance welcomed home in Rotary club visit
Wednesday, September 3, 2008 12:53 AM EDT
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| Kentucky Public Protection Cabinet Secretary Bob Vance spoke Tuesday at the Maysville Rotary Club. -- Terry Prather/Staff |
Vance spoke Tuesday at the weekly meeting of the Maysville Rotary Club, addressing an audience mixed with club members and a variety of guests from the business sector.
"It's nice to be back here," Vance said.
Vance was appointed by Beshear to serve as Secretary of the Environmental and Public Protection Cabinet last year. Today, Vance said the cabinet he assumed the helm of in January 2008 has been divided into three cabinets, which was one of the task's he was charged with by his long-time friend and business partner.
"He (Beshear) wanted me to use my management skills to reorganize the cabinet," Vance said.
Today, the EPPC has become the Public Protection Cabinet; the newly created Energy and Environment Cabinet was a merger of the former departments of environmental protection and natural resources; and the Labor Cabinet was created from the former Department of Labor, all of which resided under the former EPPC umbrella.
Vance used a mixture of seriousness and good humor when he talked about his life in the public sector and had nothing but high praise for the 33,000 employees of state government.
Vance also talked about the state budget shortfall Beshear faced after being elected and how $1 billion in cutbacks are being found in only 35 percent of the programs and departments supported by the state's general fund. He said government "can't cut" funding from such line items as health insurance for teachers, Medicare and Medicaid, the Department of Corrections, SEEK funding and debt funding which make up 65 percent of the general fund budget.
He referred to some of his experiences in Frankfort as "surprises" and said one of his first objectives within his cabinet was for everyone to address him by his first name.
"The esteem you are held in made me uncomfortable," Vance said. "I told everyone in my office to call me Bob."
"It's a very interesting process," Vance said. "I'm proud to be there. I'm having fun and I want to make a difference."
Contact Marla Toncray at marla.toncray@lee.net or 606-564-9091, ext. 275.
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