By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul returned to Kentucky Monday for several events.
Paul began the day with book signing events at Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington and Crestview Hills.
After lunch, he spoke to a group of business leaders at a Kentucky Association of Manufacturers forum at the Homebuilders Association of Northern Kentucky office in Erlanger.
Paul, who remains a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination despite low polling numbers, spoke on a wide range of issues at Joseph-Beth, including the fate of Syrian refugees in light of the recent terrorist attacks in France.
At the manufacturers’ forum, however, he focused on issues of more direct concern to his audience, including industrial hemp production, the development of a quality workforce in Kentucky and corporate taxes.
“One of the things that we have to do if we want to continue to be competitive, as far as manufacturing, or business in general, is we have to be competitive as far as taxes and regulations go,” Paul said. “We have the highest corporate tax in the world and that’s a problem. It’s become a cottage industry for companies to actually leave (and)…it has a lot to do with our tax problem.”
The forum included business leaders, stakeholders and elected officials.
Paul said if he had his way, he would just lower the corporate tax.
“Let’s say government can be smaller, but let’s leave more money in the private marketplace,” Paul said. “I think if we were able to do that, we’d have a much better chance of leaving companies here and even attracting companies to come here.”
Rep. Diane St. Onge R-Lakeside Park, who grew up in the Philippines, said her parents started working with hemp to produce things like carpets and rugs, spoke in favor of increased production.
“The strength of that fiber is incredible and now they can do so much more with it, so I’m sort of a supporter of that industry,” St. Onge said.
Paul said he would like to see a manufacturer explore the possibility of making paper from hemp.
“They say that you can grow hemp in one season that takes 15 years to go trees,” Paul said. “We’ve got a hemp project. I would love it if we could get some company that is at least interested in doing something.”
Kurt Krug, Vice president, North American Human Resources at INOAC USA, spoke about the skills gap that prevents manufacturers from developing a quality workforce.
“I think there is an opportunity for private industry and the public sector to come to a renewed understanding of what those needs are,” Krug said.
INOAC, which produces a broad range of items for industries, including automotive, information and telecommunications, healthcare and industrial materials, has 19 facilities in North America. In addition to a plant in Florence, it also has facilities in Bardstown and Springfield, Kentucky.
“From a manufacturing standpoint, we’ve got an opportunity to refresh and dust off what manufacturing looks like,” Krug said. “It’s not dirty, dark and dangerous as it was in the past.”
Paul asked if there were many programs available that allow students to begin learning advanced manufacturing skills while they were still in high school.
Krug said Kentucky has begun to put some excellent programs in place, but it is not happening fast enough to meet demand.
By most estimates, due to expansion and an aging workforce, Northern Kentucky will need to fill between 3,000 and 5,000 positions by the year 2020.
Paul said this is a problem that has been building for some time.
“Part of it was societal, but then there was the expectation that everybody should get a college degree,” Paul said. So we have a lot of people with college degrees that are probably worthless that would have been much better directed toward some kind of vocation.”
St. Onge said Northern Kentucky has become a leader in the effort to demonstrate to high school students that a career in advanced manufacturing can be satisfying and financially rewarding.
Gateway Community and Technical College, along with some of the region’s top manufacturers, have held STEM and career days to give students and parents a first-hand look at the improvements in advanced manufacturing.
“The whole education project is moving from this perception of it being just manufacturing or assembly line work to the excitement of what it is now,” St. Onge said. “I think that message is starting to get out in Northern Kentucky and I think it needs to get out across the Commonwealth as well.”
Paul did not talk much about his presidential aspirations at the forum, but said afterward he was not concerned about polls that show him lagging near the bottom of a crowded GOP field.
“I’m guessing if the polls were very good, Matt Bevin wouldn’t be governor,” Paul said. “There is a little bit of a problem with polling – so many young people have only cell phones, so we don’t really trust the polls. We work very hard, we have a good ground game and we’re going to let the voters decide.”