State Policy Decisions Hinder Kentucky’s Readiness for Coronavirus
As fears rise about coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States, state policy choices create a context that either limits or...
Tax Plan Would Fix Kentucky’s Budget Challenges by Addressing Upside Down Tax Code
A new bill would generate substantial new revenue for Kentucky’s budget by asking those at the top and corporations to chip in a portion of the enormous federal and state...
Understanding the Quasi Pension Funding Issue
Over the last few days, attention has turned to whether Governor Beshear's budget underfunds the main state worker pension system, the Kentucky Employees Retirement System (KERS) non-hazardous plan, in the...
Governor’s Budget Makes Modest Increases to Education Funding and Selected Other Areas, Raises Small Amount of New Revenue
Governor Beshear’s budget proposal to the General Assembly contains small increases in spending for P-12 education and provides funding for other targeted areas including relief for quasi-governmental organizations facing spiking...
Another Year of Modest Job Growth in Kentucky
We outlined in a 2018 report how Kentucky's economic performance had fallen short of claims based on corporate announcements. Among other things, we noted that the pace of state job...
Tax Cuts Causing the Worst Revenue Projections Since Consensus Forecasting Began
Next week, Governor Beshear will present his state budget proposal to the General Assembly and the legislature will begin crafting a new budget for the next two years. Due in...
What the Finally-Released Actuarial Analysis Tells Us About So-Called Pension Reform
Today Governor Beshear released the actuarial analysis of the 2017 "Keeping the Promise" pension proposal that had been suppressed for the last two years. As expected and as we noted...
Less to Sweep from Health Fund in Next Budget
A fund for employees' health insurance that Kentucky has drained of increasingly large amounts of money in order to balance the state budget is very unlikely to be able to...
Will the 2020 Budget Session Be Like Watching Groundhog Day?
Groundhog Day in 2020 is less than a week after Governor-Elect Beshear is due to lay out his budget proposal to the General Assembly. Shortly after, the legislature will begin...
Increased Funding Is Improving Kentucky’s Pension Plans
The General Assembly’s return to making full contributions to Kentucky’s pension systems in recent years is improving the systems’ health, as shown in newly available year-end reports. The challenges that...