Defeating the Pandemic and Building a Robust Recovery: A Preview of the Budget of the Commonwealth
In the 2021 short legislative session, the Kentucky General Assembly will be tasked with crafting a new state budget for...
Kentucky’s Inadequate and Outdated Unemployment Insurance Taxes Need to Be Modernized
As unemployment claims surged in Kentucky due to COVID-19 related layoffs, the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) trust fund was quickly exhausted. Kentucky is one of 21 states and territories that...
COVID-19 Crisis Demonstrates Need for State Improvements to Unemployment Insurance in Kentucky
Unemployment insurance (UI) is one of the most effective programs available to help laid-off workers meet their basic needs and allow economies to bounce back during downturns. As a partial...
How Kentucky Should Spend Remaining Coronavirus Relief Fund Monies
The federal government provided $1.6 billion in Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) monies to the state of Kentucky as part of the CARES Act that passed Congress on March 27th. As...
Kentucky Must Continue Momentum Reducing Jail and Prison Population
As we enter the seventh month of the COVID-19 pandemic, jails and prisons have been among the top “hotspots” for COVID-19 at the same time incarcerated individuals are among the...
Federal Relief Shored Up Kentucky’s Budget, but New Projections Raise Big Concerns About Remainder of Year
The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has harmed Kentucky’s revenues and budget, but in the last fiscal year the impact was softened by substantial federal relief to families,...
Kentucky’s Largest Cities Spend a Quarter of Their Budgets on Police
Amid growing attention to harmful overpolicing of Black communities, many are calling on cities to begin shifting public resources away from policing toward social services, mental health, affordable housing and...
Cities and Counties Need Federal Relief to Continue Providing Crucial Services
As with states, local governments in Kentucky and nationwide need significant federal relief if they are to continue providing crucial front line and community services through the COVID-19 pandemic. Measures...
To Protect Kentuckians from COVID-19, State Needs to Build on Already Significant Declines in Incarceration
In recent weeks, important steps have been taken to address the public health crisis posed by incarceration in Kentucky’s jails and prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in historic declines...
New Forecast Shows Collapse in State Tax Revenues from COVID-19
Kentucky’s General Fund tax revenues will crater in the coming months due to the COVID-19 downturn, according to a new unofficial forecast released today by the Office of the State...