Don’t Trust the Unemployment Rate: Coal Counties Edition
Kentucky is celebrating its drop in unemployment rate, which at 5.2 percent as of July is hovering at a level...
Blog
Restricted Access to Unemployment Benefits Played Role in Paying Back Loan
Kentucky got the good news it has now paid off its $972 million loan from the federal government after the state's unemployment insurance program fell into the red during the...
Job Growth since Recession Continues, but Quality is Mixed
After major job loss in the Great Recession, Kentucky’s economy has gradually improved and the state has added 141,000 jobs since June 2009. The pace of job growth has picked...
Despite Good Growth in 2015, Erosion Still Hurting Revenue
The good news is Kentucky’s economy grew faster in budget year 2015, and tax revenue grew with it — by $505 million, or 5.3 percent, compared to budget year 2014....
10 Reasons to Celebrate Medicaid’s 50th Birthday
50 years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed the law creating Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and elderly. In lieu of big cakes with candles, here are...
Retirement Income Growing Much Faster than Wages, Spelling Trouble for State Revenues
Kentucky must begin an active search for revenue options to begin fully paying down our pension debt and make public investments that will move the state forward. One issue that...
Road Fund Helped by 2015 Fix but Still Feeling Funding Challenges
Kentucky ended budget year 2015 with a $20 million shortfall in Road Fund receipts, meaning slightly less money has come in than what was budgeted to invest in and maintain...
Year-End Revenues Highlight Importance of Individual Income Tax
Kentucky ended its budget year with General Fund revenues $165.4 million more than anticipated, equaling growth of 5.3 percent from the year before. The individual income tax is the main...
Yes, the Minimum Wage Helps Fight Poverty
In testimony yesterday to the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council on raising the local minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, a University of Kentucky economics professor argued against a wage...
Busting a Right-to-Work Myth: Why Unions Need to Cover ‘Free Riders’ in RTW States
Despite misleading explanations from “right-to-work” (RTW) advocates, the point of such laws is straightforward: weaken workers’ ability to band together through unions for better job conditions and pay. The law...