Criminal Justice Reform and Racial Disparities in Kentucky
Nationally, the racial disparities that exist in the criminal justice system are well-known, with African Americans being overrepresented in prisons...
Tax and Budget
Modest Savings from Medicaid Waiver Ignore Added Costs and Mostly Don’t Come from Expansion Population
The Bevin administration has submitted the revised version of its request to make changes to Kentucky’s Medicaid program and continues to tout the plan’s savings. However, projected state savings are...
Budget’s Reliance on One-Time Funds Presents Challenge Next Time Around
The new two-year state budget that began in July relies on a substantial amount of one-time monies to balance its books — more than twice as much as was used...
Five Challenges Kentucky College Students Face in 2016
Kentucky college students face barriers and challenges as they begin a new academic year, some of which are worsening as a result of yet another round of state budget cuts...
Kentucky’s Revenue Not Keeping Up with Economy
As Kentucky’s economy continues to grow, the state’s revenue intake reflects that growth less and less. Just over the last year from fiscal year 2015 to 2016, state personal income...
What is Recidivism and What Can Be Done to Reduce It?
Policy discussions around the need for criminal justice reform like those happening in our state right now often feature the term “recidivism.” While the concept is central to this topic,...
Kentucky’s Schools Face Funding Challenges as Kids Head Back to School
As kids return to school across the Commonwealth, they face continued frozen state funding that amounts to a reduction once inflation is taken into account. The lack of state funding...
Five Takeaways from Kentucky’s Year-End Revenue Results
Revenue receipts are in for June 2016, the final month of Kentucky’s last Fiscal Year (FY), showing modestly strong General Fund growth of 3.7 percent since 2015. Here are five...
Rising Kentucky Prison Population Should Make Penal Code Reform a 2017 Priority
The governor’s announcement today about the formation of a Criminal Justice Policy Assessment Council to work toward needed reforms is an important step in addressing a serious problem in our...
Understanding Pension Contributions in the Final Budget
The issue of pensions for Kentucky public employees and teachers is complex, and the two main pension systems — the Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS) and the Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System...