Kentucky Response to COVID-19: Inadequate Rainy Day Fund Heightens Need for Federal Aid and More State Revenue
States set aside rainy day funds to draw on when economic downturns or crises hit. Governor Beshear may well need...
Tax and Budget
Three Steps to Passing a Better Budget for Kentucky
The budget passed by the House mostly avoids another round of damaging cuts to programs and services that have been common since the Great Recession (with a few important exceptions,...
A Move from Local Occupational Taxes to Sales Taxes Would Be a Regressive Tax Shift
Some proponents of HB 475, a constitutional amendment to expand revenue options for local governments, say it will result in localities moving away from occupational taxes and towards sales taxes...
Bipartisan Interest in Tax Break Accountability
The lack of revenue with which legislators are creating the next biennial budget is an urgent reminder of the need to clean up the tax breaks that limit the amount...
House Bill 1 Still Focuses on Punitive Measures that Take Assistance Away
The new version of House Bill 1 introduced in committee today, like the original proposal, contains a number of misguided and punitive measures that create barriers to assistance for Kentuckians...
House Bill 413 Creates Greater Accountability and Transparency for Tax Expenditures
HB 413, sponsored by Representative James Tipton, is a good government bill that establishes a structure for the General Assembly to know more about and better consider the purpose, cost...
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...
House Bill 1 Proposes Costly and Unworkable Barriers to Well-Being
House Bill 1 (HB 1) would make sweeping changes to the way we provide medical, food and income assistance to Kentuckians with very low incomes. The bill as introduced adds...
Kentucky Classrooms Cannot Afford to Have Resources Siphoned Away by Most Expensive Neo-Voucher Proposal Yet
All Kentucky children – living in poor and wealthy districts, black, brown and white, whose parents didn’t finish high school and that have advanced degrees – deserve a high-quality education...
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...