Eastern Kentucky, Veterans Affairs Workers Benefiting From Raised Minimum Wage for State Workers
More than 800 Kentucky workers have benefited across the Commonwealth because of the executive order raising the minimum wage for...
Tax and Budget
Raising Minimum Wage Would Reduce Spending on Medicaid
Those advocating to scale back Kentucky’s highly-successful Medicaid expansion cite a concern about its cost to the state. One way to help buffer costs would be to raise the minimum...
Shutting Down Kynect Would Take Money From Other Important Priorities
According to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, it will cost at least $23 million to dismantle Kynect, the state's insurance marketplace. Using those funds to end the program...
New Report Shows Kentucky Child Care Assistance Continues to Fall Short
Kentucky’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) has one of the lowest income eligibility thresholds and has among the highest co-pays for parents among state child care subsidy programs, according to...
Even Big Cuts to New Teachers’ Pensions Would Do Little to Address System’s Funding Challenge
Even if the state were to massively cut pension benefits for new teachers, it wouldn’t result in meaningful savings to the teachers’ retirement system over the 30 year period needed...
The Low-Income Kentucky Workers Who Would be Harmed by a Federal Tax Credit Cut
The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and refundable Child Tax Credit (CTC) help hundreds of thousands of low-income working Kentuckians make ends meet. These tax credits have been shown...
Pension Needs Far Exceed Likely Revenue Growth in 2017
The state needs to find $580 million more to make its actuarially required General Fund contributions to pension plans in the first year of the next budget, according to information...
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...
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....
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...