Public Versus Private Employee Costs in Kentucky: Comparing Apples to Apples
While a state task force considers further cuts to public employee pension benefits, a new report shows that Kentucky public...
Research
Kentucky’s Income Tax: Protecting and Strengthening a Key to Growth
The individual income tax is the largest, most productive and fairest tool Kentucky has to generate needed revenues. It should be protected and strengthened as part of any tax reform...
Budget Makes Education Goals Harder to Achieve with Cuts to Per-Student Funding
Kentucky has set high goals and taken great strides in improving educational achievement and degree attainment rates. However, the 2013-2014 state budget will make progress difficult over the next two...
Promoting Long-Term Investment in Appalachian Kentucky: A Permanent Coal Severance Tax Fund
Forecasts predict dramatic declines in eastern Kentucky coal production in future years, heightening the need for a strategy to transition the region’s economy. A permanent coal severance tax fund, as...
Threatening Benefits for Low-Income Families Wrong Way to Address Drug Problem
Legislation in the Kentucky General Assembly proposes to eliminate public assistance for low-income individuals suspected of drug use unless they can pass drug tests or enroll in treatment programs. House...
Tax Expenditures Big Cause of Budget Problems, but Some Legislators Want More
There are three main reasons that the budget the legislature is now considering includes so many cuts. First, the economy is still struggling. Second, federal recovery-related financial assistance to the...
Governor’s Budget Proposes Deep Cuts on Top of Past Reductions
The Governor’s budget proposes cuts of up to 8.4 percent to many state services that have already been slashed deeply over the last few years. The cuts would leave even...
Unemployment Insurance Important to Economy but Limited for Workers
The loss of over 100,000 Kentucky jobs during the severe economic downturn of the last few years would have been even worse for the economy—and Kentucky families—if it wasn’t for...
Kentucky Should Re-Enact Surcharge to Pay Unemployment Interest
Kentucky owes interest payments on the nearly one billion dollars borrowed from the federal government to pay unemployment insurance benefits during the economic downturn. The next interest payment, due September...
Letter: What a Tax Reform Plan Should Include
Governor Beshear has said that he will announce plans for addressing tax reform in the coming weeks. Here's what should be in a tax plan that would move Kentucky forward....