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...
Budget & Tax
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 Budget Makes Adjustments Including to Employee Raises, Social Workers and Rainy Day Fund and Contains No New Revenue
The House budget plan includes many of the same priorities that the governor proposed, but contains a different emphasis in a variety of areas. Compared to the governor’s budget, the...
Revenue Options That Strengthen the Commonwealth
Currently, too many tax breaks drain money that is needed to shore up and sustain public schools, higher education and workforce development; teacher and state worker pension systems; preschool, child...
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...
SB 1 Will Worsen Racial Disparities in Kentucky
Each time it passes new legislation, Kentucky’s General Assembly has an opportunity to address barriers faced by Kentuckians of color and promote policies that allow all of us to thrive,...
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...