Kentucky Is Excessively Stockpiling Needed Resources and Prioritizing Costly Tax Cuts
In recent years, the Kentucky General Assembly has prioritized an effort to reduce its single largest revenue source, the individual...
Budget & Tax
New Federal Laws Can Create Opportunities in Kentucky, If We Act on Job Quality and Community Access
In recent years, Congress has passed several sweeping federal policies that aim to create jobs, modernize the economy and boost key industries. Early returns are promising in Kentucky, which is...
Drop in Income Tax Receipts Is a Glimpse of Future Trouble
Five months into Kentucky’s experiment in reducing the individual income tax rate, the verdict is unsurprising. Cutting the rate is causing income tax receipts to fall despite low unemployment and...
State Budget Changes in 2023 Session Increase Future Risk
The General Assembly reduced future revenues substantially this session by passing House Bill (HB) 1, a law that will further shrink Kentucky’s largest revenue source by cutting the state income...
Shorting State Workers’ Pay Hurts Us All
Last year, the General Assembly provided the first meaningful raise to workers in state government in 14 years by providing an 8% cost of living adjustment. Though that increase was...
HB 444 Leaves $110 Million On the Table for State Worker Pay
Last year, the General Assembly provided a badly-needed 8% raise for state workers in fiscal year 2023, reversing a 14-year trend of low or no cost-of-living increases. At the same...
‘Transplant’ Bill Would Give Large Windfall to Companies Recruiting Remote Workers
A bill aimed at relocating higher-income remote workers to Kentucky could cost the state up to $200 million and widen inequality without necessarily drawing many people to Kentucky who aren’t...
Cutting Bourbon Industry Taxes Harms the Communities That Sustain It
Kentucky’s bourbon and spirits industry had a banner year in 2022, with announcements of a record $2.1 billion in new investments. According to the Kentucky Distillers Association (KDA), 2.4 million...
Eastern Kentucky Needs Legislature’s Help to Address Post-Flood Housing Crisis
Catastrophic floods wreaked havoc in eastern Kentucky last July, killing 44 people and requiring 1,334 more to be rescued by boat and helicopter. The floods also destroyed or seriously damaged...
Top House Priorities Show Conflict Between Reducing Revenues and Rising Costs
The House's top priority (HB 1) in the 2023 legislative session is a bill to continue reducing the state's income tax, the source of nearly half of state revenue. Lawmakers...