Governor’s Budget Increases Funding for Relief and Reinvestment
Governor Beshear proposed a budget that uses $613 million in extra revenues created because of federal stimulus to provide targeted...
Budget & Tax
Any Action on Proliferating Slot Machines Must Raise Artificially Low Tax Rate
A recent state Supreme Court ruling has threatened the operation of thousands of slot machines across Kentucky because they do not meet the definition of "pari-mutuel wagering” associated with the...
Defeating the Pandemic and Building a Robust Recovery: A Preview of the Budget of the Commonwealth
In the 2021 short legislative session, the Kentucky General Assembly will be tasked with crafting a new state budget for 2022. In addition to protecting Kentucky’s existing critical services, there...
Kentucky Must Remove the Roadblocks to Unemployment Insurance — Our Most Important Economic Stabilizer
The torrent of job losses Kentuckians have experienced because of COVID-19 has thrown an unprecedented number of households into turmoil. As paychecks have disappeared, unemployment insurance has been a critical...
Kentucky’s Inadequate and Outdated Unemployment Insurance Taxes Need to Be Modernized
As unemployment claims surged in Kentucky due to COVID-19 related layoffs, the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) trust fund was quickly exhausted. Kentucky is one of 21 states and territories that...
Letter to Governor Beshear: Priorities for Use of Remaining Coronavirus Relief Fund Monies
On October 9, 2020, the undersigned groups submitted the following letter to Governor Beshear. Dear Governor Beshear: Thank you for your leadership and actions to save lives and limit the...
How Kentucky Should Spend Remaining Coronavirus Relief Fund Monies
The federal government provided $1.6 billion in Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) monies to the state of Kentucky as part of the CARES Act that passed Congress on March 27th. As...
Federal Relief Shored Up Kentucky’s Budget, but New Projections Raise Big Concerns About Remainder of Year
The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has harmed Kentucky’s revenues and budget, but in the last fiscal year the impact was softened by substantial federal relief to families,...
Why the Senate COVID Proposal Fails to Meet Kentucky’s Economic Needs
The new Senate aid proposal, known as the Health, Economic Assistance, Liability and Schools (HEALS) Act, falls far short of the breadth and depth of aid needed to fight the...
Kentucky’s Senators Must Agree to Adequate Federal Aid for the State to Survive Recession
A couple months ago, some public officials and corporate lobbyists began eagerly calling for states to reopen rapidly as the way to solve the COVID-19 problems of mass unemployment and...