New Budget Will Worsen Kentucky’s College Affordability Problem
The budget passed by the General Assembly on Monday does not contain good news for higher education students in Kentucky....
Budget & Tax
General Assembly Passes Budget Containing 14th Round of Cuts Since 2008
The General Assembly has passed an austere budget that includes further cuts, flat-level funding or modest increases to the education, health and safety, human services and other programs that Kentucky...
Pre-School Expansion a Notable Part of Budget Agreement
Press reports indicate that the new budget agreement contains an additional $18 million for pre-school in 2016, a 25 percent increase in state funding that would open up public pre-school...
Senate Budget Accepts Affordable Care Act Funds and Draws on Law’s Benefits
Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Kentucky passed a hurdle this week when the Senate chose to accept billions of federal dollars in its budget to fund the...
Budget Options Make Higher Education Harder to Afford for Those Who Need It Most
Lack of state revenue is chipping away at the progress Kentucky made in higher education beginning in the 1990s. That trend continues in the new budget being developed. More cuts...
How the Senate Budget Differs from the House
The Senate budget puts less money into early childhood and education programs, capital projects and some health programs than the House budget and allocates more money to the state police,...
Severance Tax Dollars Need Stronger Overall Strategy
The House version of the new state budget takes $20 million of coal severance money the governor’s budget had allocated to region-wide programs and local governments and shifts money to...
While Kentucky’s Budget Faces More Cuts, Profitable Fortune 500 Companies Avoid Paying State Corporate Income Taxes
As Kentucky and other states struggle with tough budget decisions about essential public services, profitable Fortune 500 companies including Kentucky-based Yum Brands and Humana pay little to nothing in state...
What Revenue Changes Are Moving in the General Assembly
Despite receiving a tax reform proposal from Governor Beshear back in January, there's been little discussion about the need for comprehensive reform in this year's General Assembly. In fact, the...
Privatization Brings Concerns about Accountability, Quality and Cost
For revenue-strapped state and local governments, contracting with private entities to build or operate public assets like roads and government buildings or provide public services is often proposed as an...