State’s Mental Health System Has Experienced Severe Funding Shortfalls
Discussion of the news that Seven Counties Services, a community mental health center in Louisville, plans to file for bankruptcy...
Analysis
Higher Minimum Wage Is Good for Kentucky Workers and the State’s Economy
Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would lift the wages of over one in four Kentucky workers and add $546 million over three years to the Kentucky...
Expanding Medicaid is a Good Move for Kentucky
Expanding Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a good move for Kentucky. More than half of the state’s uninsured stand to benefit. It would have a positive impact...
Pension Revenue Bill Provides Modest Resources to Address Budget Challenges
The pension revenue bill that passed the General Assembly this week provides only an estimated $31.7 million in net new state revenue to help address Kentucky’s budget needs. House Bill...
Ryan Budget Would Mean Substantial Funding Cuts in Kentucky
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget—which the House passed by a slim margin last week—would cut funding to state and local governments in Kentucky by an estimated $301 million...
Kentucky Remains Long Way from Employment Recovery
New estimates show that Kentucky has added on average 1,500 net new jobs a month for the last six months and 1,525 a month for the last year. So far,...
Revenue Recovery from Great Recession is Slow
The debate over pensions in Frankfort hinges in part on whether the state should raise additional revenue to help make the pension payment or dig into the rest of the...
Not Paying Pension Bills Adds Up
A major contributor to Kentucky's pension funding problem is the legislature's failure to make the full required contribution to the retirement system in recent years. Shortfalls in payments started as...
Retirement System’s Investment Return Assumption is Reasonable
One concern being raised in Frankfort about the existing defined benefit pension plan is that if the retirement system does not meet its expected rate of return of 7.75 percent...
New Projections Say Senate Pension Bill Is $206 Million More Expensive than House Plan
The Senate version of pension legislation will cost $206 million more than the House version over the next 20 years according to analysis of the new actuarial projections for Senate...