Penny Increase in Sales Tax Would Worsen Tax Fairness and Fail to Fix Long-Term Revenue Problem
A couple of legislators have floated the idea of raising the sales tax by one percentage point rather than taking...
Analysis
The State of Working Kentucky 2012: Youth
In times of recession and high unemployment, it’s particularly hard for young people to find jobs. Competition for the jobs that do exist becomes more intense, making it harder for...
Tax Commission Recommendations Raise Needed Revenue but Include Big Corporate Tax Cut
The new plan from the Governor's Blue Ribbon Tax Reform Commission rightly puts the first priority on raising needed revenue to address Kentucky's budget challenges. The commission finalized a package...
Kentucky Job Growth Remains Slow and Jobs Deficit Substantial
Between the start of the recession and February 2010, Kentucky lost 118,200 jobs. After several years of job growth, that gap has been trimmed to 35,100. However, ongoing growth in...
The State of Working Kentucky: Gender
As in the U.S. as a whole, women’s participation in the paid workforce in Kentucky has grown over the last thirty years. Also, the gap in wages between Kentucky men...
The State of Working Kentucky 2012: Employment
The recession had devastating effects on employment in Kentucky, and the recovery is only gradually lifting the state out of a deep hole. The economy’s collapse drove up the state’s...
Pension Recommendations Emphasize Employee Sacrifice While Addressing Only Portion of Liability
The state’s task force on public pensions heard consultants’ recommendations this week that include several ways to raise employee costs and cut benefits, some of which may not be legal....
Kentucky Falls Short in Closing Higher Education Gaps
Kentucky still has a long way to go to meet the ambitious educational attainment goals set by the Postsecondary Education Improvement Act of 1997. In a recent report by the...
Arguments to Cut Income Tax Miss Context and Ignore Tax’s Benefits
Those arguing for a shift toward sales taxes and away from income taxes in Kentucky overstate the influence of income taxes on where people live. And they overlook the benefits...
What Would Kentucky Gain from More Business Tax Cuts?
For a state like Kentucky—with high levels of poverty, low wages and too few jobs—a perpetual issue is how government can do more to promote prosperity. For years, the state...