Increasing Kentucky’s Minimum Wage Would Help One in Four Workers Make Ends Meet
The decline in the real value of the minimum wage for tipped and non-tipped workers has been contributing to poverty...
Report
Our Commonwealth: A Primer on the Kentucky State Budget
What is the Budget of the Commonwealth? Where does the money come from and for what does it pay? What are the processes by which the budget is made? The...
Governor’s Austere Budget Gives Small Bump to K-12, Cuts Funding for Many Areas
Governor Beshear's Executive Budget proposal provides a small amount of additional funding to K-12 education but not enough to fully restore the impact of six years of cuts and frozen...
Budget Preview Report: Kentucky Faces Choice of Reinvestment or Retrenchment in Next State Budget
Kentucky faces more cuts and continued underinvestment in critical services in the next two-year state budget unless lawmakers generate additional revenue, as outlined in KCEP’s new comprehensive budget preview report....
Vast Inequality in Wealth Means Poor School Districts Are Less Able to Rely on Local Property Taxes
The cuts in state and federal funding for education are hitting Kentucky's school districts hard, and many are raising local taxes in response. However, the same local property tax increase...
State Must Begin Meeting Responsibility to Teachers’ Retirement or Pay More Later
The state has not been making full required contributions to Kentucky teachers' retirement since 2009, and the impact of not making those payments has a compounding effect—meaning more costs for...
Improving Reentry in Kentucky through Education and Supports for Inmates and Ex-Offenders
With nearly 31 percent of Kentucky’s former inmates recidivating—returning to prison—within two years, a new policy report from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KCEP) recommends that the state invest...
Sharp Decline in Coal Severance Tax Revenue Underscores Need for Economic Plan
New data showing that eastern Kentucky lost 4,000 coal jobs last year should raise alarm among public officials about the longstanding need for an economic transition plan. So should the...
Medicaid Expansion Would Benefit Workers Across Kentucky’s Economy
If Kentucky moves forward with the Medicaid expansion, uninsured workers across Kentucky's economy could gain health coverage. Workers at restaurants, construction sites, grocery stores and child care centers are among...
Thousands of Kentucky Veterans Could Get Health Insurance Under Medicaid Expansion
9,500 uninsured Kentucky veterans and thousands of their family members could gain health insurance coverage if the state makes the right decision to move forward with the Medicaid expansion now...