A Better Way to Understand Kentucky’s Pension Health
Click to view this report and its appendix as a PDF. Plenty of attention is paid to how badly funded...
Research
Commonwealth At Risk: A Preview of the 2018-2020 Kentucky State Budget
Round after round of damaging budget cuts, a decades-long refusal to clean up tax breaks, and the reality that additional appropriations are needed for pensions, corrections, Medicaid and other crucial...
New 2018 Cuts Hit Some Departments Harder Than Others
Last week the governor announced mid-year budget cuts for fiscal year 2018 that represent an overall cut of 1.3 percent to all 3 branches of state government. However, it is...
Massive New Federal Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Should Be a Resource for Kentucky’s Budget
Kentucky is facing a major gap in its next two-year state budget that could mean unprecedented cuts to education and other services. But the General Assembly could look to the...
Some Federal Lawmakers Want to Use New Tax Cuts for the Wealthy as Cause to Undermine Basic Supports for Kentucky Families
The tax bill Congress passed yesterday was the first in a two-step plan to cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations and pay for them later through cuts to critical...
Passage of the Dream Act Would Benefit Kentucky
In September, the Trump Administration announced the end of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a program established by executive order that granted immigrant youth who were brought to the...
New Tax Expenditure Report Obscures Growing Costs
The Office of State Budget Director (OSBD) released the Tax Expenditure Report for the 2018-2020 biennium late last month. The new report is misleading because it does not include in...
Year-End Results Show Progress Made on Pensions in Last Budget
New reports on Kentucky's public pension systems show substantial funding progress thanks to sharply increased contributions to the plans in the 2016-2018 budget. The extent to which those funding levels...
The Funding Gap Between Kentucky’s Poor and Wealthy School Districts Continues to Grow
Click to view as a PDF As a result of decreasing reliance on state funding for education and an increasing reliance on local school district resources, the gap in per-pupil...
Plan to Front-Load Pension Payments Would Create Crisis in Next Budget
The pension framework under consideration would require Kentucky to make excessive increased payments for pension liabilities in the next state budget — even beyond the huge new contributions the state...