KyPolicy
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Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KyPolicy for short): research, analysis, and education on important policy issues facing the commonwealth.
Kentucky
Joined January 2011
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NEW: If Amendment 2 passes this fall, a private school voucher program will no doubt follow.
Our new report details how this would siphon vital dollars from our public schools and put thousands of local educator jobs at risk.
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The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision striking down a complicated scheme diverting public dollars to private schools is a victory for Kentucky families, students and public schools.
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NEW: HB 500, in committee tomorrow, repeals a worker's right to lunch and rest breaks.
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Currently, employers must provide a lunch break between three and five hours after a shift starts.
They must also provide at least a 10-minute rest break for each four hours of work.
HB 500 repeals those requirements.
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Two major laws passed last session go into effect in Kentucky today.
A 🧵 on how HB 8, an income tax reduction that largely benefits the wealthy, and HB 4, a dramatic cut to unemployment benefits, are bad for the commonwealth:
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If the General Assembly met its obligation to fully fund transportation, JCPS would have received 82% more state dollars between 20 and 22 to hire and retain bus drivers.
The state shorted JCPS $104m in transportation funds over those four years alone.
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Follow this 🧵 for highlights of Senior Fellow Pam Thomas testifying against HB 1, which slashes the income tax to benefit the wealthy.
"The general fund will lose over $1.2B annually when the tax rate drops to 4%, more than KY spends on the entire system of higher education."
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Former Gov Paul Patton calls for a wealth tax on those at the top. He notes correctly that ordinary Americans already pay a wealth tax every year while billionaires like Jeff Bezos avoid even paying income taxes.
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A recovering economy since the Great Recession has bypassed much of rural Kentucky, with employment still down in many counties.
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“If you live in a rural area and you like your public school and you like your hospital, you should be asking how that is going to be paid for.”
Plans to eliminate the income tax will lead to a serious budget reckoning in Kentucky.
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If the legislature "would just fund transportation 100%, we could offer so much more to our students," Greenup County Superintendent Traysea Moresea said. "And that would be an equalizer for us.”
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Gov Beshear has vetoed HB 8, noting that the bill "threatens Kentucky's economic future. Other states that have drastically cut income tax have seen their economies harmed by those changes. The then-Governor of Kansas promised that similar tax cuts passed in 2012 would. . . 1/
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If the bus driver shortage is on your mind this weekend, consider this:
Kentucky bus drivers who left the job in 2021 and joined the private sector are making $19,769 MORE than when they were driving kids to school.
Little wonder it's hard to attract and retain drivers.
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Let’s do more than light a candle for the Mayfield factory workers who died
"People’s vulnerability when the tornadoes tore their path that night was closely related to how much power they have in society."
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Voting yes to provide $2,000 checks: Comer, Yarmuth, Rogers
Voting no: Massie, Guthrie
Not voting: Barr
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Today’s announcement is a meaningful step especially in Kentucky, where Black people are 9.4 times more likely than white people to be arrested for cannabis possession, despite similar usage rates.
First: I’m pardoning all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession. There are thousands of people who were previously convicted of simple possession who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result. My pardon will remove this burden.
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HB 1 passed in the House today, moving KY a step closer to reducing the income tax to 4% in 2024.
This bill is a giveaway to the wealthiest KYians that will strain the budget over time and jeopardize future investments in schools, health, housing and other needs. (1/6)
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"The claim that the teachers' plan is going to run out of money in 12 to 15 years is false. The actuarial analysis that was just put out shows that if we fund the plan without any changes to benefits ... it will improve"
#kyga18
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Gov Beshear expanding childcare support to grocery store workers as emergency personnel.
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KY’s poorest school districts receive nearly $4,000 a year less per student than the state’s wealthiest districts.
“The kids who live in those districts see it the most, through things like larger class sizes, and shortages of teachers and bus drivers.”
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NEW: More than 3,400 Kentuckians have lost SNAP benefits since March because they’re behind on child support payments.
This misguided policy won't increase child support payments, but it will deprive children of food.
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More than 50K people, including more than 21K kids, will lose SNAP if this bill becomes law.
We're getting word that HB 367 (takes food assistance away from people) may come up for a vote tomorrow.
We got some updated numbers today, and tens of thousands of Kentuckians would lose over $110 million in help with their groceries. We've mapped out the impact:
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NEW: The difference in per-pupil funding between the state’s poorest and wealthiest school districts now exceeds the level ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court decades ago.
1990 funding gap, adjusted for inflation: $3,489
2022 funding gap: $3,902
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.
@jbaileyky
: we need to slow down, put all ideas on the table and not rush pension issue in a special session.
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More than two dozen Kentucky organizations sent a letter to lawmakers Friday urging them to spend Kentucky's surpluses to fund a commonwealth that lifts up and takes care of all Kentuckians, not to slash taxes for the wealthy.
Read it here:
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Slashing the income tax to 4% will put more than $11,000 a year into the pockets of millionaires and leave most Kentuckans with crumbs.
We need to fund Kentucky’s future, not tax giveaways for the wealthy.
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The $781 million in new federal tax cuts to Kentucky's wealthiest 1 percent is enough pay for SNAP nutrition assistance for 552,413 Kentuckians. The proposed Farm Bill would cut SNAP to partially pay for these tax cuts.
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“Taking away someone’s SNAP benefits is not going to make them find a job faster or easier. They will just be hungry while they’re doing it."
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Life is getting much more difficult for unemployed Kentuckians.
Starting Jan. 1, workers who lose their job through no fault of their own will only be able to access 12 weeks of UI, a major cut from the 26 weeks available since the program began in 1938.
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More than 100 Kentucky organizations have signed on to a letter asking lawmakers to reject the harmful policies in House Bill 5.
Here's the letter:
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NEW: Slashing more than a billion dollars a year from the state budget will be particularly harmful to rural Kentucky, where public schools and health care are among the largest employers.
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Many Kentuckians will serve hungry neighbors or donate to worthy causes this Thanksgiving. This generosity is important, but winning the fight against hunger and poverty needs more than kindness and charity.
We also must address inadequate wages, health and food access. (1/6)
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.
@jbaileyky
is on the front page of today's Herald-Leader Opinion section telling hard truths.
"We can’t roll back policies that allow more Kentuckians to thrive unless we are willing to sacrifice the life-enhancing gains that came along with them."
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“It’s even more concerning when we learn these radical ideas are coming from an out-of-state, billionaire-funded group that flies in to pass bills and then flies out while the rest of us have to live with the consequences.”
@jbaileyky
How conservative Florida groups pushed controversial child labor, SNAP bills in Kentucky
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Kentucky is one of the only states in the U.S. that denies SNAP benefits to non-custodial parents who are behind on child support.
3,439 Kentucky households lost grocery money due to this harmful policy between March and Sept. of this year. (1/6)
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A KY program that would fund private schools with public money is in front of the state Supreme Court today.
This scheme is unconstitutional AND it would worsen problems schools are already dealing with (pay cuts, ballooning class sizes, program cuts, etc.) due to underfunding.
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Don't believe the trickle down fantasy.
Slashing the income tax for the wealthy is a recipe for cuts to important programs and new sales taxes on groceries, not economic growth.
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The effort to reduce KY's income tax gives a big tax break to the wealthy and will harm funding for public services.
But proponents tell a fabricated tale about tax cuts growing the economy, pointing to income tax-free TN as proof.
Don't buy it.
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Only 40 of the wealthiest Kentucky families would benefit from changes to the federal estate tax – while the bottom 60 percent of Kentuckians will face a tax hike on average under the Senate tax plan:
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“The outdated, incarceration-first approach of HB 5 will come at an immense cost to the state – more than $1 billion over the next decade – and inflict immeasurable harm on communities and families."
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Working all night after school all day? House bill 255 would drag child labor laws back to the 19th century.
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Slashing the income tax to 4% will cost the same each year as funding universal pre-K for seven years.
Our children deserve more help than millionaires.
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KY, which raises 41% of its money from the income tax, doesn't have the revenue streams of other states that have eliminated their income tax.
"We don’t have a tourist base like Tennessee, Nevada and Florida, and we don’t have oil and gas like Texas, Alaska and Wyoming."
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Slashing the income tax to 4% will cost several times what it would cost to meet the housing needs in Eastern Kentucky after last summer’s devastating floods.
Our neighbors deserve more help than millionaires.
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-78,000 Kentuckians lost all unemployment benefits *yesterday*
-$17 million/week taken from the ailing KY economy
-Eviction moratorium expires in 4 days
-Food and rent relief, vaccine monies & much more stalled
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Governor extending benefits for SNAP, TANF for 3 months without people having to reapply and making it easier for those unemployed to apply for Medicaid.
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We joined 73 other Kentucky organizations asking the General Assembly in the special session to protect workers, our children's education and Kentuckians' health during the ongoing pandemic. Read the letter here:
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Money gained from new sales taxes won’t come close to replacing what’s lost by lowering the income tax.
But it will make life harder on low-income KYians.
The poorest 20% of KY families spend 5.6% of their income on sales and excise taxes. The richest 1% spend only 0.8%.
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Kentucky has given UPS $157 million in tax breaks going back to 2005.
It's pretty reasonable to expect subsidized jobs to lift up workers, rather than fuel a race to the bottom.
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State now expected to bring in $24.5 million less in revenue this fiscal year than previously estimated. Mostly due to lower corporate income tax receipts due to lower profit expectations and impact of tax changes
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Anti-tax ideology has left red states with no money for schools, and now teachers are rebelling. via
@HuffPostPol
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UKY experts warn: "a “voucher” program funded by state tax credits ... will harm more Kentucky students than it will help. Based on evidence elsewhere, these types of programs do not benefit the students they are advertised to support."
#kyga21
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If the legislature wants to improve KY’s labor force participation, it should support workers through a higher minimum wage, more available and affordable child care and an increase in home and community-based services for the aging parents of working-age children.
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Executive Director
@jbaileyky
joined KET to discuss
@GovAndyBeshear
’s budget proposal tonight.
"A big theme we heard from the governor tonight is that we need to do more to take care of the people who take care of us — the teachers, the bus drivers, the state employees."
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The House voted today on a Farm Bill containing harmful SNAP cuts, and the bill rightly failed 198-213-17.
Here was the Kentucky vote:
Yes: Barr, Guthrie, Comer
No: Massie, Yarmuth
Not Voting: Rogers
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“We don’t have a labor shortage, we have a pay shortage,” says
@jbaileyky
. “If any employers say, ‘I can’t find the workers I need,’ you need to add the statement ‘at the wages I want to pay.’”
From Kentucky Tonight, how to get people back to work after COVID: (video and article)
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Why doesn't KY have adequate revenue for P-12 schools, affordable higher ed, health and family services? Because we keep choosing tax breaks for the few over the building blocks of our shared prosperity.
#kyga20
#60days60facts
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“These laws have been in place since 1958, 1974 and 1942, respectively. Why the sudden urgency to repeal laws that are in place to protect Kentucky's workers?”
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SNAP means 580K KYians including children & seniors can put food on the table. It boosts the economy & improves health.
That's why a bipartisan majority agreed today to protect this entitlement--meaning everyone who qualifies has a right to it--from senseless cuts.
#SNAPWorks
How long until someone runs on the platform of
#FoodStampsForAll
?
If healthcare is a right, is food as well?
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NEW: After COVID hit, Kentucky shed 294,900 jobs in two months. But significant federal relief has led to a remarkable recovery.
Kentucky now has 53,800 more jobs than prior to the pandemic, having recovered 347,000 jobs in just three years.
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Failure to meet these triggers shows the state's needs can't withstand elimination of such a major source of state revenue.
The triggers Kentucky’s legislature set to allow continued cuts to the income tax rate *have not* been met this year, the budget office reports. 1/
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For those thinking of cutting income and corporate taxes to shift more to sales taxes, "we have one word: Kansas. Well, also Oklahoma, North Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana, West Virginia."
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Gov. Beshear has vetoed HB 5.
The outdated, incarceration-first approach of this bill will come at an immense cost to Kentucky – more than $1 billion over the next decade – and inflict immeasurable harm on communities and families.
Read his veto message:
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Moving teachers to a hybrid cash balance plan will put them among the few Americans who do not have a DB plan (because they won't have Social Security), explains
@jbaileyky
. Undermining retirement security will make it harder to attract great teachers (who already make less).
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Especially at a time when Kentucky can’t afford to pay for school buses, facilities improvements and textbooks, the legislature should reject proposals to hand over tens of millions of dollars, growing to hundreds of millions over time, to private schools.
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Harmful pension benefit cuts aren’t necessary if we clean up special interest tax breaks. Here are some options:
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Kentuckians don’t need haunted houses to get spooked! Just read this 🧵 of scary graphs, tables and analyses revealing major policy problems in Kentucky. 1/
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NEW: HB 5, which passed the House in Jan, is still without a comprehensive corrections impact statement.
But with the help of data obtained through open records requests, we've determined that HB 5 would cost KY more than $1 billion over a decade.
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KYians want strong public schools, affordable childcare, safe drinking water and roads that don't have pot holes. They want those who have fallen on hard times to receive help.
But slashing the income tax poses a "significant risk to our state's ability to do these things."
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Voucher Proposal Takes Dollars from Kentucky's Public Schools and Gives Them to Unaccountable Private Schools
#kyga21
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The minimum wage would be $9/hour in Louisville and $10.10 in Lexington today, but the General Assembly refused a simple override of a state supreme court ruling. It'll remain stuck at $7.25 in Kentucky while it rises in 20 states tomorrow
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Here's who pays for the so-called "generous" 18% 401k-type plan for teachers. And recall private employers put in 6.2% just for Soc Security
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Kentucky's tax code is upside down, meaning we ask households with less income to pay more towards taxes than we ask of those at the top. But there are options to change that.
Find out more:
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When legislators come together for a special session to provide relief to those harmed by eastern Kentucky floods, addressing the region’s housing devastation should be a key priority.
Housing is a particularly large need for these reasons:
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New Report: A Decade Without Raises and Weakened Benefits Have Created a State Workforce Crisis. Addressing it Adequately Should Be a Top Priority in the New Budget
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When it came to the 2017 tax cuts that permanently helped the wealthiest 5% of Kentuckians, Congress was there.
But what about when it comes to one-time $2,000/person checks that broadly benefit everyone else?
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We scrutinize every appropriation in our budget but not the hundreds of millions we spend every year on business tax breaks. There's two sides to the state's ledger. It's time we look at both of them.
#BrakeTheBreaks
#kyga18
Unlike many states, KY does not regularly review its incentives packages.
@BrandonReed4KY
and I have a bill to change that. Hopefully, the Bevin administration will change course and support our effort.
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Cutting unemployment insurance benefits is a recipe for lower wages and higher poverty.
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"I can't do my job if they can't do theirs," says a Kentucky teacher about how hunger impacts learning. Changes to SNAP in the
#FarmBill
proposal would take away nutrition assistance from families with school-age children.
#HandsOffSNAP
via
@WFPLNews
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Private school tax credits would take money from our public schools. They are not for our commonwealth.
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Keeping SEEK at it's current funding levels is actually a cut. It's causing gaps between our more wealthy and least wealthy schools:
And it's not keeping up with inflation:
#KyBudgetTalk
#kyga18
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This move disproportionately benefits the state’s highest earners and will jeopardize future investments in schools, health, housing and other needs across the commonwealth. It also spends money that could be used on transformative investments in KY's future.
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Despite a law requiring the legislature to fully fund public school transportation, the latest budget covers it at only 74% in 2025 and 82% in 2026.
There's some misunderstanding about the budget's funding of K-12 education transportation--the new budget agreement does not fund 100% of those costs as required by law 1/
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NEW: Kentucky’s experiment reducing the individual income tax rate is returning unsurprising results.
Income tax receipts are falling despite low unemployment and still-high inflation pushing incomes up.
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Taxes for low and middle income Kentuckians would go up on average under Senate plan to give huge tax cuts to wealthy:
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650,000 Kentucky workers would get a long-overdue raise if Congress passes an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour. That's about 1 out of every 3 Kentucky workers.
#RaiseTheWage
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Most Kentucky teachers and school employees are starting another school year without meaningful raises because of inadequate state funding.
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In final days of
#kyga22
, a lot is at stake for KY's ability to give all students a good education, provide elderly Kentuckians & people with disabilities with needed services, invest in infrastructure & more.
These tax breaks, still in play, would harm our ability to invest. 1/
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Quasi employees have contributed to the pension system every pay period with expectation of receiving their benefits, but HB 1 freezes benefits and costs many over $100,000, $200,000 in lifetime income. Are other state employees are next? asks
@jbaileyky
on
@KyTonightKET
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When you cut pension benefits, you hurt retirees but also local economies in Kentucky--where public pension benefits inject $3.4 billion a year
#kyga18
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Some responses to our report on Kentucky's return to pre-KERA levels of school funding inequity:
@KYEducators
president Eddie Campbell said the legislature must recommit to fulfilling its greatest constitutional obligation.
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"Instead of diverting public dollars to private schools, legislators should redouble their efforts to ensure the success of our public schools, our kids and the future of our commonwealth."
#kyga19
via
@courierjournal
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