Considering Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s newly released big-spending budget proposal for the upcoming biennium, perhaps Hodgenville Republican Rep. Brandon Reed, who recently filed a resolution designating October as “National Pork Month in Kentucky,” should include a companion declaration recognizing 2021-2022 as “Milk Taxpayers Dry Years.” One of the “yes” votes for such a resolution might…
Americans not only vote with their hands at the ballot box; they use their feet and moving vans, too. Government population and tax figures indicate that more than 20 million residents moved from one state to another between 2002 and 2017 and were part of a huge $3 trillion shift in taxable income between 1997…
Expect Kentucky legislative leaders’ future attempts to lower income tax rates or rid Kentucky of this punitive approach to taxation altogether to be met with resuscitated arguments spouted by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KCEP), a left-wing political advocacy group, blaming former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s reform agenda of reducing the Sunflower State’s income…
Why should taxpayers be forced to fund or finance projects the private sector doesn’t consider worth the risk? A “For Sale” sign has hung around Louisville’s Jewish Hospital – a mega-money-losing operation – for years. Private investors – even of the hedge-fund variety – refuse to accept the risk of taking on KentuckyOne Health’s various…
Scholarship tax-credit policies make it possible for low-and-middle-income families in 18 states to enroll their children in a private school – something only wealthy families had previously been able to afford. Since we’re committed to bringing such a policy to Kentucky, taxpayers in the commonwealth need to fully understand what the policy is – and…
Editor’s note: The Bluegrass Beacon is a weekly syndicated statewide newspaper column posted on the Bluegrass Institute’s website after being released to and published by newspapers statewide. What led to Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate’s ruling supporting the Bluegrass Institute Center for Open Government’s claim that the Kentucky House of Representatives held an illegal closed-door…
The Republican-controlled Kentucky House and Senate voted during this year’s General Assembly session to override their fellow Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s veto of nearly a half-billion in tax-and-spending increases. Some who voted for the overrides point to an analysis by a Washington, D.C., group claiming that making the income tax a flat 5 percent – as House…
Download the pdf here -> Bluegrass Institute_17 Tax Increases Handout
In the closing days of this year’s session of the Kentucky General Assembly, the Republican-dominated legislature overrode Gov. Matt Bevin’s vetoes of its budget – which proposed spending $600 million more than the governor’s plan – and a mammoth tax increase to fund it. Meanwhile, on the other side of the political aisle, Democratic Attorney…