Kentucky Together, a coalition of education, labor, health and community organizations, will hold a press conference today, the first day of the 2024 legislative session to introduce its campaign for a budget that delivers for Kentuckians.
The General Assembly has built up a large rainy day fund that will only grow if lawmakers fail to pass a budget that substantially invests in education, infrastructure, housing and health care. We cannot keep stockpiling cash while we stockpile problems.
The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (KFTC), United Campus Workers (UCW), Kentucky Conservation Committee, housing activists and many other education, health, labor and community organizations will hold the press conference at 10:30 a.m. in Room 168 of the Capitol Annex.
Scheduled speakers are:
• Natalie Cunningham, Outreach Director, KyPolicy, will discuss the need for a budget that delivers and the unique opportunity lawmakers have to improve lives across the commonwealth in 2024,
• Wesley Bryant, member, KFTC, will discuss the ongoing impact of the 2022 eastern Kentucky floods, the need for mental health services and the importance of investing in resilience against future natural disasters,
• Curtis Pomilia, union organizer, United Campus Workers (UCW), will discuss the need to reinvest in higher education to support students and workers.
More are expected to be added.
Kentucky Together says the plan they’ll introduce addresses the following points:
• Years of inadequate budgets that fail to prioritize the people of Kentucky have left the commonwealth with many unmet needs. We need substantial raises for our teachers and better funding for our schools. We need affordable housing for the many who can’t find it, both in our cities and rural areas. We need a child care industry that allows parents to work and children to learn. We need college degrees that are affordable. And we need so much more.
• Kentucky lawmakers have stockpiled $3.7 billion in the Budget Reserve Trust Fund, which is commonly called the rainy day fund. The total is projected to rise to nearly $5 billion by next summer, when the new two-year budget will begin. That’s more than double what’s needed to protect against future economic downturns. And billions more will be added over the next two years unless the legislature uses the excess to invest in Kentuckians’ pressing needs.
• The only reason to continue building up Kentucky’s reserves is to cut the individual income tax, which will devastate the budget. House Bill 8, passed in 2022, established a framework for eliminating Kentucky’s income tax, our single largest source of state revenue. The bill requires the state to build up the rainy day fund and hold down spending in order to reduce and eventually eliminate the source of 41% of funding for schools, health care and other vital needs.
• Slashing income taxes disproportionately benefits the wealthy. With every 1% cut in the income tax rate, the top 1% of Kentucky earners will get more than $11,000 a year while the middle 20% of earners will get $278 a year and the bottom 20% will get only $20.
Kentucky Together