KEJA --News Articles

News & Commentary on Tax, Budget & Economic Justice Issues in Kentucky

House Approves Wage Increase: Minimum would rise to $7.25. The KY House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a measure yesterday to raise the minimum wage to over the next two years. Lexington Herald-Leader (2/22/07)

Panel OKs Bill to Raise Minimum Wage: Deciding not to wait for Congress to act, a House committee yesterday approved a bill to increase Kentucky's minimum wage. The vote came after a hearing during which Cara Prince, 41, who works for a temporary employment service in Louisville at a wage of about $6 an hour, said the bill would help many Kentuckians. "I worked 17 years at the minimum wage," said Prince, the mother of three. "I struggle every month, every week, wondering if I'm going to get put out of my house, or my LG&E (power) is going to get cut off." The minimum wage would rise from $5.15 an hour to $5.85 this summer -- 90 days after the bill is enacted. It would then increase to $6.55 on July 1, 2008, and to $7.25 on July 1, 2009. Louisville Courier-Journal (2/16/07)

Tuition Hikes Could Endanger State’s Educational Goals, Report Concludes: State Auditor Crit Luallen said increasingly high tuition has reached a crisis at Kentucky’s public universities and community colleges, causing fewer in-state students to attend and calling into question Kentucky’s ability to achieve its ambitious goal of doubling its number of bachelor’s degree holders by 2020. Lexington Herald-Leader (2/14/07)

Fletcher Speech Devoid of Budget Realities: A major lack of candor in Fletcher's State of Commonwealth speech: the assumption that there really is a budget surplus and the further assumption that the state can afford to blow most of it on all the new initiatives Fletcher proposed. Opinion by Larry Dale Keeling, Lexington Herald-Leader (2/8/07)

Fletcher Offers Wish List for Budget Surplus: Lawmakers greet proposals with restraint, skepticism. Lexington Herald-Leader (2/7/07)

Testing Fletcher's Merit: A coalition of advocacy groups is asking for more. The Kentucky League of Cities, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and others are insisting, however belatedly, that the state retirement system be fixed "before we reach a crisis." Louisville Courier-Journal Editorial (2/6/07)

Economic Report: Facts, Not Answers: ...We conclude by making a point that is not part of our report. Kentucky has long been one of the poorest states in the nation, primarily because of Kentuckians' low level of education. Business incentive programs, while an important part of the state's economic development efforts, are small. If we do not also address the much larger issue of our education gap, sustained economic growth, no matter what incentives we offer businesses, will never be realized in Kentucky. By William Hoyt, Christopher Jepsen and Kenneth Troske, authors of the University of Kentucky's Center for Business and Economic Research study for the state Cabinet for Economic Development. Lexington Herald-Leader (2/5/07)

Is Minimum Wage Hike Up to the State? Parties split over increase being left up to Congress. Lexington Herald-Leader(2/4/07)

Concentrate on State's Real Problems: Report offers legislature guide for making Kentuckians' lives better. The General Assembly will be bombarded with hot-button issues that will have little or no effect on the lives of most Kentuckians. That's a shame, because so much needs to be done. That's clear from "Visioning Kentucky's Future: Measures and Milestones 2006," the latest of the checkups on Kentucky's progress that the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center began in 1998. Lexington Herald-Leader Editorial (2/4/07)

Visit Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center for full Visioning report.

Coalition Urges Fletcher to Address Impending Crisis in State's Retirement System: A coalition of advocates for businesses, cities and educators sounded a warning Thursday about the financial condition of the state's retirement systems, urging Gov. Ernie Fletcher to address the issue promptly. Lexington Herald-Leader (2/1/07)

Universities offer new aid initiatives: In the face of persistent evidence that a college education is becoming less affordable, three more public universities in Kentucky have announced financial-aid initiatives to help students. Lexington Herald-Leader (1/30/07)

Tax Credit for Poor Urged: Higher minimum wage not answer, UK economist says. The best way to help Kentucky's working poor is to give them an income tax credit, a University of Kentucky economist said yesterday. Lexington Herald-Leader (1/26/07)

Democrats, Republicans and Casinocrats: Who Will Lead Kentucky? State Economic Development Secretary Gene Strong's recent retirement has many of us pondering Kentucky's future business environment. Opinion by John-Mark Hack, Louisville Courier-Journal (1/19/07)

Not Enough to Plug Ky.'s Budget Holes: Legislature should put non-surplus surplus into frail retirement systems. Opinion by Larry Dale Keeling. Lexington Herald-Leader (1/14/07)

State's Students at a Disadvantage: Report says success difficult to attain here. A child born in Kentucky is significantly less likely to succeed in life than children in most other states. Hurt by high poverty rates and low parental education and employment, Kentucky ranked 41st among the states. Louisville Courier-Journal (1/4/07)

Kentuckians Want State Surplus Put to Good Use: Most cite education, health, retirement, local projects. To the surprise of Gov. Ernie Fletcher, Kentuckians don't seem to want their tax money back. Lexington Herald-Leader (12/24/06)

Budget Surplus Talks: Broadening access to health care was first, but better funding for education and public retirement were in close second place during a public forum with the governor in Morehead last week. The Morehead News (12/08/06)

Bill Would Raise Minimum Wage: Democrats, others seek change in state. Religious, labor and advocacy groups joined Democratic lawmakers yesterday to urge support of state legislation to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7. "This right here is a moral issue we must deal with,'' said Rep. J.R. Gray, the Benton Democrat who filed a bill yesterday for the 2007 legislative session. "It's the right thing to do." Louisville Courier-Journal(11/17/07)

Cabinet Commissions Study of Economic Incentives: Two University of Kentucky researchers will produce a first-of-its-kind study by year's end that attempts to measure the effectiveness of Kentucky's expensive job-creation programs. Lexington Herald-Leader (10/1/06)

Related Articles & Information

U.S. Seeing Dramatic Rise in Severe Poverty: 26% increase in poorest Americans since 2000. Kentucky's deep poverty rate increased 26 percent from 2000 to 2005, adding 59,305 people to the ranks of the severely poor according to the study. Kentucky's poverty rate, 16.8 percent, and deep poverty rate, 7.1 percent, for 2005 are both higher than the national averages of 13.3 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively.The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots" continues to widen. A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005 census figures, the latest available, found that nearly 16 million Americans are living in deep or severe poverty. By Tony Pugh, McClatchy Newspapers (2/25/07)

Profits Far Outpace Salaries: Wages as share of national income hit lowest mark ever. The share of national income that went to wages and salaries in the first half of 2006 was at its lowest level since such records began being kept by the Department of Commerce in 1929.
In contrast, the share of national income that went to corporate profits was at its highest level since 1950. By Diane Stafford, McClatchy Newspapers (10/16/06)

Aiming at the Poor: What does it say about the value system of the Bush Administration that it places greater priority on tax reductions -- whose benefits fall overwhelmingly to the very richest Americans -- than on defibrillators in rural areas or centers for traumatic brain injuries? Editorial, Louisville Courier-Journal (2/19/06)

CA Voters Reject Schwarzenegger's Bid to Remake State Government: In a sharp repudiation of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Californians rejected all four of his ballot proposals and turned down his plans to restrict state spending in an election that shattered his image as an agent of the popular will. By Michael Finnegan and Robert Salladay, Los Angeles Times (11/09/05)

Colorado Vote May Resonate Nationwide: Colorado voted to take a time-out from its 13-year experiment with squeezing the growth of government, making strict spending caps a tougher sell in the numerous states where the limits are expected to be a major 2006 election issue. By Kathleen Hunter, Stateline.org (11/03/05)

Do Taxes Thwart Growth? Prove It: An Economic View by New York Times Business writer Anna Bernasek. Despite the widespread notion that taxes harm the economy, no one has actually been able to back that up. (4/3/05)

GOP Governors Fight Tax Limits: In the past two years, Republican governors have dumped no-new-taxes pledges to push for major new revenue and increased state spending amid a sluggish economy and a sharply diminished flow of federal money to the states. The Washington Post (3/27/05)

Tax Cuts Cost Jobs & Harm the Economy: "There is very little evidence that state and local tax cuts-when paid for by reducing public services-stimulate economic activity." - Economist Robert Lynch in Rethinking Growth.

Nonprofits and Taxes What are taxes for? What is fair taxation? Why should nonprofits make it their business to understand and affect tax policy? A fundraising guru gives us her perspective on why ignoring tax policy is foolish. By Kim Klein in The Nonprofit Quarterly

More on the Negative Impact of Tax Cuts on Jobs & Local Economies

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