The Republicans in the Kentucky House unveiled their budget proposal for the next biennium, and most observers described it as a two-handed budget (“On the one hand, there’s this good feature here. But on the other hand, there’s this not-so-good feature here.”)
Here’s the capsule summary of their budget:
- Stops the current-dollar cuts to education and other programs (but fails to prevent some cuts due to inflation).
- Also increases higher education funding by more than Beshear proposed, BUT puts back in the performance-based funding model.
- Gives all school employees (teachers and staff) a 1% raise each year, instead of the higher raise Beshear had proposed for teachers
- Also gives a 1% raise to most state workers each year, who have not received pay raises in 8 of the past 10 years
- Provides for less new social workers than Beshear proposed, but includes raises for all social workers
- And, contains NO new revenue sources – no expanded gaming, no legalization and taxing of marijuana, no changes in personal or corporate taxes. Instead, shortfalls are made up by doing one-time fund transfers from special funds such as the Petroleum Storage Tank Fund.
The Republican-led House passed the budget plan on Friday, sending it on to the House.
(For a more in-depth analysis of the Republican budget, read this article at KY Center for Economic Policy.)
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