Concerns that could be realities for the next leader in office.
First and foremost: the health of Senate Minority Leader and Kentuckian Mitch McConnell, who earlier this week experienced another 30-second freeze at a public press conference in Covington, before being ushered away from his obligation.
It’s his second such episode in as many months, and one that brings to light the remote possibility of replacement procedures. In 2021, and at the behest of McConnell, Kentucky lawmakers changed how U.S. Senate vacancies with an amendment of Senate Bill 228 — allowing the governor to choose from three recommended names from an executive committee for the outgoing senator’s affiliation.
Furthermore, state officials announced Thursday morning that state tax revenues failed to meet the fiscal requirements devised by the 2022 Kentucky General Assembly, in order to continue graduating the state’s income tax down by another half percent. In 2022, House Bill 8 moved it from 5% to 4.5%. In 2023, it went from 4.5% to 4%.
A 2024 measure to 3.5%, at least for now, looks less than likely.
During Thursday’s “Team Kentucky” update, Beshear affirmed to Joe Sonka, of the Louisville Courier Journal, that he wouldn’t speculate about McConnell’s seat — then doubled down on his notion.
Beshear also confirmed to the press gaggle that the income tax triggers “weren’t met,” but a booming economy “still thrives.” The thresholds require the state’s reserve fund must be at least 10% of the state’s general fund revenues for the prior fiscal year, and that tax revenue for the ending fiscal year must exceed state spending enough to move the income tax down by 1%.
General revenues in July 2023, he added, were robust. But responsibility remains key in the months ahead, and that the legislature tried to create such a method at the start of his governorship.
A “zero percent” income tax — one proposed by many of the state’s leading Republicans, and Cameron himself — would require a “massive” increase on sales tax, per Beshear and many of the state’s economists, in order to cover what already resides in the state’s budget.
And likely the inclusion of food and medicine — further burdening the working and middle classes.
Beshear made specific nods to Cameron’s recently announced health plan, one that Democrats believe will rip more than 100,000 Kentuckians off of general health care affordability.
Election Day in Kentucky: November 8.
