In 2022, the Kentucky General Assembly enacted a plan to cut the state income tax. The rate was reduced from 5% to 4.5%. It also permits the legislature, under certain conditions, to continue reducing the rate up to .5% every year until the income tax is eliminated altogether. Already this session both the House and Senate have approved a reduction of the tax from 4.5% to 4% (HB1).
There are serious problems with these cuts. First, 41% of the state’s revenues come from income tax. Supporters of the reduction argue that the state is flush with revenue from the federal government during the COVID pandemic, but these monies were a one-time-only infusion that will soon dry up! What happens when that money is gone?
Ruth Bamberger
Secondly, public services will suffer from this tax reduction. The state will receive $1.2 billion less over the next two years, affecting critical needs in areas like affordable housing, education (including teacher salaries), child care, mental health services, and maintenance of infrastructure. One need only look around Northern Kentucky and note the loss of affordable housing, teacher shortages and inadequate pay (Ky currently ranks 36 among the state in teacher salaries). Where I live in Ludlow, the poverty rate is over 20%; 37% of the kids under 18 come from poverty households; 29% of seniors over 65 live below the poverty line.
TAX POLICY MUST BE FAIR AND JUST. Our Christian legislators need only to look to the Old Testament prophets and the words of Jesus in the Gospels about sharing wealth. Their fundamental message: “DO JUSTICE”. Taxation based on income gives everyone the moral responsibility to share the burden of maintaining the well-being of the community, especially with respect to those with low incomes, the disabled, and those suffering from man made and natural disasters. If an income tax is replaced by more sales taxes, the poorer classes will suffer, as more of their incomes are spent on consumer needs.
Income tax cuts only exacerbate inequality. HB1 is now before the Governor. In an election year, it would be popular politically for him to sign this bill, but in the long term it is bad fiscal policy. More importantly, this legislature has abdicated its moral responsibility in enacting this unneeded and unfair tax cut. Hopefully, the Governor will take the high moral ground.
Dr. Ruth Bamberger is an emeritus professor of political science at Drury University and resident of Ludlow.
Life is not fair and not just.
We are all conceived and born into this world at different starting lines. The natural state of being is on a spectrum onto which we are thrown before our consciousness even begins to form. That doesn’t mean that we can’t choose to move from our beginnings. That is the American Dream!
Every person has equal dignity regardless of social/economic situation, however; it is futile to take earned income from those earning it and redistribute that earned income to create a false sense of “equality”.
Labeling government actors as “moral” or “immoral” without full context is a slippery slope. We watched the Bolshevik Revolution label certain bents as moral or immoral and quickly they criminalized those who they disagreed with . . .
Instead of incrementally enacting a Postmodernist Ideology (your above article is the beginning of that inertia), we should embrace policies that reward people for their hard work and let them keep their hard earned wages.