KFTC member Dana Beasley Brown and other guests speaking on Kentucky Tonight on Kentucky's budget crisis and the need for comprehensive progressive tax reform

When KFTC member Dana Beasley Brown spoke of her 18-month-old son during an appearance Monday on Kentucky Tonight, she asked if he would have a future in the state.

“If we don’t invest in public structures, I don’t know what kind of Kentucky is going to be left for him.”

Beasley Brown and Mary Ann Blankenship, executive director of the Kentucky Education Association, represented the Kentucky Forward Coalition in the discussion of Kentucky’s tax situation on public television.

Kentucky Forward is a new and growing coalition of groups that represent the health and education sectors, communities of faith, labor organizations, and families across the commonwealth, including KFTC, the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, the Advocacy Action Network, AFL-CIO, Jefferson County Teachers Association, and Kentucky Jobs with Justice.  These groups have come together to build support for progressive tax reform that is fair, adequate to our needs, and sustainable.

KFTC and our allies in Kentucky Forward believe that now is the time to fix our broken tax system, and are building a campaign to compel the governor and legislative leaders to address progressive tax reform during June's special session.

The program also included panelists from the Kentucky Club For Growth and the Bluegrass Institute For Public Policy Solutions, organizations that have taken up the work of anti-government right-winger Grover Norquist since Norquist soiled his reputation with his connections to Jack Abermoff.  Both groups prefer more program cuts over progressive revenue reforms. 

The discussion was a response to the announcement Friday from the Consensus Forecasting Group that Kentucky will face a $996 million revenue shortfall in its General Fund in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Kentucky Forward is calling on state leaders to find a revenue solution that supports and sustains a high quality of life in Kentucky, is fair, and provides adequate and sustainable revenue over time.

“It does seem short-sighted when we’re in this huge crisis that we aren’t talking about comprehensive tax reform,” said Beasley Brown, who displayed a chart showing that Kentuckians at the lowest income levels pay a higher percentage of their incomes in taxes than the wealthiest people. Families living paycheck-to-paycheck need a fairer system that generates adequate revenue, she said. “It affects real people,” she said.