To correspond with KFTC’s statewide “Bake Sale for the budget” in Frankfort, the Madison County Chapter of KFTC held a “Berea Bake Sale for the Budget” last Wednesday. The event was held on Berea College’s campus.

In just two hours of selling baked goods, almost twenty dollars was raised, and over 55 action cards were signed and ready to be sent to the Governor’s office. One might think that twenty dollars does not a good bake sale make, but the awareness that KFTC generated around tax reform was worth more than any pennies to go into the states depleting coffer.

By definition Berea College students come from families who live at the end of the regressive tax system, they make less money and pay a high percentage of that money back into their taxes. An average Berea student makes $200 a month- so to collect nearly twenty dollars from those at the end of the state’s food chain was heartwarming. The students were given recipe cards that described House Bill 13, and some were shocked to find that the state was 1,500,000,000.00 dollars in debt.

Maren Hudson, a senior at Berea College stated, “How can a state be $1.5 billion dollars in debt when I am feeling the pinch of student loans breathing down my neck in a few months. Soon I am going to be graduating and going off into the “real world” so I guess I should start paying attention because maybe Kentucky really is not the place I want to settle my family.”

Mrs. Hudson is originally from Tennessee and lives off campus with her husband, a Kentucky native and fellow Berean. By signing individual cards that acted as a personal letter to the governor, Berea students were able to get their voices heard while they got their stomachs filled. The money, as well as the action cards will be personally delivered to the Governor’s office while KFTC continues its lobbying efforts in Frankfort.

Remember I Love Mountains Day is Feb 11th