KFTC Action Alert: January 3, 2007

KENTUCKY EXPENDITURE SURVEY

Governor Ernie Fletcher is declaring that Kentucky will have a $279 million budget “surplus” by the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2007). He is asking Kentuckians how this unbudgeted revenue should be spent. The governor’s office has posted an online survey asking for your opinion. We encourage all KFTC members to complete the survey. It can be found here.

The survey offers 6 choices: tax cuts, construction projects, small business health insurance, state employees retirement, the rainy day fund or college financial aid. While we agree that some of these are important needs we note the absence of several major priorities such as basic educational funding, health care for the uninsured, environmental protection, social services and infrastructure. So we encourage use of the “Other” option to choose some of these other needs.

We also encourage the use of the “Additional Comments” box to press the need for comprehensive tax reform. You might add a comment to the effect: "My first choice is to pass fair, adequate tax reforms that will raise substantial new revenue in a way that is fair to low-income Kentuckians. This is needed to allow urgently needed investments in education, higher education, health care and renewable energy."

Here’s KFTC’s take on the question: When your budget is already under-funded by more than $1 billion an extra $279 million can hardly be called a “surplus.” As KFTC Chairperson Doug Doerrfeld's said to Governor Fletcher at a public meeting in Morehead, "I take exception to the fact that you're calling this a surplus when we have chronic under-funding of health care, housing, and education. We need to increase tax revenue, and increase it fairly, to move Kentucky forward."

We don’t know how long the survey will remain posted so we encourage you to express your opinion soon.