The 2022-2024 budget agreement announced today includes only very modest funding increases for critical state services across the budget. Investments in education and other areas are small, especially considering the historic opportunity the General Assembly has with record surpluses. The budget does make a substantial investment in badly needed, across-the-board salary increases for state workers of at least 8% the first year and an additional raise the second. However, the incremental increases in the education budget will make it difficult for school districts to afford raises for teachers and other school staff.
The budget agreement falls short of making other important, long-delayed investments by leaving huge sums unappropriated in order to pay for the tax cuts in House Bill (HB) 8. The budget agreement leaves $1.01 billion unappropriated, but HB 8 spends $888 million in income tax cuts disproportionately benefiting the wealthy.
If this budget and the HB 8 tax cut proposals both become law, the 2022 Kentucky General Assembly will have failed to effectively address the state’s considerable needs in either the short or long term. Even with a once-in-a-generation budget surplus, the proposed budget makes only muted investments in critical services. And HB 8’s tax cuts and tax shifts will slash available revenues and make it even more difficult for future budgets to make the foundational investments that help all Kentuckians thrive.
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Click here to read KyPolicy's full analysis of the new 2022-24 budget agreement.
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