ITEP Work in Action
Advocates and policymakers at the state and federal levels rely on ITEP’s analytic capabilities to inform their debates on proposed tax policy changes. In any given year, ITEP fields requests for analyses of policies in 25 or more states. ITEP also works with national partners to provide analyses of federal tax policy proposals. This section highlights reports that use ITEP analyses to make a compelling case for progressive tax reforms.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: In New Poll, Kentuckians Say Income Tax Cuts Aren’t Helping
January 5, 2026
Kentucky’s legislative leaders have made reducing the state’s individual income tax rate their top priority in recent years. Lawmakers have repeatedly acted on that, reducing the rate several times and costing the state billions annually that could have been invested in kids and families. Read more.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: A State Budget for an Affordable Kentucky: Preview of the 2026–2028 Budget of the Commonwealth
December 17, 2025
The Kentucky General Assembly will perform its most important job — crafting a two-year state budget that funds education, health, social services and other critical needs. But unlike recent years, when pandemic-era stimulus created robust revenue growth, lawmakers are now facing a serious budget crunch due to the loss of federal funds, a weakening economy […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Building a Kentucky Workers Can Afford
December 2, 2025
The working class drives prosperity, and it’s time for an agenda in Frankfort that puts them first. From the state’s rural counties to our biggest cities, it’s Kentuckians—whether white, Black or brown—who make it all go. Supported by the right policies, ones that reward their efforts and prioritize their concerns, more Kentuckians could work in […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: State and Federal Tax Cuts of the Last Decade Are Giving an Enormous Windfall to the Wealthiest Kentuckians
November 12, 2025
In 2026, Kentucky’s richest 5% will receive $3.4 billion from tax cuts enacted over the last decade. That’s revenue no longer available to meet people’s needs. Kentucky workers, meanwhile, are facing stagnant and inadequate wages and a growing cost of living crisis that will get worse if state budget cuts are enacted. Read more.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Program Cuts and Tariff Costs Will Leave Many Kentucky Families Worse Off, Even with Modest Tax Cuts
June 4, 2025
On Thursday, May 22nd, the House of Representatives passed its major tax and spending legislation, which included last-minute revisions that made it even more favorable for the wealthy.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Another Income Tax Cut Will Dig the Hole Deeper
February 10, 2025
Kentucky lawmakers are expected to vote early in the legislative session on another half-point cut to the individual income tax rate, a drop from 4% to 3.5%. This cut is expected to pass despite a projected decline in tax revenues due to the income tax reductions of the last couple of years. With this next drop, the state will get closer to the level of tax cuts Kansas put in place in 2013 and was forced to reverse just five years later because the state wasn’t bringing in enough money to meet its obligations.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Local Sales Tax Amendment Could Lead to Wider Inequality Without Better Funding Local Services
November 17, 2023
Under Kentucky’s constitution, there are limits on the types of taxes the General Assembly may authorize local governments to levy, and local sales taxes are not allowed. The 2024 General Assembly may take the first step toward changing that if it considers an amendment to the constitution that would grant the legislature broader authority on […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Reducing the Income Tax Will Weaken the Commonwealth
January 25, 2023
House Bill 1 in the 2022 Kentucky General Assembly is the next step in a legislative effort to phase down and even eliminate Kentucky’s income tax. This policy path is quite likely the most dangerous ever considered in the modern history of the commonwealth. It marches toward elimination of the source of 41% of state […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: 10 Ways the Kentucky General Assembly Can Advance Race Equity and Shared Prosperity
February 15, 2021
HB 356, sponsored by Rep. Lisa Willner, would go a significant way toward cleaning up Kentucky’s tax code of the many tax breaks that benefit wealthy, predominately white Kentuckians — and would raise over $1 billion in needed revenue annually to invest in equitable and prosperous Kentucky communities. Currently, the state’s tax system plays an […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Tax Plan Would Fix Kentucky’s Budget Challenges by Addressing Upside Down Tax Code
February 13, 2020
Kentucky’s current tax system lets those with the greatest ability to pay taxes contribute the least as a share of their income. A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that low- and middle-income people pay between 9.5% and 11.1% of their income in total state and local taxes, while the top 1% pay […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: New Report Shows Kentucky’s Tax System Worsens Income Inequality
October 18, 2018
In Kentucky, the income inequality that exists between our poorest and wealthiest residents is magnified by the structure of our tax system. And thanks to the new tax law enacted by the 2018 General Assembly, that problem is getting worse.
Message-Inquirer: Tax Study Explores ‘Who Pays?’ in Kentucky
October 18, 2018
A new study from a national economic policy research group suggests Kentucky’s tax structure has become less equitable since the last General Assembly's tax reform legislation, putting more tax obligation on poor and middle-class Kentuckians.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: New Report: Wealthiest Kentuckians Pay the Lowest Tax Rate and the Problem Is Worsening
October 17, 2018
The study, Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States, evaluates the major components of state and local tax systems – including personal and corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes and other excise taxes – for their overall distributional impact across income groups. For example, Kentucky’s low income tax credit means that people in poverty do not pay state income taxes. However, because the state fails to provide refundable tax credits to offset sales, excise and property taxes paid by low-income people, and because the state has a flat as opposed to graduated income…
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Clean Up the Tax Code to Invest in Our Commonwealth
August 22, 2018
To move our tax code in the right direction, Kentucky should rejoin 32 other states with a graduated income tax based on ability to pay. Income below $37,500 single/$75,000 married should still be taxed at 5 percent, between that point and $75,000 single/$150,000 married at 6 percent and above those incomes at 7 percent, phasing […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: New Tax Law Shifts from the Wealthy to Kentuckians of Color and Economically Distressed Regions of State
April 20, 2018
In the waning days of the 2018 General Assembly, legislators passed House Bill 366 (HB 366), a regressive tax reform package that gives a tax break to the wealthiest but asks more of everyone else, especially low-income Kentuckians. In addition to widening income disparities, these changes will exacerbate existing racial and geographic inequality in our state.
The Chronicle: Value Teachers, Unions to Better Education
April 16, 2018
It is not a coincidence these movements took place in Republican-led states in which tax cuts take precedence over funding education. An example is Kentucky House Bill 366, which would cut taxes of the state’s wealthiest residents while increasing taxes of low-wage earners, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Washington Post: Kentucky’s Tax Cut for the Top 5 Percent Survives Despite Governor’s Veto
April 13, 2018
Republicans in Kentucky's state legislature overturned Gov. Matt Bevin's (R) vetoes of their tax overhaul and budget plan Friday, capping a dramatic confrontation between members of the same party that has also seen thousands of teachers descend on the state Capitol in protests for better pay.
CNN: Kentucky Governor Signs Controversial Pension Bill as Teachers Call for Rally
April 11, 2018
An analysis of that bill by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found it would bring a huge tax cut for the richest 1% of residents, while the biggest tax increase would affect those making less than $21,000 a year.
Courier Journal: Kentucky Tax Reform Bill is a Break for the Rich but a Hike for Everybody Else, Study Says
April 6, 2018
The tax bill that zipped through the General Assembly on Monday will amount to a tax break for millionaires but a tax increase for 95 percent of Kentuckians, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy.
WUKY: A Tale Of Two Tax Studies
April 6, 2018
"This is a complicated tax plan with a lot of moving pieces, but the net result is clear: that it is middle-class tax hike. Kentucky's poorest families and the middle class will end up paying more while the state wealthiest taxpayers are going to end up paying less," ITEP analyst Aidan Davis says.
Lexington Herald Ledger: Study: GOP Bill Cuts Taxes for the Rich, Raises Taxes for 95 Percent of Kentuckians
April 5, 2018
A new study of the tax bill rushed through the Kentucky General Assembly Monday shows the changes it makes to the tax code are likely to lower taxes for the wealthy while raising taxes for 95 percent of Kentuckians. The analysis, performed by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington D.C., a liberal-leaning think tank, studied the impact of the tax cuts and increases on Kentuckians.
Washington Post: Kentucky Legislators Send Tax Cuts for Wealthy, Tax Hikes for the Other 95 Percent to Governor’s Desk
April 5, 2018
The Kentucky legislature passed a sweeping tax overhaul this week, and now lawmakers are asking Gov. Matt Bevin to sign a bill that would slash taxes for some corporations and wealthy individuals while raising them on 95 percent of state residents, according to a new analysis.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: House Bill 366 Represents a Tax Shift Away from the Wealthy to Low- and Middle-Income Kentuckians
April 4, 2018
A new analysis of HB 366 by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows the dramatically skewed impact of the tax changes on Kentuckians by income group. As can be seen in the graph below, Kentuckians whose income puts them in the top 5 percent will see a tax cut, with those in the top 1 percent, whose average income is $1,042,000, receiving an average tax cut of $7,086.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Tax Plan Is a Tax Shift with Troubling Long-Term Effect on Revenues
April 2, 2018
The General Assembly introduced a tax bill today that is a shift in taxes away from corporations and high-income people and over to low- and middle-income Kentuckians. Although the official estimate is that it would bring $248 million more in net revenue by the second year, the plan relies heavily on a fading source in […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Passage of the Dream Act Would Benefit Kentucky
December 21, 2017
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) estimates that 6,000 (formerly) DACA-eligible Kentuckians currently contribute a total of $8.1 million in local and state taxes annually through sales and excise taxes, property taxes and income taxes. Their effective tax rate of 9.1 percent is higher than that paid by the wealthiest 1 percent of […]
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