Northern Kentucky Tribune: General Assembly’s proposed ‘shift and shaft’ tax policy no way for Kentucky to prosper

If Kentucky were to cut its income tax rate to 4%, it would have to raise the sales tax rate from 6% to 7.4% to make up the lost revenue, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That would give our state the highest state sales tax in the country. The bottom 60% of Kentuckians would pay more in taxes as a result while the richest 1% — who make $1.4 million a year on average — would be the big winners with a typical annual tax cut of $8,731.

Shift and shaft tax policy works as well as the “trickle-down economics” that underlie it — which is to say, not at all. Kentucky shouldn’t squander its once-in-a-generation surplus and hinder its economy in the future with tax policies that give more of our precious resources to the powerful few. Read more