During Governor Andy Beshear’s weekly news conference Thursday, Beshear described a law passed by the General Assembly last year that would trigger automatic tax cuts.
“They put very specific numbers that had to be reached, specific thresholds that had to be reached. And then the budget director has a duty to report to them where all those numbers are. The numbers of where our economy is right now, do not meet the thresholds that the legislators themselves set in statute.”
The day before at an event in Louisville, Attorney General Daniel Cameron said as governor, the budgets he’d submit would keep Kentucky on the path to eliminating the income tax. Then he went further.
“I'll work constructively with leaders of the General Assembly to make our tax code simple, fair and competitive so that families and Main Street thrive. I will be the governor who eliminates the income tax.”
Asked about Cameron’s plan, Beshear pounced.
“You cannot go to zero percent income tax like Daniel Cameron has pushed, without either a massive sales tax increase, which is what he would do, or the gutting of K through 12 education, higher education and health care coverage for millions of Kentuckians.”
In a statement, the Cameron campaign accused Beshear of lying, saying he’d do anything to cover up his support for what they called "Bidenomics" and record-high inflation. It also said despite Beshear’s praise for the General Assembly’s tax-cut triggering framework, he vetoed the bill, which became law when the overwhelming GOP majority overrode the veto.
I’m John McGary.
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