Guest Columns

It may not have generated much publicity, but Kentucky’s economy hit a high-water mark in October, when our civilian labor force saw its biggest one-month gain in at least 40 years. It grew by almost 15,000 during those 31 days, putting us just shy of two million people who are either working or actively looking for a job.

Other than during a rare boil-water advisory, most of us don’t think twice when we turn on the faucet. We just expect clean and plentiful water to be there.
For about 95 percent of Kentuckians, that’s exactly what we get each and every day from the 400-plus public and community water systems that serve the commonwealth. These systems meet or exceed health-based standards at an incredible rate of 99.73 percent.

The start of the 2017 legislative session is still a couple of months away, but the groundwork for what hopefully will become one of its most significant laws began last week.
It kicked off with the first meeting of the House Task Force on Child Abuse and Exploitation Prevention, which House Speaker Greg Stumbo authorized earlier this fall to see what more we can do to protect children, whether they are at home, on the playground, at camp or school or anywhere in-between.

Dear Readers,
This week I would like to clear up some questions I have had about tax rates in the county and how the nickel tax will impact the tax rates pass or fail. I hope to give a better understanding by clearly defining the 4% tax rate, Compensating Tax Rate, and the Recallable Nickel Tax Rate (should it pass.) The bullets below explain these items for the current year: