Radically Reform Kentucky's Tax System, or Shut the State Down

One and one-half Billion dollars.

Sixteen percent of the entire budget. One-sixth of what it costs to run Kentucky for one year.

That's the size of the budget deficit Kentucky is facing.

The Herald-Leader has an eight-step primer on the budget crisis the General Assembly will face next week.

But so far no one is facing the stark truth: spending cuts won't close this giant pit of no revenue. Not unless you want to shut down prisons, hospitals and schools.

Raising taxes on things most voters won't mind, like cigarettes and liquor, won't avoid this crisis, unless you want to tax both of those manufacturers right out of business.

Nothing less than radical, burn-it-to-the-ground-and-start-from-scratch reform of the tax system is going to fix this.

No more no-tax passes to Big Coal, Big Power, Big Insurance, Big Development and every other amoral alien corporation ass-raping Kentuckians for fun and profit.

No more keeping poor people poor and making middle-class people poor with a regressive income tax system that redistributes income from working people to wealthy parasites.

No more sweetheart contracts and giveaways of taxpayers' money to political campaign contributors and cronies.

It's going to cost all of us, but the alternative is no highways, no police or firefighters, no running water.

Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. Kentucky is a medieval barony operating on the backs of serfs, and an insane tax system is why.