Kentucky Youth Advocates Opposes Beshear Budget Proposal

Kentucky Youth Advocates Director Terry Brooks is calling on the governor to amend his call for a special session of the General Assembly later this month. Brooks says the session should include discussion and action on new revenue sources for the state.Brooks says without new revenue, the estimated nearly one-billion dollar deficit will require some painful cuts. He says the nearly across-the-board reductions proposed by the Governor would do more harm than good.“This idea about across-the-board cuts is politically easy, they don’t have to show courage to do that," says Brooks, "but it’s neither strategic, nor does is serve people well.”Brooks says typically when budgets are cut across-the-board, funding is eliminated for programs that actually save the state money in the long-run.He suggests increasing the state sales tax for a limited time as an alternative.