Kentucky’s budget priorities may require some $800 million in revenue the state doesn’t have.The gap between what the state needs to spend to maintain the status quo and how much it’s bringing in will be a point of contention for lawmakers and state agencies.House Speaker Greg Stumbo told a group of business leaders this month that the spending deficit could exceed $800 million.And he says that it’s unlikely the state will have that money until Kentucky fully recovers from the 2008 recession. But, it’s coming.“Kentucky is coming out of it, but it’s going to be probably another two to three years before we get back to any—uh, assuming we don’t change our tax code—assuming everything stays status quo, probably another two to three years before you see that, you know, four to five percent growth that we had been experiencing pre-recession," he says.Gov. Steve Beshear has pledged to reinvest in education,and will present his budget proposal to lawmakers next month.
