MEDIA ALERT: Former Deputy State Budget and Policy Director joins Bluegrass Institute team as Visiting Fellow

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, May 19, 2020

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions announced today that former Deputy State Budget and Policy Director Andrew V. McNeill will join the institute as a Visiting Policy Fellow focused on Kentucky’s budget, revenue and spending in the current COVID-19 environment.“

There’s going to be a huge debate about what direction Kentucky should take coming out of this devastating policy-initiated recession,” McNeill stated. “I look forward to being on the front lines of that debate with the team at Kentucky’s first and only free market think tank as we offer pro-growth policies to both meet our short-term economic challenges and fundamentally alter the state’s stagnant trajectory.”

In his role, McNeill will also continue to draw attention to wasteful spending and unnecessary government intervention in Kentucky’s private sector.“

Andrew’s principled commitment to free markets and free people combined with his significant experience in state government and its budgeting process will significantly boost our efforts to offer data-driven, commonsense policies to counter the false narrative that more spending, higher taxes and bigger government provide the best path forward,” Bluegrass Institute President and CEO Jim Waters said. “Taxpayers and policymakers alike will benefit greatly from this collaboration.”

McNeill served as Senior Policy Advisor and Deputy State Budget and Policy Director for Gov. Matt Bevin from 2015 to 2018. Most recently he was State Director for the Kentucky Chapter of Americans for Prosperity. During the Fletcher Administration, McNeill served as Director of Legislative Policy in the Governor’s Office, the Chief of Staff to Kentucky’s Commerce Secretary and the Executive Director of the Office of Energy Policy.

McNeill has been a member of the University of Kentucky’s Martin School’s Board of Visitors, served on the Kentucky Long Term Policy Research Center’s Board of Directors as well as Kentucky’s High-Speed Internet Access Task Force. He has a Master’s in Public Administration from the Martin School of Public Policy & Administration and undergraduate degrees in History and Government from Centre College.

McNeill can be reached at amcneill@freedomkentucky.com or 502.403.7548.

For more information, please contact Jim Waters at jwaters@freedomkentucky.com, 859.444.5630 ext. 102 (office) or 270.320.4376 (cell).