Who voted to raise your taxes and protect wasteful spending?

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The Republican-controlled Kentucky House and Senate voted during this year’s General Assembly session to override their fellow Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s veto of nearly a half-billion in tax-and-spending increases.

Some who voted for the overrides point to an analysis by a Washington, D.C., group claiming that making the income tax a flat 5 percent – as House Bill 366 does – greatly improves Kentucky’s business tax climate and puts more money into Kentuckians' pockets.

However, by eliminating tax breaks that taxpayers used to get at the state and federal level for state and local taxes paid, the 5 percent will be applied to more of Kentuckians’ income than the previous 6 percent. While Kentucky taxpayers may face a lower marginal tax rate, they, in fact, will be paying higher average tax rates.

What the legislature approved in overriding Bevin’s vetoes should not be mistaken at all for “revenue neutral tax reform." It was, in fact, a tax increase.

These overrides are designed by Frankfort's tax-and-spend politicians to raise the revenue needed to pay for a nearly half-billion dollars in new spending on wasteful projects that Bevin attempted to veto but that Republican politicians, despite having been handed a legislative supermajority by voters in 2016, were too politically weak to uphold.

One additional vote to uphold the veto in the Senate, which voted 20-18 to override, would have protected Bevin’s attempt to hold the line on taxes and spending.

Here are the legislators who voted to override Gov. Bevin’s veto of HB 366 and raise taxes on their fellow Kentuckians:

House: Bechler, Bentley, Benvenuti, Blanton, Bratcher, Brown L, Carney, Couch, DeCesare, Dossett, DuPlessis, Elliott, Fischer, Fleming, Goforth, Gooch, Hale, Hart, Heath, Herald, Hoover, Huff, Imes, Johnson DJ, Koenig, Linder, Mayfield, McCoy, Meade, Meredith, Miles, Miller J, Mills, Moore, Moser, Nemes, Osborne, Petrie, Pratt, Prunty, Reed, Riley, Rothenburger, Rowland, Rudy, Santoro, Shell, St. Onge, Stewart, Thomas, Tipton, Turner, Upchurch, Webber, Wells, Wuchner and York.

Senate: Alvarado, Carpenter, Carroll D, Embry, Girdler, Givens, Harris, Higdon, Kerr, McDaniel, Meredith, Raque Adams, Robinson, Schroder, Seum, Stiver, Thayer, West, Westerfield and Wilson.

You can click here to see who voted to override the governor’s veto of House Bill 200 and enact large spending increases.