Budget & Taxes

Amend KRS 65.013 to define terms; expand the prohibition on using tax dollars to advocate for or against a public question on the ballot to prohibit using any resources, and to explicitly apply prohibition to school districts, regional educational cooperatives, and recalls on a ballot; establish a criminal penalty and a prohibition against holding a position of public trust or profit for 10 years for a person found guilty of violating the prohibition; create a cause of action for a citizen aggrieved by a violation of the prohibition; establish a statute of limitations to commence suit and the appropriate venue; provide when the suit accrues; specify damages recoverable per violation; allow for class action; include a prohibition against holding a position of public trust or profit for 10 years for a person held civilly liable; amend KRS 48.025 and 132.017 to conform.

Amend KRS 132.017, relating to the process for a recall of a local ad valorem tax rate, to define "school nickel tax rate"; require a petition process for recalling the levy of a school nickel tax rate; remove other taxes levied by local governmental entities from the petition process requirements; require an ad valorem tax levied by a local governmental entity and a general tax rate levied by a local board of education to be voted upon by the voters if the tax rate produces more than 4% in revenues over the revenues produced by the compensating tax rate; require the suspension of the ordinance, order, resolution, or motion levying the tax rate until after the required election; allow a local governmental entity or a local board of education to cancel a required recall election by reconsidering the levy and instead levying a tax rate that produces no more than 4% in revenues over the revenues produced by the compensating tax rate; specify ballot and public notification requirements for the election; provide that if a tax rate is recalled, the compensating tax rate shall be levied; amend KRS 68.245, 75A.050, 132.018, 132.023, 132.027, and 160.470 to conform; make technical changes; EFFECTIVE January 1, 2027.