Taylor and Thomas square off at HYPE debate

It was a familiar sight Thursday night when Republican Walker Thomas and Democrat Jeff Taylor—the two men running for State Representative in District 8—met in debate.

The two men have faced off previously, once in a special election, which Taylor won and a second time during the 2016 general election that saw Thomas as the victor. They will now face-off again in the coming November election.

While many topics were touched upon at the Hopkinsville Young Professionals Engage debate, the big topic was tax reform and generating revenue. Thomas supports moving Kentucky away from an income tax and to a sales tax, which he says will attract both industry and people to the state.

Taylor says the state needs to become better at marketing its attractions and have a salesman based mindset to generate new revenue.

On the subject of pension reform, Taylor says he was very disgruntled at the way the pension reform bill was passed by the general assembly, calling it underhanded. Thomas says the bill that passed was exactly the same that had been proposed before in Senate Bill 1, but it removed many of the controversial pieces from the legislation.  Both men agreed there is still work to be done on the pension.

Bringing broadband service to all 120 Kentucky counties, Right-to-Work legislation, Medicaid expansion and how to grow the population of Kentucky are just an example of points debated between the two.  District 8 includes portions of Christian and Trigg counties.

Listen to the debate in its entirety below:

https://soundcloud.com/user-350001776/020629_0621mp3