The Christian County Chamber of Commerce was host to the community, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the United States Chamber of Commerce Thursday morning for their legislative eye-opener breakfast.
To call all of their goals lofty is fair, but they’re all dedicated to working together to see this county, the state and the country as a whole grow not just economically, but in numerous ways. Kevin Courtois is the Executive Director of Congressional and Public Affairs for the U.S. Chamber and says if there’s one thing this recently presidential election proved, it’s that citizens are concerned about the economy.
Kentucky Chamber President and CEO Ashli Watts says they are continuously pushing for growth across all sectors, from infrastructure to healthcare outcomes to quality-of-life measures, and especially focused on tax reform.
A big priority for both the local and Kentucky Chambers is getting the state income tax down to zero percent—right now it’s set to go down further to 3.5 percent. Watts says that’s a stupendous start, and they’re eager to keep that going so the Commonwealth can be even more competitive.
Tracey Clark is the Chair of Governmental Affairs for the Christian County Chamber and says they have more to celebrate that has been achieved in the last year, but they’re turning their eyes to the upcoming 2025 session of the Kentucky General Assembly.
She says they’ll advocate for further tax reform, early childhood education and overall educational funding measures.
Another area the Kentucky Chamber would like to focus efforts on is getting the workforce participation rate up—while unemployment rates remain low in the state, the workforce participation rate remains one of the lowest in the country at 58 percent. That means of those citizens who are capable and able to work, roughly 40 percent of them are not working and are not looking for work.