Amen! A special session that will cost us $60,000 a day, all to write up $315 million in tax breaks to Peabody for a scheme that the federal government isn't subsidizing, after all, and that will cause even more destruction and fouled water in Eastern Kentucky? All this, when the budgets for needed state programs and institutions--oh, say, public education, for example, and higher ed--have been butchered and hacked up repeatedly? He's got to be joking...

I agree that we need more revenue, absolutely. But I think that we need a more comprehensive approach than just raising the sales tax. Families living just above the poverty line already pay a much bigger percentage of their income to state and local taxes than Kentucky's wealthiest, and a raise in the sales tax would only add to that unbalance. Instead, we could expand the sales tax to include selected services like limo rides and chartered flights. People who can afford to use these services can certainly afford to pay a tax on them. This is just one part of a comprehensive plan that the Kentucky Economic Justice Alliance supports. The plan would also bring back the estate tax (a.k.a. the Paris Hilton tax), establish a more progressive income tax, and would establish a state EITC to help working families. All in all, the plan would raise $400 million a year. And it would raise this money fairly and sustainably. Any thoughts?