Time now for our midweek check in of some major political developments in Kentucky this week, of course, with Rosalind Barton, who's the managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio, an Ohio Valley resource.

Good to see you, Rylan.

Good to see you, too, Renee.

So a couple three items We want to talk about the signing of House Bill one by Governor Andy Beshear late last week.

This is the measure, of course, that lowers the state's income tax rate from 4.5% to 4% on January 1st of 20, 24.

We must remind viewers that he actually vetoed the measure in 2022 that created the path for these half percentage point reductions.

What certain economic conditions are met by the state?

So is this all about election year politics?

I think it's got to be a little bit about that.

The governor said he signed that bill to really provide a little bit of a reprieve for Kentucky taxpayers during this time of inflation to keep a little bit of that money in foxes in pockets.

This is something that a lot of that almost every Democrat had voted against along the way through the legislature.

But Beshear decided to sign it anyway, as you pointed out.

Last year, he vetoed this really the same kind of measure to reduce the income tax by half a percentage point.

Republicans accused him of playing politics by by doing this.

And really, you can imagine that that move, you know, if he were to have vetoed it, it would have kind of looked at, you know, Republicans would have been able to campaign against, you know, the governor isn't doesn't want to lower your taxes.

And so in this reelection year, yeah, I think that there is probably a little bit of politics at play here, too, to not have that kind of headline.

And and also just a yeah, provide this reprieve to Kentucky taxpayers.

I do want to point out that this, combined with the tax cut from that began earlier this year, will reduce it of revenue going into the state coffers by about $1.3 billion compared to what it was before these tax cuts every year.

Yeah.

So certainly we'll see.

We think that puts them out of step, of course, with the House and Senate Democrats who voted against it.

Right.

But they're not up for election this year.

So they're going to be accountab