Your taxes, your schools, your roads.

The candidates for governor had money on their minds as they talked to the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce during a dinner last night in Louisville.

The big item on the menu, the state income tax.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron says get rid of it.

Governor Andy Beshear asked, though, what would take its place.

Our Toby Gibbs has the highlights.

On the issue of tax reform, I will be the only candidate here tonight that will tell you that I want to eliminate Kentucky's income tax.

30 years ago, Kentucky and Tennessee were essentially the same size.

But because Tennessee has a pro-growth mindset, it's moved past us in terms of its population.

I want people, whether they're traveling 65 south or 75 south, to make the the judgment and the decision to stop here, because we have a tax environment that keeps people here in the commonwealth of Kentucky.

At the end of the day, this is about your hard earned money and making sure that you keep it in your pocket.

Groceries are more expensive, gas is more expensive.

Securing childcare is more expensive right now.

And so, again, I don't think you should be penalized for deciding to get up every morning and go to work.

We need to put more money in your pocket so you can pay for those things.

The Kentucky General Assembly has already cut the income tax twice, but Attorney General Cameron said that's in spite of Governor Andy Beshear.

When our legislature decided to make the commonsense decision to give you more of your hard earned money, there was one person in Frankfort that stood opposed to that.

Andy Beshear vetoed that legislation because he did not understand how important it is to get money back into your pockets.

Cameron talked about more than just taxes.

He also talked about making it easier for people and goods to get from point A to point B.

We also need to take care of our rural roads because most of us, that's where we're doing a lot of traveling in state is on those rural roads and we've got to keep our people safe.

There's no question about that.

And I'm going to prioritize those rural roads when you talk about our navigable, navigable waterways.

I mean, we have more navigable navigable waterways than the majority of the states here in this country.

And because of it, we're able to transport coal and other commodities on our rivers.

We've got to make sure our ports and our barges that they're getting the right attention.

And I'll certainly be the governor.

And as as the next governor of this commonwealth to prioritize that beginning in January of next year.

When it was his turn.

Governor Beshear touted the state's economy, pushed for higher educator pay, and pointed out that he did sign an income tax cut.

But he says a complete elimination of the income tax would force other taxes to go up.

With us having the three biggest budget surpluses in our history, including $1.55 billion this last year, and I know we'll get to it, that means we have plenty of money to give our public school educators the big race they deserve.

When we have that type of economy, our people ought to benefit from it.

That's why I was able to sign a decrease in the income tax.

We've been able to lower the property tax rate, I believe, three times since I was governor.

We were able to use enough general fund to backfill the road fund to freeze the gas tax and the property tax on vehicles when it was hurting people the most.

A rush like my opponent talks about to get to zero on the income tax as quickly as possible would turn us into Kansas.

You can only do it one or two ways.

First, he would dramatically increase the sales tax and apply it to things like groceries and medicine because you can't come up with enough revenue otherwise or gut public education.

Public safety and health care.

You know, everything in moderation is the way we get where we're supposed to go and make sure that we can fund those essentials for our families.

At the same time, our public school educators are heroes, but they have been villainized over and over and over.

It is time we lift up our educators.

And you know what, folks?

The way we catch up a kid in math is to make sure there's a math teacher there every day.

Our education first plan would provide an 11% across the board raise for every public school employee that move us to the mid-twenties on teacher pay.

But you know what it would also do?

It would allow us to hire enough bus drivers to make sure every child is safe and that every child could get to school.

But that plan also goes back and funds universal pre-K, because if we want to improve reading scores, how about we make sure that no child starts kindergarten behind when it's so hard for them to catch up?

So the number one thing that will help us catch up our kids is to actually fund public education the way we should.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Toby Gibbs.