In the blink of an eye, Christmas will be behind us and we’ll be sailing towards the new year—which means that legislators from across the Commonwealth will be convening in Frankfort for the 2026 session of the Kentucky General Assembly.
This will be Senator Craig Richardson of Christian County’s first budget session, and he says that while he will have a lot to learn, he feels confident that he’ll get up to speed quickly and work to get things of import into this budget.
One of the main things he thinks you’ll hear about during this budget session is the financial hardship that is county jails and reforms could potentially happen to help lessen their struggles. Senator Richardson says while the Christian County Jail, thanks to Jailer Adam Smith and his staff, is in pretty good financial shape, that’s not the case for a lot of other county jails.
Jails are often a hefty price tag in county budgets, and Richardson says that unless something is adjusted, that’s only going to get pricier.
Road projects will be a big priority for him this session, and he says making sure local pharmacies are being adequately reimbursed by Medicaid and Medicare.
The senator believes the budget process will be fairly business as usual, even with a predicted budget shortfall—he says they’ve always strived to be fiscally conservative and he doesn’t expect that to change this time around.
He says while he believes they may have actually hit the triggers to lower the state income tax once again; he doesn’t anticipate a vote being brought up to do so.
The state income tax is set to decrease from four percent down to 3.5 percent in January, following a gradual process set up by the General Assembly a couple of years ago.
There will be much to discuss concerning a budget in the coming months, with session set to convene on January 6.