Snow falls on the North Lawn of the White House, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Official White House photo by Oliver Contreras)
Last week’s attempted federal funding freeze caused panic for the many Kentuckians whose lives, jobs and communities rely on those resources. But that was just a glimpse of what’s to come if the Trump administration and Congress move forward with plans to permanently cut the federal budget and hand tax cuts to the wealthiest among us.
Federal funds sent to the Kentucky state budget totaled $22 billion in 2024. That equals 43% of state spending, the sixth-largest share of all states. And that’s only a portion of the federal tax dollars that flow through our communities. Vital federal grants and payments go to individuals and families, businesses, nonprofit organizations, health care providers, colleges and universities, cities, counties and more. Kentucky also has 23,000 federal civilian employees, making the U. S. government among our state’s biggest employers.
The threat of lost services and jobs forced the White House to quickly rescind the blanket freeze while still blocking certain grants. The legality of their actions remains highly doubtful, and now the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has apparently seized access to the U. S. Treasury’s payment systems with unknown consequences.
Congressional leaders’ plans for the federal budget are the next deep concern. Their top priority is to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts that go overwhelmingly to the richest people. In Kentucky, the richest 1% would receive $34,440 annually next year while the poorest 20% get only $70.
When it comes to the budget, Congress is considering ideas straight out of the Project 2025 report released by the billionaire-funded Heritage Foundation. Official documents suggest major targets for cuts include Medicaid, SNAP food assistance and public schools, among other critical areas.
Medicaid covers one in three Kentuckians, including seniors in nursing homes, low-wage workers, people with disabilities and nearly half of Kentucky’s kids. The $15 billion a year Kentucky receives through Medicaid props up hospitals and health care clinics across the state. Slashing it would threaten jobs that keep local economies afloat and worsen well-being in a place where life expectancy is already six years shorter than the healthiest states.
SNAP helps 587,000 Kentuckians meet basic food needs, including children, low-wage workers, people with disabilities and seniors. New cuts would hit even as inflation has harmfully pushed up the price of groceries 27% in recent years. Bird flu outbreaks — the very kind of diseases we need a properly funded federal public infrastructure to handle — have made the price of eggs go even higher recently. And potential new tariffs on Mexico and Canada threaten to jack food prices up further.
Federal funding for public schools is among the array of other budget items on the chopping block under the Project 2025 playbook. The biggest pot of money is Title 1, which provides funding to schools with more low-income children. In Kentucky, 80% of schools rely on Title 1 funding. Cuts would set back kids already facing disadvantages across rural and urban communities.
Many of the cuts being considered would shift substantial costs to states. In Kentucky, the General Assembly’s reductions to the state income tax will weaken our ability to pay for current services, but the burdens would rise further if a federal cost shift occurs.
There are also big questions about many other spending areas, including disaster relief that has been vital in a state wracked by tornadoes and flooding and with 24 declared natural disasters in the last decade. Also at risk are recent infrastructure and energy investments from which the commonwealth has been among the biggest beneficiaries. In Kentucky, 1,100 projects have been funded through these new federal laws, creating jobs in nearly every county.
Behind the budget debate’s technical jargon and political noise are simple yet consequential decisions. The choice is whether to take resources away from the vast majority and hand them to the already wealthy, the last among us in need of even more.