Sen. Stivers talks tourism, taxes at chamber of commerce luncheon

May 25—CORBIN — Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers was the guest speaker at a joint meeting of the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Knox County Chamber of Commerce last week. He spoke of a drive to get more tourism into the area, alluding to how some would like to see the city skyline, and how some would like to see the outdoors with road improvements and expanding the area.

"We put $10 million in the budget to encourage multi-county collaboration for the purpose of doing an ad campaign to go out and match monies here," Stivers said in reference to getting more revenue into our area. "The city of Corbin, the city of Williamsburg, the city of London, the city of Barbourville, the city of Manchester, of Somerset, and Sterns — take those counties and use their transitional tax, transient room tax, and their restaurant tax, put it together, and then drawing it down and going out to do an ad campaign to say 'Come to the lakes. Come to the Falls. Come to the track, and come to the outdoor tourism of the Big Fork Gorge, or the Jeep Jamboree.'"

Stivers' hope is that by bringing together revenue from a combined effort with several cities in our area that there might be a chance to run a large campaign that would keep tourists coming back to the area. This would mean more revenue, more jobs for job security, and more money in Kentuckians' pockets. He would like people to learn what Kentucky has to offer in this area, like Cumberland Falls.

Stivers continued, "This was the type of attitude we took when looking at how to spend a record surplus that was generated by the infusion of federal dollars on a one-time basis during the COVD period."

He went on to explain that a second part of bringing more tourists to our area would also be to invest in infrastructures, such as job creation and higher education. Stivers would like to put significant money into our universities for research and scholarships at both public and private universities.

Stivers also spoke of changing Kentucky's tax code. There are two different types of tax codes. The production tax code works with income tax. A consumption code is more for the consumption of purchases and sales.

States like Tennessee, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are more successful with the consumption tax and it helps drive their revenue. Although this plan would not be implemented until 2025, Stivers hopes that this will put more money into the pockets of Kentuckians so they can choose where to spend their money and what it is taxed on. This may drive up sales tax. When asked if he thinks it would change, Stivers added, "I don't think the consumption would change."