LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It’s a rare point of agreement for the two candidates for Governor of Kentucky: inflation is hurting state residents. But the campaigns disagree on who is responsible for it.
The Consumer Price Index has jumped nearly 17% since President Joe Biden, D, took office — and Attorney General Daniel Cameron, R-Ky., links incumbent Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., with that rise in prices. He issued a statement this week saying “Biden and Beshear have buried their heads in the sand. They want you to believe that our economy is on fire. But on their watch, inflation has hit record highs, and workforce participation sits at indefensible lows. This is hardly the kind of prosperity worth trumpeting.”
At a news conference in August, the Republican criticized Beshear for not doing enough to deal with rising prices, saying “before he voted in favor of alleviating some of the inflationary pressures, he vetoed tax cuts here in Kentucky. The cost of groceries, the cost of gas, the cost of child care all have gone up under the Biden administration. And when our General Assembly started the process of trying to figure out how to alleviate the pressure on our people by cutting taxes, Andy Beshear vetoed that. Again, this is a governor that does not understand how to protect the family unit.”
Cameron’s campaign says the A.G. has opposed additional federal regulations that would drive up costs and is pushing back on the President’s effort to force people to adopt electric vehicles. He also promised to fight what he called “President Biden and Gov. Beshear’s radical climate agenda”.
The Beshear campaign responded with data pointing to the state’s strong economic performance since he took office. They say the state has become a national leader in job growth, adding over 50,000 jobs since February 2020 (before the pandemic). They say in 2022, nearly 250 businesses invested more than $10.5 billion in new projects or expansions.
They say the Governor took multiple steps to lower costs for families, including suspending the gas tax increase last June and halting vehicle property tax increases for two years starting in 2022.
Spectrum News 1 asked Beshear about inflationary pressures at an event in Northern Kentucky this week. He said, “We were number two in per capita economic development last year, number three in the creation of rural jobs, number five in site selection’s Prosperity Cup, number one in our region — beating out these two states called Tennessee and Texas. Listen, our families are seeing it. We’re feeling the momentum with what will be our three best years of economic development back-to-back-to-back. Yes we’re dealing with some temporary inflation and it is hard for our families, but I think everybody sees with everything we’ve come through, that we are coming out of it and we are coming to a better place.”
The state’s unemployment rate is currently 3.8%.