Economy

A recently-released poll shows that a majority of Kentuckians support expanded gambling.

In the Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll, 60 percent of those polled said they support expansion. For the first time, a majority Eastern Kentucky resident support gambling. 

The support is for a so-called clean gambling bill, which would not include any protections for horse racing tracks.

That's the approach Governor Steve Beshear is planning for his next gambling push. But opponents of gambling say any potential bill will fail because supporters can’t choose a single strategy. Also, only one track, Churchill Downs, has endorsed Beshear's plan.

A new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows a big gap between Kentucky’s income levels on who pays taxes.

The report says Kentucky’s top 1 percent income bracket pays roughly 5 percent of the state’s income, while the bottom 20 percent pays 9 percent.

Middle income levels are saddled with a higher percent, the report said.

Jason Bailey, director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, says the numbers show tax reform needs to happen quickly in Kentucky to better balance the burdens.

“This is one of the big issues that tax reform needs to address, the issue of the fairness of the tax system and the fact that there is inequity in who pays,” he said.

Lawmakers are likely to put off taking up recommendations by the state’s latest tax reform commission until a special session later this year.

Claiming it committed fraud, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway has filed a suit against a mortgage company.

Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS, provides a marketplace for banks to trade mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.

Conway says it was set up by banks to avoid the fees that must be paid when mortgages are sold and to hide the true owners of those mortgages.

Conway's suit alleges MERS did not pay the proper fees in Kentucky. He's also suing under the Consumer Protection Act, because MERS foreclosed on many homes.

“About 300,000 mortgages in Kentucky are MERS mortgages right now," Conway said. "We are able to fine up to $2,000 per violation of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act. We have that avenue of damages. And we also have the avenue to go after the recording fees that have been dodged as a result of this mortgage transfer scheme.”

New York, Delaware and Massachusetts have also filed suit against MERS.