The Kentucky Association of Manufacturers applauds the passage of House Bill 360, which has been signed into law by Governor Beshear. The legislation is an important step forward for Kentucky jobs and competitiveness.
The final bill removed provisions regarding the Kentucky Supreme Court’s 2022 Century Aluminum decision. Those provisions would have created a large increase in sales/use taxes on nearly all Kentucky manufacturers. We thank the Kentucky Senate, House of Representatives, and the Governor for their actions to avoid such a damaging tax hike and enact several new, productive tax policies.
In early 2022, KAM filed an amicus brief in support of Century Aluminum’s litigation against the Kentucky Department of Revenue. The Supreme Court’s unanimous December opinion, with one concurrence, provided clarity to manufacturers on the exemption from taxation of consumable industrial supplies and was an important step forward for Kentucky manufacturers and the 700,000-plus jobs they directly and indirectly support.
KAM will continue to work with the General Assembly to ensure policymakers support this and other tax policies that help Kentucky manufacturers and the businesses they support successfully compete in the global economy.
HB 360 includes additional KAM policy proposals, including enactment of a pass-through entity tax (PTET) election; continued modernization of the sales tax code by removing the sales tax on marketing services and clarifying the sales tax on lab testing services (rather than manufacturing services); and its important provisions to help alleviate growing workforce housing concerns by enacting a new property tax valuation methodology that will encourage affordable housing development.
