LOUISVLLE, Ky. (WDRB) — As part of a wide-ranging bill approved last week, state lawmakers aimed to make sales tax incentives available to the promoters of Louisville’s popular Bourbon & Beyond festival and similar events.
House Bill 775 includes rebates for some music festivals in Louisville and Lexington that run for at least two straight days and bring in 60,000 people. Those attractions could receive half of the Kentucky sales taxes generated on admissions, food and drink.
But contrary to public statements, Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life do not qualify for the incentives under the current version of the legislation, a WDRB News analysis has found.
That’s because multiday events held on state land – like the Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center — aren’t part of the bill that passed both chambers of the General Assembly last week after morphing from four to 147 pages.
Rep. Jason Nemes (R-Middletown), the bill’s sponsor and House Majority Whip, acknowledged the error on Tuesday and said lawmakers will make changes when they return for the session’s two final days next week.
“We’re going to fix it,” he said.
Nemes said the festival language was moved into HB 775 from a different bill, but a provision allowing the tax rebates for events on state-owned land was mistakenly omitted during that transfer.
Kentucky Venues, which manages the expo center, had expressed uncertainty about the bill earlier Tuesday. Spokesman Ian Cox told WDRB “we’re not clear” if the festivals would qualify.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the incentives are needed to keep Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life in Louisville. He called the shows a “huge economic driver every September.”
“The cost of putting on these festivals is rising for a lot of different reasons,” Greenberg told reporters Tuesday. “They’re getting incentives from other states and cities that they have other shows in across the country, so they needed this to continue to stay in our community.”
Los Angeles-based Danny Wimmer Presents produces both festivals, which it says drew more than 300,000 people last year and had a local economic impact of at least $33 million.
A Wimmer spokesperson did not respond to questions for this story.
Originally filed as a four-page bill allowing development incentives near the KFC Yum! Center, the legislation eventually took in the festival sales tax rebates; taxes on cannabis-infused beverages and distilled spirits; tax caps on farmland sales; adjustments to state income taxes; and tourism projects in smaller Kentucky counties, among other things.
The bill also re-establishes a tax increment financing (TIF) district for a project planned at the site of the former Museum Plaza project in downtown Louisville. Poe Companies is developing that land.
Nemes said in a speech on the House floor last Tuesday that the legislation will “build on Kentucky’s commitment to economic expansion and modernizing outdated policies and ensuring that local governments have the tools they need to compete for investment and improve public infrastructure.”
But some Democrats raised concerns about not having enough time to digest a quickly-changing measure that moved to a floor vote within hours of being approved in committee.
“I have faith in a lot of things, but 100 pages of legislation that just showed up — it’s hard to have a lot of faith in,” said Rep. Adam Moore (D-Lexington).
Rep. Rachel Roarx (D-Louisville) told her colleagues she was casting a “no” vote, even though she supported parts like extending a tax credit for tuition paid in the Metropolitan College program for students working at UPS.
“Ultimately, there are many provisions in this bill that I think deserve a closer look and for the public to be able to weigh in on before making final judgment,” she said.
Roarx said in an interview Tuesday that her concerns were validated after learning about the omission that exempts the Louisville music festivals.
“When we go that fast in the bill process, mistakes are made,” she said.
The post A Kentucky bill wanted to help Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life. It doesn’t – for now first appeared on Voxtrend News.
