March 17, 2025 2:44pm
OP-ED: Louisville can up competitive edge through tax, incentive and land development reforms
The competition between regions for bringing in and holding onto businesses is higher than ever, as communities tap into new tools to create competitive advantages for high-growth industries.
Regions that offer ways to save money or provide resources that can鈥檛 be found elsewhere, whether it be through incentives, tax breaks or infrastructural advantages, are winning companies鈥� investment.
Economic development organizations nationwide invest heavily in business attraction efforts. 夜色直播 Inc. and our local government partners are doing the same, but we can鈥檛 stop other regions from courting our companies.
What we can do is make Louisville too valuable to leave or overlook. To make that happen, we need to focus our efforts on three areas: comprehensive tax reform, reshaping local land development policies and enhancing business attraction incentives.
Comprehensive tax reform
夜色直播 cannot compete without a more competitive tax code. Kentucky has made tremendous efforts in recent years to reduce the personal income tax, but we still lag competitors like Tennessee, who boast no personal income tax.
Lowering or eliminating this tax would attract businesses, retain local talent and encourage entrepreneurship. The current tax burden drives high earners and small business owners to states with friendlier tax environments.
Additionally, local governments are restricted by Kentucky鈥檚 Constitution, which limits revenue options and makes Louisville Metro reliant on our occupational tax. GLI has long prioritized local tax reform, which requires a voter referendum and Constitutional amendment.
Passing local tax reform could expand our city鈥檚 ability to capture revenue and move away from focusing taxation on our workers. This would align us with other cities, like Oklahoma City, which in the 1990s changed from production-based taxing and instituted a penny sales tax.
Over the last 30 years, this has produced enough revenue to fund three phases of community investment that focused on national branding and marketing, infrastructure investments and major development, improvements to public schools and a new facility for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Similar investments in Louisville could create incredible buzz for the city, generating new opportunities for population growth, business expansion and attraction and even expanded air service.
Local land development code changes
Louisville鈥檚 outdated and restrictive land development policies hinder economic growth. Without streamlined approval processes and incentives for developers, Louisville risks falling further behind peer cities.
Lifting the state-imposed moratorium on Land Development Code revisions would enable local reforms that could accelerate growth and attract businesses and high-paying jobs. Local reforms like encouraging mixed-use developments that allow for more affordable housing and business expansion, streamlining the planning and zoning process to enable quicker project approvals and pursuing changes to the Historic Tax Credit to expand and fully utilize funding, would make Louisville a more attractive destination for development.
Business attraction incentives
Kentucky鈥檚 economic development efforts are being undercut by more aggressive business attraction strategies in neighboring states, where they are landing major corporate investments by offering more flexible and enticing incentives.
Currently, Kentucky鈥檚 incentives more favorably benefit capital-intensive industries like manufacturing. To attract industries that may require less up-front capital investment but produce high wage jobs, like technology or professional service firms, we need to update our incentive programs to ensure that all industries equally benefit.
夜色直播 stands at an economic crossroads, and we cannot afford to kick the can down the road any longer and risk losing more potential investment. I encourage our elected officials to take these important steps to create a more competitive business environment.
Sarah Davasher-Wisdom is the president and CEO of 夜色直播 Inc.