WalletHub.com is Wrong About Kentucky’s Rating for Retirees

Bad Retirement Designation

is Clearly Erroneous

Affordability, Health Care, Quality of Life

1/29/2025 COMMENTARY

After bragging about Kentucky’s economic future and claiming credit for it at the Davos economic forum in Europe, Gov. Andy Beshear’s Kentucky ranks LAST in WalletHub.com’s ERRONEOUS ranking of bad places to retire based on:

  • Affordability: lack of affordable housing, taxes, overall cost of living.
  • Health care: lack of quality health care #45 rank (access, quality, population’s health status).
  • Quality of life: weather, crime, cultural and recreational opportunities.

In these criteria, JournalKentucky.com does NOT rescue Gov. Beshear; but, rather, highlights the obvious flaws in WalletHub.com’s specious ranking.

Although Gov. Andy Beshear cannot legitimately claim responsibility for Kentucky’s advances to date, we are all beneficiaries of decades of overall great planning by Kentucky’s “deep state” employees who provide for the continuum of government operations.

Many fault Beshear for rarely, if ever, giving credit to state employees for continuously implementing plans laid down by the legislature which resulted in the economic development cited by Beshear at the Davos conference.

Some claim the state’s advances were opposed by Beshear and he stole the credit after Republicans overrode his veto. That is up to historians to sort out.

AFFORDABILITY:

Kentucky has many openings for affordable housing that actively have open wait-lists.

Sane cities like Lexington are continuously bringing online many public-private affordable housing options. These range from $800/month for a single bedroom apartment to $1200/month or more for small family units. That’s not much difference with the private market; however, the rents are controlled and are required to accept government housing vouchers, hence the designation “affordable” [if you have a relatively rare “housing choice voucher”].

But, nobody doubts there is a significant affordable housing crisis in America, especially when many people who’d rather buy a private residence cannot afford a mortgage nor make the down-payment.

Government assistance to buy a house is restricted to very narrow special-interest groups like families, minorities, and veterans.

In 2023, about 68% of Kentucky’s utility-scale electricity net generation was coal-fired,* making energy more affordable than “woke” states like California.

The state sales tax was raised from 3% to 5% by Gov. Louie Nunn (R) in 1968, dubbed “Nunn’s nickel”; and while Gov. John Y. Brown (D) raised the sales tax to 6% in 1984, it was not dubbed with a similar euphemism.

Thirty-one states have a 6% or more sales tax including Kentucky.**

Nobody earning only social security income is taxed by Kentucky or the USA on social security income. If you have additional retirement revenue, you may be taxed on that.

Many Kentucky cities offer senior discounts on taxes (income, property, vehicles) up to 50%, for example, Lexington, Ky., is quite typical of such a tax break for retirees.

HEALTH CARE:

It is true that University of Kentucky dental services terminated all Medicare contracts effective August 8, 2024 and has not reinstated them to date; and, this does create an existential dental health care crisis among the elderly; however, that one diabolical act, while probably a violation of several laws relating to Affordable Health Care, should not land the state so low in health care overall.

Kentucky has world-class health facilities that sponsored the Jarvik artificial heart operations decades ago, hand-reconstruction surgery, and Markey cancer treatment center rivalling the Mayo Clinic.

WalletHub.com overlooked Kentucky’s five emergency trauma centers, including:***

1. University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital – Lexington

2. University of Louisville Hospital – Louisville

3. Pikeville Medical Center – Pikeville

4. Norton Children’s Hospital – Louisville

5. St. Elizabeth Healthcare – Edgewood

6. TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital – Bowling Green

7. Medical Center at Bowling Green – Bowling Green

8. Owensboro Health Regional Hospital – Owensboro

9. Baptist Health Paducah – Paducah

These trauma centers are equipped to provide specialized care for severe injuries and emergencies.

While Kentucky’s populator has a higher incidence of obesity-related diseases like heart and diabetes, that appears to be due to poor personal choices, not something endemic to Kentucky’s geophysical characteristics like farmland fertilizer runoff into water streams / ground water.

QUALITY OF LIFE: weather, crime, cultural and recreational opportunities.

No state, even Florida, has better more cultivated recreational areas than Kentucky’s state and local parks.

Crime is lower than national average due to conservative prosecutors who actually prosecute crimes.

Weather is as wild a ride as anywhere else; despite the tornado center re-aligning to western Kentucky from Kansas, Kentucky’s main geographic issue is NOT weather nor earthquakes (the New Madrid fault runs through western Kentucky into Tennessee); but, rather, rare sinkholes due to limestone base rock that caused the 2014 Bowling Green Corvette Museum hole.

Therefore, central Kentucky is actually one of the safest geographic locations in America, knock on limestone.

WALLETHUB.COM, WHAT CHU TALK’N ‘BOUT !@?

___ Ref.:

* https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=KY

**

Per MS CoPilot Ai search, as of 2025, there are 31 states with a sales tax rate of 6% or more. These states include:

– Arkansas (6.5%)
– California (7.25%)
– Connecticut (6.35%)
– Florida (6%)
– Idaho (6%)
– Illinois (6.25%)
– Indiana (7%)
– Iowa (6%)
– Kansas (6.5%)
– Kentucky (6%)
– Maryland (6%)
– Massachusetts (6.25%)
– Michigan (6%)
– Minnesota (6.88%)
– Mississippi (7%)
– Nevada (6.85%)
– New Jersey (6.63%)
– Ohio (6.75%)
– Pennsylvania (6%)
– Rhode Island (7%)
– South Carolina (6%)
– Tennessee (7%)
– Texas (6.25%)
– Utah (6.1%)
– Vermont (6%)
– Virginia (6%)
– Washington (6.5%)
– West Virginia (6%)
– Wisconsin (6%)
– Wyoming (6%)

*** Ai assisted information via MS CoPilot on 1-29-25. Fact checks only; data gleaned from known propaganda media (aka “mainstream” media has been excluded).

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