Something is very wrong in Kentucky
Tennessee and Kentucky have a long common border, very similar demographics, topology, and heritage and yet Tennessee has very stable US state governmental financial statistics, and Kentucky has one of the worst.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/fiscal-stability
And this has been true in TN under
both Democratic and Republican leadership, consistently
Kentucky has been run by Democrats except for 3 GOP governors in my memory since 1970, therein lies the problem. KY is not a right to work state and the Democrats tax everything but air. Property taxes, income taxes, sales tax, car taxed every year, taxes on electricity, water, cable, satellite, insurance, you name it and they tax it. Throw in a state pension that the current governor Little King Andy II, daddy robbed when he was governor and you have the Illinois of the south when it comes to a broken government.