Commonwealth Policy Center

Western Kentucky University is in the news after it was revealed they spent nearly a quarter million dollars on a rap concert. This included $3,000 for alcohol and almost $10,000 for a security consultant. Western isn’t alone. Eastern Kentucky University spent nearly $200,000 on a similar concert this fall. Here’s the rub: public universities are funded by your tax dollars and they’re constantly asking for more each year to increase their budgets. But if Kentucky’s public universities are using their budgets in such an irresponsible way, it’s going to be tougher to convince the state legislature to increase their budgets—budget that are already into the hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Something for any university to think about before they throw another concert.