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Joe Sonka

Joe Sonka is Kentucky Public Radio’s first enterprise statehouse reporter. He joined the team in October 2023.

Joe has covered Kentucky government and politics for nearly two decades. He grew up in Lexington and moved to Louisville in 2011, covering city and state government at LEO Weekly and then Insider Louisville. He became state government reporter for the Courier Journal in 2019 and was a lead reporter for the newspaper’s 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning series on former Gov. Matt Bevin’s controversial pardons just before leaving office.

You can email Joe at jsonka@lpm.org and find him at non-Twitter apps such as Threads (@joesonkaky) and BlueSky (@joesonka.bsky.social).

Opposing groups raise millions of dollars for Kentucky’s education ballot referendum

Competing political issue committees have raised millions of dollars that will be spent on ads supporting and opposing a ballot referendum asking whether Kentucky should amend its constitution to allow public funds to go to private and charter schools.
By Joe Sonka
school bus

Kentucky attorney general advises ‘risk-free’ games are illegal gambling

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is telling prosecutors that hundreds of new “risk free” games resembling casino slots are illegal under state law.
By Joe Sonka
gambling machine and chair

Kentucky hits budget triggers for income tax rate cut in 2026

In order for the tax rate to be reduced from 4% to 3.5% in 2026, the Kentucky General Assembly will still have to pass a bill in the 2025 session approving the cut.
By Joe Sonka
The Kentucky Capitol Dome in Frankfort. (Kentucky Legislative Research Commission photo)

‘Confidential’: Hiding the cost of legislation from Kentuckians

Unlike most states, Kentucky does not require filed or advancing bills to be accompanied by a financial analysis. Sometimes lawmakers ask for them, and sometimes they are “confidential.”
By Joe Sonka
The dome in the Kentucky Capitol Rotunda. (Photo by Jennifer P. Brown)

All but one of Kentucky’s Democratic delegates endorse Harris in informal vote

In a morning call Monday, nearly all of Kentucky’s Democratic delegates endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the Democratic National Convention next month.
By Joe Sonka
A resident of the Elliott Park apartments was the first one to vote, in his robes and slippers, on Election Day in 2022.

Kentucky Republican officials denounce Trump conviction, with one big exception

Outgoing state Sen. Whitney Westerfield, of Christian County, criticized his colleagues for undermining faith in the justice system.
By Joe Sonka
State Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Fruit Hill, speaks on Senate Bill 20, an act relating to crimes and punishments, on Feb. 14, 2024, on the Senate floor Wednesday.

Kentucky lawmakers expedite medical marijuana licensing, pass on extra conditions

The new law would allow Kentucky to issue medical cannabis licenses to businesses as early as this summer, increasing the odds that cannabis will be available for patients at dispensaries beginning 2025.
By Joe Sonka
marijuana grow facility

Bill that ‘destroys’ transparency of Ky. public records drops one provision as it advances

Legislation to amend the Kentucky Open Records Act cleared a Senate committee despite bipartisan criticism that it would undermine government transparency, though a controversial part of the bill was rejected.
By Joe Sonka
State Rep. John Hodgson, a Republican from Fisherville. (Legislative Research Commission photo)
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