His late mother, Frieda, from Lyon County, and his late father, Earl, from Muhlenberg County, Lindy Casebier is no stranger to west Kentucky.
A former high school band director and long-time trumpet player, he’s also no stranger to the arts. He believes it “changes lives,” and should be considered less as “a frill” and more as “a necessity.”
It is these, and other, messages that he brought with him from Frankfort to Hopkinsville Thursday afternoon, as the Commonwealth’s Secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet — appointed so by Governor Andy Beshear after nearly 20 years in the state’s House of Representatives.
Among import: a desire for the Kentucky General Assembly to embrace “Pre-K for All” in this biennium budget.
In a Q&A with local leadership, Casebier said the last three years of state tourism have produced “record output” across the Bluegrass, including Christian County, and that he remains “cautiously optimistic” about the state’s tourism revenues closing in fiscal year 2026.
However, last winter’s nationally-imposed tariffs, he said, greatly reduced Canadian travelers to the U.S. — and especially to the Bluegrass — while bourbon exports were reduced. International travel to the country is also expected to continue a downturn in 2026.
Asked about arts funding at the state level, and how it can improve, Casebier referenced measures taken by Minnesota — which has an arts tax primarily derived from the sales tax revenue generated by its Legacy amendment.
This amendment, he said, increased the state’s sales tax by three-eighths of 1% for 25 years to provide additional funding for outdoor heritage, clean water, parks and trails and arts and cultural heritage, and these revenues are split four ways: 33% to the clean water fund; 33% to the outdoor heritage fund; 19.75% to the arts and cultural heritage fund; and 14.25% to the parks and trails fund.
Casebier said that Kentucky remains in the “middle to bottom” in national arts spending per capita, and he is correct. According to the National Endowment for The Arts, Kentucky is the 46th lowest in America, and in the past five years, the NEA has distributed more than $14.4 million to support arts initiatives in the state. This funding contributes to the arts and cultural production in Kentucky, and it added nearly $7 billion to the state’s economy.
However, not all is callous in the Commonwealth. Casebier said the Cabinet is working to erase more than “40 years of deferred maintenance” at 44 state parks, thanks to more than $125 million in recent investment, and that this part of the state — known as the Western Waterlands Region — has generated more than $943 million in revenue and supports more than 71,000 jobs.
Casebier said he visited with Pennyroyal Arts Council Executive Director Margaret Prim early Thursday morning, in order to discuss Hopkinsville and Christian County’s arts and heritage landscape.
The Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet casts a wide shadow in Kentucky, and includes:
+ The Department of Tourism
+ The Department of Parks
+ The Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources
+ The Kentucky Historical Society
+ The Kentucky Humanities Council
+ The Kentucky Heritage Council
+ The Kentucky Venues
+ The Kentucky Center for African American Heritage
+ The Kentucky Performing Arts
+ The Governor’s School for the Arts
+ The Kentucky Artisan Center in Berea
+ The Kentucky Arts Council
+ and The Kentucky Horse Park
FULL DISCUSSION:
