Caveland Marketing Association celebrates at legislative luncheon

CAVE CITY, Ky. – The Caveland Marketing Association celebrated its successes Monday with a luncheon for elected officials and the five tourism commissions that have banded together to advertise all the attractions the area has to offer.

The association and its partners swept the Transverse Awards recently, winning 23 of the statewide awards given out by the Kentucky Travel Industry Association.

Maclean Lessenberry, president of the Caveland Marketing Association, says, “We feel that it’s more successful on our end to collaborate, band together and really market this whole area as a destination. So instead of coming to Glasgow for one night, maybe two nights, you’re going to come to the whole area and stay a week because you’re going to go to Edmonson County, you’re going to go pet kangaroos in Horse Cave, you’re going to go to a show at the Plaza. And really band that together as a full vacation destination.”

The tourism commission of Glasgow/Barren County, Cave City, Edmonson County, Munfordville and Horse Cave/Hart County competed against larger organizations with bigger budgets from Louisville and Lexington for the honors.

Rep. Steve Riley and Rep. Michael Meredith were at the luncheon, and we asked them about the upcoming General Assembly session that will begin on Jan. 7 of next year. While there may not be any huge issues coming before Kentucky’s legislature, it will be an opportunity to work on smaller issues that affect the whole state.

Riley, 23rd District of the KY House of Representatives, says, “One thing I think we’re going to do I know is we’re going to reduce the state income tax another half percent. We basically have a law that allows us to reduce a half percent if certain economic triggers are met and they were met in this past year.”

Meredith, 19th District of the KY House of Representatives, says, “We have a lot of challenges right now in our insurance marketplace. And so we’re looking at three or four different areas with regard to that. With the storms that we’ve had over the last several years, it’s made that market place very, very challenging. And so that’s something that we’re looking into, trying to provide relief to both the insurance companies and the consumers out there.”

The Republican Caucus will meet this month to discuss all the issues they plan to tackle in next year’s General Assembly session.