Konstantopoulos wants to end income tax

This is the first in a series of can­di­date pro­files for local races in the 2026 pri­ma­ry elec­tion on May 19.

As a Republican can­di­date for state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, Daniel Konstantopoulos thinks what would move Kentucky for­ward most is for the leg­is­la­ture to con­tin­ue to low­er the state income tax.

“I’m a big pro­po­nent of cut­ting the income tax,” Konstantopoulos said in a recent inter­view with WinCity Voices.

“Ultimately, we need to get that down to zero,” he added.

He said the growth gen­er­at­ed by low­er­ing or elim­i­nat­ing the tax would make up for the lost rev­enue need­ed to fund state programs.

“You’ve got more jobs com­ing in, more busi­ness­es com­ing in, and you increase your rev­enue that way,” he said.

On Feb. 1, the state income tax decreased from 4 to 3.5 per­cent because of leg­is­la­tion enact­ed a year ago by the Republican-con­trolled General Assembly and signed into law by the state’s Democratic gov­er­nor. Beginning in 2022, the state has reduced the tax by 0.5% annu­al­ly, pro­vid­ed cer­tain require­ments are met. Those include hav­ing enough mon­ey in its “rainy day” fund and bring­ing in more rev­enue than the state spends in a fis­cal year. 

However, the state fell slight­ly short of those trig­gers to reduce the tax to 3 per­cent for 2027. According to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, the state already has a $305 mil­lion short­fall this year.

After three four-year terms on the Clark County Fiscal Court, Konstantopoulos is run­ning for the 73^rd District seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. His oppo­nent in the Republican pri­ma­ry is County Judge-Executive Les Yates, who held the seat for one term before los­ing the 2022 GOP pri­ma­ry. Since then, the dis­trict has changed to include part of Fayette County and all of Clark.

“After 12 years, I feel like I’ve been able to do as much as I can, and I’ve accom­plished a lot of my goals for my dis­trict,” Konstantopoulos said. “I think that the knowl­edge I have of local gov­ern­ment will serve me well in Frankfort.”

As a for­mer coun­ty offi­cial, he said, he would be able to advo­cate for cities and coun­ties in the state cap­i­tal. As a small busi­ness own­er, he said he knows what busi­ness­es need from the state government.

Konstantopoulos, 45, is the son of Dr. Bill and Kay Konstantopoulos of Winchester. His father is the for­mer pas­tor of the local First Church of God.

The can­di­date was born in Hamilton, Ohio, and grew up in Johnson City, Tenn., before mov­ing to Winchester, where he grad­u­at­ed from George Rogers Clark High School in 1999. He then attend­ed Cumberland University in Tennessee for a year before becom­ing a mort­gage lender and finan­cial con­sul­tant for nine years, includ­ing a year in Denver. He then start­ed his own busi­ness, Medical Practice Consulting Group, in Winchester, which pro­vides med­ical billing and con­sult­ing ser­vices for doctors.

He and his wife, Carrie, have a son, Cooper, 11, and a daugh­ter, Laney, 4.

Konstantopoulos was first elect­ed to the county’s District 1 in south­west­ern Clark County in 2014. In 2006, he ran unsuc­cess­ful­ly for coun­ty jail­er. He also served as act­ing coun­ty judge-exec­u­tive for two weeks in 2021 after Judge-Executive Chris Pace died while in office.

“We’ve had a lot of accom­plish­ments in my 12 years, but I feel one of the biggest accom­plish­ments was the secur­ing of fund­ing for infra­struc­ture, and the main one was the broad­band project we cur­rent­ly have, which is close to being com­plet­ed,” he said.

“One of the things we learned dur­ing COVID was how poor our inter­net infra­struc­ture was,” he said. “Now, every house­hold in Clark County, no mat­ter where you’re locat­ed, will have access to high-speed internet.”

As state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, the can­di­date said he wants to “advo­cate for what mat­ters most to us, and that’s our fam­i­lies, our farm­ers, our small busi­ness­es and our law enforce­ment.” He said he also wants to secure all the state fund­ing he can for local projects, includ­ing com­ple­tion of the Veterans Memorial Bypass and mon­ey for the Winchester Industrial Park to buy more land for growth. 

He said his rela­tion­ship with state Sen. Greg Elkins, R‑Winchester, with whom he served on the Fiscal Court, would serve him well in the legislature.

“We can be a tag team … to be able to get fund­ing for these major projects for our coun­ty,” he said.

Asked how he would dif­fer from Yates, Konstantopoulos said: “I think the main thing is that I’m an elect­ed offi­cial who’s respon­sive to their constituents.”

Konstantopoulos was asked about a few issues he might face as a state lawmaker.

He said Kentucky should elim­i­nate “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicaid before con­sid­er­ing any expan­sion of the pro­gram. Although he said he is “not an anti-vaxxer by any means,” he thinks peo­ple need to “make their own deci­sions” about whether or not to be vac­ci­nat­ed against con­ta­gious diseases.

Konstantopoulos said he believes par­ents should be able to choose “the best edu­ca­tion­al path” for their chil­dren, but he point­ed out that vot­ers reject­ed a pro­posed con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment to spend pub­lic mon­ey on char­ter schools.

Asked how he would describe him­self in terms of his polit­i­cal phi­los­o­phy, Konstantopoulos called him­self a “stan­dard Republican.”

“I’m pro-life, I’m pro-gun, I’m pro-growth for small busi­ness­es, I’m pro-law enforce­ment,” he said.