#22GA week 2: Western Kentucky gets disaster relief, important literacy bill introduced, governor gives his budget address
This week’s session focused heavily on providing financial assistance related to the December 2021 tornadoes which ravaged parts of our commonwealth, destroying entire communities. Covid’s continuing impact on education — and executive powers — policy, reading instruction and budget maneuvering round out this week’s legislative update.
DISASTER RELIEF
Both chambers passed disaster relief legislation to extend the severe weather state of emergency through April 15, 2022 along with bills to provide $200 million in disaster relief funding for immediate needs such as temporary housing for those affected by the storms and education assistance for the children of those communities.
COVID, EDUCATION AND EXECUTIVE POWERS
A COVID relief bill sponsored by Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, began as a bill to simply grant individual schools or classrooms 10 days of remote instruction in case of a COVID outbreak. Kentucky law already allows 10 non-traditional instruction days, which differs from remote instruction in that teachers don’t have to provide live instruction to students. Wise’s bill requires that students still receive live instruction in accordance with Kentucky’s current laws regarding required hours of instruction per school year.
After passing the Senate, the House added nearly nine pages to the bill which included incredulously extending certain COVID executive orders. The bill was then sent back to the Senate for concurrence (if one chamber makes changes to a bill that has already passed through the other chamber, the original chamber votes to concur, or not, with those changes) hardly resembling the original bill. In fact, Wise, the bill’s original sponsor, voted against the legislation when it came back to the Senate floor for concurrence.
HOW KY TEACHES READING
Also of note was the introduction of Senate Bill 9 that would change the way teachers are instructed to teach reading, a prospect we’ve spent many years educating legislators on; it’s the subject of our most recent Policy Point. SB9 passed out of committee and is set for a full Senate vote on Tuesday when lawmakers return to Frankfort.
LEGISLATURE STEPS UP, FILES BUDGET EARLY
House leaders broke tradition by filing their biennial budget bill during the first week of this year’s legislative session. The House’s move came nearly an entire week before Gov. Andy Beshear delivered his budget address to a joint gathering of the Kentucky General Assembly at the Capitol in Frankfort on Wednesday night. Read the Bluegrass Institute’s initial analysis of the House’s proposed spending plan here.
Along with criticizing the unprecedented timing of their budget filing, the governor’s office and progressive groups bemoaned the continuing commitment of House leaders for their fiscally conservative approach, particularly when it comes to their proposal’s careful decisions about the allocation of a hefty amount of surplus and one-time federal dollars.
Regarding the decision to release the House plan ahead of the governor’s proposal, Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, rightly said he thought it would be “a waste of time” to “wait intentionally” after months of work by the body’s budget subcommittee and the need to get tornado relief funding to the governor’s desk.
The commonwealth’s Consensus Forecasting Group predicts a $2 billion surplus for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, on top of $1.1 billion in excess revenues for the previous fiscal year. Kentucky also is slated to receive $1.1 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds in May.
The House version includes increased spending in education and pay hikes for several groups, including state and social workers, educators and Kentucky State Police personnel and troopers – raises that Beshear had previously indicated would also be part of his spending plan.
It appears the House’s plan allows for maintaining a healthy rainy day fund balance, which was praised by Bluegrass Institute Policy Fellow Andrew McNeill in a tweet as “real progress in building a legitimate budget reserve after decades of neglecting the need to save for cyclical revenue.”
The Bluegrass Institute in the past has criticized legislative leaders for wasting too much time during the early parts of budget sessions. We applaud Speaker Osborne and his leadership team changing meaningless and time-wasting traditions and getting a proposal released that both rank-and-file legislators and citizens have ample time to consider before a vote is taken.
As Osborne said, “the governor’s recommendations are exactly that – they are recommendations.” Besides, it’s the legislature which carries the constitutional responsibility for passing a biennial budget.
The legislative update is comprised by Sarah May Durand, director of government affairs for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions. She can be reached at sarahmaydurand@freedomkentucky.com.