#KYGA22 Week 3: House passes budget bills, Senate approves literacy legislation and redistricting vetoes overridden

This week, the state House passed two budget bills. House Bill 1 funds the executive branch which is responsible for much of the commonwealth’s operations. House Bill 241 provides financing for Kentucky’s Transportation Cabinet (read our initial analysis here). Both budget bills now move on to the Senate for consideration.

The enormous influx of COVID federal dollars has allowed the state budget to meet the commonwealth’s basic needs, beef up spending in some areas, invest in new programs and still have a surplus of unappropriated dollars to be used in years to come. Much of the spending increases were applied to education and the Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS), including: 

• increased SEEK funding (dollars that the state provides local school districts for funding K-12 schools);

• funding full-day kindergarten for every district in the state; and

• increased funding for TRS to over $1 billion annually, which far surpasses the approximate $438 million per year of funding required by law.

The budget also gives raises to state employees and Kentucky State Police officers.

You can read more of our comments on HB 1 here and here.

Beyond the budget, the General Assembly overrode Governor Beshear’s vetoes of two of the three GOP-led redistricting bills. Redistricting is required by federal law following the release of updated census data every 10 years.

Senate Bill 9, a literacy bill which includes policy ideas BIPPS has advocated for, passed the full Senate and heads to the House. It would improve the way Kentucky teachers teach reading instruction.

Senate Bill 25, which gives schools the use of 10 remote instruction days for use in response to the pandemic, was signed into law.

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.