Budget Moves to the Senate
This week the House passed their version of an amended budget bill, HB1, which moved briskly after lawmakers returned from the MLK holiday. The bill varies from the proposal presented by Governor Beshear, and it is anticipated that it will be amended further in the Senate and likely sent to a Budget Conference Committee to work out differences. Meanwhile, KCC has been working with our land conservation allies to bring attention to the shortfall in investments for land conservation. See our coalition brief on conserving Kentucky, authored by KCC, Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, The Nature Conservancy, The Bluegrass Land Conservancy and The American Farmland Trust.
Lawmakers have all received a copy of the Conserving Kentucky plan, so we now ask you to ACT: contact your Senator and members of the Senate Appropriations & Revenue Committee and ask them to support the “Conserving Kentucky” request for increased funding for the Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund (KHLCF) and the Purchase of Agricultural Easements program (PACE). You may contact members of the legislature via email or by phone on the message line at 1-800-372-7181.
Since this week’s sessions were brief due to the holiday, we have added just a few new House bills on this week’s review list. Among those are two items we would like for our members to strongly support. First is House Joint Resolution 41 which directs the Department of Revenue and the University of Kentucky's Department of Forestry and Natural Resources to detail recommendations for equitable property tax assessment procedures for well-managed forests. This issue is a high priority for our friends at the Kentucky Woodland Owners Association, a KCC partner group. ACT: Please contact your representative and urge them to co-sponsor this resolution.
We also were pleased to see the re-filing this week of legislation to address perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS). Rep. Kulkarni’s HB338 is in response to troubling reports of the widespread presence of these “forever chemicals” in Kentucky waterways. ACT: Please contact your representative and urge them to co-sponsor this bill.
The very last bill filed this past Friday was House Bill 341 (Gooch) which would allow utilities the right to ask for a quicker approval process with less notice and less public participation for items such as rate changes. It also allows more opportunities for adding on costs for certain types of projects without a full rate case. We strongly oppose this bill. The bill has not yet been assigned to committee, but you may consider contacting your own Representative or members of the House Natural Resources & Energy Committee, (who typically reviews bills of this type), to comment.
During the past year, the controversy over types of “digital currency” and energy use has been growing—not just in Kentucky but at the federal level as well. Last year, the General Assembly passed, and the Governor signed, SB255 which had stated a goal to "become a national leader in emerging industries which use substantial amounts of energy" by including cryptocurrency facilities with a minimum capital investment of one million dollars in Kentucky's energy-related business incentives program. This bill, along with a second bill that provided additional tax incentives, has brought a wave of new investments to Kentucky for this industry. This year, three additional bills [SB16, SB17, SB67] have been filed that provide additional structure around the functions of this industry. KCC’s staff and board are currently opposing bills enabling the facilitation of cryptocurrency mining operations until environmental concerns over energy use are acknowledged and addressed.
We note that not all digital currencies are the same and some are of more concern than others. Primarily the concerns over energy use revolve around some cryptocurrencies that use “Proof of Work” methods in their protocols. See memo from the U.S, Committee on Energy and Commerce). KCC has prepared a brief on digital currency in Kentucky, linked here, and we will have this as one of our topics during KCC’s Virtual Legislative Summit this Sunday. We hope to see you (virtually) there!