Off and Running with the Budget
What do I do with these bills?
Every week during the General Assembly, KCC’s legislative agents review all of the bills filed during the week and compile a list and a summary of bills we feel may have environmental or conservation impacts, or may have an effect on citizen’s rights to effectively participate in these issues (fundamental democracy and transparency).
We then send our list to KCC’s Board of Directors, where the legislation receives further scrutiny. KCC’s board and staff include a wide range of experts in clean energy, biodiversity, agriculture, land conservation, climate change, and more. We rank every bill on a 5-point scale ranging from “strong support” to “strong oppose.” If we feel the implications of certain legislation are still evolving, we will rank those as “monitor.”
When you receive our weekly list, we encourage you to ACT! This is your opportunity to let lawmakers know how you feel about issues they are reviewing. Here are tools to help!
This past Thursday, Governor Beshear released his vision for the state budget (filed as H.B. 285). This followed the unusual pre-emptive filing by Republican leaders of the House of their own two-year budget plan the week before (filed as H.B.1).
During the Governor’s State of the Commonwealth address and his budget address, the Governor highlighted his plans for funding the state, focusing on disaster relief efforts, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need to address long-overdue infrastructure needs and workforce investment as just a few of the priorities.
As for environmental issues, here are just a few environmental highlights we have gleaned from the Governor’s budget documents:
Water: The Governor’s budget includes nearly $500 million over the biennium for the Better Kentucky Cleaner Water program that finances drinking water and wastewater projects.
Agriculture: The budget includes additional General Fund in the amount of $155,000 in each fiscal year to support capital improvement grants to the Local Agricultural Farm Aid Program and an additional $100,000 in General Fund (Tobacco) to support the Farms to Foodbanks program.
Brownfields: The budget includes additional Federal Fund appropriation in the amount of $450,000 in fiscal year 2023 and $650,000 in fiscal year 2024 for grant funds provided through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act related to assessment and cleanup for the Brownfield Program.
Forestry: The budget includes additional Federal Fund appropriation in the amount of $3,800,000 in fiscal year 2023 and $3,800,000 in fiscal year 2024 for grants related to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs act related to wildfire management.
Oil and Gas: The budget includes additional Federal Fund appropriation in the amount of $21,000,000 in fiscal year 2023 and $37,000,000 in fiscal year 2024 for grants provided through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to characterize, identify, plug, and cleanup orphan wells and tanks.
Mine Lands: The budget includes additional Federal Fund appropriation in the amount of $60,000,000 in fiscal year 2023 and $76,000,000 in fiscal year 2024 for grants related to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs act related to reclamation of Abandoned Mine Lands.
Energy Efficiency: The budget includes additional Federal Fund appropriation in the amount of $2,092,000 in fiscal year 2023 for grant funds provided through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act related to the Energy Efficiency Block Grant Program.
Nature Preserves: The budget includes additional Restricted Fund appropriation in the amount of $400,000 in each fiscal year for additional contract work to be performed by the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves.
State Parks: Additional General Funding in the amount of $2,415,700 is included in each fiscal year of the Governor’s budget for increased operational costs at resort and recreational state parks and $230,000 General Funding in each fiscal year for property management and point-of-sale upgrades in all state park lodges.
Transportation: The new Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorizes a nationwide network of electric vehicle charging stations and sets aside $5 billion for states to build them, including $69,456,000 for Kentucky.
These are just a few of the excerpts from the budget documents released by Governor Beshear, and we will continue to monitor the debate between his vision and the vision of lawmakers in the House.
One item we will particularly be watching closely is the budget for the Public Service Commission. Like many areas of state government, the PSC has been understaffed and under-resourced for some time—which results in many of our partner nonprofits spending their own limited resources to provide necessary expertise on some issues before the body. The PSC’s workload has increased significantly, particularly during the past two years while dealing with the huge increase in merchant power applications and ongoing challenges over water and wastewater infrastructure. The PSC budget is asking for additional manpower to effectively perform their duties and we will be working to ensure that these essential funds are appropriated.
New Resources from KCC:
As KCC prepares for its annual Legislative Summit on Sunday, January 23rd, we wanted to give you a preview of some of the topics that will be discussed. We hope you will join us next Sunday, and in the meantime, we hope you will download some of our new issue summaries on some of the topics that will be covered.