UPDATED TO ADD FUNDING FOR ROADS AND SCHOOL PROJECTS (3/29/24 AT 2 P.M.)
Thursday night the state agreed on a spending bill of about $2.7 billion. It’s a big number, and it’s a one-time appropriations bill using state reserves to fund various projects. $450 million to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, $344 million for Kentucky Infrastructure Authority, $200 million to the Department of Agriculture budget, and so on.
How does that affect Adair County? Well, in the middle of the list there is one million granted to restore the old court house.
At point 128 of 234 of HB1, it states that “$1,000,000 in fiscal year 2024-2025 to the Department for Local Government budget unit to be distributed to the Adair County Fiscal Court to support the revitalization of the Historic Adair County Courthouse.” Adair County’s Judge Executive Larry Bryant thanked Senator Max Wise for the support in Frankfort to get the funds for the project.
Wise, who was fighting for the funding for years now, said that “we were able to secure the $1 million to be reimbursed for the restoring of the old court house.” He gives “much credit to the people of Columbia, especially magistrate Daryl Flatt and others,” for helping him to get the funding. Also he mentions the help of State Rep. Amy Neighbors for getting the funding into the bill.
The legislature also allocated $4 million for road projects, which will include an entrance into the Green River Commerce park and improvements on Ky 55 north in front of Doc's Market and Betty's Country Cooking, as well as a guardrail project on 1702.
The budget also includes $130 million for the school facilities funding at KDE where the Adair school district has asked for funds in the amount of $8 million to help with the cost of the new middle school. More information on that will be announced within the next weeks, as Superintendent Jason Faulkner explained.
It came within a really big package: Included in HB 1 is $260 million for water and wastewater infrastructure projects in the first year, with another $84.7 million in the second year; $230 million over the biennium towards public pension liabilities; $35 million in each fiscal year for airport capital improvements; and $35 million in each fiscal year towards economic development efforts through the Kentucky Product Development Initiative.
The bill also helps the state move forward in its goal to cut personal income taxes to zero. The House’s version of the bill had proposed $1.8 billion in such spending over the next two fiscal years, but Sen. Chris McDaniel framed the final product coming out of a joint Free Conference Committee as a healthy compromise between the chambers. The bill is separate from House Bill 6, the state’s Executive Branch budget, which spends roughly $15 billion from the state General Fund each year over the next two fiscal years. Kentucky’s fiscal year starts July 1 and ends June 30.
