In a 35-minute address to the Commonwealth Monday night, Governor Andy Beshear laid out a six-point plan for his 2024 biennium budget — calling for the continued financial support and improvement for public education, infrastructure, job growth, public safety, healthcare and government.
And while the super-majority Kentucky General Assembly will get the final say on all appropriations, many of Beshear’s asks fall in line with across-the-aisle desires to see the state move “forward, together.”
In education, he will be seeking:
— A two-year, $1.1 billion fund for an 11% raise on all public school employees, including teachers, bus drives, cafeteria workers and janitors;
— A two-year, $344 million fund for universal pre-K among Kentucky’s 4-year-olds, in which 34,000 annually would be bolstered through kindergarten readiness;
— The full funding of teacher pensions and student transportation, while ensuring there’s no increase in health insurance premiums;
— The provision of teachers student loan forgiveness, while supporting professional development, funding textbooks, boosting mental health services, and continuing construction of new career and technical education centers.
Through infrastructure, those focal points include:
— Another $500 million in grants to county and local governments, in order to provide unserved and underserved families cleaner water and wastewater systems;
— Another $10 million over the next two years for affordable housing, and another $300 million over the next two years for continued construction of the Mountain Parkway in eastern Kentucky, and the I-69 River Crossing in west Kentucky;
— And another $50 million in grant funding for city and county bridge repair.
Regarding job growth, Beshear will belay:
— A proposed $200 million over the next two years for mega-development projects, as well as county and regional site development;
— And the use of $71 million for the immediate improvement of state parks, as well as another request for $184 million to construct new marinas, conference centers and added infrastructure of said state parks.
For public safety:
— Beshear wants a $2,500 raise for all KSP troopers and officers, as well as enough funding for 150 more troopers over the next two years;
— The increase of training stipends for local and state law enforcement officers and local firefighters, while adding certified, part-time law enforcement into the fold;
— $35 million to fund grants for more body armor to protect our law enforcement officers and first responders, while adding $146.1 million to construct a Western Kentucky Regional Training Center for expanded law enforcement training;
— Funding for two new female-only juvenile detention centers, the renovation of the Jefferson County Youth Detention Center and the retrofit of four other detention centers;
— And $10.5 million over two years for the continued embrace of recidivism, increasing re-entry services in jails while calling for the building of a reentry skills training facility on the grounds of the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex.
In health care:
— Beshear wants to fully fund Medicaid and its expansion;
— Boost mental health services by adding funding to support mobile crisis intervention services;
— Adding $10 million over two years to the Kentucky Pediatric Research Trust Fund, while adding $20 million over two years to increase rates for relative caregivers who agree to take a child already in the state’s custody;
And in government:
— A 6% across-the-board raise for state workers effective July 1, 2024, and another 4% increase effective July 1, 2025;
— The fully funding of state employees’ pensions, alongside $209 million over the biennium to continue to pay down the pension liability;
— And a plan to return 100% of state coal severance tax revenues back to coal-producing counties, while forwarding another $75 million to the Eastern Kentucky SAFE Fund to provide more resources for our eastern Kentucky communities waylaid from the flood.
In the last two years, Beshear and the KGA passed more than 600 bi-partisan bills addressing a myriad of critical and emergency needs for the state, and Beshear said he hopes to see that effort continue in his second term.
The legislative session begins Tuesday, January 2.
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