Legislature looks to move quickly on $45 million in tornado relief
Shortly after filing a 213-page budget bill, Republicans in the Kentucky House of Representatives filed a bill that would appropriate $200 million in aid to areas of Western Kentucky damaged by tornadoes and severe weather in December.
Gov. Andy Beshear included the same amount of money in a reference to his plan for relief in the area during his State of the Commonwealth address last week, but Republicans got the jump on him in proposing a plan via House Bill 5.
House Speaker David Osborne said that the plan is to pass the bill onto the governor’s desk this week, as it passed out of committee unanimously on Monday. The House Standing Committee on Appropriations & Revenue also passed a joint resolution extending the emergency declaration related to the severe weather until April 15.
The bill only appropriates $45 million of the total $200 million immediately. $30 million of that money would go to the Kentucky Department of Education to provide wrap-around services like after-school programs and mental health counseling, transportation costs for displaced students and repairs on damaged school facilities.
The other $15 million would go toward housing in areas affected by the tornado that ripped apart several hundred homes.
Beshear said that he had agreed with legislators about the need for immediate housing assistance but wasn’t pleased with the inclusion and exclusion of certain provisions. He mentioned utility assistance, including water and sewer service, as a need that he wanted to see immediately addressed but is not in the legislation.
Beshear said that the state’s request to add another 90 days of 100% federal coverage for disaster cleanup was turned down. However, the state was given 30 consecutive days of its choice to get another round of 100% federal coverage.
The governor’s office is working on figuring out the best time period to deploy the assistance. Beshear noted that in places like Graves County continual debris removal will likely be taking place as late as the end of April; right now, the cost of debris removal in Graves County is around $120 million.
The overall pot of money established by House Bill 5 would be called the West Kentucky State Aid Funding for Emergencies (SAFE) Fund and it would be administered by Kentucky Emergency Management (KYEM), a division of the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs.
The only entities eligible to receive money from the SAFE Fund are local governments, nonprofits, utility service providers, state agencies and school districts.
At the House Standing Committee on Appropriations & Revenue, some Democrats had questions about Republicans’ communications with the executive branch but all ended up voting for it out of committee.
In response to questions from Rep. Kelly Flood, D-Lexington, Osborne said that further legislation would be needed to appropriate more money from the SAFE Fund as opposed to the Executive branch taking action.
“This will require additional appropriations,” Osborne said. “We know that there are going to be additional moneys needed… we just don’t know what those are yet. So, we wanted to absolutely establish that the money’s there but we don’t know how to identify those exact dollars yet.”
The bill was co-sponsored by House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, and Western Kentucky representatives Richard Heath, R-Mayfield, and House Majority Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah.
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 4:14 PM.
