Schools, roads, bridges and more: Here’s what’s in the Eastern KY flood relief package
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Hailing it as a nonpartisan — not bipartisan — effort, Gov. Andy Beshear and legislative leaders unveiled on Wednesday a nearly $213 million aid package for flood relief in Eastern Kentucky.
“This is a testament of what everybody does when this happens, something like this happens in the state of Kentucky,” Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said. “You come together to make sure your friends, your neighbors and your families are taken care of.”
The legislature convened Wednesday for what is expected to be a three-day special session aimed purely at providing relief for the Eastern Kentucky counties ravaged by flooding in late July that left 39 people dead and hundreds more without homes.
The session will resume at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Beshear, a Democrat, said the measure will provide aid for the next six months. More help, he said, will follow.
“It is meant (to last) until the next meeting of the General Assembly when we’ll have so much more information,” Beshear said. “This is to ensure that we don’t have to wait that long to get people, to get these communities back up on their feet, and I am grateful for what is included.”
The aid package, paid for by $200 million from the state’s Budget Reserve Trust Fund, also known as the rainy day fund, and nearly $13 million from the State Fiscal Recovery Fund of the American Rescue Plan Act, includes:
- $115 million to the Division of Emergency Management to be allocated to counties, cities, school districts and other entities in the federally designated disaster area.
- $45 million to the Transportation Cabinet’s highways budget to repair damaged and destroyed roads and bridges.
- $40 million to the Department of Education for school financial assistance. Eligible school expenses include, but aren’t limited to, school repairs and rebuilding and additional transportation costs due to student displacement.
The bill, dubbed the Eastern Kentucky State Aid Funding for Emergencies (EKSAFE), also stipulates that any funds for rebuilding damaged structures are used outside of the 100-year flood plain. Primary sponsors on the mirrored House and Senate versions of the bill are Rep. John Blanton, R-Salyersville, and Stivers.
A prior draft of the package had a higher appropriation – nearly $277 million – which included extra funds for education and housing, among other things.
Beshear acknowledged the extra money that drafters were looking at to address housing, but said that the emphasis now in the short-term “stabilization phase” is a travel trailer program. He said that another 100-plus trailers are coming to the region to help house those displaced in the floods.
Stivers, when asked about the earlier draft after the press conference, emphasized that the money being allocated now is targeting “short-term objectives,” and that more consideration will be taken to address some thornier questions – like where people will relocate – in the regular session come January.
“The long term objectives, that’s where there are some pretty complicated discussions going on. It’s ‘do you want to build a bridge back that cost $100,000 where a community lost two or three houses?’ Maybe it would be better to (not) build the bridge, let’s look at some different type of housing someplace away from the creek where it won’t flood again,” Stivers said.
Beshear echoed Stivers on the potential for future funds to be used to address housing.
“There are some very complex discussions going on about what housing looks like in the future. These are places that people care about and love, but some of them are dangerous for them to go back to.”
The bill also provides flexibility for Western Kentucky SAFE funds – the region initially received $200 million from the state due to severe damage from tornadoes in December 2021 – and extends it through June 2026.
Stivers said in an Appropriations & Revenue Committee meeting later on Wednesday that Bowling Green lost $25 million in taxable property value due to the tornadoes and that Warren County lost $80 million.
Additionally, it provides money to cities, counties and school districts for lost taxable value caused by storm damage.
Lost revenue will be fully covered for the 2022-2023 fiscal year and be reduced by one-third each year after, according to a draft of the bill.
Some of the legislation relaxes rules for school districts in areas affected by the floods as well. The bill waives 15 student attendance days through January of next year, and gives affected school districts an additional 20 remote learning days.
This story was originally published August 24, 2022 at 6:41 PM.
