Legislative session could send more disaster aid to flood-ravaged Eastern Kentucky

Lawmakers approved more than $400 million for disaster relief in 2022, working across the aisle to help Kentuckians impacted by historic tornadoes in the west and devastating flooding in the east.

The 2023 legislative session might mean even more help sent to areas in need.

How much money could be approved for the ongoing recoveries is yet to be determined, but Gov. Andy Beshear and lawmakers are optimistic they’ll get it done in a bipartisan fashion once again.

“We have had full support of the General Assembly, and we fully supported them on this,” Beshear told The Herald-Leader in a recent interview. “I certainly hope that an election year doesn’t prevent the cooperation we need to get this done, and I don’t believe it will.”

More than 80 people were killed in December 2021 when a series of powerful tornadoes ripped through parts of Western Kentucky, hitting communities like Mayfield, Bremen, Dawson Springs and Bowling Green. A little more than seven months later, natural disaster struck again when flooding in multiple Eastern Kentucky counties killed more than 40 people and damaged or destroyed thousands of homes.

In both instances, the commonwealth’s Democratic governor and Republican supermajority-controlled legislature worked swiftly to get aid packages approved: $200 million for Western Kentucky was passed early in the regular 2022 legislative session for tornado relief, and then $213 million for Eastern Kentucky in an August special session focused purely on flooding relief.

Throughout the special session, Beshear and lawmakers emphasized that the session was to provide immediate relief until the legislature could take further action during the 2023 General Assembly. An amendment filed by Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, would have added another $50 million for affordable housing, but it didn’t make the bill’s final cut.

Rep. John Blanton, R-Salyersville, who was one of the primary sponsors of the Eastern Kentucky State Aid Funding for Emergencies (SAFE) bill, said his initial target is getting about $150 million “to begin to put into these communities to get people to where they need to be.” He envisions the money going to communities affected by both disasters.

“The desire is to work toward helping people now that we’ve gotten them into intermediate housing — campers and so forth — to begin getting permanent housing in place for them, and for some of these people it’s going to mean getting them to some higher ground,” he said.

Blanton said it’s not yet been decided where the money would come from, if passed.

“Possibly from the Budget Reserve Trust,” he said, referencing the state’s rainy day fund. “We do know the tax revenues are still up, so we’re meeting greater revenues coming in. ... That is one mechanism that will be looked at. We also have to look at what our current receipts are and how things are looking with those as well.”

In addition to housing, Beshear said water and sewer infrastructure is likely to be the biggest expense in rebuilding flooded areas.

Beshear said he didn’t yet have a dollar amount in mind.

“We haven’t spent all the Eastern Kentucky SAFE money that has already been allocated,” he said. “The amount of federal funding is still in question. I will say we’re a part of an extra relief package that’s going through Washington, D.C., right now, a lot of which could be used for water and for wastewater itself.”

In terms of Western Kentucky, Beshear said he sees a need to extend the time frame that the Western Kentucky SAFE money can be used. But, he noted, because the special session’s measure allowed those funds to be extended through June 2026, that may not need to be revisited.

Rep. Richard Heath, R-Mayfield, said given the recent one-year anniversary of the tornadoes, it’ll be a good time to reassess.

“Hopefully when we get back into session, we’ll find out how much of the money has been used and what the estimated costs are going forward, and then make a decision if the $200 million that was originally appropriated is enough or if we need to add some additional money to that,” he said.

More than 30 non-profit groups have signed on to a proposal for legislators to appropriate more money in the 2023 and 2024 sessions to increase the amount of affordable housing in Kentucky.

The idea, spearheaded by Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises, Inc., or FAHE, and the Homeless & Housing Coalition of Kentucky, is to create an emergency recovery trust fund for housing, with an initial appropriation of $150 million in 2023 and another $150 million in 2014, along with $115 million in 2024 for the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

There was a critical shortage of good-quality, affordable housing in Kentucky even before the tornadoes of late 2021 and the Eastern Kentucky flooding in 2022, caused in part by chronic inadequate funding in both rural and urban areas of the state, according to housing advocates.

Creating an emergency fund, which the groups are calling the Affordable Housing Emergency Action Recovery Trust Fund (AHEART), with an initial $150 appropriation would let non-profits get started quickly on building and repairing affordable single-family and multifamily housing, supporters said.

“It doesn’t leave people hanging for years on end,” said Adrienne Bush, executive director of the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky.

It could be a year or more before any additional money from Congress becomes available for housing in disaster areas, Bush said, and even then it won’t be enough to fully meet the need.

This story was originally published December 29, 2022 at 1:59 PM.

Tessa Duvall

Lexington Herald-Leader

859-334-0430

Tessa has been the Herald-Leader’s Politics and Public Affairs Editor since March 2024, after acting as Frankfort Bureau Chief since joining the paper in August 2022. A native of Bowling Green and a graduate of Western Kentucky University, Tessa has also reported in Texas, Florida and Louisville, where she covered education, criminal justice and policing.