Kentucky’s General Assembly session is in full swing and so far there hasn’t been much high profile discussion of environmental issues.
There are a number of organizations across Kentucky focusing on land, air, and water in the Commonwealth. Lane Boldman is executive director of the Kentucky Conservation Committee. She’s been working on environmental advocacy issues since 1992. “I feel like the environmental issues really aren’t getting enough attention at all. Of course I understand that the teachers have gotten most of the attention, which is good. They really did their work and and they got their people out. So hats off to them,” said Boldman.
Longtime Kentucky Resources Council Director Tom Fitzgerald says every governor has priorities and adds Governor Beshear’s is education. Fitzgerald says his budget reflects that. But, he says the Energy and Environment Cabinet has undergone significant personnel reductions over time. “Given where they are in terms of personnel, we are now looking at the inability to deliver on essential mandates, clean air, clean water, cleanup of contamination on land, protection of dam safety. The core issues that the cabinet deals with,” explained Fitzgerald.
State Budget Director John Hicks says this is the first budget since 2006-2008 that the State Energy and Environment Cabinet has not had a general fund budget cut. He says the governor’s budget lays out spending $20 million in Volkswagen settlement funds to provide every county with a new cleaner school bus.
Meanwhile, one of Tom Fitzgerald’s primary concerns is a proposal in Governor Beshear’s budget recommendation to sweep - or transfer - about 93 million dollars from the underground storage tank cleanup fund over the two years. While progress has been made, he says work remains. “A lot of them have been cleaned up, but a lot remain. In fact, some of the more problematic ones where you have more extensive contamination, where you have multiple properties involved,” added Fitzgerald.
This practice of sweeping this and other designated state funds is not new. In fact, Governors and legislatures have done this for years.
John Hicks says the governor’s budget provides $50 million in bond funds over the bienium for underground storage tank cleanup and removal. He says that amount provides funding above the average annual cleanup spending over the last eight years. Hicks says the fund transfer will not hinder the program from performing its mission.
A statement from the governor’s office to WEKU says in part, quote, “Gov. Beshear proposed a balanced and responsible budget that relies on less than half of the fund transfers of recent budgets and that ensures any transfer or ‘sweep’ of funds would only come from entities with significant excess funds of at least 80 percent more than their annual spending.”
Without raising new revenues significantly, Tom Fitzgerald says re-arranging spending is often the go-to approach. And House Energy and Environment Committee Chair Jim Gooch says that can sound good instead of talking about the politically dreaded word “taxes”. “We go back home and say, “well I didn’t raise your taxes. We yes we did because we sweep funds that then we have to raise taxes to replenish those or raise license fees or that sort of thing,” Gooch said.
Over in the Senate, Gooch’s counterpart Brandon Smith of Hazard chairs the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. Smith says littering is a major issue on his radar. He says the garbage issue has, quote, “become an epidemic issue for all of us.” “You hear a lot of talk about coal. I’m from the coalfields and I get that. But I will tell you if we don’t get a grip on trash and what’s going into our waterways and what’s happening and how Kentucky’s feeding into that and realize other states don’t put up with this,” said Smith.
Smith says states like Virginia and West Virginia are much more aggressive in administering fines for littering. The Eastern Kentucky lawmaker says another troublesome matter is plastic material getting into waterways and its effect on fish and subsequently humans who eat the fish.
So, Lane Boldman with the Kentucky Conservation Committee says doing more to aid the environment carries wide ranging benefits. “In general, you know, cleaner air cleaner water, that benefits everybody. That’s good for economic development, so we just want to make sure that these issues aren’t ignored,” said Boldman.
Boldman says her organization is specifically interested in energy usage and land conservation measures this legislative session. In line with that a rally is planned next Tuesday at the capitol.
From a written response provided to WEKU, Governor Beshear’s office said quote, “ Gov. Beshear also wants to invest in renewable energy and agri-tech to create good-paying jobs for Kentuckians throughout the commonwealth while addressing our changing climate and providing the food needed to feed the world’s growing population.”
Meanwhile, House Budget Committee Chair Steven Rudy has indicated his chamber could take up its version of the state budget next week.
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