The Kentucky General Assembly has four days left in the 2021 legislative session. Two scheduled concurrent days are Monday and Tuesday and then two veto override days will take place at end of the month.
Winchester Senator Ralph Alvarado says he and his GOP colleagues are hesitant to spend much federal COVID infusion dollars now. He said there’s more interest in holding that money since the state is still facing sizeable unemployment issues. “Things we have in reserve I think we can sit back, see how our state recovers from this, and if things are looking good, then I think there’s an opportunity to have those discussions next year, but I think it would be really quick to want to spend that money without knowing what the landscape is going to look like,” said Alvarado.
In presenting his budget recommendations, Governor Beshear called upon lawmakers to make investments in the coming year. Alvarado does anticipate what he called, “a little bit more funding” funneled into higher education in the final, one-year budget.
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Alvarado sees the enhancement of tele-health as one health care related success in the 2021 general assembly session. The Winchester doctor, who chairs the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, said another area of emphasis was caring for dementia patients. “We passed significant bills, one creating a dementia coordinator in state government. Someone who will be able to apply for grants for dementia and give us an updated state health plan every four years and what we can do better as a state with recommendations to improve care, diagnosis, treatment, training. All those sorts of things,” explained Alvarado.
Alvarado admitted coronavirus has made for quite a different session with limited time in committee meetings and fewer direct interactions. The GOP lawmaker said very few brand-new items came through his committee. Alvarado said the focus was on getting previously discussed bills across the finish line.
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