The Kentucky Senate has voted to spend hundreds of millions of dollars related to unemployment costs, full-day kindergarten, and broadband expansion. It was one of the bills taken up on the last day of the 2021 General Assembly session.
Senate Budget Committee Chair Chris McDaniel brought the item before the full Senate. “And one of the things we’ve heard most strongly from our business community and frankly with the governor is the need to repay the federal unemployment insurance loan. And I will say that, as we’ve talked about, we probably overlap on 70 to 80% of the things we want to do with the governor. And this was one of his top items and we agree,” said McDaniel.
The funding comes from both federal and state sources. The legislature and governor have the opportunity to spend more than $2 billion in federal stimulus money.
The bill included funding to support public school kindergarten, something which pleased Lexington Senator Reggie Thomas. “Finally we fund full day kindergarten. We’ve got to do that. Obviously the next step, which I hope is next year, is we begin to fund, at least in some form, early childhood education,” said Thomas.
The measure also includes funding for the Northern Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office, the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves, and the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission.
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