The budget package in HB 1 was passed out of the Senate Appropriations & Revenue Committee after Chairman Chris McDaniel summarized the highlights. The Senate version of the bill includes similar language to the House version such as increased funding for jails, court security officers, prosecutors, PVAs and more. A comprehensive list of county-focused funding is included below.
The budget now goes back to the House for consideration of the Senate changes. The House will not agree to all the changes, setting in motion the establishment of a conference committee that will work to iron out the differences into a final product to ship to the Governor's desk. The budget conference committee is made up of all members of the House and Senate majority and minority leadership, in addition to both Appropriations & Revenue committee chairmen. Much of those deliberations have traditionally taken place behind closed doors, but some of the discussions will be broadcast on the LRC website and KET. We will let you know once the bill reaches that stage of the process.
County Jails
House and Senate:
- $4.00 increase in the per diem reimbursement for housing state inmates in the county jail.
Senate plan:
- Adds a new provision to decrease the threshold for jail catastrophic medical claims from $1,000 (statutory) to $500 for FY23 and FY24.
Water Infrastructure
House plan:
- $350 million in FY23 from the State’s portion of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for a Drinking Water and Wastewater Grant program, which will be allocated to each county based on population.
Senate plan:
- $300 million in FY23 from the State’s portion of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for a Drinking Water and Wastewater Grant program, which will also be allocated to each county based on population.
Broadband Infrastructure
Senate plan:
- $50 million in FY23 from the State’s portion of ARPA to fund broadband deployment.
- $1.1 million in FY23 and FY24 to establish an Office for Broadband under the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority.
County Clerks
Senate plan:
- $12.5 million in FY23 and FY24 for grants to county clerks for e-recording.
- $12.5 million in FY23 and FY24 for grants to county clerks to purchase election equipment.
Court Security Officers
House and Senate:
- An increase in the court security reimbursement rate to $15/hr. To be eligible for this enhanced rate, deputies providing services must be paid at least $10 per hour. The current reimbursement compensation rate is $10 per hour.
County Attorneys
House and Senate:
- $549,000 each fiscal year for the Rocket Docket program.
- $1.9 million each fiscal year for retirement costs.
- $75,000 in each fiscal year for expert witnesses.
House plan:
- $4.4 million in FY23 and $9.0 million in FY24 for additional positions.
Senate plan:
- $2.9 million in FY23 and $3.0 million in FY24 for additional positions.
- $5.7 million in FY23 and $11.7 million in FY24 for implementation of Marsy’s Law.
Commonwealth’s Attorneys
House and Senate:
- $643,200 in FY23 and $547,100 in FY24 for the conversion of four part-time Commonwealth's Attorneys to full-time status.
House plan:
- $3.6 million in FY23 and $7.4 million in FY24 for additional positions.
- $2.4 million in FY23 and $2.4 million in FY24 for the Rocket Docket program.
Senate plan:
- $2.4 million in FY23 and FY24 for additional positions.
- $5.0 million in FY23 and $10.2 million in FY24 for implementation of Marsy’s Law.
- $387,700 in each FY23 and FY24 for the Rocket Docket program.
PVAs
House and Senate:
- $8.5 million in FY23 and FY24 for an aerial mapping project.
House plan:
- $3.7 million in FY23 and $3.8 million in FY24 to support transitioning property valuation administrators' offices to a 40 hour work week.
- $1.6 million in FY23 and FY24 to support the continuation of mandatory services.
Coal and Mineral Severance
House and Senate:
- Coal severance dollars will continue to be allocated 70 percent into the Local Government Economic Development Fund (LGEDF) and 30 percent into the Local Government Economic Assistance Fund (LGEA).
- LGEA: $34.8 million in FY2023 and $35.2 million in FY2024.
- LGEDF: $37.4 million in FY23 and $39.8 million in FY2024.
State Medical Examiner
House and Senate:
- $7.5 million in FY23 and FY24 to support the operations of the Office of the Kentucky State Medical Examiner.
House plan:
- $1.1 million in FY23 and FY24 to provide salary increases for forensic autopsy technicians, medical examiners, and the Chief Medical Examiner.
Senate plan:
- $3.7 million in FY23 and FY24 to support additional positions within the Office of the Kentucky State Medical Examiner and provide salary increases for forensic autopsy technicians, medical examiners, and the Chief Medical Examiner.
State Parks
Senate plan:
- $250 million in FY24 for improvement to state parks contingent on the Department of Parks’ submission and approval by the General Assembly of a comprehensive statewide proposal.
- The proposal must include:
- Recommendations for private and/or local government partnerships;
- Detailed financial information regarding return on investment resulting from partnerships;
- A 50 percent match of the state contribution from private and/or local government partners; and
- Detailed plans for broadband deployment/connectivity in Parks that are unserved or underserved as defined in KRS 224A.011.
- The proposal may also include a plan of action regarding disposal of property to local governments.
Compensation Plan for State Employees
House plan:
- Provide a 6 percent raise for public employees in FY23 and requires the Secretary of Personnel to develop a plan to revise the classification and compensation for funding in FY24.
Senate plan:
- Provide an increment of $4,500, effective July 1, 2022, on the base salary or wages of each eligible state employee. The bill expressed an intention to provide a similar salary increment in FY24 subject to the completion of a classification and compensation report by the Personnel Cabinet.
Other Provisions Affecting Counties
House and Senate:
- $455,000 in each fiscal year to support capital improvement grants to the Local Agricultural Fair Aid Program. This is an increase of $155,000 per year.
- Includes language that the state portion of the American Rescue Plan Act and Infrastructure and Jobs Act shall not be expended or appropriated without the express authority of the General Assembly
House plan:
- $10 million in FY23 and FY24 for a grant pool under the Department of Local Government that would allow each Representative and Senator to award grants to local governments, educational units, and quasi-governmental agencies.
- $500,000 in FY23 and FY24 for the Area Development Fund.
Senate plan:
- $250,000 in FY23 and FY24 for Area Development Districts to match the increased Appalachian Regional Commission grants.
- $0 in FY23 and FY24 for the Area Development Fund.
- $25 million in FY22 from the State’s ARPA allocation to be distributed to tourism commissions for local tourism grants.
