The House has officially passed a two-year spending plan for Kentucky, and it has made its way to the Senate, where it will undoubtedly undergo changes.
House Bills One and Six were approved with an overwhelming majority vote and the state legislative branch and judicial branch budgets – House Bill 263 and House Bill 264 – also advanced off the House floor Thursday.
HB 6 would increase funding for SEEK, fully fund transportation for public schools, meet the actuarial requirements for every state pension plan, appropriate millions toward clean drinking water initiatives, invest in public safety and more.
Representative Myron Dossett is particularly pleased with the funding of the pension system and says they’ll be looking into ways to adjust the SEEK funding formula to make sure everyone can benefit from that increase.
Senator Whitney Westerfield says he knows for a fact the budget will change a lot in the coming weeks, and something he would like to see is some type of meaningful funding to address childcare shortages in the Commonwealth.
Both say nothing is off the table for the budget moving forward, though it may be several weeks before a Senate version is voted on—from there, it will likely go to conference in an effort to reach a compromise before the session ends on in April.