FRANKFORT, Ky. — With a few strokes of the governor’s pen, Kentucky spent around $1.4 billion on unemployment, broadband internet, and other improvements across the commonwealth.

Most of the money comes from the recent American Rescue Plan Act.

“I think this is the way we want government to work,” Beshear said.

Flanked by legislative leaders from both parties, Beshear signed a series of bills Wednesday to spend COVID-19 relief funds: House Bill 382, House Bill 320, House Bill 556, and Senate Bill 36.

Senate President Robert Stivers (R-Manchester) said it wasn’t difficult to come to a consensus on where the money should be spent.

“There’s always a natural friction between the legislature and the executive branch, and that’s what you see, but there is also a certain sense of ability to work together on other issues,” Stivers said.

Among the spending:

• $575 million to pay back into the unemployment fund after taking out a loan to deal with the pandemic.
• $300 million for expanding broadband services.
• $250 million for water and sewer upgrades.
• $127 million for renovating and replacing school facilities.
• $75 million for vocational schools.
• $20 million for rural hospitals.

“We are showing what this government and this state is capable of by coming together and helping Kentuckians,” Senate Minority Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey (D-Louisville) said.

Stivers said the unemployment funds will ultimately keep businesses from paying more into the system.

“That’s a common ground that I think everybody knew that we were all interested in doing, so that was fairly easy,” Stivers said.

Beshear called the investments a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity and he was glad to see a bipartisan agreement.

“Are we going to disagree in the future? I’m sure,” Beshear said. “But I do think this gives us more common ground and more trust to try to reach these types of good results in the future.”

The federal relief money wasn’t all they spent. 

Lawmakers also put $140 million from the state’s coffers to cover full-day kindergarten next year.  

Kentucky will still get another billion dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act, but Stivers says it’s not clear when that’ll come or how they can spend it.

“There is just uncertainty because it just got passed in the last days of our session and they’re still preparing what we call the ‘guidances’ and the ‘sequencing,’ probably as we speak,” Stivers said.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is part of a lawsuit challenging a provision of the American Rescue Plan Act that penalizes states for passing tax cuts and using ARPA money to offset the revenue from those taxes.

A special session may be necessary to spend the rest of the money, but leaders say it’s too early to tell if one will be called.  

Election Reform

Beshear also signed House Bill 574, which creates more ways to vote in Kentucky than ever before.

The bill creates three days of early voting leading up to the election: the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before Election Day.

It also creates a voting super-center in each county where any registered voter can go to vote.

Another provision keeps an online form to request absentee ballots that was created due to the pandemic, although the conditions to vote absentee have been limited to their pre-pandemic parameters.

“Did I want more in this bill? Yes, I did. I believe we need no-excuse absentee ballots. I think we proved that we can substantially increase access without any fraud concerns,” Beshear said. “But listen, this is a session that we saw a lot of battles in and to be able to come together and expand, at least in part, our access to the ballot box is a win for Kentuckians.”

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams pushed for the measure as well, which gives his office more power to remove non-residents from the voter rolls, among other provisions he believes will make it harder to vote illegally.