Governor Andy Beshear, earlier this week, signed four bills related to American Rescue Plan Act funds.
House Bill 320 and House Bill 382 will provide $300 million to the Broadband Deployment Fund to address unserved and underserved communities. Governor Beshear said at a minimum $600 million will go toward broadband expansion, with the investment expected to create an estimated 10,000 direct and indirect jobs across the Commonwealth.
House Bill 382 will also fund a range of vital initiatives, including full-day Kindergarten and the reopening of a medical examiner’s office in northern Kentucky. The bill also directs $575 million of the American Rescue Plan funds to repay a federal unemployment insurance loan.
House Bill 556 provides $127 million for school construction and $75 million for renovation costs for local vocational schools. State officials said the funding would accelerate the much-needed improvements of schools that have been designated as the highest-ranked on the Department of Education’s Facilities Inventory and Classification System report. The bill also provides $20 million in funding to rural hospitals.
Senate Bill 36 allocates $250 million in grant funding to provide crucial upgrades to water and sewer infrastructure in communities across Kentucky. The Better Kentucky Recovery Fund will replace or lay new pipelines to provide clean drinking water and improve sanitary water systems, modernizing infrastructure without raising rates while creating up to 5,800 direct or indirect jobs.
Around $4.2 billion in funding came to Kentucky from the American Rescue Plan Act for state and local governments.