From Governor Steve Beshear's Communications Office
At a briefing today in Louisville with Mayor Jerry Abramson, Gov. Beshear presented a breakdown of major areas of funding under the ‘Kentucky at Work’ plan:
Medicaid: Kentucky’s Medicaid program will receive about $990 million over the next two years. The program currently faces a $232 million deficit this year, while demand for services is increasing by about 3,000 people a month due to the economy.
Health and welfare: Kentucky will receive about $272 million for areas like public housing, weatherization, child care, child support enforcement and homelessness prevention.
Education: Kentucky will receive about $924 million in stimulus money. Approximately $535 million will be used to preserve existing commitments to K-12 and higher education, as well as to continue efforts to hold down the cost of tuition. The remaining $389 million, administered through the Kentucky Department of Education, will go to Title 1, Head Start, technology and school lunch programs and other programs that help families in crisis.
General Fund: Kentucky will receive nearly $120 million to help address critical shortfalls in priority areas and mitigate against even deeper cuts over the next two fiscal years.
Job training and public safety: The commonwealth will receive $66 million in job training and workforce development dollars. In the area of public safety, Kentucky will receive about $30 million to combat violence against women and to support criminal justice efforts at both the state and local levels.
Roads and Bridges: Kentucky will receive $421 million for highways and bridges. Gov. Beshear and legislative leaders have been working together on a road plan that contains projects that meet the federal government’s requirement that 50 percent of those funds be obligated within 120 days. Projects must be shovel-ready.
Transit: About $50 million will be allocated for transit.
Water and Sewer lines: Kentucky will receive about $71 million for water and sewer infrastructure.
Community Development: The state will be allocated some $12 million for local community development block grants.
Energy Projects: About $63 million will be allocated to Kentucky for energy initiatives.
The governor has put together an interagency work group – led by Cabinet Secretary Larry Hayes – to help guide planning for the Kentucky at Work initiative.
Two areas not accounted for in this $3 billion of direct investment include opportunities for states to compete for several billion in grants in the areas of health technology, education, public safety, transportation, energy research and the expansion of broad-band networks, among
