Republican senators reveal their version of Kentucky’s next two-year budget

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Senate Republicans revealed their version of the state’s next two-year budget Wednesday, proposing more funding for the main K-12 school funding formula and doubling the amount of performance-based funding that goes to public universities.

The spending blueprint could be voted on in the full Senate later Wednesday, hours after it cleared a Senate committee. The ultimate version of the spending plan — the state’s main policy document — will be hashed out in coming days by House and Senate conferees. The GOP holds supermajorities in both chambers.

A separate spending bill headed to the full Senate would tap into the Bluegrass State’s massive budget reserves to make a number of one-time investments. Senators made several additions to the House version, including a $75 million appropriation to deliver a one-time additional pension payment for retirees in the Kentucky Employee Retirement System to help cushion them from the impact of high inflation.

Those one-time funding priorities also include $50 million for an economic development fund to assist business recruitment in areas plagued by high unemployment and a combined $37 million for cancer centers in Middlesboro in eastern Kentucky and in Bullitt County, south of Louisville.

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