Rep. Kevin Jackson provides update on budget bill in Frankfort

FRANKFORT, Ky. – There is good news for Kentuckians all across the state as confidence is growing in Frankfort that House Bill 500, also known as the budget bill, will pass.

Recent concerns by state legislators lead to some anxiety among lawmakers in Frankfort that the budget may not be passed before session ends. Some of that anxiety stemmed from a new $800 million bill the federal government is expecting the state to pick up. Lawmakers said that making up that difference has been a challenge, and that state lawmakers can’t use the same tactics that those in Washington, D.C. can use.

“I don’t fault anybody else. We’re just not like the federal government. We can’t print more money. We can’t go trillions of dollars in debt. We don’t want to anyway. But we have to balance our budget. It has to make sense. And, I think right now we’re headed in the right direction with this new budget amendment that came out yesterday,” said state Rep. Kevin Jackson.

For Jackson, and many in Frankfort, there was concern for making sure quality health insurance is available for state employees, teachers, law enforcement and other government employees. Now they think they have found a solution to that problem.

“We were really worried about the insurance portion, state employees, that was 310,000 state employees. That looks much better. Maybe a 3% increase, year one and a 3% increase, in year two for employees. The state’s going to pick up the other 24%. There’s about a 30% increase in cost. So I think that was a fair adjustment. So I feel much better, today than I did last week at this time,” Jackson said.

The bill passed out of committee on Wednesday and will be up for another vote either Friday or Monday before heading to the Senate for their opinions and vote. Jackson says that he is now confident that a solution will be found before the end of the session and the bill will head to the governor’s desk for his signature in a few weeks.