Governor Andy Beshear holds Team Kentucky update with two huge announcements for Kentucky

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Governor Andy Beshear held his Team Kentucky update Thursday, where he made 2 huge announcements for the growth of the commonwealth.

The first is an executive order he signed, which creates a council of second chance employers to continue reducing the recidivism rate.

This new council will include community and business leaders from around the state, along with some top officials in his cabinet, to help teach the benefits of second chance hiring.

“Long-term, I believe this can be one of the most successful programs to reduce crime to improve public safety, and at the same time to rebuild lives because we try to prevent someone from ever committing the first crime… and we’re going to continue to try that… but this is where we know we can help prevent anyone from ever committing a second serious offense,” Beshear says.

The other furthers the growth of the economy in the Commonwealth, bringing $400,000 in State Trade Expansion Program, or STEP, funds to Kentucky from the Small Business Administration to help create more jobs for residents of Kentucky.

“This is just another tool to help our businesses grow and to hire more people. Together Kentucky, we have broken every economic development record in the books… with over $32 billion of private sector investment, over 55,000 new jobs. We’ve announced the best two years for wages in our history, broken the record for exports and now doing the work to do even more… and the last two years have been the best years for Kentucky tourism and its impact ever. We’re going to beat that this year,” Beshear says.