A $1.7 billion one-time spending bill was just signed by the Governor — and most of us had no idea it was even happening.
Over $300 million in potential waste and abuse has been identified in HB 900. It started at $800 million for unnamed projects. Then, at last minute, it grew to $1.7 billion — stuffing in spending items that nobody had time to properly review… and that were kept hidden from Kentucky citizens until after the vote.
Here’s just some of what they slipped in:
- $80 million in forgivable loans to mega-development private industry projects
- $100 million to the Economic Development Grant program
- $2.5 million to buy an off-road park
- $2.2 million in one-time extra funding to the Glendale Training Center at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, which was built to train employees at the currently shuttered Ford battery plant.
- $3 million to the Louisville Ballet
- $4 million to Camp Landing Entertainment District, which is a for-profit private property developer renting space in a redevelopment mall to Malibu Jacks, a movie theater, and other businesses.
- $2.5 million for Kentucky to invest in Kentucky tech startups (it doesn’t specify which ones — presumably those selected by the Beshear administration)
- $3.2 million to the Louisville Orchestra, which has net revenue in the millions
- $10 million to the Kentucky Center for the Arts, which is the landlord for the Opera and hosts events like drag shows
- $450,000 to the Leadership Kentucky Foundation, a nonprofit with over $1.1 million in annual revenue, a net income of $308,000, and more than $3 million in assets
- $3 million to Goodwill Kentucky. Goodwill Kentucky brought in $138,259,072 in revenue last year, with net income of over $5 million and $184 million in net assets. It's CEO makes over $450,000 annually.
- $158 million in various unnamed or ambiguous economic development projects.
And that’s just scratching the surface.
Whether it’s handing millions to already financially strong private nonprofits, spending tens of millions on unnamed economic development projects that could end up in private bank accounts, or getting government involved in private industry where it arguably shouldn’t be — these are all expenditures that deserved real debate and discussion.
Not a last-minute, secretive passage where the citizens of Kentucky don’t get to voice their thoughts to their representatives.
Watch my latest show where I break it all down.