Following a year in which the state of Kentucky experienced a wide spectrum of hope and heartache, Governor Andy Beshear delivered his “State of the Commonwealth” address to the General Assembly in Frankfort Wednesday night — highlighting unmatched job growth, COVID-19 vaccines and variants, devastating weather events, and an upcoming budget weighing on his mind.
The third such address of his tenure, Beshear has repeatedly motioned toward an “economy on fire,” accented by Ford’s massive $5 billion-plus investment for an electric automobile battery plant near Elizabethtown.
For 2021, more than $11.2 billion in private sector investments came to Kentucky, in what Beshear added was roughly an average of 18,000 good-paying jobs per district.
And per Beshear, that won’t be the end of Kentucky’s proposed job growth. In a push to no longer be a “fly-over” state, Beshear added his upcoming budget — which still needs to be reviewed by the General Assembly — will:
— include historic investments in education
— create a fund for investing in work development sites
— promote and pay essential workers (such as Kentucky’s State Police, nurses and teachers)
— continue to develop a world-class airport in Paducah and west Kentucky
— develop water and sewer grants for city and county municipalities
— help construct the I-69 bridge between Kentucky and Indiana near Henderson
— expedite development of east Kentucky’s four-lane mountain highway
— and support a raise for all of Kentucky’s state workers
The most recent news in the Commonwealth includes a tough convergence of tornadic activity that took the lives of 77 Kentuckians and did considerable damage in 30-plus counties, coupled with a significant spike in COVID-19 positivity — which shot north of 21% Wednesday afternoon courtesy of the highly-transmissible “Omicron” variant.
Among the many reparations Beshear has sought at the state and federal levels for disaster relief, he said there’s work being done on potential funding for schools damaged by the December 10 and 11 storms.
The plan, he added, is to rebuild “every structure, and every life” with help from Democrats, Republicans and the General Assembly.
Appealing mostly to bipartisanship in his discussions, Beshear didn’t back down from his COVID-19 protocols and decisions made in the past year — in which a sincere push on universal masking indoors, vaccinations and booster shots, and curfews/shutdowns early in the pandemic helped tide overwhelmed hospitals.
As of Wednesday night, more than 70% of the state’s eligible population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine — with schools trying to remain traditional and in-person coming into the New Year.
The Kentucky General Assembly will meet for 60 days in this even year.
