News

The 2022 legislative session has just nine days remaining. Still waiting for final passage is the executive branch budget, the revenue bill, two tax reform bills and a myriad of other bills. Below is an update of several pieces of legislation.

House Bill 1:

House Bill 1 (HB1) is the executive branch biennial budget. The House voted to not concur with the Senate version of the budget this week, which triggered the formation of a conference committee. The conference committee convened on Wednesday, March 16 to begin negotiations on the differences between the two budgets. For WKU, the differences are in asset preservation, pension subsidy, and LifeWorks at WKU. The House provided $68 million is asset preservation split evenly over the two fiscal years and did not require WKU to match any of the funds. The Senate provided $68 million is asset preservation in the second fiscal year only and requires WKU to match at 25%. The House funded the pension subsidy at 100% and the Senate funded the subsidy at 90% in the first year and 80% in the second year. The pension subsidy the Senate provided follows the guidelines set out in House Bill 8 from last year. The Senate budget also provided $2.8 million in the first year from the State Fiscal Recovery Fund of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to establish an endowment for participants in the LifeWorks at WKU program. Funding for LifeWorks at WKU was not included in the House budget. For now, we wait as the conference committee works through the budget negotiations.

View HB1 HCS1 here.

View HB1 SCS1 here.

House Bill 663:

House Bill 663 (HB663) House Committee Substitute 1 requires the president and chair of the board of each postsecondary education institution to jointly execute a signed, sworn financial disclosure statement by July 1 of each year for the previous fiscal year. HB663 passed the House unanimously and is now in the Senate waiting for further action.

View HB663 HCS1 here.

House Bill 668:

House Bill 668 (HB668) House Committee Substitute 1 addresses some issues the universities and quasi-governmental agencies had with House Bill 8 from 2021. HB668 defines non-core business services and exempts them from the denominator used to calculate the Kentucky Employee Retirement System pension subsidy we receive. HB668 passed the House State Government committee on March 17 and has received two readings in the House.

View HB668 HCS1 here.

Senate Joint Resolution 150:

Senate Joint Resolution 150 (SJR150) terminates the Covid-19 emergency declaration. SJR150 passed the House and Senate and was vetoed by Governor Beshear. The House and Senate may vote to override the veto.

View SJR150 here.

View Governor Beshear’s veto message here.

Senate Resolution 208:

Senate Resolution 208 (SR208) confirms the reappointment of Dr. Philip Bale to the WKU Board of Regents for a term expiring June 30, 2027

View SR208 here.

Senate Resolution 209:

Senate Resolution 209 (SR209) confirms the appointment of Ms. Doris Thomas to the WKU Board of Regents for a term expiring June 30, 2027.

View SR209 here.

All legislation WKU is tracking can be viewed here.

Please contact Jennifer Smith at Jennifer.breiwa.smith@wku.edu or 270-745-6824 with any questions.