By Tony McVeigh
Frankfort, KY – Common Cause of Kentucky wants to make sure the state's share of the federal stimulus package is appropriately spent. Richard Beliles (be-LILES) of the citizens advocacy group says most of the money is supposed to go toward education and health care.
"Some of these states, including Kentucky, are really going to have a lot of pressure on them with their trying to balance their budgets. And because of that, some of this stimulus money may be placed and driven toward areas that wasn't the intent of the law."
Kentucky's share of the federal stimulus package is about three billion dollars. Around 650-million of that can be used for the state budget, but 82-percent must be earmarked for education. The stimulus money is already part of the discussion for a planned June 15th special session on the state budget. Kentucky is facing a projected revenue shortfall of almost one billion dollars next fiscal year, which begins July 1st.