FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — For years, Ballard County has aspired to build a river port to take advantage of its strategic location at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Winning a federal grant would help get the project off the ground, but there’s one problem. Kentucky’s rural counties can’t afford some of the funding.
Kentucky lawmakers include $450 million to cover local funding matches for communities and nonprofits struggling to raise money to qualify for federal aid. , is working to overcome these obstacles with a House-passed bill.
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“This is going to be a game changer,” Ballard County Judge and Executive Officer Todd Cooper said.
The spending could bring billions of dollars in federal aid to the Bluegrass State to spur economic development, infrastructure, community revitalization, transportation and other projects that otherwise would never get off the ground. be.
Kentucky Congressman Richard Heath has been spearheading an effort to encourage communities in the state to learn about the requirements to obtain federal matching funds.
“From a state perspective, this is a great return on investment,” said Grant Ready Kentucky, a philanthropic program that provides technical assistance to communities and nonprofits struggling with the complexities of applying for federal grants. said Hannah Conover, executive director of.
“There’s a tremendous amount of federal funding going into a wide range of areas,” she added. “But federal funding is very difficult to access, and this opens doors for people who have previously been closed off to these opportunities.”
A state grant program could free up federal grants to help coalfield regions suffering from mining job losses. It could help communities recovering from devastating natural disasters, such as the 2021 tornadoes that hit parts of western Kentucky and the 2022 floods that inundated parts of Appalachia.
The matching funds are part of a much larger spending bill. The bill, which would tap Kentucky’s large budget reserves to make one-time investments such as repaying state pension debt and supporting infrastructure and economic development, passed the House 96-0 last week. advanced to the Senate. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers.
Although the Kentucky law that created the GRANT program passed without much fuss in 2023, the potential to leverage state funds to obtain even larger federal grants has garnered significant attention from local communities and nonprofits. I am. Lawmakers launched the program last year and allocated $2 million to gauge grassroots interest by providing enough funding to cover the cost of several projects.
Nearly 100 matching fund applications totaling more than $102 million have already been submitted to the Department of Local Government, which evaluates applications and awards funding. If the next round of state funding wins final approval, that total is expected to increase significantly.
Officials expect to ramp up efforts across the state to help communities and nonprofits apply for federal grants, and the proposed new state aid will help local matches It is planned to cover the following.
This initiative has strong bipartisan support. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said the program “has great potential to help communities across Kentucky secure much-needed federal funding.” Republican Rep. Richard Heath, the bill’s lead sponsor last year, said this is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to accomplish something that probably never would have been possible.”
“We’re not looking for a mural on a wall,” Heath said recently. “We’re not looking for sidewalks. We want life-changing, game-changing projects.”
Cooper said building a river port is the first of its kind project for Ballard County, with the potential to attract business and expand farmers’ markets. He said the county, along Kentucky’s westernmost tip, needs to hire more young people to reverse steady population decline.
The riverport project is expected to cost between $50 million and $60 million. Regional officials last year applied for a $9 million federal grant to help build a port in Wickliffe, the county seat 240 miles (386 kilometers) southwest of Louisville. The grant required a 20% local match, Cooper said.
“We have to come up with close to $2 million and we don’t have it,” Cooper said.
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Backroads of Appalachia, an eastern Kentucky nonprofit, is hoping for a federal grant to open more transitional housing for women recovering from substance abuse, its executive director said. Eric Hubbard said. The organization, based in Lynch, 158 miles (254 kilometers) southeast of Lexington, hopes state funding will help secure the games.
“As always, a fight is a fight,” Hubbard said. “We can get more funding for people in our region, but it all depends on our budget.”
