News

Last night, the Kentucky General Assembly passed the Free Conference Committee Reports on House Bill 500 (HB500), the Executive Branch Biennial Budget, and House Bill 900 (HB900), an additional one-time appropriations bill. HB500 includes a reduction to the base appropriation for most universities, including WKU. However, the General Assembly did provide authorization for Elevate WKU and additional asset preservation funding. The Free Conference Committee Report was released to the public this morning; we are continuing to evaluate the report and will provide another update once we have had a chance to analyze the bill. WKU is receiving $7,700,000 in each year of the biennium, an overall total of $15,400,000, for IT infrastructure upgrades in HB900.

HB500 and HB900 have been delivered to Governor Beshear for further action, and we now enter the ten-day veto period where he will review passed legislation and decide to veto or sign them into law; any legislation that is not signed becomes law without the Governor’s signature. The General Assembly will reconvene on April 14 for the final two days of the long legislative session. I will provide a final update to campus on April 16.

View HB500 Free Conference Committee Report here.

View HB900 Free Conference Committee Report here.

View all legislation WKU is tracking here.