The Lake Cumberland area has a lot to brag about when it comes to tourism.

There are more than 4 million visitors every year to Lake Cumberland, but there is much more to lure folks to the southeastern Kentucky region.

And making sure infrastructure can be a help and not a hindrance is top of mind.

I spoke with State Representative Josh Bray of Mount Vernon and vice chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee in Frankfort, about that, and also how state lawmakers are preparing for the upcoming budget session next year.

What can you tell us about what you're doing right now when it comes to crafting the budget?

And when will Republicans kind of say, here's what we propose.

Well, you wait till after the governor address or will you do it before?

Yeah.

I mean, so right now we just we have meetings with every stakeholder you can think of.

You know, we're meeting with university.

We're meeting with, groups about Medicaid.

We're meeting with providers.

I mean, you name it, anybody that is affiliated with the state government, we've got meetings set with and and so we get their feedback, we hear their issues.

And then, you know, we start prepping to craft the budget itself.

As far as timeline, I mean, to be honest with you, I don't know.

It's one of those things.

It'll be ready when it's ready.

And, and, even once it's filed, there's still a lot of work to be done.

And how much do you have to consider what's happening in Washington while you're even doing this kind of preparatory R&D kind of work right now?

Does that factor in at all?

Oh, it absolutely does.

I mean, because of, you know, a lot of stuff that could get passed or has been passed, you know, it's got an effect on the state budget.

So we're very fortunate in Kentucky.

We've got a lot of strong leadership.

So we've had a lot of conversation with, you know, our senator's office, with with Chairman Guthrie, Chairman Comer, just keeping they keep us very well informed with what's going on, what could be in the package.

You know, they passed the big, beautiful bill, but there's other packages that are going to be worked on over the next little bit.

So, I mean, we're very well informed on that.

And, we've got our own policy issues and then we have to react to what they do D.C. as well.

Yeah.

Right.

How does the budget picture like the state's economic picture look right now?

Do you consider it healthy, vibrant?

How would you describe it?

Oh, it's absolutely healthy.

You know, if you look at just where we are now, let's say compared to 5 or 6 years ago, we we've built one of the largest budget reserve trust funds in the country.

We've had an unprecedented amount of investments last budget cycle through House Bill one, something that, you know, we've never thought was possible.

Investments in the local communities, whether that's water projects, sewer projects, road projects.

There's been a lot of good things like that.

But we're also being very fiscally minded, very fiscally conservative.

We're maintaining a healthy reserve, just like any family has to do at home.

Right?

You've got to make sure you've got a savings account built up in case of there's a rainy day or in case there's some kind of emergency.

And that's what we've done here.

So any time we see floods or tornadoes, you know, we've had cash in the bank to kind of come in and, and step up and help local communities where really the Commonwealth hasn't been in that position before.

Yeah.

Where we're sitting right now, the center for Rural Development, this is actually a FEMA center or however you describe where people can come here and get some disaster relief.

And so we think about we're a few months out from those devastating, weather events that happened, particularly in London.

But Somerset saw an impact as well.

So when you think about natural disasters and how much more it seems that the legislature has to respond to that and the communities have to respond.

I mean, how much more do you think the legislature needs to evaluate policy around disaster relief, or are you already keeping pace with it?

You think?

No, no, I mean, we've historically, you know, whether it was the Mayfield floods or the Mayfield tornado or the eastern Kentucky floods a few years ago, or the eastern Kentucky floods this year, the, you know, the flooding that went on statewide this year.

It's something that we've obviously got to be mindful of.

You know, I believe there's a resiliency tax for set up this year just to kind of keep abreast on, you know, maybe there's things we can do as a state government to make the process a little better.

Maybe there's policies we can we can put in to help mitigate some of the damage.

But, you know, I fully trust that they'll vet all that out.

But, you know, our focus right now is just maintaining the fiscal health of the Commonwealth so that if something does happen, you know, we've got the resources to respond.

Let's zoom in and talk about this region.

There was a pretty flattering report that came out in Kentucky Monthly about the particularly the fiscal health of Somerset, Pulaski County.

Right.

And we look at overall what's happening here.

Do you see that in areas Rockcastle County, other areas where, you know, there's a regional focus?

It's not just Somerset Pulaski proper that's benefiting, but that is really causing some growth in the areas that surround it.

Yeah.

And you know, that's one of the things I'm most excited about.

Because I come from a local government background and I can remember just locally when, you know, maybe a city and county didn't get along or maybe, this county, was doing something great, but this county wasn't.

And so we were everybody was like, siloed.

But it's not that way anymore.

I mean, if you look at, you know, some of the large investments or large projects we've got going on, they're they're regional in nature.

You know, in my home county, they've got a mega site that was funded through House Bill one, but it's a regional project.

Rockcastle County, Garrard County and Lincoln County came together, to form a partnership, in order to make that happen.

And the same things going on down here, you know.

When you look at what's going on in this entire region, this travel corridor down for 61 from 75.

I mean, a lot of it is we've got very strong leaders in all of these counties and all these cities, and they work well together.

And you know, that that report was a testament to that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Where do you think there could be some more strengthening if you could look at a five year strategic plan, what would be a couple of the elements you think should be first and foremost in Pulaski County in particular, you know, like Cumberland is a huge tourist destination.

Particularly from out of state people, you know, I watch them every weekend, get off in Rockcastle County.

And, you know, it backs up traffic tremendously.

On along for 61.

So we, you know, back home it's difficult to travel on Fridays or Sundays, you know, when people are coming or going.

Right.

And so within the transportation plan we widen for 61.

Made sure the the money was there for the design and implementation of that.

The, the bypass, to connect the Cumberland Parkway to the interstate to make that an interstate spur, that that money's been allocated there.

This region here, a lot of it is road infrastructure because they've got, you know, the water infrastructure, the sewer infrastructure, just making sure that that's available, that's done.

That they I know in speaking with the local leaders, that's always their number one priority is, hey, can we widen for 60 more just to make it easier for people from Ohio to get in here?

I'll have more of my conversation with State Representative Bray next week.

When we talk about artificial intelligence and public policy, that could come to address that technology.