Business leaders in Lexington heard from the Senate Republican behind the state's budget today.

As Mackenzie Spink reports.

Business owners had the opportunity to voice their concerns and to hear what Senator Chris McDaniel expects to tackle during next year's legislative session.

This year, the General Assembly failed to pass Senate Bill nine, a major piece of legislation that addressed housing affordability.

Senator McDaniel says he expects it will be picked up again in the 2027 session.

From his perspective as a concrete business owner well-versed in the housing industry.

He says more money isn't the answer to the state's housing deficit.

It's not like there's a ton of excess capacity, particularly in the labor force right now, to build additional things.

So throwing additional money at it will only make the problem worse.

We've got to deal with regulation.

We've got to deal with the taxes behind it.

And we've got to deal with, you know, certain zoning things.

One of the audience questions for Senator McDaniel was about his thoughts on data centers.

He says data centers play a role in the race for democracy, and that the debate over data centers needs to keep this bigger picture in mind.

We as a nation cannot afford to lose in this race.

When you think about Iranian scientists, they're brilliant and Chinese scientists are brilliant.

They are some of the best in the world, as are our scientists.

But when we think about how we're going to enable and implement this technology.

To me, this is a conversation about which ideology wins.

Flock cameras also came up during the Q&A event.

McDaniel says they are an important tool that should not be thrown out wholesale.

There have been problems with these things and there have been abuses, and those ought to be addressed.

There ought to be strict policies in place, but at the end of the day, the number of criminals who've been caught to include the person who murdered that Kentucky state trooper the other day, the number of children who have been recovered.

The number of crimes that have been solved is nearly indisputable.

The 2027 legislative session is a shorter, 30 day long session which typically does not address the state's biennial budget, which is passed during even numbered years.

Senator McDaniel says he hopes the General Assembly will not make changes to the budget in this upcoming session.

For Kentucky edition, I'm McKenzie Spink.

Senator McDaniel also spoke about amendment one, which will be on the ballot in just a few weeks.

He sponsored the bill.

Behind this potential change to the state constitution, if approved by a majority of Kentucky voters, it would limit a governor's ability to pardon criminals shortly before and after an election.