By Jack Brammer
NKyTribune reporter
A Northern Kentucky state lawmaker has come up with an idea to find homes in Kentucky for refugees from Ukraine and ease the state’s shortage of workers.
Sen. Chris McDaniel, a Taylor Mill Republican who is chair of the state Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee, unveiled a bill Wednesday to create a state fund to provide grants of up to $10,000 for up to 5,000 families who have been displaced by international conflict.
McDaniel said the $50 million for the fund would be included in the next two-year budget state lawmakers are working on now, as well as $5 million a year to the Kentucky Office of Refugees for community support.
The office is a department of Catholic Charities of Louisville and is designated by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement to administer the state refugee resettlement program and serve as the state refugee coordinator’s office.
McDaniel’s proposal also would provide scholarships at Kentucky public universities for children of refugees receiving state aid.
McDaniel said the legislation not only meets human needs in helping some of the 3 million Ukrainians who have been displaced from their homes because of the Russian invasion but will enhance public policy by addressing Kentucky’s workforce shortage.
McDaniel said the fund would help any refugees from international conflict but he was mindful of the plight of Ukrainians.
“In the past three weeks, 3 million folks who otherwise were going about normal lives have been displaced into the adjoining nation of Poland,” said McDaniel.
“That would be roughly the equivalent in three weeks of 450,000 new people entering the commonwealth with nothing but the clothes on their back.”
John Koehlinger, executive director of the Kentucky Refugee Ministries, which has offices in Lexington, Louisville and Northern Kentucky, said Kentucky has “a long history” of welcoming refugees. The KRM receives funding through the Kentucky Office for Refugees.
Koehlinger said his group relocated more than 460 of last year’s refugees from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover – 300 in Louisville, 126 in Lexington and about 40 in Northern Kentucky.
He added that many are working in a variety of businesses around the state.
The highest number of refugees who have resettled in Kentucky in a year was 2,385 in 2016, he said. He said the federal government has set a limit of 125,000 refugees into the United States for this year.
The Senate budget committee approved McDaniel’s bill – Senate Bill 195—on a 9-0 vote and sent it to the full Senate for its consideration.
Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, supported the bill but he said he felt “a level of discomfort” for not helping refugees from the Mexican border.
He said the process is too slow as they seek asylum.