HB130: AN ACT relating to soil and water conservation and declaring an emergency.

Legislative Summary

Amends KRS 147A.029 to allow soil and water conservation districts and watershed conservancy districts to use funds appropriated for the Local Match Participation Program for flood-related projects with federal government agencies, including the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service; amends KRS 262.240 to provide immunity to a supervisor serving on a soil and water conservation board; creates a new section of KRS 262.700 to 262.795 to establish the procedure for the discontinuance of watershed conservancy district boards, to allow any soil and water conservation district or fiscal court where the watershed conservancy district lies to initiate the discontinuance if the watershed conservancy board fails to meet over the course of one year or longer or fails to adopt and fund a budget, to provide for public notice requirements, to allow for a public hearing to be requested, to require a vote on the discontinuance to be held by the body proposing the discontinuance within 30 days of the public hearing or, if no public hearing is requested, within 30 days of the expiration of the time period in which the public hearing could be requested, to require that if the proposing body votes in favor of discontinuance, then all soil and water conservation districts and fiscal courts where any portion of the watershed conservancy district lies shall hold discontinuance votes within 30 days, to provide that if all voting entities vote in favor of discontinuance or fail to vote, then the watershed conservancy district board shall be discontinued, to provide that if the watershed conservancy district board is discontinued, then the watershed conservancy district shall remain intact and the landowners within the district shall continue to pay the watershed conservancy district tax to the soil and water conservation district or districts in which the watershed conservancy district lies, to require the soil and water conservation district board or boards where the discontinued watershed conservancy district lies to assume all of the rights and responsibilities of the watershed conservancy district board, and to allow that a discontinued watershed conservancy district board be reestablished; amends KRS 262.740 to provide immunity to a director serving on a watershed conservancy district board; amends KRS 262.742 to require that if a vacancy occurs on a watershed conservation district board, the board shall give public notice of the vacancy in the watershed conservancy district; amends KRS 262.760 to provide that if a watershed conservancy district fails to prepare and fund a budget within the first quarter of the year, the soil and water conservation district board or boards where the watershed conservancy district lies may prepare and fund a budget for the watershed conservancy district; repeals KRS 262.791 relating to district discontinuance; and amends KRS 262.793 to allow soil and water conservation board or boards that inherit funds and taxing authority from a discontinued watershed conservancy district board to make periodic adjustments to the revenues they collect and to spend the funds collected on the same works of improvement that are within the watershed conservancy district, even if they are outside of the soil and water conservation district collecting the revenue; EMERGENCY.