KRS 42.453: Kentucky Coal Fields Endowment Authority -- Creation -- Role and duties -

- Project eligibility criteria -- Appropriation -- Tax exemption.

(1) The Kentucky Coal Fields Endowment Authority is hereby created as a public

corporation, governmental agency, and instrumentality of the Commonwealth, with

the perpetual succession and with power in that name to:

(a) Contract and be contracted with;

(b) Acquire and convey property;

(c) Sue and be sued;

(d) Have and use a corporate seal;

(e) Adopt bylaws;

(f) Invest moneys; and

(g) Exercise, in addition to the powers and functions specifically stated in this

section and KRS 42.454, all of the usual powers of private corporations to the

extent that the same are not inconsistent with specifically enumerated powe rs

or limitations upon public corporations.

(2) (a) It shall be the role and duty of the authority to support through funding efforts

to diversify the economy of the coal fields within Kentucky.

(b) Projects that may be funded shall be nonrecurring investments in:

1. Economic development;

2. Public infrastructure, water, and wastewater;

3. Public health and safety; and

4. Information technology development and access.

(c) Projects shall be selected ba sed on economic impact, job creation, workforce

development, community benefit, available partnerships, project readiness,

and the ability for a project to be self-sustaining.

(3) Seven million five hundred thousand dollars ($7,500,000) of the severance an d

processing taxes on coal collected annually shall be transferred from the general

fund to the Kentucky Coal Fields Endowment Authority established in this section.

The transfers shall be made in quarterly amounts of one million eight hundred

seventy-five thousand dollars ($1,875,000) at the same time as the transfers to the

local government economic development fund.

(4) Moneys transferred to the authority are hereby appropriated for the purposes set

forth in this section and shall not be appropriated or transferred by the General

Assembly for any other purpose. State moneys appropriated that are not spent at the

end of the fiscal year shall not lapse.

(5) All property and income of the Kentucky Coal Fields Endowment Authority shall

be exempt from all taxes and assessment of any nature.