Local legislators discuss bill that would consolidate counties

An eastern Kentucky member of the Kentucky House has proposed legislation to reduce the number of counties from 120 to 50, but local legislators don’t expect the bill to get much traction during this year’s session.

House Bill 234 would consolidate the county governments and school districts in an attempt to save the state money. Christian County would remain intact, but Todd would merge with Logan and Simpson and Trigg would merge with Calloway.

State Representative Myron Dossett represents a portion of Hopkins County—which would merge with Caldwell under the proposal—and says he doesn’t support it at this point but the need for consolidation is much greater in the eastern part of the Commonwealth.

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Representative Lynn Bechler of Marion represents Crittenden, Livingston and Caldwell counties that would all be affected. He also has a portion of Christian County and while he doesn’t support the bill, he does says having more school systems than counties has caused a shortage of funds in many cases and that does need to be addressed.

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Representative Walker Thomas, who represents portions of Trigg and Christian Counties, doesn't support consolidation at this point and turned down a chance to be a cosponsor of the bill.

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Senator Whitney Westerfield represents Christian, Todd and Logan counties and doesn’t believe county consolidation will happen this year.

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Hear local lawmakers discuss this issue and many others during our weekly legislative update program Sunday morning at 9 on Lite Rock 98.7 and online at lite987whop.com.