Senator Westerfield Presented with 2022 Kentucky Chamber MVP Award

Senator Whitney Westerfield was presented the Kentucky Chamber MVP Award on Thursday by Kentucky Chamber Senior Vice President of Public Affairs Kate Shanks.

Senator Westerfield was among a select group of legislators who “went to bat” for Kentucky business during the 2022 Kentucky General Assembly by displaying conspicuous actions to strengthen business, improve competitiveness, and ensure growth.

Recipients of the Kentucky Chamber MVP Award show strong leadership for the business community by sponsoring or carrying Chamber priority legislation to final passage, showing leadership on passage of critical legislation to improve Kentucky, or by taking hard votes in defense of business.

During the 2022 session, Sen. Westerfield championed Senate Bill 90, legislation creating a pilot program to help address the role addiction and mental health disorders have in criminal activity to get people into recovery programs and back into the workforce.

“As we tackle our low workforce participation to help businesses grow and better serve their customers, we cannot ignore the role substance use disorder and crime have on this problem,” said Shanks. “The Senate Bill 90 pilot program can transform how we handle addiction’s impact on crime to help Kentuckians, make communities safer, improve workforce, and reduce the cost of addiction and crime on our economy.”

The 2022 General Assembly saw monumental progress on several critical priorities of the Kentucky business community, and the pro-growth policies passed saved Kentucky businesses an estimated $1.281 billion, roughly $19,000 for each employer in the Commonwealth.

While monitoring the progress of bills that create a better business climate and advance the Commonwealth, the Chamber tracks how each legislator votes on these bills. The Chamber’s MVP Award recipients displayed more than just a business-friendly voting record, but also went out of their way, and at times across party lines, to support or oppose an issue critical to the business climate in Kentucky.

Learn more about business issues during the 2022 Kentucky General Assembly in the Kentucky Chamber’s “Results for Business” publication.