Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday defeated a state spending plan unveiled by House Republicans that will go far short of what Kentucky's schools, juvenile justice, health care and other essential services need at a time of large budget surpluses. He said it was not enough.
In his first skirmish with Republican lawmakers since his re-election last year, Beshear said the House's two-year spending plan would create unnecessary red tape, hamper the state's response to natural disasters and drastically reduce the government workforce. He said it would be.
“There's a lot of work to be done,” he said, contrasting his budget proposal with the House Republican proposal.
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Asked for an answer late Thursday, Republican House Speaker David Osborne said: “I don't think it will be a shock to anyone hearing this that there is no way in the world there will be as much spending as the governor wants.” Stated.
The House spending bill was introduced Tuesday. At the time, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Petrie said, “We are committed to investing in the commonwealth's future while prioritizing responsive spending aimed at allocating resources efficiently while maintaining essential public services.” We will continue to make this commitment.”
Two days later, the Democratic governor found a number of problems with the bill, including a key element of public education. Beshear said the House version would funnel $1.1 billion less into the state's primary funding formula for public K-12 schools (known as SEEK) than his proposal.
Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is seen here answering questions during an interview in Frankfort, Kentucky, Dec. 19, 2023. He denounced the Kentucky House Republicans' spending plan on January 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
He said the House Republican plan does not guarantee raises for teachers and all other public school employees and lacks funding to provide every 4-year-old in Kentucky with access to preschool. He vehemently criticized it. Both were cornerstones of Beshear's budget plan, which called for an 11% pay raise for school employees.
He said this universal preschool proposal is essential to meeting the child care needs of Kentuckians. The governor said enrolling all 4-year-olds in state-supported kindergartens will create more child care slots for younger children and encourage more parents to return to work.
“Fully investing in child care without blanket coverage of preschool will not create a single additional child care slot anywhere in Kentucky,” Beshear said. “That doesn't solve any of the problems of child deserts. If we want to have a real impact, we need everyone to work together.”
He said significant raises are needed to attract and retain teachers as states compete to staff classrooms.
The House version would leave it up to school districts to decide whether to use additional state funds to pay raises for teachers and other employees. Osborn said Wednesday that this reflects the desire of school superintendents for flexibility in spending.
“We try not to micromanage these things, especially when it comes to budgets,” he says.
The House measure includes language strongly encouraging districts to give raises. It also includes provisions to track pay decisions by district. This “adds a layer of accountability with reporting requirements that make things like pay schedules and compensation increases easily available,” Petrie said.
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Beshear said during a systematic review of the House plan, it would underfund state Medicaid programs that serve the poor and disabled. He said it would fail to fund safety improvements in juvenile detention facilities, and efforts to increase staffing at juvenile detention facilities would be halted.
He said the House plan would also place limits on funding to respond to emergencies and natural disasters. Beshear said the money available under the bill “will not get us through the ice storm.”
He said the governor could be forced to call lawmakers into a special session to obtain the needed funding. Kentucky has been hit by natural disasters during Beshear's first term, with tornadoes hitting western Kentucky in late 2021 and flooding inundating parts of eastern Kentucky in 2022.
Some of the harshest comments in Beshear's review targeted the potential impact on state employees and the paperwork created for the administration. He said the House budget would eliminate funding for up to 95% of vacant positions and significantly reduce state employees.
“This is just hacking the executive branch with a hatchet without looking,” Beshear said.
He said the House bill would create a bureaucratic headache for the administration by requiring quarterly reports to be submitted to Congress on virtually all executive branch actions. He said this was an unworkable attempt to micromanage the executive branch.
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“This is the type of red tape that prevents things from getting done within government,” Beshear said.
One of the pressing decisions for lawmakers is what to do with the state's large budget reserves amid aggressive revenue collection. House Republicans are proposing to use these reserves to make one-time investments totaling more than $1.7 billion for infrastructure, public safety, and economic development, and to help pay down unfunded public pension system debt. There is.
The budget process is in its early stages, and the governor said he expects changes to be made in the House or when the executive branch budget is presented to the Senate. But with supermajorities in both chambers, Republican lawmakers will decide the final content of the state budget.
