The Republican supermajority of the Kentucky General Assembly voted Tuesday to override nearly all of the 32 vetoes Gov. Andy Beshear issued over the past two weeks, clearing those bills for final passage to become law.
The only exceptions that lawmakers let stand were three small line item vetoes to the two-year state budget bill for the executive branch.
It takes only a majority of lawmakers in both the Senate and House to overrule the Democratic governor’s vetoes — an easy feat for Republicans, who control at least 80% of seats in each chamber.
The majority of the legislation the lawmakers passed during the session the governor supported as well. Beshear has already signed at least 130 bills and allowed another 16 to become law without his signature.
Beshear can only issue line item vetoes on appropriations bills. He sent back six bills with dozens of individual lines struck, indicating in his veto statements that many were due to “unfunded mandates” — arguing lawmakers did not provide enough spending for his administration to execute what it was tasked to do.
Nearly all of Beshear’s arguments in his veto statements fell on deaf ears among Republican lawmakers, as most overrides passed with no GOP votes of dissent.
Among the bills receiving a veto override and becoming law are two GOP priority bills targeting Jefferson County Public Schools, which seek to make major reforms to its elected board of education. Republicans also cleared the way for two bills reforming Kentucky’s administration of Medicaid benefits, which they say is needed to provide more oversight, reduce spending and refocus the program on those most in need of its services.
Other bills cleared for final passage were ones limiting the governor’s power, extending concealed carry rights to 18 to 20-year-olds and creating a new pilot program for “schools of innovation.”
Here’s a rundown of some of these key bills that Beshear unsuccessfully attempted to block.
All but three budget line item vetoes survive overrides
Beshear issued 53 separate line item vetoes to House Bill 500, the two-year budget bill that outlines $32 billion of executive branch spending.
In his veto statement, Beshear wrote that at least 20 of these vetoes were due to lawmakers creating an unfunded mandate, ordering agencies to take actions despite not being provided line item funding to do so.
Republicans rejected that argument, with GOP Rep. David Meade of Stanford countering that Beshear is misquoting case law on state budgets and “just chooses not to follow the law because he doesn't want to do it.”
GOP Senate President Robert of Manchester also criticized Beshear saying his administration was not being transparent with the legislature on the base spending needed by agencies.
“Who sets the priority of policy? Not the governor, not the Supreme Court. The General Assembly.” Stivers said. “You want to spend the way you want to spend. Sorry, that's not happening.”
One of the most contentious parts of HB 500 was the amount appropriated to pay out Medicaid benefits, as the Beshear administration says this fell $400 million short of what they estimate will be needed over the next two years. Republicans replied that they do not believe the administration’s estimates.
Countering Stivers, Democratic Sen. Karen Berg of Louisville noted the shortage of Medicaid to argue there were real unfunded mandates.
“To say that we do not have unfunded mandates, that we're not passing laws every day without giving our executive the money to actually do these laws is extraordinarily disingenuous,” Berg said. “Extremely disingenuous.”
The only three sections of HB 500 receiving a line item veto that were not overridden were not especially controversial, with one detailing what kind of mapping data could be used by county property valuation administrators.
Other budget bills for the legislative branch, judicial branch and Transportation Cabinet that Beshear line item vetoed received an override in their entirety.
For the legislative branch budget bill, Beshear issued a line item veto for several sections related to increased legislator pay, allowing the body to carry over unused funds and giving them more authority over projects and renovations on the Capitol grounds. Referencing the fact that Republicans ignored his request to set aside money in the budget for mandated K-12 employee raises, Beshear wrote in his veto message that “if legislators will not give our public school teachers and employees a raise, they shouldn’t get one, either.”
House Bill 504, laying out the budget for state courts, has been contentious, as Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Debra Lambert says it would create a projected state funding shortfall of nearly $30 million over their next two fiscal years for court operations, which could jeopardize staff and the future of specialty drug, mental health and veterans courts.
Beshear’s veto referenced this projected $30 million deficit in one of his line item vetoes for HB 504, but GOP Rep. Jason Nemes of Louisville on the House floor disputed that figure before the chamber vote to override the vetoes.
“The assertion that HB 504 fails to provide sufficient funding to maintain the mandatory functions of the Court of Justice is not supported by the data provided to this body or the actions taken in this budget,” Nemes said.
Beshear also issued one small line item veto for House Bill 757, a nearly 400-page revenue bill making numerous changes to the tax code. The governor took issue with one section to “force” the Historic Properties Advisory Commission to place a statue of longtime U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell in the Capitol Rotunda, stating that the legislature has cited a public policy against honoring living individuals by naming buildings after them.
Republicans have long criticized Beshear for issuing line item vetoes on revenue bills, saying he is constitutionally restricted to only doing so for appropriations bills. Before the House overrode vote, GOP Rep. Steven Rudy of Paducah referred to it as “the petulant and unconstitutional veto of the governor.”
GOP overrides vetoes of bills targeting JCPS
The legislature quickly overrode Beshear’s vetoes of legislation directly targeting Jefferson County Public Schools on largely partisan lines.
The governor’s veto messages called Senate Bills 1 and 4 “special legislation” that unconstitutionally targets only the state’s two largest school districts. SB 1 overhauls the governance structure of the elected JCPS board, shifting power to and limiting oversight of the appointed superintendent. SB 4 meanwhile shrinks the JCPS board from seven to five seats and creates new districts for the county, forcing all board members to run for office again or step aside at the end of the year.
Republicans overpowered Democrats to override Beshear’s veto of SB 1. And while they also easily overrode Beshear’s SB 4 veto, two Republicans — Sen. Robin Webb of Grayson and Sen. Brandon Smith of Hazard — voted to uphold the veto. Neither explained their vote.
Another bill will allow public schools to bypass educational regulations in an effort to encourage innovation. However, one controversial element of the bill allows for a pilot program within Covington Independent School District to create “schools of innovation,” but the bill specifically requires the money to be filtered through Educate NKY Inc., a nonprofit organization set up in 2023.
Democratic Sen. Reggie Thomas of Lexington said the legislation is a backdoor attempt to create a charter school system because the money must go through a nonprofit that is not governed by elected officials like a school board.
However, Sen. Stephen West, the Republican sponsor from Paris, said the money can only go toward benefiting an existing school system and is therefore kosher with Kentucky’s constitutional prohibition on spending state money outside of the public school system. Republicans overrode the veto on a party line vote in both chambers.
Republicans also easily overruled the governor’s objections to House Bill 490, which detractors say further erodes tenure protections for university faculty. Public universities will imminently be allowed to lay off educators, including tenured faculty, for “financial reasons,” including low enrollment in a particular program.
Bills cleared that chip away at governor’s authority
Continuing the trend of the last several years, lawmakers continued to chip away at the governor’s executive powers by placing new restrictions on his abilities during his final months in office. Predictably, Beshear vetoed these efforts and lawmakers quickly dispatched them.
House Bill 10 will place new restrictions on executive branch officials in the final 180 days of a term, in addition to making all governor-appointed cabinet secretaries subject to Senate confirmation. During this period, a governor’s administration could not enter into no-bid contracts, settle litigation or make travel expenses without prior approval from another constitutional officer.
Republicans have pointed to decisions made in the final months of previous governorships, like former Gov. Steve Beshear’s contract to start the much-maligned Kentucky Wired project. Rep. Erika Hancock, a Democrat from Frankfort, said the bill is an unconstitutional overreach, diluting the governor’s power.
“These are sweeping changes built around isolated events, not the norm of public service in Kentucky,” Hancock said.
Senate Bill 173 will also become law, which targets the Medicaid state plan that the executive branch submits to the federal government and lays out how it will administer the program that provides health insurance to close to one in three Kentuckians. Republicans easily pushed the legislation through over Beshear’s veto, giving the legislative Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Board the ability to review and recommend changes to the plan.
Sen. Karen Berg, a Louisville Democrat, said she believes lawmakers need to keep their “hubris” in check, arguing the state’s Medicaid directors are highly accomplished in their field.
But Rep. Jim Gooch of Providence argued Medicaid spending has gotten out of control and it needs to be reined back in.
“The people in Kentucky are getting sick and tired of footing the bill for these expansions and these expanded services that really aren't always necessary,” Gooch said.
Medicaid reform bills move forward to law
In addition to SB 173, Republicans overrode a series of Beshear’s line-item veto on the massive Medicaid oversight bill, House Bill 2. Beshear tried to strike a portion that created mandatory co-pays for certain Medicaid services and those that would create “barriers to eligibility,” including provisions that would go beyond federal requirements in implementing work requirements.
Rep. Ken Fleming, the Republican sponsor from Louisville, said the rapidly increasing rate of Medicaid spending in Kentucky is due to a lack of proper oversight, which the bill would address.
“I think we demonstrated time in and time out, that there's a lack of oversight, a lack of accountability, a lack of responsibility from the [Department of Medicaid Services] in terms of maintaining the waiver and maintaining the Medicaid program,” Fleming said.
Democratic members of the House countered that Republicans should go after large health care providers that are committing Medicaid fraud, instead of making access to care harder for low-income Kentuckians.
“If we know that there's fraud, then go arrest the people that are doing the frauding,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Pamela Stevenson of Louisville. “People need Medicaid and there are good, hard working people doing the best they can. And because there is fraud, deal with that, but don't punish hard working people that just want to live.”
Lawmakers overrode the veto on partisan lines, and some parts of the bill will go into effect immediately.
Lowering age for concealed carry, protecting firearms companies
The Republican supermajority quickly dispatched Beshear’s vetoes of two pieces of legislation dealing with firearms in the state on a party line vote. Eighteen to 20-year-old Kentuckians will be allowed to carry a concealed gun if they get a provisional license, under the now finally passed House Bill 312. Three Senate Republicans joined Democrats in voting unsuccessfully to sustain the governor’s veto.
“We all know that that bill is fraught with harm and danger,” said Thomas, who pointed to declines in violent crime rates in Kentucky’s largest cities.
House Bill 78 meanwhile shields gun sellers and manufacturers from being responsible for the actions of their customers.
