KENTUCKY — On this week’s In Focus Kentucky program, Mario Anderson sits down with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., for a wide-ranging conversation from the state capitol reception room in Frankfort.
During this segment, Beshear discusses his decision to unveil $136.6 billion dollar budget proposal, two weeks before for the start of the upcoming 2024 Kentucky General Assembly legislative session. In 2022, Kentucky House Republicans took the Democratic governor by surprise by filing a two-year state budget bill before the governor had delivered a budget proposal or the traditional budget address to the legislature.
Included in Beshear’s plan are two major campaign promises: increasing teacher pay and universal pre-K. His plan would give an across-the-board 11% pay raise to all school employees. It also fully funds teacher pensions and increases SEEK funding by 18%. All 4-year-olds in the state would also have access to pre-K, costing the state $172 million yearly. The state believes this would provide 34,000 children care.
His plan also calls for additional investment in moving forward critical infrastructure projects in Kentucky, supporting job growth, boosting public safety, expanding health care and investing in local and state government.
“Typically, the legislature borrows more during their budgets. We also don’t touch the rainy day fund, which the actuaries would say is much larger than it needs to be, even to have the great credit rating agency increases that we’ve seen. So I think it remains to be seen exactly where they’ll come out on amount of spending or how to get there. What we’re seeing just in general conversations is it’s a really robust conversation. I believe the legislature will even come with some programs we haven’t thought of. And of course, when the legislature passes it, it doesn’t start, we have to take it and ultimately execute it, but I’ve heard some really good ideas that aren’t in our budget. And so I think it’s going to be a really good discussion this time about how we get where we want to go. And if we can have the back and forth, then for plans that maybe we didn’t generate, we can get input on how we can best execute them and do it to the best of our ability,” explained Beshear.
You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.