FRANKFORT, Ky. — This week State House Republicans filed their 2025-2026 budget proposal.
It’s split across two bills. House Bill 1 totals $1.74 billion and taps into the state’s “rainy day fund,” known as the budget reserve trust fund. It will go toward several onetime costs and pay down hundreds of millions of dollars for pensions. It’s for state employees, Kentucky State Police troopers and teachers.
This investment comes as Kentucky has the largest reserve balance in state history.
House Bill 6 totals $124.8 billion and covers the operating budget for the state.
Included are several provisions also found in Gov. Andy Beshear’s, D-Ky., budget proposal. They include money for KSP trooper raises, millions toward the safe and clean drinking water funds, and several infrastructure projects.
However, a big area where the two proposals differ is on education.
Republicans propose increasing the SEEK formula 6% over two years. It comes out to a $281 million increase. The formula is how the state calculates funding on a student-by-student level. It also puts more money to toward student transportation, but does not fully fund it. Under this plan, it would leave teacher raises up to districts.
Beshear’s plan would have given all school staff an 11% pay raise.
“We believe that they should mandate those raises. We would also love to see if they would do a minimum teacher pay. We believe that this bill does nothing to help create a minimum basic living wage for teachers,” Minority Caucus Chair State Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson, D-Lexington, said.
Over $20 million is earmarked for child care assistance in the proposed plan as well.
“(The budget) does provide some money for child care, does not contemplate universal pre-k,” Speaker of the House David Osborne said.
Stevenson believes this budget should dip more into the reserve fund to better serve Kentuckians.
“There are a lot of good things in here, there’s a lot of bad things in here. I’m hopeful that we can make some of those compromises, see some of those changes, and the end result is going to look a lot different than it looks now,” Stevenson said.
After the House passes its plan, the Senate will weigh in and make changes, before leaders from both chambers hammer out the final legislation.