Less than a week into his second term, Governor Andy Beshear has unveiled his budget proposal for the next two years with funding for public education at the top of his priority list of the $136 billion spending plan.

More than 1 billion would go to fund an 11% pay raise to all public school employees, including teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and janitors.

$172 million each year would go toward funding universal pre-K for all four year olds.

The governor said his budget plan fully funds teacher pensions and student transportation.

Also in the governor's budget.

A 6% pay raise in 2024 and another 4% pay raise in 2025 for all state employees and a 20 $500 pay raise for all KSP troopers and officers.

The budget would also provide 1 billion for high speed internet access.

$500 million for cleaner water projects.

300 million for major transportation projects.

And $200 million for economic development projects.

In his budget address last night, Governor Beshear said his proposed budget meets Kentucky families where they are and addresses what they worry about the most.

Look, Kentuckians don't wake up every morning thinking about Democrat or Republican, and neither does this budget.

Kentuckians wake up thinking about their jobs and whether they can provide for their families.

They're thinking about the safety and the security of their children, their homes and their communities.

They're thinking about the condition of the roads and the bridges they travel on to get to school, to work, and to church.

They're thinking about the public schools they send their kids to and how their kids are being prepared for the jobs and the opportunities of the future.

These are the things that actually matter to our people.

Not red, not blue.

These are the things that are important to everyone.

Leaders of the Kentucky House, Democratic Caucus sent out a statement on the governor's budget plan, saying in part, quote, Our school employees deserve adequate raises.

Our youngest citizens need the boost that universal preschool would provide, and more families should have affordable access to clean drinking water and broadband Internet.

This budget is proof that these and many other things are not beyond our reach, and it will be a travesty if the budget ultimately enacted pretends that we can keep doing more with less.

The last thing we need is to have 5 billion or more of our hard earned tax dollars sitting idle for the next two years.

End quote.

Also in support of the governor's budget, Kentucky Interim Education Commissioner Robin Fields Kinney, she said in a statement that reads in part, quote, Investing in education is the most significant contribution to our state's future.

It guarantees that the upcoming generation is well equipped to enter the workforce, fostering economic growth and job development in Kentucky.

While the governor's outlined priorities underscore the significance of education.

It is crucial to bear in mind that this is the beginning of the budgetary journey.

We look forward to working with the governor and the legislature in the coming months ahead as the biennial budget is discussed and finalized in, quote, The states Republican leaders have yet to respond to Governor Bashir's budget plan.

Republican House Speaker David Osborne did say in a statement released before Bashir's address that House Republicans would take his proposals into consideration.

Our Renee Shaw and a panel of experts discuss the governor's budget address on Kentucky tonight.

Here was the reaction to his plan.

It doesn't touch the rainy day fund.

We are at a place right now where we're where we're seeing this opportunity for these investments.

And I think this is a time to really, truly look at all of the across the board.

Every cabinet, every place where, you know, government does touch these individuals and you're talking to Kentucky families, they're not.

This is what they're focused on.

As I was listening to the governor's remarks, several different questions were kind of ruminating and in my mind.

But I think two of the most important ones that came up was in terms of overall spending.

How close are we coming up against our current revenue estimates?

So the consensus forecasting group, which is an entity that provides estimates for how much money the state will bring in from taxpayer dollars.

They recently estimated that in fiscal year 25, we're expecting about 15 and a half billion dollars fiscal year 26, we're looking at about $16 billion with this proposal probably going all the way up to that edge or leaving a little bit of breathing room.

Are there potential spending decreases elsewhere?

Those are important things to consider.

Because this is the would be income tax reduction triggers, which I think this budget does not really predicate itself on.

I think they're important for a couple of different reasons, but one of the most important reasons, which leads me to that second question that I had as we were as we were listening to the governor's remarks, which is how exactly does tax reform figure into this?

This is something he highlighted at the start of his remarks, noting that we've reduced income taxes while at the same time the General Assembly has been making investments in key areas.

And so I am curious to know how exactly this proposal would fit in with those broader goals of continuing to reduce the individual income tax rate.

What's going to be top of mind for the Republican supermajorities is that this budget likely abandons all possibility to reduce the personal income tax another half percent to get us down to three and a half percent.

And we know that that has been the Republican supermajorities have been laser focused on that.

And so I think what you're going to see a lot and hear from and reactions is the General Assembly is going to take a much more disciplined approach to spending.

They're going to budget for the long term, not just based upon the revenues that we're seeing today.

I think continuing to have that focus on a strong and healthy budget reserve trust fund is very, very important to them.

If you were to try to budget in a way that would trigger more income tax cuts, according to the legislature's formula, you'd have to cut out everything that we're talking about and likely make cuts to programs and services and add billions more to the budget Reserve Trust fund, which already has $3.7 billion and would have over $5 billion by next summer when this budget actually starts billions more than we actually need to prepare for, to prepare for emergencies, to prepare for the next downturn.

And, you know, we can't continue to stockpile money while we stockpile problems in our communities.

You can see more reaction to the governor's budget proposal.

Plus Governor Bashir's full pre-tape budget address, dawg slash K-Y tonight.