>> After revision.

Subpoenas and discussions.

A new $31 billion state budget bill passes the House.

Other bills under consideration as lawmakers tackle energy, education and power bills in the session.

The U.S.

Justice Department sues Kentucky for voter information.

Data centers keep making the news and bringing questions on the weekend that leads to March.

Comment is next on KET.

[MUSIC] Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant, and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky, a look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are Liam Niemeyer, reporter for the Kentucky Lantern Sylvia Goodman Capitol, reporter for Kentucky Public Radio, and Austin Horn, senior political reporter for the Lexington Herald Leader.

Also tonight, the campaign trail heats up ahead of the primary.

Let's get right to the state budget debate, though, in this 2026 legislative session, after advocacy groups sounded alarms about proposed cuts to education and health care, budget writers presented new numbers and chairman Jason Petrie announced the changes.

>> We exempted out several budget units.

Those include Veterans Affairs, SEEK learning, and Results.

School facility, County cost, Medicaid benefits, behavioral health, family resource centers, and youth services centers.

Juvenile Justice, Department of Corrections, community Services, and local facilities.

Department of corrections.

Adult correctional institutions.

Department of corrections.

Local jail support and the Post-secondary Performance Fund.

>> Essentially a list of what's being held harmless from cuts.

Sylvia.

Things were getting sort of loud from stakeholders before those new numbers came along.

And then there was this committee substitute bill with these increases now to seek funding transportation for school districts, a potential increases for health coverage, and spends over $1 billion more than the original numbers.

>> Right.

So like you mentioned, he named the things that are held harmless.

He named the budget units that won't receive cuts.

There are a lot of units that do receive cuts that have some percentage of cut over both years.

But like you mentioned, there are some really significant ones that aren't.

So SEEK funding, which is the state's education formula that is exempted from cuts and does get a small increase each year.

I believe it's 1 in 3 percent, something like that each fiscal year, and that is a little lower than Governor Beshear was hoping for.

But it really eased the minds of a lot of school administrators.

You also you also mentioned Medicaid.

So Medicaid was initially had some cuts to it, or it was it was significantly lower than what the state estimated they would need to put in place benefits to keep benefits really stable.

But also this still does not bring it up to par with what the state says it needs to maintain Medicaid benefits.

It is quite a bit lower, I believe, if you take out some different changes to waiver slots, it's about 220 million less than what the state says it needs.

And that's including this extra fund that the state lawmakers created to fill in any gaps.

I believe that's about 250 million out of the budget reserve Trust Fund.

>> Austin, the House budget architects had said all along that the plan was a work in progress.

And don't be so excited about those those cuts in the original numbers.

But the backlash was real, and several lawmakers had publicly said they would not support the original budget.

>> Yeah, I think this version of the budget kind of proved them right to some extent.

It really was a work in progress.

It did change quite a bit.

They addressed education, I think was the most hot button issue.

SEEK dollars were flat in that first version of the budget, and then they fixed a problem with government employees health insurance.

And I mean, it goes to show with how they responded, the backlash was very real.

And you could kind of tell because there were multiple lawmakers who took to Facebook to clarify, I do not support this bill in its current form.

And when they're going to Facebook, that's when you know it's real.

They've been getting direct communications and, you know, they might be getting flashbacks from a 2018.

The red shirt teacher rallies that really rocked the Capitol.

>> Don't want those calls to go out that might cause people to lie down to Frankfort, right?

>> No, not at all.

>> All right, so committee chairs had subpoenaed the Beshear administration for information.

They said they needed to write the budget.

>> Yeah.

And I believe that was part of the whole argument over that state budget, that state employee health plan situation.

There was language in the budget that would cap the state's costs in that in for that health plan.

So that would include teachers and state employees.

And that language was removed in the final version.

I think it caused a lot of people heartburn, and it was one of the reasons, I think so many lawmakers took to Facebook in the way that they did.

And, and committee chairs were calling for actuarial data they said was missing.

Beshear administration says they gave all the information they needed to give, but lawmakers wanted more info.

They said they needed to make sure that the plan is are sustainable into the future.

>> And Governor Beshear doesn't like even the new spending plan.

This proposal, in part because it ignores his call for funding universal pre-K.

>> Sure.

I mean, in terms of the back and forth over these subpoenas, you know, the Beshear administration, Beshear has been, you know, very firm in saying that Republican lawmakers have had the information they've needed for weeks to to create the budget, the state budget.

And, and, you know, that sort of came up when the bill was passing.

The budget bill was passing the House.

The vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, Josh Bray, was talking about how, you know, he believes a, you know, universal pre-K, pre-K for all.

It's, in theory, a great idea.

But then he hasn't gotten responses from Beshear administration on saying how much more staffing and what sort of building expansion would be needed for such a preschool expansion.

And so, you know, the Beshear administration, you know, again, has been firm in saying that this these sort of subpoenas and this pushback is political stunts.

They have the information they need.

But but, you know, the budget goes to the Senate now.

>> And I think it's worth noting that I don't think it's solely about numbers.

It's not solely about needing more information.

There are some Republicans who believe that universal pre-K is simply too expensive, too big of a program to, you know, put the state into for the foreseeable future to create this whole new program.

And also, I think there are some Republicans who are skeptical about the benefits.

Some, like Representative Bray, have said that they think it could be a really good idea that in theory, it sounds great.

But some, like Senate President Robert Stivers, has said he's skeptical that it really has some long lasting benefits for the state.

>> And if there is one proposal to sort of chip at the concept from Senator Danny Carroll, who is proposing to reward daycares or even parents who have their children kindergarten ready when they arrive.

>> Exactly.

So that's more of the giving it to businesses, not making this a state program.

I think that there's a lot of Republicans who also are afraid of hurting childcare businesses, right, that you're kind of taking some of their business and taking it to the state and also creating a new state budget pool that has to be funded every year.

So I think there's a lot of different reasons why Republicans didn't include this in their budget.

>> Austin Kentucky has $3.7 billion in a rainy day fund, and the proposed plan, it appears, will put more in.

It seems very important to this legislative leadership to keep that fund robust.

>> Yeah, I mean, it's been a long standing kind of priority of the Republican majorities to keep a healthy rainy day fund.

A couple extra wrinkles for this cycle, though, is we still expect a one time spending budget or spending bill with sorts of projects like think earmarks on the federal level, projects that legislators can sort of bring home, the bacon.

>> That could be roads or projects in communities.

Yeah.

>> And it was more than $1 billion, I think, last budget cycle.

So we're still looking for that bill to come.

And the budget reserve trust fund, the size of it is one of the triggers that could cause a tax cut to happen again.

We're at 3.5% for personal income tax right now, and Republicans have expressed a desire to get all the way down to zero eventually.

And in the in the path that they've written, the size of that fund is one of those triggers that could cause it to decrease even more.

>> Is that still a possibility in this session?

>> I don't think so.

It's impossible to say until the session ends, until the we leave for the veto period.

But it hasn't happened yet.

We didn't hit the triggers, the Senate leadership said before the session even started.

They weren't interested in it.

There were some House leaders who said that they thought we should decrease the income tax again, but it hasn't come up yet.

>> All right.

Well, we will see.

It all goes to the Senate now.

And they will be having their discussions over the next few days, and we'll see how quickly things get resolved there.

And then ultimately, there generally are conference committees that have to meet and iron out the state budget.

So still again, a work in progress.

Sylvia, HB one A passed both chambers this week.

It now heads to the governor's desk.

>> Right.

House Bill one is a top priority, and I definitely expected to see it come up this session.

HR one, the one big beautiful bill that passed last year, created this pathway for states to opt into this federal tax credit for scholarship granting organizations.

So that is money that would go to individuals, that scholarship granting organizations could create their own kind of criteria, that could fund private charter, public education, really anything.

And it could fund all sorts of things tuition, scholarships, technology, books, all sorts of different things.

And essentially what HB one does is it opts into that program.

Governor Beshear has been very opposed to it.

The bill says that the governor or someone that law prescribes can opt in.

So since Beshear is not doing the legislators taking it to their own hand, and they're giving it to the secretary of state to administer the program, and so that has passed both chambers.

Now it heads to Beshear's desk.

We probably expect him to veto it, and it would come back to the chambers.

But really, the arguments, it's very interesting politically, right, because there are lots of rural Republicans who are against sort of school choice measures they fear will take money out of rural public schools.

But they say this is different because it can also benefit public education.

And it's federal dollars that it's federal tax dollars that would have gone outside the state.

They're saying it keeps it in the state and can fund all sorts of education.

>> We do know that it was filed hours after the state Supreme Court struck down the legislative effort previously.

>> To do charter schools, public charter school funding mechanism.

They've tried a lot of different school choice measures.

They have been unable to get past the courts with those because of the state constitution.

But they say this is different.

This is federal money.

It passes muster.

>> Liam, there's a bill you're watching closely that would block any state or local health regulations from being more stringent than federal rules.

And Senate Bill 178 also says that people have to be harmed before new rules can be put in place.

>> Correct.

It's a bill that's alarmed environmental groups and advocates in the state, but it's backed by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Kentucky Manufacturers Association, which they say it's needed to prevent, say, you know, an environmental regulator in the state.

A lot of the bill focuses on regulatory power from the Energy Environment Cabinet, which regulates air pollution, water pollution, etc.

You know, preventing such a regulator from getting over their skis by regulating, say, a new pollutant or contaminant or a chemical that may be in the environment when the science on that contaminant or pollutant isn't there yet.

There's a standard in there that that the state wouldn't be able to issue a federal regulation, a regulation that's stronger than the federal standard unless people are essentially being injured or sick in terms of a diagnosable disease connected to exposure.

>> There's a bill proposed that would attempt to make electrical disconnections less common.

268,000 utility disconnections in a recent 12 month period here in the state.

>> Correct.

There was a report by an Appalachian Citizens Law Center in Letcher County.

It was released in the background of a bill that seeks to create some protections surrounding utility disconnections in the state, such as, you know, if it's too hot or too or dangerously cold.

Utility disconnection could could not happen.

But the report basically showed that that over a recent 12 month period, there was an 87% increase in utility disconnections across the state, largely driven by the state's largest utility, Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities.

You know, there's other data that shows that, you know, majority of utilities also had made utility disconnections when people had less than $100 of debt.

And the report also makes recommendations, you know, saying that, you know, in part in support of the bill that's currently under consideration in the legislature, but also in terms of rate design, things that the Kentucky Public Service Commission, the state's utility regulator, could do.

>> All right.

There's some gun legislation.

Liam, you covered the discussion about allowing police to seize devices that convert semi-automatic weapons into automatic weapons, and several police chiefs were there to speak in favor.

>> Correct.

Including Louisville Metro Police Chief Paul Humphrey was there, you know, alongside bill sponsor Representative Jason Nemes, Republican from Louisville.

Basically, it would align the state with a federal prohibition on what's known as these machine gun conversion devices, basically taking semi-automatic weapons and devices, turning them into automatic weapons.

Local law enforcement say that, you know, when they find these devices out on the street, they can't physically seize these devices until a federal agent comes along to seize it themselves.

Because there's no state law on the books.

There are some Republicans, though, that say, you know, they have constitutional constitutionality concerns and also the feasibility of such a ban.

>> And also another bill would allow machine guns to be more easily transferred within the state.

And it looks at the cost as well.

>> Yeah.

This one's from TJ Roberts in Northern Kentucky.

I think a noted Second Amendment and gun enthusiast.

He's proposing it allows state police to transfer those machine guns.

And he says it's they're cost prohibitive largely for consumers for particular machine guns made after somewhere in the 80s.

I think.

>> There's a bill that would strip the power away from these human rights commissions that I think 22 of our localities have.

That's House Bill 469, proposed by Representative Daniel Elliott of Danville.

>> Yeah.

Elliott's an attorney, and he said that he thinks the questions that are litigated by these human rights commissions are best left for the courts.

You know, sometimes if they get challenged, they do end up going to the courts.

But at the same time, human rights commissions, you know, I covered these when I covered local government in Frankfurt.

Frankfurt has one.

They're low cost and you don't have to pay necessarily as much attorney fees as you would otherwise.

They are relatively sleepy, generally speaking, but a lot of advocates say it's a really important outlet to have.

>> It's one that some are watching the debate about financial compensation for those who are wrongly convicted in Kentucky is back up for debate.

That Senate Bill 131, Representative Jason Nemes has introduced that in the House before.

Kentucky is one of 12 states without a program that compensates those who have been wrongfully convicted.

>> Right.

And Representative Nemes is basically arguing that if a person if the state makes a mistake, if they imprison someone, if they take them out of society, take them out of their earning potential, lock them up for years, year or years, they should be compensated.

If 65 K per year of imprisonment, that number is even higher for death row and it has passed out of committee before.

It has not been able to to make a lot of progress in the legislature.

But maybe that changes this year.

>> House Bill five is an initiative to provide more education in Kentucky prisons.

Kctcs President Ryan Quarles spoke to lawmakers.

>> And as you all know, we have a commitment to every Kentuckian, every Kentuckian, whether they're in our recovery community, whether they're behind bars, whether they're going back to college for the first time as an adult learner.

And today's Bill, House Bill five does three things.

It saves Kentucky money, it prevents crime, and it fills jobs and workforce needs.

>> Representative Jennifer Decker is the sponsor of that.

Liam advocates say this is a way to truly make doing time more productive.

>> Sure.

I mean, it's an opportunity for job training and it has a lot of support in the legislature.

I mean, there's very few bills I've seen that have the number of co-sponsors on House Bill five.

And it's also, you know, an opportunity for you crossover in different parts of state government with, you know, Kctcs involvement.

>> And also there was a fairness rally in Frankfort this week.

Governor Beshear and Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman were both there in support of the LGBTQ community.

>> Wanted to be here because we're living in a time where people feel attacked by their own federal government, along with parts of our state legislature.

So I'm here to stay.

I stood with you before.

I stand with you now, and I will stand with you in the future.

>> Austin, this is an annual rally with many of the same issues that have been discussed for a time.

>> Yeah, and I think Beshear is really honing in on this message of kind of faith and fairness, sort of melding those two things together.

It's it's hard not to see whatever he says through the lens of 2028, to be honest, as a potential he's he's named regularly as a potential Democratic candidate, but it's kind of a differentiating factor between him and other people who are talked about for this role.

Now it's many years away, but he's sort of the most fluent with his faith.

And I think pairing that with LGBTQ rights, which is a thing that he's clearly has some thoughts and is passionate about, kind of differentiates him from the pack, but also keeps him sort of tethered to, I think, this mainline Democratic and progressive issue.

>> Well, he's headed back to New Hampshire.

So you know, we know that's that's coming up soon.

Right.

What else are you watching on the bills in the legislature?

>> Sure.

You know, there's been some talk that I've heard, especially from members of law, lawmakers on the Natural Resources Committee.

You know, we've heard a lot about, say, affordability, especially when it comes to utility bills.

There's a joint resolution in the Senate by Senator Madden that would direct the Public Service Commission to look at, you know, solutions, rate design for fixed income and low income customers, ratepayers.

And, you know, there's been a lot of pushback in the context of, say, the the Kentucky power rate case that's under consideration, where, you know, people are coming before have come before public, you know, meetings by the Public Service Commission saying, you know, they're paying bills Monthly bills of hundreds of dollars and just can't afford them.

>> Yeah.

Other things.

>> Yeah.

I'm also looking into legislation that just passed a Senate committee the other day.

It would raise the marriage age to 18, a solid 18.

It's already been largely banned child marriage.

But there are some exceptions for 17 year olds.

And it was already known that there were several cases of illegal marriages that didn't even fit the threshold currently set by law.

I looked into some of those cases, and it really turns out that judges and county clerks are just not following the law in some cases.

And there's a lot of confusion and ambiguity, or at least assumed ambiguity in the law, and it's just not being followed.

So they want to make that a hard line.

>> All right.

Anything else you're watching for that projects, Bill?

Right.

>> For nothing at all.

>> All right.

The US Justice Department is suing Kentucky and other states for voter information.

And the secretary of state calls Kentucky elections a national success story and said he would not release that information without a court order.

Austin.

>> Yeah, I mean, those are those are big words.

He's joined some other Republican secretaries of state and election officials who have made similar statements.

But this is this is pretty bold in what I think it's fair to say is currently the party of Trump to really stand out and stand up against an action of the DOJ like the Secretary of State's doing.

>> I just really want to quickly mention the West Virginia Secretary of State is in a similar boat.

And a spokesperson for her said, bring it.

>> So there you go.

>> All right, Liam, we keep hearing about these data centers and it becomes a local issue very quickly, and it gets heated and people show up and there's just a lot of confusion about what the how that might impact communities.

>> Sure.

And, you know, just as a brief primer, you know, data centers, you know, they're essentially a large campuses of servers.

You know, these computers that pretty much run the internet.

You know, many internet services say anything from, you know, storage space for, for photos or data, credit card transactions.

And also, you know, now data centers are coming online to power artificial intelligence services.

But, you know, there's been a lot of pushback in local communities over land use, over potential concerns over impact on electricity rates, water usage.

And there's a bill that passed out committee this week by representative Josh Bray that would seek to make sure that any data center customers of utilities, you know, the infrastructure, electricity and water to serve them would not be borne by other parents.

>> As we head into March, the May primary is coming into view the top of the ballot in Kentucky, the U.S.

Senate race.

Voters will decide who replaces the state's longest serving senator, Mitch McConnell.

Austin.

Quite a race on the Republican side.

>> Absolutely.

I mean, you've got three candidates who are sort of the leading the top three with Lexington entrepreneur Nate Morris, Andy Barr of Lexington, as well as a representative in Congress, and then former AG Daniel Cameron.

The the order used to be very clear, with Cameron having the highest name ID by quite a bit statewide, Barr in second place in Morris and third, that started to shift in the polling that we have available.

Cameron is starting to go down somewhat and Morse is starting to go up and we'll see what all these ads, what effect they have.

>> And the Democrats have a crowded race as well.

>> They do lots of, you know, some names that people know.

Former former Senate candidates Charles Booker and Amy McGrath are leading in the polls currently.

That said, you've got three other candidates running pretty legitimate campaigns.

Dale Romans Louisville, horse trainer Pam Stevenson, Louisville state representative, and Logan Forsythe, an attorney here in Lexington.

And they're all three trying to break through in different ways.

>> I know you're watching that fourth district congressional race closely.

That's a Republican primary, very heated.

>> Absolutely.

There's so much money going into this.

President Trump, this is the primary that he's probably most engaged in on both the House and the Senate side.

Ed Gallrein, former Senate candidate who fell just short in a primary in 2024 to Aaron Reed, is running against Massey.

And Massey's been a continual thorn in Trump's side.

>> EKU has decided to tear down the planetarium.

They say that's more cost effective than trying to fix it.

>> The Hummel Planetarium, I think it was 11.2 million to try and fix it.

It's a sad day.

I believe I saw a laser show version of the Beatles seminal album Rubber Soul there.

It was really good and I'm going to miss it.

>> I knew you'd have memories, and many in eastern Kentucky are remembering journalist Jennifer McDaniels, who died this week.

She worked hard to let Appalachian voices be heard and covered tough challenges like flooding in the region, the mayor of Cumberland, Charles Riley, told Wymt she was known to listen to people on the ground and then call the higher ups and ask why they weren't getting things done.

Jennifer McDaniels was 52.

Governor Beshear has ordered flags be at half staff on Saturday in honor of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, who passed away last week.

Jackson's casket is expected to travel through Kentucky Saturday as it heads to his home state of South Carolina.

That's common on Kentucky.

We thank you for joining us, and we hope you make it a good week ahead.

[MUSIC] .