begins its 2026 session that will enact a state budget and consider numerous other bills.

Governor Beshear gives his state of the Commonwealth Address and makes his budget proposal.

The filing deadline passes for 2026 candidates in the state for everything from U.S.

Senate and House to local offices in cases rise as a type of super flu spreads in Kentucky.

The new year gets busy fast and comment is next on KET.

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 Mario Anderson, anchor and host of In Focus Kentucky on Spectrum News one.

Sarah Ladd, health policy reporter for the Kentucky Lantern and Austin Horn, senior political reporter for the Lexington Herald Leader.

After the quiet of the holidays, Frankfort came roaring to life.

This week, Governor Beshear delivered his state of the Commonwealth address.

In it, the Democratic governor said Republicans in the legislature have jointly supported some measures, and he hopes that they will team up to help fund universal pre-kindergarten.

>> And the members of the General Assembly were able to work together on medical marijuana to make sports betting legal, to protect horse racing and gaming in our horse industry.

Surely we can come together for four year olds.

>> Sarah Beshear is pushing hard for universal pre-kindergarten.

Republican lawmakers just do not seem to be in the mood to fund that.

>> Beshear is pushing for universal pre-K, and it's something he has been pushing for for quite a while.

You know, last year he convened this whole advisory committee that met for months, and they talked to bipartisan people, leaders from other states.

They learned about the benefits of pre-K.

They traveled around.

They talked to businesses and school boards and sort of presented this report saying it's good for the economy, it's good for children's well-being and the family unit.

And they kind of listed all these these benefits.

I mean, the hang up really is the money, because you'll hear Republican leaders say there is benefit.

Obviously in education, there's benefit in child care and high quality child care in all these issues.

But, you know, you'll hear them say they sort of have to balance how much it costs with those benefits.

So that's something Senator Phillip Wheeler said after this address, saying, you know, it's not a bad concept.

It's just a matter of balancing that.

Beshear is asking for $40.8 million, so that's not a small amount of money.

And then you had Senate President of Robert Stivers saying that the concept is just flawed, that they support education, but it's just not going to happen like this.

>> So it doesn't sound like there's a lot of momentum for pre-K in the legislature at this point.

>> It is not at this point.

Again, the governor has been advocating for this since last year, even when he was running for governor.

But the leaders in the state legislature have basically said that this is not a top priority for them.

Sarah was mentioning they're more focused on continuing to fund the Seek funding model, but also looking at other options like school choice, also funding the teacher pensions and continuing the discussions around that.

But yeah, universal pre-K or pre-K for all initiative seems to be dead on arrival.

And again, the speaker, David Osborne, had shared that.

Again, we appreciate the governor's comments.

And but they're still waiting for documents from the Beshear administration to be able to finally draft all the details of their budget.

So they are going to go on and do their own plan.

>> So the governor proposes a budget, but he does not control the process.

And the supermajority Republicans do.

And you said they said, we'll take it from here.

>> Yeah.

They said, we appreciate the documents, appreciate the comments, but we'll take it from here and we'll go on from there.

>> Some politics in all of this, Austin certainly is.

As we go along here to the bulk of Beshear, speech seemed to be aimed at a dual audience.

Both those inside the borders of the Commonwealth and those outside.

>> Yeah, I'd say the kind of the middle part, the sort of meat was pretty Kentucky oriented.

You know, he he went on, on, on various accomplishments of, of his time in office and things like that.

But there were some hints, you know, he said it's the last budget address he'll make, at least in this job.

And he sort of like hung on that line quite a bit.

And there was something of a crowd reaction.

You could see he sort of cleaned up a good amount, put on a nice suit for the address.

Not that you wouldn't under normal circumstances, but I think it just goes to show kind of every little thing is, is scrutinized at this point.

And he knows that.

And he sort of gave a wink to potentially running for something like president in 2028, as he's very often mentioned, as, as one of maybe a dozen or so Democrats that are kind of angling or at least feeling that race out.

>> We can confirm he did not file for the US Senate this afternoon.

>> He did not.

Everybody was waiting with bated breath, but he he did not file for US Senate.

>> Legislative leaders.

And the governor attended the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce's annual Chamber Chamber day event in Lexington.

Always draws a huge crowd and a lot of discussion.

And as the session gets going, Senate President Stivers and House Speaker David Osborne predict a productive few weeks ahead.

>> Let me be clear.

This legislature has done its job.

138 members, senators, House majority and minority.

We've done our job.

We don't always agree.

Sometimes we do.

And when we do, we make great policy.

Kentucky's business community has done its job as well, and workers across the state have done their job.

It's time for the governor to do his.

It means managing agencies under his control.

It means fixing systems that are broken, and that means focusing less on self-promotion and more on actual work.

It means sitting down with the legislature and providing information that we need to craft the best policies possible.

>> So the economic trajectory of this state has been set by the policy makers, which is the General Assembly.

And so when you see all these indices and the rating agencies that go out and talk about Kentucky is now getting the upgrades, it is because we are dealing with our pension issue, which was one of the key issues of the chambers ten and 15 years ago.

The leaky bucket, talking about tax reform, regulatory reform, all those things that create jobs.

We've done them and we have set the dynamic for job growth and economic development in this state.

>> Mario, it's obvious in that clip that Speaker Osborne took the governor on.

>> He sure did.

And he made sure to make sure that crowd of business leaders from across the state knew that the state legislature, from his opinion, was responsible for a lot of the policy items that are now in effect across Kentucky and took a lot of shots at the governor for going around the state with ribbon cuttings and the big large checks, and saying that the governor and the legislature's perspective, the governor is taking too much credit for the impact that Kentucky's been able to have.

And, you know, there's a lot of jeers and cheers based off of Osborne's comments.

>> How much will the fact that there is economic uncertainty out there across the land drive some of the decisions in Frankfort that are having to be made about how to spend $15 billion of taxpayers money in this budget, the per year.

So this is a $30 billion, two year project.

Really?

>> Well, Speaker Osborne talked to reporters and kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier this week, and he said it could be one of the the toughest budgets since since the Republicans have been in leadership, and not because there is a lack of money, but just because there there is uncertainty.

He mentioned financial like economic insecurity about like across the nation, like there's different policy uncertainty going on just in the world right now.

So that's going to kind of lead to a lot of disagreements about how we spend money and how where we put our priorities basically.

>> Yeah, the economy is just in like such a weird spot right now.

Like with the tariffs, everybody was predicting doom from those and trade and and that hasn't really materialized.

At the same time, the people for the tariffs were predicting this manufacturing renaissance that hasn't materialized either.

There's low firing but also really low hiring.

Everybody agrees we're kind of in an AI bubble, but it hasn't popped yet.

So it's just like it seems like the budgeting process is kind of reflective of that overall.

Just like weird place the economy is in.

And nobody can really say definitively whether things are good or bad.

It's just funky overall.

>> Feel like something may happen, but they don't know what.

>> Yeah, I the sky could fall or we could all see our 401 S just rock it up I don't know.

>> Well, one of the most important things that are done in the budget certainly is education.

And public education advocates are watching Frankfort very closely, Bridget Blom of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence told me what she's watching and what the Prichard committee's priorities are.

>> So we're looking at investment in early childhood, investment in mathematics, investment in ensuring the high school diploma is, in fact, meaningful, setting students up for success post-high school and investment in post-secondary.

Those are the things that are going to allow Kentuckians to move forward, while the state does as well.

>> Mario, a lot of influential groups are pushing lawmakers right now and speaking out.

They don't have the access, really, in this temporary capital situation that they usually have, but they're working behind the scenes.

And the Prichard committee, certainly one of those influential groups in Blom.

She also called for substantial raises for teachers.

She said that is necessary to recruit and retain educators.

How will education likely fare in this budget cycle?

>> Well, again, time will tell.

Over the next 60 days, the 60 day session again, the governor, he also in his budget address, spoke out saying that he wanted educators to get a close to 7% pay raise over the next two years.

And that's kind of on track with what the Prichard committee was proposing.

But again, there's a lot of conversations on whether or not school choice is an option moving forward, but also making sure there's enough money to pay for the seek funding model.

A lot of the Republican legislature members, they're they're more focused on giving the independent school districts to the local authority to determine how that money is used.

And if the district's determined to pay more for the educators.

So, again, it's interesting to see how things will play out over the next few months.

>> And also, it's interesting when you talk about education, you also have to think about learning outcomes.

And that's something that a lot of leaders you'll talk to and education groups will talk about is just our kids.

You know, a lot of kids don't have proper reading scores and math scores.

And so when you hear comments like, we have to make sure the high school diploma means something, you also think of learning outcomes, making sure people leave high school and they can actually read and do math.

>> And apparently more partnerships with potential employers that, you know, what do they expect and what do they need in those in those graduates?

All right.

Already hundreds of bills have been filed.

It is a very busy in Frankfort.

And a bill from Republican State Senator Lindsey Tickner would ban a diversity, equity and inclusion practices in Kentucky's K-12 schools.

And Sara, the legislature took aim at Dei and higher ed last session.

>> Yeah.

So this this bill would forbid public schools from having Dei programs.

I believe it had 11 co-sponsors on its first day.

So there is appetite there.

And yes, last year, House Bill four banned Dei programs, offices, that sort of things at public colleges and universities.

So that's sort of like in line with the the national theme.

You know, we've seen over the last few years sorts of attacks on Dei and research as well.

It's just sort of something that is in line with the Trump administration's priorities, for sure.

>> Some of these bills are just coming out to sort of one by one, especially on the Republican side.

But the Democrats held a news conference and talked about a lot of their priorities in Austin.

Some of those, dare I say, might be designed to make it very uncomfortable to vote against.

There's a proposal for increasing the minimum wage in the state, as there has been such a proposal for the last several years.

>> Yeah, it's currently, what, 7.25?

Is that right?

Yeah.

I think, you know, if you did a poll of Kentuckians, the vast majority would probably want that to go up.

I would think.

Now, having said that, the reality is almost any wage, if you walk into a McDonald's tomorrow, you can get hired for much, much more than that per hour.

So that's sort of the counterargument to it.

From the Chamber crowd side, from the Republican side is things aren't necessarily in dire straits right now, but at the same time, we've seen other states pass a minimum wage and, you know, the bottom hasn't fallen out from there.

Industries like California, Washington, those have pretty high minimum wage rates, too.

That said, I wouldn't expect a vote on this anywhere.

But never say never.

>> Mario.

State senator, the Republican Jimmy Higdon is retiring after this year, and he says he wants safer roads to be part of his legacy.

He's pushing a distracted driving bill that would make some tough rules for those out there behind the wheel.

>> That's right.

It's Senate Bill 28 and it's called the iPhone Down Kentucky act.

And it would close gaps in existing state law that currently allows drivers to use cell phones.

And Senator Higdon, his bill would ban them all.

Handheld use of mobile devices while operating a vehicle.

The only exemptions would be a GPS navigation or emergencies or law enforcement.

But hoping he's hoping to get that pushed through before he finishes up his term.

>> Austin GOP Representative Savannah Maddox filed a bill to take aim at the frustrations over these regional driver's licensing offices, and it is obvious there is frustration out there.

The transportation cabinet says, well, it's better than it was.

But a lot of people at the local level apparently don't.

Don't buy that.

>> Yeah.

I mean, for some people, they have to drive a good distance to get their license renewed.

I mean, we saw this when there was the big surge of people getting their real IDs, and also younger Kentuckians could get their permits and their license.

And that kind of all happened at once, where there were both of those rushes simultaneously in these places, got a little overwhelmed.

I believe her bill would return that duty to the clerk level on the local side.

Having said that, there's a cost to unwinding that as there was a cost to rolling the regional situation out in the first place.

So, you know, who knows how how it'll play out.

>> Another bill.

Returning to the discussion, Democrats proposed flurry of bills this weekend.

One a recreational marijuana amendment from Representative Nima Kulkarni of Louisville.

Again, it's been proposed before.

Many people say, well, that probably won't even make it to a to a vote.

>> Yeah, I think I think that's probably safe to say at this point.

I mean, you know, unless something changes with the political winds right now, I think that's what most people would bet on.

>> Sarah, you looked at some other bills that have been filed or in the works.

>> Well, there's a lot of bills to go through.

Right?

We are seeing some ones returning that we've had a lot of discussions about in past years.

For example, a bill to make water fluoridation optional is back.

You know, that got a lot of attention in the last few years.

A lot of dentists would come to Frankfort and speak against it.

And, you know, you had people who were very passionate about making those programs optional but hasn't actually gotten through both chambers.

You also have abortion legislation that gets filed at least every year for the last few years, trying to sort of reset the abortion landscape in Kentucky, basically undoing the trigger law that also doesn't go anywhere.

But, you know, there are there are some lower profile bills that have the potential to make big impacts.

For example, a Republican bill from Representative Raymer would have the cabinet for Health and Family Services hire a sexual assault nurse examiner coordinator for Kentucky.

So that would help more hospitals be prepared to offer rape kits and get more people that sort of care.

So that's something that could have an impact and that's something that is needed.

According to recent reporting that's come out.

And you've also seen a bill filed to remove the statute of limitations for civil actions related to child sex abuse, sexual abuse and sexual assault.

So there are some high profile returning bills.

There are some maybe a little bit lower ones that also, you know, have a real big potentials in Kentucky.

>> Not legislation.

But the attorney general has made a move this week sort of in that regard with AI.

>> Yeah.

Attorney General Russell Coleman is suing character Technology.

So it's an AI artificial intelligence company.

He is alleging that there are chatbots, and the technology itself is just being inappropriate with children in some cases talking about substance use, eating disorders, even posing as mental health professionals and sort of giving advice that it's not qualified to give, obviously.

So he has accused the company of preying on children.

The company defends itself, says, you know, it takes more steps than it has to to protect minors and that safety is a priority for it.

But yes, he has filed that lawsuit.

>> We'll watch that.

Well, the filing deadline passed late on Friday, so we now know who will be on the campaign trail in 2026.

In Louisville, Metro Council member Shamika Parrish-Wright is challenging Mayor Craig Greenberg and Mario.

This is a bit of a rematch from the 2022 primary, which at that time was a Democratic primary.

But now Louisville has this nonpartisan race.

>> That's right.

And Shamika, she initially got into public office following the March of 2020 after Breonna Taylor was killed in the raid by LMPD.

But then social justice protests were happening, and Shamika Parrish-Wright was very outspoken against all of that.

But then currently Mayor Craig Greenburg, he's the incumbent and has faced several issues in the city of Louisville responding to disasters from flooding that's happened earlier in 2025, but also the UPS plane crash.

So he's been very visible across Louisville.

So he's got a lot of name recognition, but he's kind of been consoling to a lot of people throughout Louisville.

So he's got a lot more standing compared to when he ran the first time.

>> State Representative Ashley Tackett Lafferty is not seeking reelection.

The only Democrat serving in the legislature from eastern Kentucky, she represents the 95th House district that includes Floyd and part of Pike County.

Austin Democrat's obviously would hope to hold on to that seat, but there are Republican candidates and potentially strong ones at that in that race as well.

>> Yeah, I mean, this was it became extremely important when state Senator Robin Webb flipped from Democrat to Republican for Democrats to hold on to this seat.

Floyd County is a heritage Democrat place, but at the same time, it supported Trump by a considerable margin.

It's got a piece of Pike County as well.

We're seeing Johnny Ray Turner try to make a comeback.

He's the he's the one who was in the state Senate for 20 years and got beat by similarly named Johnny L Turner.

So he's he's making a comeback for this representative seat.

And you've also got on the Republican side, Tanner Hesterberg, who's a former Wymt anchor, and Willie Chris, who ran in the write in campaign last time around.

He's a pastor.

I wouldn't discount either of those candidates in the primary, and this is looking to be one of the most closely watched general elections.

>> All right.

We will try to see if we can get a little more politics in before we go.

But a type of super flu is spreading in Kentucky.

It's proving to be dangerous and even deadly.

And I know, Sarah, you're watching that.

>> Yeah, we know flu levels are elevated in Kentucky right now.

We know at least eight people died in December of flu.

Among those was a child who was unvaccinated.

Sort of prompted a lot of health officials to sort of plead with people to please get vaccinated.

We've seen, like, a lot of misinformation around vaccines.

We've seen sort of hesitancy around getting vaccines.

But, you know, they'll say that is the best defense against flu in a year, especially right now.

And it's not too late.

>> Also, some measles exposures to keep an eye on.

>> Yes.

So we had one reported today.

An unvaccinated traveler apparently came through Lexington, stayed at the Hyatt Place Hamburg from December 30th 1st to January 2nd.

So there's a potential exposure of measles there as well.

Highly contagious.

And as with flu, it's the best defense against it is a vaccine, according to health officials.

But yes, that was December 30th 1st of January two.

Potential exposure.

>> Well, Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services Secretary, Doctor Steven Stack, expressed frustration this week with new federal guidance that lowers the number of recommended vaccines.

>> I think this has confused the public, and the best advice I can offer is the public should ignore the federal guidance.

The federal guidance is not based in science or fact.

The federal government has actively been undermining confidence in immunizations, has already contributed to a further decrease in the number of people who get immunized and has already recklessly endangered the American people.

>> Strong words from the Kentucky health secretary.

>> Yeah, and I mean, he's he's sort of seen this.

You know, he was a big voice in Kentucky during Covid.

And during that time, we also had this sort of situation where information changed quickly and guidance changed quickly.

And there was misinformation.

And that sort of drove people to be to hesitate to take the vaccine even when it came out.

So he was very outspoken then.

And of course, as you heard, he's he's outspoken now, begging people to sort of talk to their local doctor about what they should do.

>> Let's get where we can.

On the US Senate race.

Of course, Mitch McConnell will leave office at the end of the year.

Kentucky's race had been a little quiet until this New year.

Republican Andy Barr pushing a coal first policy agenda, saying that that could be key to Kentucky's future, including data centers.

>> This is a vision that that lays the groundwork for the future jobs and prosperity of eastern Kentucky.

But it's also at the center of America's national security imperative, which is to win the race for these technologies of the future.

Kentucky is uniquely positioned not only to put our coal miners back to work, but to advance our national security.

And we can do it here, Kentucky.

>> All right then, Daniel Cameron this afternoon and he told me that he basically agrees that coal can be a major part of this campaign.

>> Yeah.

I mean, coal has been a pretty common hobby horse for Republican candidates in Kentucky.

It helped them flip the House in 2016, particularly during the Obama administration when there was the war on coal, both real and perceived.

So it doesn't surprise me that they're using this as an issue.

Having said that, there are just fewer and fewer coal miners in Kentucky anymore.

Tons of people have that connection through their parents or grandparents.

I mean, I do, but I just wonder if it's as potent a political issue as it used to be.

>> Two US Senate primaries to watch, though, Mario, as we as we head toward the May 19th vote.

>> That's right.

On the Republican side, we've got the three high profile candidates with Andy Barr, who you heard from there, Daniel Cameron and also Nate Morse.

But then on the Democratic side, there's a long list of Democrats that are stepping up, including Amy McGrath and Charles Booker.

Pamela Stephenson, who entered the race first last year early.

And then there's a couple others in that race, including Dale Romans, the horse trainer who's known across the state and beyond.

So a lot of people to watch and we'll see how things shake out.

>> Could be an interesting year ahead.

Right.

Well, a joint resolution has been filed in Frankfort that calls for a Jean Ritchie Memorial Highway in Perry County.

Ritchie was born in Viper in 1922.

Before becoming a well known traditional folk musician, she performed around the world and received a Fulbright scholarship to study the roots of Appalachian music in Scotland and Ireland.

That resolution calls for part of Kentucky Route seven to be named for Jean Ritchie.

That's common on Kentucky.

Thank you for joining us.

Have a good week ahead.