disagree on whether the state is in a position for another income tax cut.

Yet another candidate jumps into the race to succeed retiring Senator Mitch McConnell in the bill to reopen the federal government.

A clash over hemp regulations.

The Supreme Court rejects a case from Kentucky that would have challenged same sex marriage.

On this mid-November weekend, 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 Alex Acquisto, politics and health reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Hannah Pinski politics reporter for the Courier-Journal, and Liam Niemeyer, reporter for the Kentucky Lantern.

The state legislature will soon be putting together a two year state budget and deciding how to spend your tax dollars.

It comes as there was a shortfall this year.

There will be pressure to backstop some federal cuts as well.

State Senate Revenue Chairman Chris McDaniel talked about that and said the state will not be bailing out financially troubled school districts.

>> You have a federal program currently that you think that the state is going to backfill.

Rethink your strategy.

The state is not going to backfill.

Federal programs that get changed.

State will not be coming into bailout districts, period.

End of story.

>> So, Liam, there you have the chair of the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee saying Kentucky will not be filling holes created in the state budget by cuts from the federal government and also seems to not like the idea of bailing out school districts.

>> Yeah, lawmakers are, you know, next year when they're crafting the two year state budget, are going to have to be grappling with a number of different issues.

You know, in particular, the one big beautiful Bill act that that passed.

You know, House Speaker David Osborne mentioned that it would impact how they would go about the budget.

McDaniel you know, the clip that we saw there, McDaniel also mentioned that from the one big beautiful Bill act that, you know, large federal programs such as SNAP, that Kentuckians rely on some of the cost for, say, the administration of SNAP.

There's also some costs related to errors, error rates with how states calculate, how much benefits each recipient get, gets.

Those costs are potentially going to be shifted more to the state budget north of potentially 100 million next year.

And you also have future changes to Medicaid eligibility as as well.

There's there's a number of different issues that lawmakers are going to have to be dealing with.

>> Representative James Tipton has concerns about education funding.

Some proposals call for some deep cuts in education.

>> Correct.

It's you know, there's proposals out there from House Republicans, Republicans in the US Senate, the Trump White House into the proposals, the House and Trump White House.

There would be significant cuts to to education.

Now, you know, the Trump White House says that, you know, it's about empowering states to use the money as they see fit about making things more efficient.

But, you know, there could be significant cuts potentially, if one of these budgets are adopted, say, to education funding for English language learner students.

You know, Tipton, in his comments earlier this week, mentioned that regardless of whatever changes happen at the federal level, the state would have to adapt.

>> Hannah chairman McDaniel seemed resolute in saying that the there would be no bailing out of the state's two largest school districts, both of which have financial problems.

Is it fair to say, from your assessment of other lawmakers that there is little appetite for that?

>> Yeah, I definitely think it's fair to say there's little appetite for that.

I mean, you've seen Senator McDaniel been consistently critical of the Fayette County School District.

Specifically, he called for the resignation of the superintendent and the board chair to resign because of the mishandling of funds.

And then in JCPS, you have Representative Jason Nemes, who represents part of Louisville, say, you know, we are not going to help bail you out as well.

And he will fight against any significant tax hikes to stop.

He will fight against any significant tax hikes to make up for those lost funds.

So I think they're very much looking at, you know, this is a local issue and it's up to the local leaders there to solve it.

>> And the education commissioner says teachers need raises if the state is to be able to recruit and retain teachers.

There is another pressure point in this budget.

>> And it's sort of a perennial pressure point.

I mean, we've been hearing about teachers needing raises since at least the Bevin administration in my time in Kentucky as a reporter.

And I think if you were to parse out the issues that the legislature would have the biggest appetite for potentially funding, it would conceivably be teacher raises.

But I think they could still fall back on the argument of, we're not going to invest in that right now because of sort of what Hannah was saying.

Schools just need to sort of rely on on their own funding.

>> There is a lot of discussion behind the scenes about whether Kentucky will again lower the state income tax.

It appears the revenue triggers were not hit by most measures, but Representative Jason Nemes, the House majority whip, disagrees.

He says Kentucky did meet the threshold for another cut.

>> So I'm fully for a reduction in another, a full half of a percent from 3.5% to 3% of our income tax.

If I can't get that done, if I can't convince my colleagues to do that, which, by the way, we did not miss the trigger, we we we measured it at the wrong time.

But if I can't convince my colleagues to go down a full half of a percent, we need to go down a quarter of a percent.

>> Liam.

These triggers were guardrails put in place by the legislature itself.

The supermajority seems to want the tax eliminated eventually, and some want to take that next step right away.

>> Yeah, there seems to be a little bit of a disagreement between Representative Jason Nemis that we heard there and state budget Director John Hicks.

You know, there was conversation with House Speaker David Osborne earlier this week with reporters, you know, Osborne mentioning that, you know, there's different philosophies with what to do with the income tax rate.

But, you know, regardless of the opinion of the state budget director of whether or not the fiscal triggers were met, which, again, are related to revenues that the state brings in and how much money is in the state.

Rainy day fund, regardless of what the state budget director says, the General Assembly can make policy as it sees fit.

They did change the system with the income tax rate reductions a little bit earlier this year.

So where with each reduction, instead of it being by a full half percent, each time a reduction is done, they're able to now potentially approve anywhere between 0.5% again and a half percent reduction all the way down to 0.1% reduction.

So a little bit of flexibility there.

>> That's going to be something to watch.

And we will do that.

The General Assembly of course, coming to town in early January in Frankfort.

Well the federal government shutdown finally ended this week after 43 days.

Alex, we've all reported stories of Kentuckians with zero balances on their SNAP cards that help feed their families.

The question tonight, and I think that the governor said this afternoon that there's going to be a all night effort to get those snap cards loaded, but how long will it be before those benefits are available?

>> I think the big question is that nobody really knows concretely.

We you mentioned Governor Beshear sort of assured people that state workers are going to be working through the night.

He said earlier this week that the state is working to reimburse or put those that money back on Snap recipients EBT cards as quickly as possible.

But, you know, Snap funding, while it can be done electronically, dispersing those funds is sort of one cog in the government machine that has been shut down up until now.

And so some Kentuckians have already seen their balance replenished.

For others, it might be a couple of days.

I think the big rush is because people's balances have been depleted for a while, and because Thanksgiving is coming up, there is definitely a push on the state to try and get it done as soon as possible.

It's just a matter of █when.

>> Yeah.

And you had others who missed paychecks who supposedly now will will get their money.

But, you know, planning has been very difficult, obviously.

Well, the holdup on reopening the government was health care, of course, with Democrats pushing for an extension of Obamacare subsidies.

Kentucky Congressman Brett Guthrie, a Republican, suggests that there are ways to rein in health care costs.

>> There's some work we need to do on health care affordability.

That's my committee, actually.

So I'm looking forward to sitting down with people and and working.

So by hopefully by Christmas time, I think December 20th, they promised to vote on what we're going to do with the health care and health care subsidies.

I'm not sure the way they want to do it the right way, but we're going to have that discussion and have a vote.

>> It is interesting how many Kentucky voices are in the national discussion.

Alex, we seem to be in an area now where some want existing Obamacare coverage to be more affordable.

While many Republicans say there needs to be a better overall approach to to health care insurance.

>> And to be honest, this is sort of an age old conversation, which is one there is definitely an appetite to make Obamacare more affordable.

You know, the government shutdown happened over subsidies, which are basically premiums to discount that federal assistance to access that health care for the people who need it most.

Republicans have tried to repeal Obamacare before.

They've talked about overhauling it.

Obviously, Congressman Brett Guthrie is chairman of a very consequential committee in Congress, energy and Commerce, and he does have real power to propose that overhaul.

It's a question of, though, what that would be, because at this point, the ACA provides health care protections for millions of Americans, a whole lot, hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians to.

And so it's a sort of thing where if you're going to overhaul it or certainly replace it, you have to have a plan in place, you have to come up with concrete policy.

And I guess we'll see if if they actually can manage to do that.

>> Trying to get two things at one time.

Right proved to be very difficult.

Obviously in Washington.

Hannah does it appear that health care is going to be a major issue in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, including here in Kentucky?

>> Oh, yeah, I definitely think so.

I think since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill act, what Democrats have said nationally is, you know, these Medicaid cuts in the bill, they're going to kick people off the Medicaid program, and they're going to close rural hospitals and hurt America.

And how we're seeing that translate in Kentucky is that healthcare has become a big conversation in both the House district six primary as well as the U.S.

Senate race.

We've seen Cherlynn Stevenson in the House district six race has made fighting against Medicaid cuts a priority in her campaign.

And we've also seen in the Senate race on the Democratic side, Amy McGrath, she was critical of the CR reopening the government, saying these subsidies weren't extended and that that needed to happen to help Kentuckians.

So I definitely think there will be banking, you know, on the health care issue on that front to be able to flip some seats come next year.

>> Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie has helped lead the charge for the release of the Epstein files.

And this week, the number of votes needed for a discharge petition was met, and it appears that it is headed to a vote come next week.

Hannah a President Trump calls it the Jeffrey Epstein hoax.

Congressman Massie has pressed hard for the release.

>> I think, yes, Massie has led the charge, I think since July, I want to say.

But yes, his discharge petition gained.

It's 218 signatures.

And what that does is that it forces a House floor vote.

Now, what he is banking on is because it forces a floor vote, a floor vote.

It forces Republicans, you know, to have their vote on the record.

And his message that he is sending out right now, as they're considering before the vote, is that he is saying, you know, Trump may be able to protect you right now in your upcoming elections, but what about 2028?

And what about 2030?

And so I think he's really banking on, you know, beyond the midterms to be able to convince his colleagues to vote to release the files.

Now, I think it's important to note that there is still a long way to go just because there is going to be a House floor vote, it means it still means it has to go through the Senate, and that we don't know how the Senate is going to vote on that front.

>> And we also know that Massie is in a primary.

Yes, in Northern Kentucky, in his district.

>> He is.

And, you know, the Epstein files are one of the reasons, many reasons why, you know, Trump has targeted him in the primary since, you know, Massie has disagreed with Trump on that front.

He really Trump is unhappy.

And that's one of the reasons why he's getting primaried by him.

>> Well, yet another Democrat has jumped into the crowded U.S.

Senate primary.

Horse trainer Dale Romans has had a lot of contenders in the Kentucky Derby.

At least now he is running for Senator Mitch McConnell's seat as what he's calling an independent Democrat.

>> I've been in Kentucky my entire life, and I think I know what Kentucky needs in Washington, an independent Democrat that can go to Washington, D.C.

and vote for what's right for the people of Kentucky.

I know how to win as an underdog.

I know how to come from behind.

And there's a lot of strength in electing a Democratic senator from a red state that wouldn't be beholden to the party, but also wouldn't be a puppet to the president, like a Republican freshman senator would have to be.

>> Interesting, Lane, that Romans is trying to carve out.

They're entering a race that includes Amy McGrath, Logan Forsythe, Joel Willett and Pamela Stephenson.

So far, there could be other candidates.

What do you make of this?

Calling himself an independent Democrat.

>> I definitely think he's taking a different strategy and messaging compared to the other Democrats who have entered the race.

So he specifically points to Joe Manchin, who is a former West Virginia senator who had a centrist streak not always particularly popular with the Democratic Party.

However, he was able to consistently win in Republican heavy state in a deep red state like Kentucky.

I think Roman sees that as a potential way to win the election.

We've seen through his interviews that he's done this week that he's taking a different campaign priority approach.

So he recently told us that he's, you know, for responsible gun ownership, not for taking away any anybody's guns away.

And he also admits that there's issues with the Medicaid program.

But again, you can't take away the whole system at once.

And I think potentially this could be a popular messaging with western Kentucky and eastern Kentucky, particularly in the rural areas of the state.

>> I think just as the race gets more crowded, you know, you need to delineate yourself somehow.

When Amy McGrath first launched, she mentioned about how she's a centrist and sort of middle of the road.

It's an interesting marketing strategy, sort of delineating between he's not going to be beholden to the Democratic platform, but he won't be a puppet for Trump.

Obviously, horse racing is popular in Kentucky.

I think it's a smart tactic when you're launching your name with really very little name recognition.

The matter I guess the bigger question is will he have traction overall?

But I think it's smart.

>> And, you know, I think Roman's candidacy is interesting just from maybe a more national 10,000 foot view, in the sense that ever since Democrats failure in in 2020 for, you know, the party's been trying to figure out its path forward of what should its main thrust be, politically speaking?

You've seen candidates running for Senate, I would say, including Romans in this category who seem to, you know, their rhetoric, their messaging is that they're not going to necessarily toe the party line.

You see a candidate in main, Graham Plattner, who is arguably a lot more progressive compared to Dale Romans, but still similar rhetoric in the sense of, you know, I'm not going to necessarily follow what, say, Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer says.

>> It's interesting that with so many prediction maps painting Kentucky Red, that so many Democrats are interested in that nomination.

>> Well, I think to you're trying to capture the, I think, growing number of voters who are sort of disillusioned with both parties, with the division between both parties.

And so it will be interesting if we start to see more candidates sort of pitch themselves.

And let's be honest, Kentucky is more likely to elect a more moderate centrist Democrat if they're going to elect one.

>> So is Charles Booker still in the mix, do you think, Hannah.

>> You know, he hasn't said yes and he hasn't said no?

I think what was particularly interesting is I believe it was almost a month ago.

He said he was not running for Louisville mayor, because that was also another rumor going around.

However, he did not shut the door out for a potential U.S.

Senate run.

And I think that would be really interesting.

If he does throw his name in the ring.

>> There's a tough three way primary on the Republican side as well.

Of course.

Alex Daniel Cameron Andy Barr Nate Morris are in the hunt.

The latest on that.

And I think, Liam, you have this update that there are some endorsements going on.

That's sort of the battle right now out there, right?

>> Yeah.

You know, like with any campaign, it's a little bit of the endorsement battle and trying to get people to back you.

Of course, in the state legislature, there's a lot of Republicans to go around to endorse a Republican U.S.

Senate candidate.

You know, both Cameron and Barr were were picking up endorsements in particular.

Barr, you know, picked up the endorsement of Sander Jason Howell out in far west Kentucky.

You know, Cameron had the endorsement of Senator Gary Boswell.

And, you know, it's hard to say.

And it remains to be seen how much those endorsements will impact the race, trickle down to voters.

But at the very least, it's good to have a local advocate in a particular portion of the state, you know, backing your candidacy.

>> All right.

So we'll watch that.

And obviously a lot of spending continuing on the the in the Republican primary as well, Alex, we're seeing a lot of commercials, certainly.

>> A lot of commercials flooding the airwaves.

And it's, again, sort of a race to the top to see who can amass the most money, because right now you're just trying to get your face out there as much as possible, get your message out there as much as possible.

>> The U.S.

Supreme Court rejected a case this week from Kentucky that could have challenged the legality of same sex marriage.

Alex, this was a case brought by former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis.

The justices did not want to consider that landmark 2015 ruling under that particular case.

>> When I think what's so interesting about this case, and viewers will remember, because Kim Davis rose to international fame for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in 2015 after Obergefell versus Hodges, she has been embroiled in, you know, extended lawsuits related to her refusal to issue those licenses.

For a decade, she's been ordered by judge and jury to pay more than $360,000 in damages.

Her appeal of that, her being ordered to pay damages is what she pitched the Supreme Court.

And, of course, her lawyers are sort of characterizing her as the first, quote, unquote, victim of Obergefell because she had to suppress her religious belief in order to issue these licenses.

The Supreme Court said no, but I think it's important to distinct that distinguish that they said no, to sort of using her case as an avenue to revisit Obergefell.

People have said for a long time that her case is a poor one, because at the time she refused.

She was an elected official who had to adhere to state statute.

And so I think it will be interesting if the court decides to take up a different challenge to Obergefell.

That's certainly not that one.

And it is a blow to her and her case.

And I think the big question now is, will she, in fact pay the damages that she's on the on the line to pay?

>> Senator Mitch McConnell secured $147 million for construction projects at several Kentucky military installations.

That includes a project at the Bluegrass Army Depot near Richmond, and also for Fort Campbell and some other areas.

Is that the kind of money going to be harder to come by with the seniority that McConnell has that will be handed eventually to a junior senator from Kentucky?

>> Sure.

I mean, I mean, seniority always helps in those matters.

I mean, even like taking a look at just the wrangling of the budget in Frankfort when they had the one time spending there was there's also some some Jocelyn Jocelyn was spending there for particular projects throughout the state, but, you know, very much so with McConnell, having that seniority helps a lot.

>> I think also to, you know, McConnell was in the leadership ranks for a long time.

And when you are in the leadership ranks, you are pretty much always in the room when negotiations are happening and particularly when these budget negotiations are happening.

He was able to advocate on behalf of Kentucky.

Kentucky was always in those conversations, and I think that's something that I know he's not in leadership right now, but once he leaves altogether in his seniority will definitely be an impact as well.

>> All right.

There was a lot of talk about the future of hemp included in the bill to reopen the government was a provision that was added by Senator Mitch McConnell.

It would ban hemp products with THC content above a certain level.

Opponents, including Senator Rand Paul, say the provision threatens the multibillion dollar hemp industry.

>> Unfortunately, companies.

>> Have exploited a loophole in the 2018 legislation by taking legal amounts of THC from hemp and turning it into intoxicating substances.

>> This bill's per serving THC content limit would make illegal any hemp product that contains more than 0.4mg.

That would be nearly 100% of the existing market.

The numbers put forward in this bill will eliminate 100% of hemp products in our country.

>> This all getting attention because McConnell was an early champion of hemp, and now he has concerns about the THC levels of some products.

Obviously, he and Senator Paul are really at odds on this one.

Alex.

>> Yeah.

So as they were mentioning, it would limit any product with 0.4mg people.

Commonly the products that he's talking about are Delta.

What are they, Delta eight and Delta nine.

McConnell's reasoning is that the cans these products are colorful.

Kids might get Ahold of them, become intoxicated, or adults might ingest them on purpose and actually get a lot more intoxicated or inebriated than they're expecting.

Senator Paul has said this would kill jobs, including for a lot of Kentucky farmers, because Kentucky is a really big hemp state.

A lot of the GOP, and please chime in on a national level seems to be for it.

But Kentucky Republicans are split, right?

So we saw Senator Paul.

Obviously, Thomas Massie isn't for it.

Andy Barr is opposing it.

And so I think it's going to beg a question of how will they move forward, and will they use Brett Guthrie, who we talked about earlier, chairs this very consequential committee to try and leverage his position to sway it one way or the other.

>> And, you know, I spoke to some hemp products business owners in particular.

Jim Higdon, the co-founder of Cornbread Hemp, which sells hemp based THC seltzers.

You know, they're they're making this since the this bill was passed with this provision, they're making it kind of a year long battle until until this provision goes into effect to again, try to influence people like Guthrie to to remove it or change it.

So there's a.

>> Potential for a compromise.

>> There is a potential for a compromise, I think.

And like Liam said, this doesn't take effect until 2027.

And so I think going into the next year, it will be interesting to watch because like Alex said, you know, Republicans in Kentucky are sort of divided on this.

And so what they're going to they need to find a compromise.

And what that compromise looks like on the national level will be interesting to see.

>> All right.

Last night, longtime journalist and frequent comment panelist Bill Estep won the prestigious Al Smith Award for his more than 40 years of stories of Appalachian Kentucky and its communities.

And the.

Alex, I know you had the pleasure to work with Bill for many years.

>> I did, and I'm so grateful for it.

Bill is one of the kindest people that I've known, and he's one of the best journalists.

I wrote in a story after he left that he turned over his Rolodex of all of his time at the Herald-Leader when he left, and it was more than 70 pages, single spaced.

His source network is incredible.

He's a lovely person.

>> It appears Kentucky will receive more than $73 million as part of a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma.

We'll discuss more on that as it becomes clear.

And believe it or not, Kentucky Derby tickets went on sale this week, a reminder that we will get through the winter ahead that's common on Kentucky.

Thanks for joining us.

Have a good week ahead.