>> The 2026 legislative session is history and Kentucky has a budget for the next two years.

[MUSIC] There will not be an impeachment trial in the state Senate, at least not now.

State, the state auditor appears in Washington and talks about how federal dollars are handled here in Kentucky.

U.S.

Senate candidates work to stand out in crowded primary fields.

[MUSIC] As a very warm and dry April looks to change this weekend.

Comment is next on k e t. 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 Tessa Duvall politics and public Affairs editor for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Mason Brighton, political reporter for Spectrum News one and Isaiah Kim-Martinez political reporter for w h a s 11 in Louisville.

It's the only time of the year that we use the Latin phrase sine die around here.

After the usual frenzy leading up to the deadline, lawmakers adjourned the 2026 legislative session Wednesday night.

There is a new state budget.

There will be dozens of new state laws for us all to live by.

Republican leaders expressed satisfaction with the session and with the budget as written.

>> I will remind everyone that, as we have said in the past, that if we don't specifically line item something, it is believed that it is in the base.

There is enough money there to cover the cost of that program or whatever it is that we are putting in, and no additional funding is needed.

The governor just chooses not to follow the law because he doesn't want to do it.

Instead of actually quoting accurate cases, I would urge everyone to override this veto.

Thank you, Mr.

Speaker.

>> So, Tessa, the state budget was the main order of business in this session, and lawmakers kept it lean, but pointed out that they did increase the SEEK funds for schools and ultimately did not make cuts to higher education.

>> Right.

We knew going into the session that, as you said, it would be a lean kind of year.

But SEEK, the formula for public schools did see a modest increase.

So over the next biennium it will go up, I think, about 4% at now, that per pupil funding is just under $4,600.

It's going to go up to nearly 4800.

Of course, the criticism from Democrats and from Governor Andy Beshear is that this is still not enough and that it has no explicit raises for teachers built into it, which has been a continual talking point for the governor.

And on the higher education front, the University of Kentucky sent out a note saying that funding was restored to current levels, something the president is grateful for because the outcome is significant and welcome.

Because the proposed cuts would have been a real challenge to the mission and momentum of the university.

>> Mason.

Republican lawmakers said they intentionally wanted to keep that $32 billion budget lean because of uncertainty in the economy.

>> I think they were looking a lot that was happening nationally and what's happening in Washington and planning accordingly.

And that comes even though they say that the economy here and the numbers revenues are good in Kentucky, like we said, things are lean and it sets them up for the future.

In case anything does happen down the road.

>> It's interesting.

You get so used to budgets just kind of going up locally and state level, adjusting for inflation.

It's just you just kind of get used to seeing that number trickle up.

It's interesting though, I kind of compared the numbers 2024 state budget $30 billion for the two year spending plan this year 32 billion.

Last budget cycle 2.7 billion for one time spending this year 1.7 billion.

So it really just kind of almost looks very similar about $1 billion difference.

But for the most part, you could really see sort of the restraint be sort of the priority here, to your point.

And they want to keep that rainy day fund as sort of concrete and healthy as possible.

That's been a priority.

>> As we mentioned, Governor Beshear had wanted more spending and other priorities.

He expressed frustration at funding levels for schools, for health care.

And he says the efforts to address the housing shortage were shortchanged.

>> We didn't get nearly the amount of money into affordable housing we need.

We know this is a crisis all around the country, but guess what?

We have a program that leverages nine private sector dollars for every one public sector dollar.

They put 2.5 million, not 125, into that fund.

And then they spent $300 million to upgrade their offices into a Taj Mahal.

>> So Bashir felt more money should have been allocated in some areas.

But it also seems that he showed some frustration and that pointed comment he made.

>> Yeah.

I mean, we as journalists have heard him talk about education, pre-K, the lack of funding there, teacher raises in the past Medicaid.

But sometimes it catches our attention when he brings up something specific that he has direct control over on an executive level with his cabinet officials.

For example, he brought up site development funds, which is big for a guy for governor who sort of touts himself as the economic development governor.

Right.

That has sort of been his claim to fame here in the state and nationally.

And he claims that they've cut the lawmakers in this case about $20 million, which in his words sort of prevents Kentucky from being able to attract businesses with build ready lands.

He really showed some frustration in those moments because that does handcuff him a little bit.

Of course lawmakers Republicans would argue hey it's not what the governor is doing in his cabinet.

It's what policies were passing that are bringing companies to Kentucky and Max.

>> The governor signed a lot of bills into law and he vetoed others.

Mason there were more than 30 vetoes, and the legislature just very easily overrode those and just, you know, discarded the governor's objections as they have the political power to do.

>> Essentially, that's what they spent all of Tuesday upon their return.

Doing is overriding all these vetoes.

The only thing that was able to stay was a line item veto of the executive branch budget.

But besides that, the legislature has been very clear that their priorities are going to become law regardless of what the governor, the executive branch has to say about it.

>> Let's go through some of these bills.

Isaiah.

The sports betting age is being raised under House Bill 904.

And there are some other changes.

>> Yeah, we talk about a lot of bills that I think people at home, it's hard for them to grasp what it is that how it changes their daily lives.

This is not one of those, at least maybe not at the surface.

It does get a little bit more complicated.

It's a long bill, but on the surface, 18 to 21 years old, that is now going to be the shift minimum age to sports betting Kentucky you now have to be 21 instead of 18, and then it makes prop bets illegal.

So essentially what this means is you could bet on a certain player doing a certain thing in a game, like maybe they score over 18 points.

This bill bans it.

Now law bans this from being used on any kind of Kentucky college athletics, which means you cannot bet the under, which is what bettors will say on any of these players who are at UK UofL.

Because in lawmakers words, they're trying to make it more difficult to incentivize a player, say, coming out of the game early because they wanted to score under a certain amount and they just want to take all that potential worries out of the game completely.

So pretty immediate effect.

>> A couple.

>> Of other provisions, no betting on elections, and anyone who owes child support is barred from online betting.

>> Yeah.

So this is their way and their words because they sort of feel like a lot of Republicans felt like they sort of reluctantly passed this in 2023.

They feel like there were a lot of safeguards they weren't able to get to.

This was their way of sort of shoring some of that up.

And they say they might need to do that more in the future.

>> Tessa, one of the vetoes that was overridden, therefore it has passed, has to do with the governor's power to appoint people in his or her administration.

Many are now subject to Senate confirmation.

>> Right.

So as it has been, the governor is able to say, hey, this is my new secretary.

We actually just saw a release like that go out this week.

These are our positions that serve at the pleasure of the governor.

But now that it's being transferred into something that requires Senate approval, the governor, of course, vetoed it so that it was unconstitutional.

But as you noted, it was overridden.

And look, this is just the latest in a string of bills, not only this session, but over the past several years that we see the legislature clawing back some power from the executive branch.

>> Another area for that, the state treasurer would have to approve executive branch travel.

>> Right.

That has been an especially controversial thing the last couple of years.

We've seen the governor go to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum for a couple of years in a row, and that is not a cheap trip by any stretch of the imagination.

And Republican lawmakers in particular have not cared for it.

So it's not surprising to see that they have taken this step.

>> It's interesting, too, how much Democrats have pushed back on this, particularly particularly in the House, saying, listen, all governors take trips.

That's what they have to do to bring investment back to the state, even if it's out of the country.

But then Republicans push back hard on that, saying the only one benefiting from this or these tours, in their words, that he takes is himself and his own potential future political aspirations.

So you see pretty much hard on party lines there.

>> The legislature is trying to restart the death penalty in Kentucky by changing who could approve the protocols.

The governor vetoed that, but it also was overridden.

>> It passed.

So that will be law, which essentially gives the Department of Corrections on a state level, the ability to handle a lot of this internally so they wouldn't have to go through the administrative regulation process all the way up and down the Beshear administration.

So Republicans will say it's not just about the death penalty.

It's about sort of cutting the red tape and allowing this process to move forward.

There are 24 people currently on death row here in Kentucky, and they want to see in there were some of those families get justice.

The governor, though, has said the Supreme Court and other courts have been very clear that it is required to have safeguards to determine folks who might not be intellectually.

They're completely to be able to to follow through with this, he says.

That is a violation of the Eighth Amendment.

If they're not able to fully vet that out.

So again, two very different sides of.

>> The point.

>> Here, Mason, you also covered passage of a bill that will make rules for flock camera usage and data, which is really expanded in recent years.

>> These are these automated license plate reading cameras that we see pop up in communities.

There's a lot of them in Louisville.

There's a lot of them in Lexington, especially with this new law will do is it will create regulations that say, you can't sell this data.

It has to be used for law enforcement purposes.

It can only be kept for a certain time, and audits of the system have to be performed on a regular basis to ensure that people are using that system and the information properly.

>> Sessions always get busy toward the end to test other bills that made it through late.

>> Yeah.

So the concealed carry age has been lowered or will be lowered when this bill takes effect from 21 to 18.

That was overridden.

The governor's veto on that.

Another one that was had bipartisan support was a bill allowing parents with certain nonviolent felonies to essentially stay within the community and serve their sentence and get support that way without having to go to prison.

That was a big push to try to keep families together.

>> Both bills that would take power away from the Jefferson County School Board, both of them are now law.

And we're told that the school board itself in Louisville next week will be meeting in executive executive sessions behind closed doors to discuss what, if any, legal action they might take.

>> As that changes the makeup of the school board.

>> And it has an emergency clause, which means this November, if this law stays intact, every single one of those seats is up for grabs.

And they're different because it's all new maps to Mason.

>> What else made it through that interested you?

>> Well, there's going to be a ban on the sale of kratom a couple of years ago.

That substance, the age to buy that was raised to 21.

Now the state says we're going to get rid of this.

All right.

A lot of states are doing this as people realize that this might not be something that they want sold in stores.

>> Yeah.

>> Well, on the day after the session, the minority Democrat said that there were missed opportunities in the session.

They came out and held a news conference and were critical of some things that happened and maybe a little louder than they were during the session.

>> Right?

>> Yeah.

I mean, I would say as someone who's watched several sessions now, this this session, we didn't see as many of the floor speeches or even the attempts at procedural mover moves to try to slow down some of the more controversial pieces of legislation, especially when you compare it to, you know, 2023, for example, Senate Bill 150.

You know, you saw the Democrats kind of fighting tooth and nail to stop that every step of the way, ultimately unsuccessfully, but just didn't see that same kind of push this session.

It felt like.

>> A couple of bills that did not pass, but at one point appeared to have momentum.

Representative Josh Bray got a bill through the House on data centers, essentially Isaiah trying to keep utility companies from passing along the costs of generating these enormous amounts of energy that those data centers need onto the other customers that died in the Senate.

>> Yeah, it did.

And it's interesting because there definitely is some support to make sure that rate increases, rate increases if they're there directly, because the data center is coming to town, that the company puts a lot of that Bill to ensure those rates don't go up dramatically.

However, what we've seen in this session, this goes with that big housing bill that failed as well.

When you put in one size fits all, which is what some critics might say, pieces of or provisions into these measures.

A lot of folks on different sides of the state say, well, my situation is different from yours, right?

So you can't just, you know, have this flat policy and ultimately, you know, LG and a giant utility in the state, they didn't want this to pass.

And they have extreme influence.

>> Mason Senator Jimmy Higdon, who's retiring this year, wanted to pass a phone down bill to address distracted driving.

He wanted that to be his legacy.

It appeared to have a momentum.

And then ultimately it failed.

>> You know, early on in the session, it was one of those bills that gained a lot of people writing a lot of articles about it, you know, no phones while driving.

That distracted driving is a big hot button issue, but ultimately that just never made it across the finish line.

A couple of other bills related to licensing and the such, those transportation bills really just didn't make it this year.

The other big one that comes to mind is a local option for driver's license renewals.

We're going to stick with the regional offices, at least for the time being.

It appears.

>> Voters will decide yes or no on one constitutional amendment.

Tesla was the only one that got through Senate Bill ten, restricting a governor's ability to pardon late in the term.

>> Right.

Senator Chris McDaniel had been pushing for this one about a half dozen times, if not more.

So this is something that he we've seen clear the Senate before, but this is the first time it made the House.

So now it is going to the ballot in November, as you said, will be the only ballot ballot question that Kentucky voters have.

And yes, this is this is inspired by, of course, Matt Bevin on the way out the door in 2019, a whole slew of controversial pardons, some pretty high profile and some pretty violent cases that rubbed a lot of people on both sides of the aisle the wrong way.

>> There will be no impeachment trial for now involving Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Goodman, the state Supreme Court blocked the House impeachment and said the Senate should not hold a removal trial.

So again, the trial is on hold for now.

>> I cannot stress enough that the actions this committee takes today are driven by two factors only the Senate's duties under the Constitution and fairness to the defendant.

It is the sense of this committee that those two concerns can be best served by tabling further proceedings in this matter.

This will allow the JCC to complete its role.

>> This should not be viewed in any way as seating or abrogating the Senate's rights and duties under the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

>> This provided drama late in the session.

There was a lot of discussion about this before the Senate leaders eventually decided not to hold that removal trial.

>> For now.

>> That's correct for now continues to be the most important part of this whole discussion and what we saw in those clips and frankly, the entire legislature's response to this has been pretty remarkable in the sense that they're not really acknowledging that the Supreme Court said, stop, this is done.

This is over.

Don't go forward with this.

What we saw there is, you know, them saying the Judicial Conduct Commission is going to look into this, but it's very clear what they expect the Judicial Conduct Commission to do.

So if, you know, she is not sanctioned or removed from the bench, don't expect this to go away because it is very clear, again, the outcome that they are expecting.

And they appear completely undeterred by the Supreme Court's ruling saying this is over.

>> And then there was this resolution against one Supreme Court Justice Kelly Thompson.

>> Yeah, the leaders of the House and Senate now issuing a censure against Kelly Thompson for his opinion in that Supreme Court ruling that we just talked about from the Republican leaders perspective.

They took some of what he wrote, in his opinion, essentially as a threat that if you continue forward with this impeachment, we're going to take some serious actions.

Now, the censures happened, and I think this is going to be a saga that is far from over.

I think we're going to see a lot more developments with this.

>> What's remarkable about the reaction to that justices concurring opinion is that I think there's some irony in it, right?

As they're saying, this is a threat to our our livelihood, to people taking part in this process, to attorneys in Kentucky.

Whereas much of the argument was this is a threat that the legislature can hold over judges who issue opinions that they don't agree with.

And so I think that's kind of a remarkable turn for those of us who are watching this from the outside, a little removed from that process.

>> Kentucky State Auditor Alison Ball testified in Washington this week about waste, fraud and abuse.

She said she paid particular attention to how federal dollars get allocated in Kentucky.

>> But that's not all we found in conducting the last three audits required by the Single Audit Act, we have revealed a plethora of problems that show Kentucky is a target rich environment for waste, fraud and abuse in the executive branch.

These problems include dead people remaining on Kentucky Medicaid multiple people using the same Social Security number to obtain Medicaid and eligible non-citizens receiving Medicaid benefits.

>> So Auditor Ball says she's watching the tax dollars very closely.

She says her numbers come from the state's accounting system, and Governor Beshear accuses her of political theater.

>> Yeah, I asked him about it.

Of course.

Auditor ball says she's discovered more than $830 million of Medicaid.

The governor says this is a wild extrapolation of his words.

He says, basically, the numbers come from databases that the federal government and his words didn't allow the states or wouldn't give the states access to.

At first, he says, now they do.

And he says the numbers are much lower than that.

>> All right.

There were some changes in the Beshear administration this week.

Transportation Secretary Jim Gray is cutting back to part time.

There's a new transportation secretary.

>> That's right.

He's stepping into a special advisor role in the current secretary of the Energy and Environment Cabinet, Rebecca Goodman, will be moving over to transportation, which of course is a behemoth of a cabinet.

So that's no small job.

And then there are a couple of other changes as well, but those were certainly the big ones.

>> Jim Gray, former Lexington mayor who also ran for the U.S.

House and for the U.S.

Senate 72 years old, always seems to keep his own options open.

But, you know, likes to speak out, I think, on the political trail.

Maybe this gives him more freedom.

>> Yeah, it's a midterm year.

And next week, from everything we're seeing, I wouldn't be surprised if there were campaign stops for multiple races.

And maybe we see Jim Gray at one of them.

But as far as whether he himself will run for something in the future, I've heard both ways.

Some say yes, some say no.

>> By the way, KY Trigg reported this afternoon, Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman will make an announcement about her political future on Monday.

>> What could that be?

>> It raises questions, right?

>> Yes, some or confirms others.

>> So we'll see.

I know Mason says you'll be there to cover it.

Whatever it.

>> Is, we'll be there.

We'll see what happens.

And it'll be on television.

>> In the race to replace U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Democratic candidates debated once again this week, this time at Wwdb in Louisville, five candidates took the stage.

Dale Romans.

Amy McGrath.

Charles.

Booker Pamela Stephenson.

This time, Logan Forsythe was included.

>> One of the reasons I'm running for this seat is because I'm a lifelong Democrat and I'm tired of losing.

It's time that we run a different type of Democrat, that we try to change something in our party to try something different and move forward.

We only have one federal Democratic legislator in Washington, D.C.

and that's ridiculous.

And it's time to try something different.

>> What we're seeing in our country today is dangerous and not normal.

The democracy that I swore to uphold six times in my life is under attack.

Prices are through the roof.

The Republicans are throwing away health care left and right.

And we are now in yet another Middle Eastern war.

Kentucky deserves a senator who is ready to take on these challenges on day one.

>> I am running for the U.S.

Senate because the promise of America belongs to every Kentuckian from Pikeville to Louisville.

And right now that promise is being shredded.

We have a government that doesn't care about working people, but does not care whether or not they have health care or if they eat.

>> We know what's at stake.

The president of the United States has told us that our needs don't matter because he needs to fund an illegal war.

And instead of fighting poverty, he's fighting with the pope.

We know that we need real change, and it won't happen unless we do it now.

We have been on a journey together, building coalitions from the hood to the holler, and now is our time to win.

>> In my life.

Started in poverty in rural western Kentucky.

I've lived the average Kentucky experience, both in the harshest conditions and now as a working middle class Kentuckian, we will not make it if we do more of the same.

I am running to be Kentucky's next senator because Kentucky deserves somebody who understands the struggles of actual Kentuckians and who will do what's right by them to make your life better.

>> This Democratic candidates at least have come to know each other very well.

They've shared the stage numerous times and are planning more.

>> And kind of differentiating themselves.

Right?

They agree on probably like 90% of issues and things that they would do if elected.

But now you're starting to see kind of where maybe some of their allegiances lie, some of their top priorities, which will help voters.

I think in May.

>> Roman says they need to nominate a moderate.

>> A centrist.

Yeah, independent Democrat.

He actually is the only Democrat right now who's running a statewide ad on TV.

So we'll see how that plays out here in a month.

Now.

>> On the Republican side, Tessa, some reporting by you today about Nate Morris.

He's getting lots of outside help in his race.

And and you have some revelations.

>> Yeah.

My colleague Austin Horn had a deep dive today looking at the social media influencers who have lined up behind Nate Morris.

And we've talked to experts in social media and this kind of campaigning who say that this has a lot of hallmarks of a paid online push.

And we know that Nate Morris is very plugged in on social media, has run a very online campaign.

So that's it's quite a rabbit hole to go down.

There's a lot of screenshots.

If you if you really want to spend some time with it.

But you know, it is it's remarkable because he is criticized one of his opponents as running, you know, a campaign from decades past.

And he's very, you know, online.

But the question is, are Kentucky voters, are they seeing it?

Are those folks who are going to show up on primary day.

>> Been a little twist in the Republican race in that there's a political action committee now critical of Daniel Cameron, who had escaped that previously when the attacks were between Barr and Morris.

>> Yeah.

And one of them is connecting him to the ACLU and some of the decisions they've made recently.

But then we've also seen some supporting PAC airing an ad that we've kind of reminds us of Daniel Cameron's gubernatorial campaign, right?

There is a Bullitt County.

I believe we're going to watch that clip.

Correct.

There's a Bullitt County sheriff who is sort of showing his support for Daniel Cameron, which is very similar to what we saw in the statewide race.

>> The TJ Roberts clip.

I think if we have that, we'll show that real quickly.

>> I think TJ has a little message for you all.

Absolutely.

Guys, I am honored to announce that Daniel Cameron has my complete and total endorsement.

Daniel's been a long time friend, a long time advocate for life, liberty and property.

He's a man of his word.

He's kept his word as attorney general, and I know he's going to do the same thing in the US Senate.

>> Again, a bit of a twist there.

>> Yeah.

I mean, he's relying on sort of the U C Andy Barr and Nate Morris.

You see national figures on their ads with Daniel Cameron.

He's trying to say, hey, I'm the guy who served as your attorney general because with his lack of fundraising compared to the other two, that's really his main strategy.

>> We'll continue to watch the fourth district and the sixth District House races very closely.

What's the latest up in the fourth?

>> Well, things are moving forward.

I think we're seeing a lot of national interest in this story.

I think it's one of the many things that everybody will have their eyes on.

Kentucky.

>> I think there's no doubt money now an element as it is in every race.

But in the sixth district, we're getting some ideas of who has the the money to power the last few weeks.

>> Zach Dembo, as far as the Democrats are concerned, is is in the lead here considerably.

Sherilyn Stevenson's in second.

And it really kind of shows the backing that he has.

Someone who many people didn't know when this all started.

>> A prominent political and business leader is being remembered in Laurel County and beyond.

Tom Handy was a longtime Commonwealth's attorney.

He ran for attorney general in 1991 and for lieutenant governor with Larry Forgy on the Republican ticket in 1995.

Handy helped establish the anti-drug operation.

Operation UNITE Tom handy was 82.

That's.

Comment on Kentucky.

Have a good week ahead.