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Beshear's Budget, Mostly Intact, Begins to Make Its Way Through Legislature

Kentucky LRC

A number of budget bills are moving through the Kentucky legislature, including a modified version of Gov. Steve Beshear’s $20.3 billion biennial budget.

The House Appropriations and Revenue Committee cleared bills that would fund the state’s legislative, executive, judicial branches for the next two years.

Louisville Rep. Jim Wayne was one of the few lawmakers who voted against Beshear's planned budget. He lamented a provision in the bill that would cut funds for indigent health care at the University of Louisville Hospital.

“This is a real concern in our community because the city had to cut back its share also, and just recently there was a case where someone who was burned on 50 percent of their body who was put on the street ended up in the Wayside mission because he had no insurance, even though they tried to register him," the Jefferson County Democrat said. "Somehow bureaucracy got delayed.”

The funds were reduced as a part of savings assumed by the governor through the Affordable Care Act.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo says the House is poised to pass the budget bill Wednesday.

The legislature has until April 15 to pass a new state budget.

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