governor's hands, as lawmakers also pass more than 150 other bills.

The Senate prepares to go ahead with an impeachment trial, despite a judge ruling it null and void.

London Mayor Randall Weddle is indicted over campaign contributions.

New polling shows Barr and Booker with advantages in their U.S.

Senate primaries.

Heading into Easter weekend, comment is next on KET.

Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky.

[MUSIC] 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 Sylvia Goodman, Capitol reporter for Kentucky Public Radio Lucas Aulbach reporter for The Courier Journal, and Austin Horn, senior political reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Also tonight, Senator Rand Paul says there's a 5050 chance he runs for president, and Kentucky plays a role in the Artemis two mission to the moon.

But first, Kentucky lawmakers passed a state budget, a highway plan and some One-Time expenditures.

They also pushed out some other bills.

It's always a flurry just before the legislature breaks for the veto period, but the budget is the main attraction.

>> I said a number of times going into this budget session that I thought this would be the most difficult budget that we would construct.

Post that first, that first crack.

And normally you hear that in terms of that means we don't have any money.

And you know, that's, that's not specifically the case this time around.

But what we do have is we have an abundance of uncertainty.

And I think that you will see that reflected in this document.

>> So let's talk about the budget changes were being made until the last minute.

What's in that $32 billion spending plan and what isn't?

Lucas.

>> Yeah.

There's less money or stagnant amount of money for a lot of these programs, just like Speaker Osborne was saying, just a lot of uncertainty.

There's a little less money for universities than years past.

Although a few universities were spared SEEK funding that remains stagnant or maybe bumped up a little bit.

But advocates still wanted a little more.

One thing that was in there, they kind of got the ball rolling on a girls only juvenile justice center, which has been a priority for Senator Carroll for a long time.

But they need the money for the High Acuity Youth Center that they've also talked about pairing with that.

That was not in there.

So so yeah, a lot of uncertainty.

And, you know, it's that was reflected in the budget.

>> Some other highlights of the budget.

>> Right.

We heard a lot of talk about Medicaid benefits funding.

The governor says there wasn't enough.

Lawmakers said that the spending is out of control and they need to get it under control.

And, you know, there's also you could hear some frustration from some Republicans, especially Representative Jason Petrie on the House floor as they were passing the budget about talks about cuts, because he said in a lot of places they're actually increases in spending.

It was just wasn't as much as the administration wanted.

But there's also a lot of, you know, conversations about increasing costs in a lot of different spaces, you know, different, you know, lots of need for for raises and things like that.

Especially, you know, Governor Beshear did not get, again, the teacher raises that he wanted universal teacher raises.

And there's a lot of frustration on the floor about that as well.

>> Austin.

>> Yeah.

>> House Bill 900 was the one time spending bill that kind of gets paired with the budget.

It's a separate bill as $1.7 billion this year.

It's a lower number than it was in 2024.

I think it was well over 2 billion last time around.

One thing that I found interesting about it is even though it was a significantly lower number, there were significantly more projects kind of spread out among the State.

It makes you wonder if it has anything to do with this being an election year.

Republicans, which the majority of the state legislature are Republican, could be facing some difficulties given that it's a midterm year and just tons of different projects.

I mean, I think it was a list.

It was more than 300 that were funded in that bill.

>> Oh, really quick.

And I think it's also worth noting that that one time spending bill that came out of the Budget reserve trust fund, the regular budget also left.

I think it's roughly $345 million unspent from revenue from revenue projections.

That will also go back into the budget reserve trust fund.

Spending out of that trust fund is not going to be reflected or is not included in the calculations for future tax cuts.

So that's.

>> And let's let our viewers know why the Republicans in the Senate, in the House feel that that budget reserve trust fund needs to be so robust.

>> Well, it's part of the calculation for that tax cut, for those tax cut calculations in formula into the future.

So they have to keep it large enough that it will trigger help trigger those tax cuts.

And also if they keep spending at a low enough level, it also helps them hit those tax cuts in the future.

And if revenue remains robust and they keep spending low enough, then will help us hit those triggers.

And so they've basically in budget language, if it's spent out of the the reserve trust fund, it doesn't count also towards that spending for the tax triggers.

>> As we continue to talk about what's in and what's out of the budget, money was found to fund the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, the local matches across the state.

Senator Christian McDaniel said he learned how popular Dolly Parton was through the process, but the program will continue, with the books being sent Monthly to youngsters under age five in Kentucky look.

>> Never doubt the popularity of Dolly Parton.

It also directed the the state government a couple different entities to research how to better reach low income and foster children.

With that program, there was a lot of consternation from some local orgs about the Senate version, which.

Since 2021, the federal.

The.

The state government has funded half of all those books.

But in the budget original Senate version, only 33% would have been funded.

So they reversed that, fully funded the program.

And so, you know, I think those Dolly Parton libraries are pretty happy.

>> Because most of them had said that they wouldn't be able to continue the program that didn't get full funding.

Lucas Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Henry Lambert, expressing concern about the cuts to the judicial branch.

She is predicting layoffs and that specialty courts could be impacted as well.

>> Yes, legislature banging heads with the judicial branch now and the executive, you know, the chief justice says significant layoffs for sure.

Although the final version of this, the judicial budget, I think had more money in it than the initial.

Now, Republicans have pushed back a little bit, say that's a little bit hyperbole, maybe a little over the top, and nobody got everything they wanted in the budget.

So that's kind of their line with it.

>> Well, they questioned why there would be layoffs if there weren't already, right.

>> Yeah, yeah.

And the judicial branch is running a significant deficit, which was part of the Chief Justice's argument there.

So we'll we'll see what happens.

>> There are those moments in the session when lawmakers boast about what they achieved, and other times when they talk about falling short.

And that was the case when Senator Steve West took the floor this week.

>> Go on record and let my superintendents and my constituents know that I fought as hard as I possibly could behind the scenes for Morehead State University and for Harrison County School and Fleming County School.

I did the best I could and I failed Austin.

>> That was a raw moment of frustration on display.

Senator West, a very powerful senator at one point, said the legislature is starving Morehead State out of existence, saying they have not had an increase in funding in a decade.

>> And this is chair of the Senate Education Committee.

And I think it's not uncommon for members of the legislature to say, you know, I'm disappointed that I didn't get X, Y, Z in my district.

But it's interesting because this speaks to maybe a kind of more broad issue that I think some people have, particularly with the performance based funding model in the state of Kentucky, they think it really benefits UK and UofL as opposed to the comprehensives like his own, which was actually spared from cuts that that others had.

>> Morehead state itself was.

>> Yes.

He was just complaining about the lack of increase in funding for a really long time.

But you're starting to get a sense that those comprehensives, the the Western Kentucky's of the world, the eastern Kentucky's the Morehead's are kind of getting unsatisfied with the way things have gone over the last decade or so.

>> Even though they seem to always sort of trying to go their own path in some ways, EKU trying to develop that osteopathic medical college.

You know.

>> Murray, with the.

Veterinary school that they've long tried to pursue, it's just an interesting time for higher ed in general, particularly as enrollments start to decline.

I think the rubber is going to have to meet the road.

>> And they reach out for corporate help.

More and more, we're noticing that, you know, companies who want to employ their graduates are sometimes investing in those universities, right?

The highway bill also passed lots of projects in that Lexington did all right, apparently including a tunnel under I-75 near the Hamburg shopping area, about 600 projects in all statewide.

And while we said Lexington did all right there, there was some frustration that Louisville did so much better, apparently, than than Lexington did among some.

>> Yeah, among some.

And I looked through the highway bill.

A lot of that money, at least for Louisville, goes towards I-65, which everybody in Louisville knows is about to be shut down for a couple months, give or take, over the summer.

So, you know, kind of kind of the anvil hanging over everybody's head in Louisville right now, everybody's trying to figure out their new routes to work.

>> And once again, across the state, people look to see what did we get in that budget?

>> You know, I mean, it really speaks to what Austin was talking about.

We're heading into a midterm.

Everyone's kind of bring home some money, you know, some new blacktops for their neighborhood, for their community, prove that they are advocating for their constituents in Frankfort.

>> So Governor Beshear has line item veto authority, even though the legislature can very easily override him and usually does, Beshear indicates he will go through the budget and 100 or so other bills and make some decisions.

>> Now, I want to make a few comments on the state budget, which was passed, but is sitting on my desk for review.

I want to specifically talk about Medicaid because of the harm that this state budget is going to cause.

The General Assembly ought to be ashamed of not funding this the way it needs to be.

We're going to have two more days when they get back.

They could do better.

We've shown different ways where we can get through the next two years.

It's not pretty, but think about what's going to happen if the budget goes through the way it is.

>> So there's that Medicaid issue coming up.

And, you know, at this point, as you said, the legislature says it has to be sustainable.

Governor Beshear indicates money's left on the table.

>> Right.

He says that it's 700 million less than he wanted.

Republicans have very have been very skeptical of the numbers that Beshear has put forward.

They have also pointed to, for example, the one big, beautiful bill that changes a lot about eligibility and various checks and things like that, and which is expected to lower enrollments.

They're wondering, why do we have to increase Medicaid spending if we're lowering enrollment?

And, you know, so they've expressed a lot of skepticism about beshear's numbers.

They also, though, put a put together a lock box.

That's kind of what they're calling it $290 million from the Budget Reserve trust fund.

That's a kind of safeguard.

If the if Beshear runs out of money from what he is allotted for Medicaid.

It's a huge part of the state budget.

This is we're specifically talking about Medicaid benefits here.

And I think there are also some other things that Beshear was disappointed by.

Different advocates were disappointed by.

There's also Knott.

They added several waiver slots.

These are for people who want to stay in their community, receive care in their community.

And those waiver slots were increased by the General Assembly, not as much as Beshear wanted.

There's some huge waitlists.

These will not be addressed by the increase in waiver slots.

>> As.

>> He increased eligibility as well.

And that had pushback from the legislature who said they should have had a say in that.

>> Right.

And that's happened several times that Beshear has expanded Medicaid in very specific ways that the General Assembly says we need to be the ones making that decision because it has some big budget consequences.

>> Kentucky State University will see some changes going forward.

New legislation gives K state money with strings attached.

It will also keep ten liberal arts programs, but it will take on a new polytechnic role.

It was an emotional week for some who spoke up for K state, and a tough week for some lawmakers who made the changes.

>> KSU is more than an institution.

That's right.

It is a promise, a promise.

Founded in 1886, KSU has stood for more than a century, a beacon of educational opportunity.

>> And after the events of last winter, when we returned in January at the closure of the institution was high in the conversations.

>> So many graduates talked about preserving the culture of Kentucky State.

There were some compromises, but again, there will be strings attached to that money.

>> Definitely.

And, you know, we talked about the cuts to higher ed.

KSU was also spared from those.

But like you said, it came with a lot of strings.

So spending over I think it's 20 K needs State authorization.

They do get to maintain their HBCU status.

And they also.

But they have to become a polytechnic university.

They have to shift their focus quite a bit.

They're also limiting the amount of areas of study that the university can have.

And it also gives President Akapo a lot of authority to make some pretty drastic changes to university.

You know, the bill says that they're in a state of financial exigency.

I think there's a sense of real crisis that KSU needs to make some big changes.

And if they want to keep all that funding, if they want to keep going on, they have to make them soon.

>> It's been an emotional debate.

Austin, for for K State and who really knows at this point with AI coming on the horizon, what is the best direction?

Right?

>> Yeah.

I mean, a lot of the jobs that we told everybody to go into and to study for five years ago, like if you think about a software engineer, I mean, I, I can make a website now using Codex on ChatGPT in like 30 minutes.

You just have to wonder in this rapidly changing economy with that particular technology, what's the best route to go for education?

I don't know.

>> All right.

Some other bills.

The number of Jefferson County school board members will be cut from 7 to 5.

That will be immediate.

And then there was also in that same bill, a provision that apparently will show the door to the chairman of the Fayette County Board of Education.

>> Right.

That Senate Bill four, there was some pretty late night changes to that legislation through free conference committee.

And it basically, like you said, it shrinks the size of the JCPS board to the same number that other school boards in the state have.

Five.

It's a very large school district, though.

It's the largest in the state.

You know, currently, those seven districts are basically the size of a state Senate seat.

So it's a lot of people they're going to have to start representing.

Some board members are on board with this, are in favor of this.

And then other board members say they're very skeptical of the changes in how it will help JCPS to improve in the future.

There was some other ideas floated before in the in a previous version of the bill that would have included appointees to the board that was stripped out.

They're still all elected, but it's going to mean that they have to vote on new board members.

Jefferson counties have to vote on new board members at the end of this year.

So it could mean some big overhauls for the board.

And there's new districts.

>> Okay, a couple of anti grooming bills also passed.

And Governor Beshear vetoed a bill that would make it more difficult to sue pesticide companies.

And that was overridden.

Some interesting drama the last few days reporting about GOP bingo cards.

The House Republicans were playing during the session.

Lucas, the lieutenant governor, Jacqueline Coleman, came out with a video on that and expressed frustration.

>> Yeah, there were some pictures that started going around on social media the last night where some of the Republicans and they said it was not a caucus thing.

It was just some Republicans kind of on the side, had some bingo cards going around that kind of hit on some Democratic talking points or things that they frequently say in their speeches.

Now, the Republicans I talked to said they were just blowing off steam at the end of the session and, you know, kind of the crescendo moment.

They can expect a lot of these filibuster type speeches that they called it, which, you know, kind of they could see the themes coming of them.

But but the optics of it, you know, I don't think and I think even some in the Republican caucus might not have loved that one.

>> I don't think they've officially responded right to what.

>> I was only told that the Republican caucus, it was not a caucus wide thing.

That was the the loan statement that I got from them.

>> Okay.

Senate leaders indicate they will go forward with an impeachment trial for Fayette Circuit Court Judge Julie Goodman.

That's despite a Franklin circuit judge saying the impeachment doesn't stand because it doesn't mention any misdemeanor crimes.

And that's what the Constitution requires.

Austin.

So an impeachment moves forward, even though a judge has declared it null and void.

>> Yeah.

It's interesting.

The legislature's really kind of asserted themselves as this is our constitutional right.

The right to impeach an official is something that is explicitly given to the legislature in the state Constitution.

And it's interesting, Shepherd, in his ruling, really sort of, you know, he did declare it null and void.

But he also said this is over to the Senate now, and this lawsuit is only to do with the House's action.

So the ball's in the Senate's court.

So you can kind of see a way in which it still makes sense that they're going forward.

But it's interesting that they they very much disagree with Shepherd's ruling.

>> Well, it's going to be an interesting process, isn't it?

>> I'm watching closely.

I'm still it's my first impeachment in the Senate.

I think it's for most of us.

And it's going to be really interesting to watch.

And, you know, Republicans have also said that it's in some ways a it's the first of its kind, the first impeachment of its kind.

We very rarely do impeachments in the State.

And there's no criminal charges against this judge.

They take issue with her rulings in some of her statements from the bench that she willfully ignored president and the law.

And Shepherd said that that's not the purview of the legislature.

>> That's set for April 16th, I think.

Right.

Let's move on to some politics.

Some new polling shows Congressman Andy Barr leading in the GOP primary.

That poll by Emerson College and Nexstar media showing Barr gaining some distance over Daniel Cameron and Nate Morris.

Austin.

>> Yeah, it was interesting going into this poll, the two stories or the three stories that we'd seen from these campaigns was Daniel Cameron was starting to fall a little bit.

He doesn't have as much money as the other two.

Nate Morris was rising and Andy Barr was just kind of staying in the same place in that mid low 20s range.

But this poll showed Barr up.

He was at 28%.

Cameron still continuing to decline at 21% and Morris's increase starting to plateau and cap a little bit at 15%.

It's interesting.

I think probably the the most stark finding in the entire poll was they asked voters who they thought was more loyal to President Trump's agenda, and 38% said Andy Barr, compared to about 22 for both Nate Morris and Daniel Cameron, which goes to show that I think the the ads that Andy Barr's team and PAC supporting him have really milked the four times that Trump has uttered his name, and they just run it over and over again.

And I think that's really broken through for voters.

>> Lucas, you know, Cameron has escaped attacks because Morris and Barr have attacked each other.

Would you see that potentially changing now with it clear that it you know, maybe those two in the lead.

>> There there are two frontrunners.

I think Nate is probably still hanging out hoping for that Trump endorsement to get him get him up to you know above the kind of crust up with the other two.

But yeah, you know Cameron is still threaten this thing.

This race is not over.

He said recently that he'll be on the air at some point.

And you know, you look at that undecided number, that's still around 30%.

Those voters are still making up their mind.

If a lot of them go to Cameron, that could change things.

>> So and Morris did receive the CPAC endorsement in Washington last weekend, and he had a chance to address the crowd there.

>> I'm not a career politician.

I've never run for office before.

I'm proud that I'm a ninth generation Kentucky.

19 of my family members worked in an auto plant building cars and trucks in Kentucky.

I built one of the largest garbage companies in the United States.

And you all know this is a tough industry, the Tony Soprano industry, we need fighters.

We need people that are willing to hit the swamp with everything they got.

And that's why I'm in this race.

>> All right.

How important is that endorsement, Austin?

>> I don't think it's particularly important for Kentucky voters.

At least CPAC is a big deal.

There's no doubt about that.

I do think it probably matters a little more for people on the outside looking in who might want to invest in this race.

Nate Morris and Andy Barr both have raised significant amounts of money from outside the state, so it could help with that, right?

>> The Life of Kentucky also did endorsements, and Daniel Cameron got the endorsement of the Senate race on that.

Does that one matter?

>> I think that matters in the opposite way.

I think it probably matters a little more to a certain segment of voters in Kentucky, but it doesn't necessarily come with with dollars, which Daniel Cameron really needs right now.

>> Charles Booker leading the Democratic field, it looks like.

>> Yeah, the one with the clearest lane it seems like are the clearest, you know, platform and things like that.

He's articulated it a lot over the years.

Came in with name ID that gave him a leg up.

You know his platform anti ice trying to help affordability that you know resonates with a lot of voters.

So he's the clear frontrunner on that on that side right now.

And we'll see what happens in the next seven weeks.

>> All right.

Austin Kentucky's Rand Paul told CBS This Week that there's a 5050 chance he runs for president in 2028.

>> Yeah.

I mean he's certainly talking like he's going to be the opposition candidate, if you will, for the Trump administration.

And he's making a bet that by 2028 people, including Republicans, which is kind of bold given the way we know Republicans think right now will be sick of Trump and want to go in a different direction.

>> All right.

Silvia, if Beshear and Paul are both in the presidential race, it'll be interesting for reporters and Kentuckians.

>> Yes, I think mostly Kentucky reporters will be the most anxious about that situation.

I think it's not impossible by any means.

Obviously, Rand Paul has run for president before, but is he willing to give up his Senate seat to do that?

That's the question.

And obviously, Governor Beshear has put out a lot of signals.

So definitely an interesting year for Kentucky politics.

If that happens.

>> London Mayor Randall Whitley has been indicted on campaign finance violations.

The announcement came from Attorney General Russell Coleman.

>> I'm certainly not here because Mr.

Weddle made contributions to a candidate of a different party.

For me, I'm standing here today announcing this indictment for the people of London.

Kentucky Mr.

Weddle used his personal credit card to make these excessive contributions and reported other individuals as the donors.

>> Austin Coleman made the case that Whitley is innocent until proven guilty.

But this goes back to 2022, and contributions to Governor Andy Beshear s reelection campaign.

>> Yeah, and Weddle is really courted controversy throughout many turns during his campaign for mayor and as a fundraiser for Beshear.

And just a quick shout out to Tom Loftus of the Kentucky Lantern.

He's kind of the one who he could have basically written this indictment, right?

I mean, he was the one who sort of turned over all the stones to do with these donations.

>> Astronauts making their way to the moon and back.

And Morehead State University and the University of Kentucky have roles to play.

Morehead's helping to track the the, the spacecraft.

And they worked on the heat shields at the University of Kentucky and University of Kentucky.

That's engineering students.

In that case, Jerry Lundergan, a paid for a six acre garden.

Former president Bill Clinton, Cardinal Dolan from the Catholic Church.

Others in Maysville.

>> Yeah.

Joe Girth, you know, you want to talk about a star studded lineup.

He was out there chatting with him a little bit earlier today about it.

Yeah, it's you know, Lonergan, he's a Maysville guy, very committed to it.

He's a devout Catholic.

So it was really a passion project and Joe said it was pretty, pretty impressive.

>> Some journalism shop talk, long time Lexington Herald-Leader reporter and columnist Linda Blackford leaving the paper after 30 years, she'll become editor of the Kentucky Lantern.

Blackford will replace the Lantern's founding editor, Jamie Luke, who is retiring.

Good luck to both of them.

That's comment.

Have a good week ahead.