KY lawmakers killed bill to hand libraries over to politicians. Then they revived it.
Just a day after it seemed to perish in the Kentucky House, lawmakers on Thursday revived a controversial bill that will allow local politicians to take control of Kentucky libraries.
Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed Senate Bill 167 on April 8, saying it would politicize libraries by letting elected county leaders appoint whomever they want to library boards and block major library spending. In most of Kentucky’s 120 counties, libraries have been largely self-governed and self-financed tax districts, created by citizen petition.
Beshear’s veto was sustained Wednesday night when the House fell three votes shy of the 51 necessary to override it. (The Senate easily overrode the veto hours earlier.)
But on Thursday, in an unusual maneuver, the House moved to reconsider what it did.
Given a second shot at the bill, four more representatives voted to override: William Lawrence of Maysville and Lynn Bechler of Marion, who had voted to sustain the veto late Wednesday, and Ashley Tackett Laferty of Martin and Jonathan Dixon of Corydon, who had not cast votes the previous night.
The governor’s veto fell by a vote of 52-to-39.
The House Democratic minority cried foul as the GOP majority brought the bill back onto the floor.
“You lost. You got beat,” said Rep. Jeffery Donohue, D-Fairdale. ”You didn’t do what you needed to do to get this legislation passed.”
Rep. Patti Minter, D-Bowling Green, said library officials from her community testified about the potential threats posed by the bill, which she said was filed because two or three county leaders are feuding with their libraries. In some instances, libraries have revenue or facilities that elected officials want for their own uses, Minter said.
“I’m astounded that we’re reconsidering this,” Minter said.
But Republicans said the issue is accountability. Library boards can levy property taxes and should answer to someone elected by voters, they said.
“Today, you can all remember, give me liberty or give me death. So I vote yes because this money is not represented by the people I voted,” said Rep. Danny Bentley, R-Russell.
Although most of the state’s library systems will be affected by the new law, a handful — including Lexington and Louisville’s — are not organized as tax districts and will not be covered.
Under the new law, county judge-executives can decide library board appointments on their own, discarding the current system where they are given two state-vetted finalists selected by the library board.
County fiscal courts can veto capital spending of $1 million or more, thwarting library renovations or expansions and the construction of new branches.
And with fresh leadership in place, the bill would let libraries hand their buildings over to “educational institutions,” either leasing out existing facilities on unspecified terms or building new facilities on behalf of those schools or universities.
The last portion is relevant because the bill was filed by a Pikeville state senator, Republican Phillip Wheeler, after the Pike County Public Library refused to surrender its one-story downtown library building to the private University of Pikeville. Among the local officials siding with the university in its expansion plans are former Gov. Paul Patton and Pike County Judge-Executive Ray Jones.
Last June, Jones publicly criticized the library at a fiscal court hearing and said he would pursue legislation in Frankfort that gives him control over its governing board.
“I plan on calling on some of our legislative delegation to introduce legislation to change how we choose library board members,” said Jones, a former Democratic leader in the state Senate. “I do not have the authority to pick and choose who I nominate, who I think would be the best people for those jobs.”
Library directors have expressed concerns that political leadership will mean partisan-skewed boards with ideological interests in the material on library shelves and the programs offered to patrons. Libraries should be nonpartisan and open to people of all viewpoints, the library directors said.
“Whenever you have political control, it’s going to benefit that politician and their backers,” Louella Allen, Pike County’s library director, told the Herald-Leader this month. “It’s not going to be for the benefit of all the population and the needs of the entire population. So special interests will come in at that point.”
As Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, signed the bill on the Senate floor Thursday, the sponsor, Wheeler, took a lap around the floor in celebration. Wheeler then flashed a thumbs up and mimicked former President Richard Nixon’s V-for-victory signs before joining Stivers for a celebratory photo.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 5:31 PM.
