Beshear threatens to not carry out GOP-backed bills on Medicaid, anti-trans & water
Gov. Andy Beshear is threatening to refuse to implement Republican-backed bills passed in the 2025 session that would make big changes to water regulation, occupational safety and Medicaid, the governor wrote in a Thursday letter to legislators.
The problem is that they’re not adequately funded, according to Beshear. He cited Kentucky Supreme Court and federal district court cases establishing limitations on the implementation of policies where corresponding budget appropriations aren’t included.
“The omission of an appropriation is the same as elimination,” Beshear wrote. “... If a bill includes new expenditure requirements, it is expected that an appropriation will be provided for its implementation.”
Republicans in Kentucky’s House and Senate assert the money is there and that Beshear could face repercussions in the next budget session if he follows through on his threat to ignore the bills.
Thursday’s rattling of sabers comes against the backdrop of Beshear’s perceived interest in higher office. The two-term Democratic governor was on the short list of vice-president candidates on the Kamala Harris ticket last summer before Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was selected.
Winning the top political office in 2019 and against in 2023 in a state that decisively leans Republican and convincingly put Donald Trump back into the White House in November 2024 caught national attention, especially among Democrats desperate for fresh leadership and new tactics to win back Democrats who have flipped to the GOP.
And the measures Beshear is talking about ignoring center on key Democratic planks: Protecting trans individuals in the commonwealth, the environment, low-income individuals receiving state financial assistance and worker safety.
They include, most notably, three bills vociferously opposed by Beshear and his fellow Democrats.
Two of those related to Medicaid. Beshear in his letter estimated that House Bill 495, which takes away Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care for trans Kentuckians and undoes Beshear’s executive order against conversion therapy, would cost the state as much as $9.8 million for behavioral health services for the people losing coverage for hormone treatments.
Beshear estimated House Bill 695, which among other things adds a mandatory work requirement for able-bodied adults with no dependents, to cost about $2 million in state funds to implement.
Senate Bill 89, which would weaken the state’s ability to regulate water sources raising alarm among Kentucky environmental advocates, is another one Beshear hinted that he would not enforce. He said it would cost the state about $2.6 million in staff and operational costs, as well as lost revenue.
The governor did not explicitly commit to ignoring or otherwise hampering the implementation of these bills, but the possibility is implied in the letter.
“These bills are lacking the appropriations necessary to implement these legislative acts,” Beshear wrote before listing off 11 different bills.
Beshear referenced eight other bills in his letter. Those include:
Senate Bill 4, regulating various uses of artificial intelligence in government and elections
House Bill 346 changes certain air quality regulations. The bill would refund any emissions fees paid for calendar year 2023 related to generators. Beshear vetoed the bill, calling it “at least one entity’s attempt through legislation to receive a refund” for fees it should have been paying for a decade. Beyond the fee refund, Beshears it would
Senate Bill 27, which would set up a Parkinson’s Disease Registry.
Senate Bill 63 would allow all-terrain vehicles and other “special purpose vehicles” to operate on state highways under certain circumstances. Beshear wrote that it would cost about $500,000 in extra staff and system updates.
Senate Bill 43 creates a medical review board to consider a person’s ability to drive due to a physical or mental disability. Beshear estimated it will cost less than $100,000.
House Bill 398 would shrink the regulatory authority of the Kentucky Department of Workplace Standards, which monitors most private employers, so it mirrors the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Beshear referenced the cost of litigation against the Department of Workplace Standards.
House Bill 390, a broad bill on car insurance, would cost up to $1 million in initial funding and $750,000 in recurring expenses, according to Beshear.
House Bill 775, a wide-ranging revenue bill, will cost about $500,000 in additional staff hiring to implement, according to Beshear.
Kentucky Republicans frustrated with his pushback against their policies have argued his actions are aimed at seeking higher office.
House Speaker Pro Tempore David Meade, R-Stanford, offered something of a response to the letter in a speech delivered on the floor Thursday.
“it is the legislature that budgets, not him. When we budget… it is because we feel you have the adequate funds to implement and follow the law,” Meade said.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, complained that Beshear had found money to pay for such executive actions as expanding the state’s Medicaid program to cover visual, dental and hearing services.
“He wants to make some excuse about, ‘Oh, you didn’t give me the money..’ But yes, you do have the money,” Stivers said.
“Find it within your budgets, because you have chosen to go and travel, do whatever, purchase what you want to purchase, spend on things you don’t have direct authority.”
Stivers added, “He’s playing games with this because he doesn’t want to do what the policy-making body, the constitutionally empowered group to make laws, tells him to.”
Stivers told Louisville Public Media that he could take away much of the governor’s discretionary funding if he follows through on his intention to not carry out bills like Senate Bill 89 or House Bill 695.
“He won’t hire anybody, he won’t travel. He won’t do anything unless he gets authority from the legislature,” Stivers said. “Because everybody knows, by the Constitution the power of the purse is ours.”
