By Lisa Autry/KPR
Frankfort, KY – Kentucky has met a September 30th deadline to pay the federal government $28 million. The interest payment is on about $948 million the state has borrowed the last three years to pay unemployment benefits. Republican state lawmakers don't agree with how Governor Beshear made the payment.
The governor authorized the state to borrow 18-million from itself to help make the payment, a move some republican lawmakers call creative financing. They say he wasn't authorized to spend money that wasn't appropriated in the state budget. Instead, republicans wanted the governor to call a special session so they could approve spending some of the state's rainy day funds. GOP senator Mike Wilson of Bowling Green thinks Beshear's decision not to call a special session was more about his re-election bid.
"I think that he felt like he'd give his opponent, David Williams who's president of the senate some kind of talking platform and he didn't want to do that," said Williams.
The governor says it was a financial decision.
"I guess these guys just want to come back to town and get paid more taxpayer money to do something that I could do without them," Beshear said.
When the general assembly convenes in January, members will have to determine how to re-pay the $18 million. The interest payment preserves a critical federal tax credit for Kentucky employers.