kentucky budget

As lawmakers prepare Kentucky’s biennial budget for the 2026 legislative session, the state budget director says the Commonwealth will need to set aside over $115 million more than in previous years to keep giving its residents in need food stamps and – because of the federal reconciliation bill passed earlier this summer – potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on top of that.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s office says that 20 bills and two resolutions passed this year don’t have enough funding attached for his administration to implement them. Many, including several that passed with bipartisan support, are set to become law Monday.

The budget bills outline $33 billion of state government spending over the next two years, with Republicans lauding it as a historic investment in Kentucky education and Democrats criticizing it as falling too short.

The fast-moving budget bills were amended in the Senate to add $1.7 billion for one-time spending on projects and remove language defunding an alternative sentencing program and threatening K-12 school districts with takeover.

Up-to-date digital maps are instrumental for everything from emergency management to routine property valuation. But the current legislative budget bill doesn’t include funding to continue an ongoing statewide mapping project.

The state House has passed the GOP-led budget, laying out nearly $29 billion of the General Fund and $1.7 billion from Kentucky’s budget reserve trust fund for the next two fiscal years. Democrats argued, in over nearly four hours of floor debate, that the budget doesn’t go far enough.

The Kentucky House GOP budget plan had some major differences with Gov. Beshear’s proposal, such as dismissing his request for K-12 raises and universal pre-K.

A coalition of Kentucky advocacy and research organizations are asking the state legislature to fund a number of pressing issues using the state’s record budget reserve trust fund.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear unveiled his proposed biennial state budget Monday night in a video aired on KET, outlining $136.6 billion of government spending over the next two fiscal years.