FRANKFORT, Ky. ― Kentucky’s highest court says the state’s Republican governor cannot cut the budgets of public colleges and universities without the approval of the state legislature.
The 5-2 ruling by the state Supreme Court on Thursday reverses a lower court ruling earlier this year that said Gov. Matt Bevin had the power to order public colleges and universities not to spend all of the money the state legislature gave them. Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear appealed, arguing Bevin’s order was illegal. A majority of the court agreed.
“This is not to say that every penny appropriated must be spent. As the Governor points out, such a legal requirement would be fiscally irresponsible. And the budget bill itself recognizes this by authorizing the spending of appropriations ‘or so much thereof as may be necessary.’ But the Governor does not have the power to make that decision for the Universities,” Justice Mary C. Noble wrote for the majority.
The ruling means Bevin will have to release $17.8 million to all of the state’s public colleges and universities except Kentucky State University, whose budget was not cut. The money is not significant to the institutions, since it makes up less than half of 1 percent of their combined $6.6 billion budgets, which include tuition, fees and federal dollars.
But it is a significant victory for Beshear, who has clashed with Bevin repeatedly in the few months both men have been in office. Beshear has filed three lawsuits so far challenging the extent of Bevin’s authority, including his decisions to abolish and replace the boards for the Kentucky Retirement Systems and the University of Louisville. All of those cases are likely to wind up before the state Supreme Court.
Just last month, Bevin boasted on a Louisville radio show that Beshear “will lose every one of these cases.”
“Based on today’s ruling, I am calling on Gov. Bevin to immediately release the $18 million he wrongfully withheld from our public colleges and universities,” Beshear said. “I am also calling on the governor’s office to use today’s ruling as a turning point. It is time for him to stop attacking, and to instead join me in building a better Kentucky.”
