“Today, the Supreme Court enforced Kentucky law, reminding us that the governor, like everyone, is bound by the law”, said Beshear.
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In the majority’s 50-page opinion that both affirms the attorney general’s right to sue the governor and reverses the governor’s budget decree, the Kentucky Supreme Court wrote, “the Governor can not order the boards of the Universities not to spend funds appropriated to them”.
After Bevin reduced university funding for the 2016 fiscal year, Beshear sued the governor, contending Bevin exceeded his statutory authority to make the cuts without legislative approval or in the absence of a revenue shortfall and that the governor’s actions violated the constitution’s separation of powers. “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.
In a statement released on Bevin’s official Twitter account, Press Secretary Amanda Stamper said the governor is disappointed in the court’s decision and disagrees with the reasoning behind it.
The universities were somewhat muted in their reaction to the ruling.
Beshear hailed the ruling and called on Bevin to immediately release the $18 million cut from university allocations and held in escrow while the case proceeded through the courts. “Simply put, there is a difference between exercising an authority not to spend money once it has been made available and preventing the money from being made available to the entity that has the power to decide not to spend it”.
EKU is expected to receive the $2 million Bevin withheld from the university once the case is closed.
Bevin has 20 days to ask the court to reconsider, but Beshear said it’s clear from the 5-2 ruling that, “The Supreme Court has spoken and when the Supreme Court speaks on an issue, it’s over”. “It is time for him to stop attacking, and to instead join me in building a better Kentucky”.
“The Attorney Genereal clearly does not understand the severity of the pension problem which became the nation’s worst funded plan under the watch of his father’s administration”, the statement said. It doesn’t help that the state’s top prosecutor is also suing the governor for dissolving the board of trustees at the University of Louisville without input from state lawmakers.
The ruling is a big win for Attorney General Andy Beshear, who sued Bevin over the cuts. These are the problems Kentuckians expect us to address, and they are problems that all of us – democrats, republicans or independents – can address together.
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“I predict today’s decision is the first of what will be a series of Kentucky Supreme Court rulings against Governor Bevin’s illegal actions”, Stumbo said. The two-year state budget that took effect July 1, which lawmaker’s approved earlier this year, cut universities by another 4.5 percent each year. WUKY quotes Eric Monday, who leads the University of Kentucky’s finance division, saying “The funds that will be returned to the University of Kentucky, about $5.6 million, will be included in our focus on student success initiatives, particularly in the areas of retention and graduation rates”.
