All Democrats voted against the proposal and were joined by nine Republicans. The bill could pass out of the Senate by Wednesday, Republican leaders said.
House Bill 1 would allow regional universities and "quasi" state agencies to avoid a massive spike in pension costs and incentivize them to freeze pension benefits for their employees and move them into 401k-type retirement plans.
The attorney general charges that the governor's proclamation calling lawmakers into special session is too narrowly drawn and doesn't allow the General Assembly to consider alternate proposals for dealing with the pension crisis.
As a candidate in 2015, Bevin initially said he would abolish the expansion, then said he would request a waiver of federal Medicaid rules so beneficiaries would have "skin in the game" through premiums, co-payments, deductibles or health savings accounts. After he was elected, he added "community engagement" requirements including work, but those have been blocked in federal court.
One improvement project on East Sixth Street is moving ahead and will create new free parking downtown, but another project in the same block has been delayed indefinitely out of concerns about the potential for loitering and vagrancy.
