FRANKFORT — Kentucky Republican lawmakers slammed the Beshear administration Tuesday for “picking and choosing” what laws to implement amid funding disputes that threaten 2024 laws to help kinship care families and create a statewide child abuse reporting system.
Eric Friedlander, the secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, repeatedly told lawmakers during the Interim Joint Committee on Families and Children that the cabinet needs appropriations from the legislature to implement the new laws in question.
“This is a specific program that has a cost,” he said. “It needs to be funded.”
When pressed if his team had looked into federal grant money to help with implementation, Friedlander replied: “I think we can ask. And we’ll be happy to ask.”
Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield, the committee’s co-chair, said she finds it “very concerning” that the cabinet said there was no money when it had yet to inquire about federal funds.
“I find it even more funny that currently in the administration that you all serve, there’s rumor that the governor will be running for vice president,” Heavrin said. “And what a fantastic opportunity to show his working relationship with the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the federal government, and how well they could work together.” Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has received national attention as a potential running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for president.
The Lantern previously reported on the funding dispute, which includes a $20 million price tag on one bill and a $43 million one on another; the legislature didn’t allocate funding for the bills during the 2024 budget session. The Beshear administration says it’s not responsible for finding the money and cannot implement the laws without an allocation.
The first bill discussed Tuesday, Senate Bill 151, allows relatives who take temporary custody of a child when abuse or neglect is suspected to later become eligible for foster care payments. The Cabinet for Health and Family Services has said it cannot implement the law without $20 million.
The second, House Bill 271, mandates creation of a statewide system for reporting child abuse 24/7 that the administration estimates would cost $43 million. Friedlander said this bill would require the cabinet to increase the load social workers carry in a time when the state has a shortage of social workers.
‘Picking and choosing’
Beshear alerted lawmakers in an April 10 letter to what he called a funding omission — five days after he signed SB 151 into law. He asked them to use the final two days of the 2024 session to appropriate the $20 million.
Beshear cited a Kentucky Supreme Court decision from 2005 during former Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration, saying if the legislature doesn’t provide funding to implement a policy, then it “does not intend for the executive branch to perform those services over the biennium.”
House Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. David Meade, R-Stanford, criticized Beshear and said the case shouldn’t apply to this situation since it arose after the General Assembly failed to pass a budget for the 2004-2006 budget cycle.
“This is just another example of the executive branch picking and choosing what they want to do,” said Meade. “This is funding that we’re talking about for kinship care, some of our most needy families in this state. These are political games that have been played for the last four years and it infuriates me that he continues to play them right now with these most needy families.”
During the committee, Louisville Republican Sen. Julie Raque Adams, the Majority Caucus chair and primary sponsor of SB 151, asked Friedlander about any programs in the cabinet that are funded with general cabinet dollars.
He said there are “many appropriations” within the cabinet budget, “particularly those that are ongoing across the biennium.”
“I believe that the cabinet funds programs that are not codified in state law,” she said. “I believe that (the department for community based services) funds programs that are not codified in state law. This — 151 — is codified. So the thought is, how can you find things that are not line itemed in the state budget, and then claim you can’t do this because it’s not line itemed in the state budget?”
“This is a specific program and a specific piece of legislation that has a cost associated with it,” Friedlander replied. “We communicated that on multiple occasions.”
He also said: “We do not have a policy disagreement. What we have is a funding disagreement.”
‘Floored’ and ‘disappointed’
Norma Hatfield, the president of Kinship Families Coalition of Kentucky, told the Lantern after the meeting that she is “floored” and “disappointed” by the delay in a solution for families like herself who are raising relatives.
“I just can’t believe this is happening,” Hatfield said. “This is wrong.”
She testified during committee that there are parts of the law that wouldn’t require funding — like asking children being removed from their home which relative they’d like to live with.
During the next committee meeting, on Aug. 28, the cabinet will return and give an update on inquiries into any available federal funds.
In the meantime, Raque Adams told the Lantern, she’s worried the cabinet is susceptible to a lawsuit that would only drain funds further.
“We need to focus on getting money into establishing this program for those vulnerable kids,” she said. “We don’t need to waste more cabinet resources on a lawsuit.”
This article is republished under a Creative Commons license from Kentucky Lantern, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter.
Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist and Kentuckian. She has covered everything from crime to higher education. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since.
