Andy Beshear

Republicans had criticized Beshear last week for inaction in dealing with the board’s membership. The controversy surfaced when the Courier Journal reported that the two seats had sat idle for more than a year on the 11 voting-member board.

Gov. Andy Beshear and other public officials gathered Wednesday to dedicate the monument on the Kentucky Capitol grounds, where it stands in recognition of the lives lost since the pandemic began in early 2020.

In his first sit-down interview since Tuesday's primary, Beshear also tried to contrast his steady leadership with the just-concluded bitter GOP campaign in which state Attorney General Daniel Cameron prevailed in a 12-candidate field.

Under the terms of the program, 80% of the funds will go to the four counties most impacted by those two 2021 natural disasters: Graves, Warren, Hopkins and Breathitt. The remaining 20% of the funding will be split between 36 counties to aid recovery efforts for both disasters.

It’s easy to override a governor’s veto in Kentucky – it only takes a majority vote in each legislative chamber. And Republican lawmakers once again flexed their control of the statehouse, where they hold 80% of seats in both the House and the Senate, overriding vetoes with little trouble as Democrats voiced opposition.

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear has allowed a bill criticized as a “book-banning” measure to become law without his signature.

The Kentucky Legislature’s GOP supermajorities can nix Beshear’s veto. If that happens, the ACLU of Kentucky indicated it will probably sue to try to block the bill.

Kentucky law is supposed to insulate the state’s education commissioner and board from politics. But the position has become a political battleground in recent years as governors and lawmakers fight over control.

The measure comes as state revenues continue to outpace spending, leading to record budget surpluses in recent years. Instead of reinvesting in state services, Republican lawmakers, and now Beshear, have elected to leave more money in taxpayers’ pockets.

The Kentucky GOP wants to dig into pandemic-era correspondence received or sent by Beshear and key administration members, looking for any opportunities to inflict damage on education and pandemic management issues that Beshear has championed as governor.