Gov. Andy Beshear pleads for unity in his first State of the Commonwealth address

FRANKFORT — Gov. Andy Beshear stressed his already familiar themes of unity and bipartisanship on Tuesday in his first State of the Commonwealth address, signaling again that his upcoming two-year budget proposal will prioritize spending on public education.

Noting the challenges Kentucky faces regarding the opioid crisis, poverty and poor health outcomes, Beshear said, "There is simply not enough time or enough bandwidth to solve these problems if we play partisan games."

"Let me be clear: Every moment we focus on partisanship, every moment we focus on national divisions, we fail to address the reality before us," Beshear said.

Beshear kept his cards close to his vest when it came to revealing the specifics of the budget he will present to legislators in two weeks, but he again said it would be an "education-first" budget "designed to provide us the opportunity to truly change lives moving forward."

The new Democratic governor also said his budget will "embrace higher education" and "end our historic cuts to our universities and community colleges." He also reiterated his call for $2,000 raises for public school teachers.

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On the revenue side of the budget, Beshear repeated his call for the legislature to legalize expanded gaming — despite what appears to be dismissive Republican supermajorities in both chambers — as "we are watching more than $500 million in gaming revenue go across the border to states like Indiana, Ohio and Illinois."

Beshear also advocated for the passage of a bill to legalize and tax sports betting, though this proposal is expected to generate considerably less than casinos would, while the state struggles to pay for the escalating costs of public pensions, health care and state prisons.

Citing the growing prison population, Beshear also called for passing "meaningful criminal justice reform."

"We have one of the highest incarceration rates in the country and in the world," Beshear said. "Our people aren’t more violent, we don’t have more criminals, we just put more people in our prisons and jails."

Beshear said the state must improve addiction treatment, decrease recidivism and the revocation of probation and parole, as well as "address the racial bias and racism in our justice system."

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The governor's address also called for increasing investments in infrastructure, signaling his commitment to speeding up the Mountain Parkway Project in Eastern Kentucky, building the Interstate 69 bridge in Western Kentucky, improving drinking water and expanding high-speed internet.

As for tackling the opioid crisis, Beshear announced for the first time that new Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron will continue the many lawsuits his office filed against opioid manufacturers and distributors during his four years as attorney general.

Beshear also touted several moves his administration has made in its first month, including his executive order to restore the voting rights of more than 140,000 former felons.

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He also highlighted his move to rescind the Medicaid waiver of the Bevin administration "that would have kicked more than 100,000 Kentuckians off their health care," as well as canceling $8 billion of Medicaid managed care contracts "rushed through just days before I took office."

In a joint press conference reacting to Beshear's address, Republican House Speaker David Osborne and Senate President Robert Stivers lauded the "pleasant tone" of Beshear's speech, but said the governor's legislative wish list was about to run into harsh budgetary realities.

“The only thing he didn’t propose was puppies,” Osborne said. “And you might as well just go ahead and throw those in, because it’s great to throw out wonderful proposals and ideas, but at some point in time we have to face the realities of how we’re going to manage those and how we’re actually going to fund them.”

Osborne decried Beshear's use of the $500 million figures for casino revenue as "totally fabricated" and outdated, saying “to continue to pledge dollars that are not there, to continue to base budgets on funding that is not there is just not responsible.”

Stivers said he appreciated the governor’s tone — jokingly implying it was a welcome change from his predecessor — but added that "there’s not going to be a lot of change in this political dynamic here … neither one of us are going to lose supermajorities in the chambers.”

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Reach reporter Joe Sonka at jsonka@courierjournal.com or 502-582-4472 and follow him on Twitter at @joesonka. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courierjournal.com/subscribe.