FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky’s Democratic attorney general threatened to sue the state’s Republican governor on Friday to stop him from cutting college and university budgets by 4.5 percent without the approval of the state legislature.
Attorney General Andy Beshear called on Gov. Matt Bevin to rescind his order, issued late Thursday afternoon after House and Senate lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on a two-year state spending plan. Beshear said he would give Bevin seven days to comply before asking a judge to make him comply.
“Under the logic put forward by the governor, he could shut down all of government by simply refusing to allot any money anywhere,” Beshear said. “That is the exact type of power our democracy, our constitution and our liberty explicitly forbid.”
Public colleges and universities in Kentucky get quarterly payments from the state. The fourth quarter payment was due Friday. Thursday, Bevin cut that payment by 4.5 percent. That means colleges and universities collectively will have $41 million less to spend over the next three months than the legislature had originally intended. Bevin wants to use the money to help pay down the state’s public pension debt, estimated at $30 billion.
Bevin had proposed 4.5 percent spending cuts for colleges and universities this year in addition to 9 percent cuts over the next two years. House and Senate leaders rejected Bevin’s 4.5 percent cuts this year. But they could not agree on the 9 percent cuts over the next two years. Because of that, they failed to reach a budget agreement on Thursday.
But Bevin ordered the cuts anyway. In a letter dated Thursday, Bevin cited a state law that gives him authority to revise the allotment schedule for the executive branch budget. The law says the governor cannot increase spending, but makes no mention of reducing it.
“The governor is not appropriating. The governor is revising the spending of money that’s been appropriated,” said Stephen Pitt, Bevin’s general counsel. “There is very little (in state law) that says all money that’s appropriated by the General Assembly has to be spent.”
In a news release, Bevin said the cuts were necessary because “our pension system is on the brink of insolvency.” Kentucky has more than $30 billion in future retirement benefit payments that, right now, it does not have the money to pay. Speaking with reporters before Beshear’s announcement, Bevin dismissed any arguments that his actions were illegal.
“There is no basis for a lawsuit. People can do whatever they want. It would be a waste of their time, energy and money and they would lose,” he said.
Kentucky’s two largest universities said they would comply with the budget cuts. Jay Blanton, a spokesman for the University of Kentucky, said the school was not considering legal action. The University of Louisville said in a news release that it would “respond to the gubernatorial directive of a 4.5% reduction in the 4th quarter, as we have responded to the 14 budget cuts over the past decade, by working with our faculty and staff to pursue plans that minimize the burden on our students.”
Dakota Barr, a 20-year-old sophomore at Morehead State University, said he worried Bevin’s actions would increase his tuition. He says his studies in health promotion have already put him $35,000 in debt. He was one of about 15 people who protested Bevin’s decision at the state Capitol on Friday.
“He’s just a schoolyard bully. He thinks he can push Kentucky around and not go through the democratic process,” Barr said. “He’s almost acting as if he can unilaterally make every decision for the state of Kentucky.”
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