Kentucky
Rent from DeepDyve- Kentucky
funding priorities & pressing issues affecting p-12 education
For several years, the shortfall in the funding of Kentucky's public employee pension programs, including the teacher's retirement system, created added budgetary pressures. During its 2018 Regular Session, the Kentucky General Assembly (Republican majority in both chambers), using a parliamentary procedure maneuver to amend a sanitation bill, enacted a significant overhaul of the pension system with respect to new employees while preserving the benefits of existing retirees and modifying the criteria for current employees. However, in Bevin v. Commonwealth ex rel. Beshear,1 the Supreme Court of Kentucky found the General Assembly had violated the Kentucky Constitution's requirement that each bill be read three separate times.2 Therefore, the pension reform was unconstitutional.
In response, Governor Bevin (Republican) called a Special Session of the General Assembly for the week before Christmas.3 Although the Governor asked [End Page 303] the legislature to consider a bill that was similar, but not identical, to the measure invalidated by the Supreme Court, the General Assembly was unable to reach a consensus and adjourned after one day without taking any action.
changes to funding formula for p-12 education
During the 2019 Regular Session, which was a non-budgetary session, the General Assembly declined to take up any similar pension reforms or to make any significant changes to the educational funding systems for either K-12 or higher education.4 The legislature did pass some amendments to existing legislation which would reduce pension payments for regional universities and certain quasi-governmental entities. After Governor Bevin vetoed that legislation, he called a Special Session in July to pass similar legislation.
The 2020 General Assembly, which will meet after the November 2019 Gubernatorial election, will have to pass a new budget and deal with continuing budgetary pressures from the state pension systems. [End Page 304]
William E. Thro is General Counsel of the University of Kentucky, former Solicitor General of Virginia, and an award winning education law scholar. Mr. Thro writes in his personal capacity and his views do not constitute the views of the University of Kentucky.
Footnotes
1. 563 S.W.3d 74, 90-91 (Ky. 2018)
2. As the Court explained:
Although read only by title, the title by which [the bill] was read never had any connection with the subject matter of the measure enacted: "AN ACT relating to retirement," nor did it connote any information to signify that the act related to public pensions or the retirement benefits of public employees. Nothing in the utterance of the bill's numerical designation . . . , , conveyed any information that the reading was related to a pension reform bill. The title as read in each chamber pertained to the local wastewater services measure that was discarded.
In deference to the General Assembly, we necessarily stop short of providing a complete and precise definition of what must occur to qualify as a reading of the bill, but we are well-settled in the conviction that what occurred here falls far short of the requirements of [the Constitution].
Id. at 90-91 (citations omitted).
3. Although Kentucky held elections for all 100 members of the House of Representatives and half of the 38 members of the Senate in November 2018, the individuals elected did not take office until January 2019.
4. Kentucky's Government uses on a two-year budget cycle. In even years, the General Assembly meets for a long session of 60 days and must pass a budget. In odd years, the General Assembly meets in a short session of 30 days.
