delegation is split over U.S.

military action in the Middle East.

Higher education advocates sound the alarm about proposed cuts in the work in progress.

State budget.

[MUSIC] Other bills and several constitutional amendments are proposed and discussed in the legislature, and candidates for Congress in central Kentucky face off on the weekend that we spring forward.

Comment is next on KET.

Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant, and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky.

A look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth, and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are Tessa Duvall, politics and public affairs editor for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Lucas Aulbach reporter for the Courier-Journal.

And Mario Anderson, anchor and host of In Focus Kentucky on Spectrum News one.

Also tonight, for some reason, Governor Beshear is heading to New Hampshire this coming week.

But first, the world has changed since our program last week after the U.S.

and Israel conducted military strikes on Iran.

The reaction among Kentucky's congressional delegation is mixed.

>> President Trump has made a bold and tough decision, one that could transform the region for the better, literally for generations to come.

>> Why are we going to war with Iran?

We owe our military service members a clear mission, and American families in my district want to know how's this is going to help them pay for groceries?

>> So there was strong support, as you heard from Senator Mitch McConnell.

Senator Rand Paul essentially says he supports the troops, but he believes the president needs congressional approval to conduct a war, a move in the Senate to fail in that regard.

And the resolution supported by Congressman Massie, whom you heard there, also failed in the House.

Tessa.

>> That's right.

They both found themselves on the losing side of these efforts, very narrow efforts in both cases.

Senator Paul is the only Republican to vote with the Democrats on this.

And there was only one other Republican to vote alongside Congressman Massie.

But essentially, you know, their their argument is that the power to declare war lies with Congress.

And this was an attempt to reassert that authority.

Of course, there is a Republican majority in both the House and Senate, and it is an election year for everyone in the House and a lot of those senators.

So of course, they don't want to end up on the president's wrong side, which is where Thomas Massie currently finds himself for a number of reasons.

But since the votes were taken, Congressman Massie has said that sadly, we've now abdicated that responsibility that Congress has.

And Senator Paul has put out a piece that said, you know, America is at war, but America's Americans don't want this.

And they certainly didn't vote for it.

>> Lucas, there were some loose Kentucky connections to some of the initial casualties, although there were some early misconceptions about that out there.

>> Yeah, there were the chatter early was the connection was closer than it ended up being.

The chatter early was that these were troopers who were based out of Fort Knox, and it turns out they were based out of Iowa in in a unit that was, I think, under Fort Knox's control or command, something along those lines.

So they weren't based out of Kentucky.

But, you know, it's with several military bases in the state.

It's something you got to consider when there's military action going on on the other side of the world.

>> Mario, we'll have to see where things go from here.

We are already seeing some impact in some areas in Kentucky, though.

>> We sure are, especially as it relates to gas prices.

We're seeing some spikes across the state, across the country, some places having highest prices since back as 2020 4th August of 2024.

So time will tell.

But also the length of this conflict.

It's unknown, the president said initially maybe 4 to 5 weeks, but then there's talk about as long as September potentially.

So we'll just keep watching and see how things progress.

>> Some security changes as well.

>> Trying to identify the next leader of that country.

And again, some of the previous options the first, second, third and fourth and fifth options.

Unfortunately, they're not alive according to the president at this point.

>> Well, we'll keep a watch on all of that, of course, in Frankfort.

The work goes on to carve out a state budget, and it is now in the hands of the Senate higher education advocates, including university presidents and the man who oversees higher ed, are hoping cuts in the House passed budget bill don't make it across the finish line.

>> It's going to slow down our progress, no doubt.

Let me just say that.

But it's going to also, we'll have to cut again because I can't make that up.

Intuition.

>> I think if we're going to continue to reposition Kentucky for economic success, we've got to continue to invest in our universities.

>> I mean, an 8 or 9% cut would be very significant to you, wouldn't it?

>> About about a $7 million base reduction to our base budget.

>> What would that do?

>> I think for us that's that's jobs.

At █the end of the think as we navigate that, we'll try to to work through all the pieces that we can to find efficiency.

But but at the end of the day, if if we have to make that kind of cut, it will have some impact on, on employment at the university.

>> So Tessa, there you have the EKU president talking about the potential job losses.

University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto says there would also be considerable impact on the flagship university's campus.

>> That's right.

There is messaging to the campus community this week that these kinds of cuts is seen over the next biennium, 3 or 4% in a given year would directly affect our ability to provide the same level of support in terms of things like education, research, you know, various things that take place on a college campus.

He also described the money that comes from the state as those critical first dollars into our budget.

>> Yeah, I think at UK, the chatter is or the current proposal is a 4% cut one year and a 3% cut the next, which doesn't seem like an overwhelming number until it's you who's got to make that 3% cut or 4% cut, and it's you who's got to cut tens of million dollars, which is what that 3%, 4% cut looks like.

So, you know, everybody knew.

It's been said since the start of the session this was going to be a tighter budget.

It remains to be seen how it ends up looking.

It's in the Senate right now like you said.

So things could still change between now and mid April.

>> And in their pushback, Mario, higher education advocates are trying to make the case that college graduates generally make higher wages and that helps propel the state's economy.

>> That's right.

And they're utilizing a data that is out there just as recent as last month in February, where the center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Kentucky shared that bachelor's degree holders are projected to earn $1.2 million more over their lifetime than high school graduates.

And they say that the return on investment is higher.

Because of that, students are graduating with more, with less debt, being able to pay off their student tuition.

So they've got a lot of the data to back up that support.

But hopefully it translates to the lawmakers maybe still ironing out more money in the budget.

>> And Tessa, we do keep being told that this budget is a work in progress and that the Senate obviously could have different priorities.

>> That's right.

We are about two thirds of the way done with session, though, so we are running out of days for that work in progress to make some progress, at least where we can see it.

As we've said, the budget bill is in the possession of the Senate right now.

We haven't really seen any sort of public facing action on that, although I'm sure there are many discussions happening.

So it will change again and it will change after those changes again, because what we always see happen with the budget is that it ends up in a conference committee where, you know, the changes are hashed out.

But April 1st is the day that everyone's keeping in mind because that's when they need to get things done.

If they intend to override any vetoes, which would include line item vetoes in the budget from Governor Beshear.

>> And he can go in there and again, line by line, take out what he doesn't like.

But it's a very weak veto in Kentucky.

>> Yeah.

And again, those extra two days at the end of session following that veto recess, they can come back and say, no, we're going to we're we're going to keep that money where we put it.

Thank you very much.

>> There are lots of other bills up for consideration.

And Tessa, you wrote prepare thy snack drawers because the next few weeks could be very interesting.

As we move along here.

One bill that I know we're watching would create a statewide registry for sex offenders, and those on the registry would be paying for it.

>> That's right.

There would be a $1,000 fee paid to the Kentucky State Police to register initially, and then I believe it was $150 each year after that.

There's also fines for noncompliance, and all of that would go toward the maintenance of this registry.

>> Lucas House Bill 904 has come along at the beginning of March Madness.

Yeah, it would raise the age of sports betting from 18 to 21 and create some other new rules.

>> Yeah, and I've been hearing some questions about this one from some buddies who are maybe not the most astute political observers, but have heard about this.

Yeah, House Bill 5 or 904, like you said, would raise the age to bet on sports from 18 to 21 and several other changes.

I think one included is banning prop bets on Kentucky athletes.

So you could no longer hop on the app and bet Colin Chandler's going to score more than ten points or things like that.

So, you know, it's been kind of a figure this thing out ever since the bill was passed in 2023 that legalized sports betting, because you've heard a lot of these national stories of younger people getting on these platforms and getting addicted, older people getting on these platforms and getting addicted, you know, it's gambling.

And just also some national stories about athletes who are getting pulled into, you know, fixing schemes and things like that.

So I think some of the idea is you take some of these options off the table.

That makes it a little more difficult.

>> There's a lot of to some of these bills I've noticed this year in terms of it's not, you know, it's you'll say, well, they're trying to raise the age, but then you look at it and they're like ten other things that the bill would do.

And there are several bills like that.

>> Right.

And there are I believe the number was about 1300 bills that were filed this session.

And yeah, I mean, obviously nowhere close to all of those will become law.

But we're also keeping an eye out for shell bills at this time of session where we might see some committee subs that, you know, take one piece of legislation that seems relatively harmless and all of a sudden it's doing something completely else.

So yeah, that's that's why you got to have the snacks ready.

You don't know what's going to happen.

>> House Bill 930 would open the door to parents paying when juvenile offenders are held in custody.

If it is determined that the parents took actions that allowed the juvenile to essentially go down the wrong path.

>> Yeah, that's House Bill 930 from Representative Jared Bauman out of Louisville, a Republican who's been involved with a lot of these public safety bills over the years.

I think everybody remembers the Safer Kentucky Act that came through the legislature two years ago.

That was something by him.

So no committee assignment yet, but it's definitely one to watch.

>> Senate Bill 116 would mandate some of our state universities to search for solutions to the state's shortage of physicians.

That includes UK and UofL, which have medical schools, and now EKU, which is getting ready to set up an osteopathic medicine program.

>> They would be the people, since they are the teaching schools for our physicians to look at.

This and should know whether it is, you know, loan forgiveness, scholarships, recruitment, technology, you know, what?

What are all the different assets we could use?

What are the different pieces of the puzzle that we can put together to better serve the Commonwealth in the delivery of health care?

>> He can't recruit a hospital or can't recruit an industry to a county that doesn't have a hospital.

So that's part of our challenge to if we're going to lift up the economy of Kentucky, we have to make sure we have a foundation throughout Kentucky to support health care and education.

>> Mario, the legislature is facing up to the reality.

Kentucky does not have enough primary care doctors.

>> Exactly right.

And the Legislative Research Commission compiled a report from 2025 and released.

It was August of 2025, sharing that Kentucky will have a shortage of nearly 3000 physicians by the year 2030.

And then they said also, most of the 107 out of the 120 counties in Kentucky were designated as health professional shortage areas.

So, again, data driven information that's being shared in the legislature.

Looking to take some steps led by the Republican supermajority.

>> Yeah, we also saw a bill from Senator Meredith that addresses not not making the requirements any easier or less rigorous, but trying to streamline the process to get foreign trained doctors working in Kentucky a little bit quicker.

That has cleared the Senate and awaits further action in the.

>> House and in EKU is trying to make the case that their their students generally are from Kentucky and would have incentive automatically to want to stay in Kentucky.

So it may be that the universities have to, under this bill, look for incentives for that.

>> Yeah.

And this would be the first public Doe program in Kentucky.

So that would also be appealing to a number of students for that reason as well.

>> We talk a lot these days about AI and data centers.

Representative Josh Bray is sponsoring House Bill 593.

It would provide different options to pay for energy that data centers consume.

>> You know, we recognize that data centers in Kentucky are important, but we want to make sure that when they come in, they either bring their own generation, which a lot of big tech companies are are wanting to do.

They purchase their power on the open market or they prepay for any generation or transmission cost increases upfront.

In my conversations with the big tech companies that we want Kentucky doing business with, they are absolutely on board with this.

>> So, Tessa, when data centers come to the local areas and you hear a lot of pushback, much of the fear is that local residents will be stuck with higher costs.

>> That's right.

There's fear that the cost to get these plants up and running in terms of like utility hookups and things of that nature will be passed on to local consumers.

Of course, there's also concerns about noise and environmental impact as well.

But what we're seeing the legislature talk a lot about are those utility costs.

>> There's an attempt to amend the Kentucky Constitution to allow future constitutional amendments to appear as a summary or a question, rather than putting the full amendment wording on the ballot.

Courts have ruled that amendments have to appear fully on ballots right now.

So, Tessa, this would change that.

And several amendments have failed in recent years.

And some say the the the wording of the amendments can be intimidating to voters.

And that for that reason, some may just automatically say no.

>> Yeah.

That is that is one of the arguments that we've heard out of the last four amendments that have been proposed and put before Kentucky voters.

Voters have rejected three of them, including some Republican priorities, especially the School choice funding bill of 2024.

So, yes, this proposal would allow summaries to go on the ballot instead.

But of course, Kentuckians would first have to say we're okay with summaries going on the ballot instead of the full text.

So, you know, remains to be seen.

There's, you know, entirely the possibility that Kentuckians say, no, we we want the full thing.

Still.

>> If you say some say it is a matter of transparency that they be able to see the entire amendment.

>> Absolutely.

And then there's also the argument of, you know, who gets to say what is an accurate distillation of what a particular amendment would even do?

>> Lucas another proposed amendment would give the legislature more control over its schedule and allow them to call themselves back into session.

Governor Beshear clapped back at that one.

>> Yes, yes he did.

And it's not the first time he's clapped back at it, because it's not the first time it's been proposed.

This kind of speaks to what Tesla was just talking about.

In 2022.

There was an amendment on the ballot that would have done this, but I think it was 700 something words.

And House Speaker Osborne, who put this bill forward, has said he thinks the reason that it wasn't voted, the voters didn't approve it was because it was too complicated.

So he says it would make it easier for legislators to react to situations and to come back mid-year for corrections.

Beshear has previously called it a power grab, and this week he basically said, you know, use the time that you have to pass bills and, you know, use the interims after that to figure out what you want to do next session.

So, you know, it's almost like they don't see eye to eye on this thing.

It's hard to tell.

>> Imagine that.

Yeah.

All right.

What are some other bills we're watching now as we're heading into the home stretch really of the session.

>> Yeah.

There's one I'm keeping an eye on that passed through the House this week.

House Bill 534 from Representative DJ Johnson out in Owensboro.

It passed on a narrow margin.

You rarely see a 53 to 40 vote in the House these days, but it would make a lot of changes to election law in Kentucky.

I think it would cut people off from voting who are convicted of felonies in the process of an appeal.

And one interesting part is it would allow federal officials who have been elected for one office to run for reelection and also run for president, which.

Hello.

Rand Paul.

>> Right.

Because in 2016, when he did that, there had to be a caucus on the Republican side, right?

He had to pay for it.

>> Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, I mean, if this passes, you know, he's up for reelection in 2028.

He has not shut the door.

On seeking a run for the white House again in 2028.

So one to watch as it moves through the Senate.

But again, it had some opposition.

It was 53 to 40.

>> I don't think he's even touched the doorknob on that.

>> Yeah.

>> To pull that door shut.

No other things we're watching.

>> Yeah I mean, there are some things that had momentum early in the session that we haven't really heard a whole lot about recently.

So the bill to address communication issues between school personnel and students, that was a really big one.

I would say the driver's licensing situation also not really hearing a lot about that.

So those are two that, you know, the public cared a great deal about because of just the inconvenience in their everyday life.

So I'm eager to see what comes of those.

>> Yeah, there's a lot of bills from a child marriage to a various research funds that are attached with dollars, but there's a handful of bills that passed out of the House, but they're just sitting, waiting to be assigned in the state Senate.

And then, as Tessa mentioned, there's quite a few that are bills that are filed with one page and a sentence or two.

So we'll see if those get expanded to more.

>> It's amazing how few bills have made it to the governor's desk at this late stage.

Right?

Well, Kentucky has some competitive races going on for key positions in Washington, Spectrum News and Mario recently hosted debates in both the Democratic and Republican primary races for the sixth district congressional seat.

It's opening up because Congressman Andy Barr is running for the Senate.

The Republican debate featured candidates Ralph Alvarado and Ryan Dotson.

>> As the next congressman.

I look forward to using that same rigor and passion towards helping Central Kentucky families achieve their best goals, live their best lives, and help make America a better place to live and help support a lot of the vision that we have within our party and our values.

>> I want to take this same fight that I've taken to Frankfort, Kentucky, to Washington, DC because Donald J. Trump needs some strong allies, and I want to stand there and help him push back against the woke agenda of the liberal left.

>> Mario, did the debate show a major contrast between the Republican candidates?

>> Not a lot.

Both those candidates.

They leaned on their support and being an ally of President Donald Trump for the most part across the board.

Lots of agreement.

But then there were a couple of areas when there was a question related to vaccines.

Ryan Dodson, he talked about that.

He believed that no one should be mandated to take a vaccine.

But then Ralph Alvarado, who is a physician physician, he shared that he recommends pediatric vaccines and leave that to the parents and the families.

But then there are a few different topics related to tariffs.

Ryan Dodson said that he was a little hiccup in the process as it relates to Bourbon tariffs.

And he again, he supports the president's decision making, full throated and not too much contrast between both of them.

>> And the Democratic race is more crowded for candidates appearing for the debate, each hoping to win the nomination and flip the Central Kentucky seat to the Democrats for the first time since 2012.

>> I'm running for Congress to continue a lifetime of public service and fighting for others.

That's all I've done my entire career.

Now I'm taking a stand against the administration, and I want to be in Congress so that I can continue to serve you and fight for you.

>> I will absolutely tell you exactly how we're going to reduce our health care costs and save people 15 to 20% across the board, how we're going to get employers to pay our employees a living wage and be happy about doing so, and how we're going to make it more affordable than ever to put a roof over every person's head.

>> And I'm running to fight to create more of those jobs.

Medicare for all, a living wage, Social Security, Medicaid, and making sure that people are powering this race and this country once again.

>> Right now, we are seeing everything cost more, and everyone be squeezed from every corner of the district.

I hear that health care, utilities and groceries cost too much, that our industries are being wrecked by illegal tariffs.

I show up, I listen, and I act.

>> Mario were there any other issues or exchanges that livened up that that Democratic portion of your debate?

>> There was a lot of talk about Aaron Petrie that she made sure she's one of the lesser known of the four on that stage.

So she made every opportunity to to be very energetic, but also let people know that she is the most progressive candidate in this race that's running.

So she leaned on that a lot.

But again, Cherlynn Stevenson, she's supported by a lot of unions.

Lieutenant Governor Zack Dembo, talking about his background as a former federal prosecutor in the Navy.

And then David Kloiber was wanted to talk about specific policy ideas and not just talking generics.

>> Lucas, the oddsmakers who put the maps together, seem to paint the sixth district in the Republican column most of the time.

But do Democrats hope that there could be a national trend that gives them some wind at their backs in that race?

>> I think that's what the Democratic, congressional, Democratic, yes, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, I always get that wrong.

>> The D triple.

>> C, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, I think they would tell you that they're targeting it.

And they I think they would tell you they find it think it will be competitive this year.

You know, it's been Andy Barr territory for about a dozen years now.

But you know, he's a strong incumbent who's not on the ballot anymore.

And I think Democrats nationally are hoping for a midterm kind of pushback against Trump.

So, you know, Barr would tell you it's the only purple district in Kentucky.

You know, it's been red for many years.

But we got a fresh slate of candidates running.

So we'll see what happens.

>> Governor Beshear is headed to the early 2028 presidential primary state of New Hampshire Monday and Tuesday.

Tennessee says he's going up there to help some local candidates.

Could there possibly be another reason he would be wanting to meet with New Hampshire voters?

>> The mountain air?

No.

Of course, we've seen that.

Gavin Newsom also is making trips.

Pete Buttigieg, what those three folks all have in common is folks think they are going to run for president in 2028.

We're seeing a lot of other signs like, I don't know, publishing a book might be an indicator of what's to come.

Of course, no one's declared.

But doing all the things that people who eventually declare do.

>> Yeah.

And I think he says he's going to be doing some local fundraising and pitches for some candidates when he's up there.

Mario.

>> That's right.

Utilizing his official capacity as chair of the Democratic Governors Association, which gives him a lot of room to make those pitches, but also maybe do some national appearances on the networks while he's there as well.

>> Another major story of the week was the retirement announcement from University of Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart.

Lucas, that was all the talk this week in terms of what he accomplished over 24 years on that job.

>> Yeah, Mike and all the sports talk tonight, kind of feeling like first take over here.

No.

Yeah.

I mean, Mitch Barnhart has been there for 24 years I believe won championships in men's basketball and volleyball.

You know, change the trajectory of the football program with Mark Stoops.

So you know he didn't bat a thousand.

And I think a lot of people would tell you maybe in the Nil era, maybe it's time for a fresh face in that office.

But he had, you know, a 24 year run of success.

So now UK has to find a successor.

And Barnhart, I believe, got a job with the executive in residence for the UK Sports and Workforce Initiative, which is about 950,000 a year, which going to call my boss and kind of pitch them on that one.

After this, I got a ways to go before.

>> I can get that deal.

>> Yeah, right.

>> There was this is the sixth anniversary of the first case of Covid in Kentucky, and 18,000 lives were lost.

It was tough history.

We lived through Tessa.

>> Yeah, it's it's crazy that it's already been six years.

In some ways it feels much longer.

And also like yesterday.

>> Daylight Savings time begins this weekend.

We spring ahead one an early on Sunday morning.

It's long been a discussion in Kentucky.

Doctors say it often causes health issues.

Former governor and Senator Wendell Ford railed against it, reminding Congress that children have to stand in the dark waiting for a school bus in the mornings.

There's a bill in the legislature now that would end the practice of changing time when we return to standard time in November.

But for now, we head into several months with the time advanced that's common on Kentucky.

Have a good week ahead.