Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Arden Barnes)
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s office this week launched a webpage displaying projected price tags for bills before the legislature — known as fiscal notes — which he touted as a step toward transparency.
The Democrat in a Thursday press conference said fiscal notes in recent sessions have not been made public on the legislature’s website or sometimes even shared with lawmakers.
“The least that we can do for transparency is when we’re going to put one of these together that we post it so that the people of the commonwealth, so that journalists, so that other legislators can see the approximation of what a bill costs that we’ve sent either to the [committee] chair or to leadership or to others,” Beshear said.
Any lawmaker may ask for such a fiscal impact statement, and the fiscal impact of a bill has traditionally been estimated by nonpartisan Legislative Research Commission (LRC) staff in consultation with the executive branch agency that would be responsible for implementing the new law. These statements give a general idea of how much money a piece of legislation would take to implement.
Last year, the governor refused to implement a number of laws passed by the GOP-controlled legislature because he said the legislature didn’t properly fund them, something legislative leaders pushed back on. Some of those laws in question didn’t have fiscal notes publicly attached to them. Louisville Public Media reported fiscal notes for many bills haven’t been made public, deemed “confidential” by a bill sponsor and hidden from public view.
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“I think this can hopefully help the General Assembly on the budgeting side, making sure that if we’re going to pass a bill, that we have an appropriation where we the executive branch can then execute that law,” Beshear said.
The webpage — called “2025 Facts & Fiscal Notes” — as of Thursday lists more than two dozen bills and corresponding cost estimates, ranging from legislation that would remove a state requirement that water utilities add fluoride to drinking water — estimated to cost $19.7 million to $59.1 million for health care costs incurred from more dental work needed — to a bill that would establish an Office of Outdoor Recreation Industry, estimated to cost $810,000.
At least some bills on the governor’s webpage lack fiscal impact statements on the legislature’s website.
It’s unclear if the language and estimates on Beshear’s webpage are identical to the fiscal notes usually created in collaboration between the LRC and executive branch. Mike Wynn, the public information officer for the LRC, who wasn’t immediately aware of the webpage, told the Lantern LRC staff members would have to compare the cost estimates on the webpage with fiscal notes in their possession.
Louisville Public Media previously reported members of both parties have criticized the notion of passing laws with “confidential” fiscal notes — a practice that was unknown to all but three of 30-plus lawmakers l interviewed by the public radio station last year. Kentucky is in a minority of states where the legislature does not require a fiscal note on bills that would impact the budget, LPM reported.
Rep. Savannah Maddox, R-Dry Ridge, is sponsoring a bill this session that would require legislation that makes it to the floor of a legislative chamber to have a publicly available fiscal note attached.
Maddox told the Lantern, having not seen the webpage herself as of Thursday afternoon, that she was supportive of the governor making fiscal notes publicly available. But she said she still sees a need to pass her bill given future gubernatorial administrations may act differently.
“I think that transparency is a bipartisan issue,” Maddox said. “If we went to the grocery store and there weren’t price tags on any of the items and then we got to the checkout counter…we’d be pretty surprised by the bill. But here, we’re expected to take votes on legislation without knowing how much that legislation would cost taxpayers.”
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, has previously defended the “confidential” fiscal note process in comments made to Louisville Public Media, arguing that publicly available fiscal notes can be “quicksand” for bills prioritized by leadership, particularly toward the end of a legislative session.
Stivers in a Thursday interview questioned the validity of some fiscal notes produced in part by the executive branch, saying their interpretation of state statute in some cases makes lawmakers question whether a fiscal note is “legitimate.”
He also pointed to a Kentucky Department of Corrections memo that Beshear pulled creating a process for transgender inmates to request gender-affirming care, arguing the governor was instituting policies “without coming to us asking for and telling us what the fiscal implications would be.”
“He picks and chooses within the appropriations units what he is deciding to fund instead of the policy that we send him, which is quite violative of our constitutional duties,” Stivers said.
Crystal Staley, a spokesperson for Beshear, in an emailed statement said it was “concerning that any legislator would respond negatively to the governor providing transparency to the people of Kentucky about how much of their tax money is needed to implement a bill.”
“As the governor has said during his Team Kentucky updates – lawmakers would pass bills without the necessary information to know how much it would cost. The governor’s action allows everyone to see the associated cost and should promote better government,” Staley said.
Staley didn’t immediately respond to a question about whether the cost estimates on the website are identical to the fiscal notes normally created in collaboration between the executive branch and the LRC.
Amye Bensenhaver, the co-director of the open government advocacy nonprofit Kentucky Open Government Coalition, who has previously criticized “confidential” fiscal notes, told the Lantern the move appears to be a way for Beshear to get out ahead of a politically contentious issue of having bills passed by legislature that the executive branch says it doesn’t have sufficient funds to implement.
“The public (and certainly every lawmaker) should have access to fiscal notes prepared by [the] LRC to make informed decisions about a bill,” Bensenhaver said in a text message.
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