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Democratic Gov. Beshear blasts Kentucky House Republicans' spending plan
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday tore into a state spending plan unveiled by House Republicans, saying it falls far short of what’s needed for Kentucky schools, juvenile justice, health care and other essential services at a time of big budget surpluses.
In his first skirmish with GOP lawmakers since winning reelection last year, Beshear said the House’s two-year spending plan would bring on needless red tape, hamstring the state’s response to natural disasters and significantly cut its government workforce.
“There’s a lot to work on,” he said while contrasting his budget blueprint with the GOP House version.
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Asked for a response later Thursday, Republican House Speaker David Osborne said: “It will come as no shock to anybody within earshot of this that there’s no way in the world we’re ever going to spend as much as the governor wants to.”
The House spending proposals were introduced on Tuesday. House Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chairman Jason Petrie said at the time that it “continues our commitment to investing in our commonwealth’s future while prioritizing responding spending that aims to efficiently allocate resources while maintaining essential public services.”
Two days later, the Democratic governor found plenty of problems with it, including key elements for public education. Beshear said the House plan would funnel $1.1 billion less into the state’s main funding formula for public K-12 schools — known as SEEK — than he proposed.
Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is seen here answering questions during an interview on Dec. 19, 2023, in Frankfort, Ky. He censured Kentucky House Republicans’ spending plan on Jan. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)
He blasted the House GOP plan for not guaranteeing pay raises for teachers and all other public school employees and for its lack of funding to provide access to preschool for every Kentucky 4-year-old. Both were cornerstones of Beshear’s budget plan, which called for an 11% raise for school employees.
That universal pre-K proposal is essential to meeting Kentuckians’ child care needs, he said. Enrolling every 4-year-old in state-supported preschools would free up more slots in daycares for younger children and would help many parents reenter the workforce, the governor said.
“Just giving a blanket investment in child care without universal pre-K is not going to add one childcare slot anywhere in Kentucky,” Beshear said. “It’s not going to solve any of the child care desert issues. You’ve got to do them together if we want to have a real impact.”
The big pay raise is needed to attract and retain teachers as states compete to staff classrooms, he said.
The House plan would leave it up to school districts to decide whether to use additional state funding to award pay raises to teachers and other staff. It reflects requests from school superintendents that they be given spending flexibility, Osborne said Wednesday.
“We try not to micromanage those things, especially when it comes to their budgets,” he said.
The House measure includes language strongly encouraging districts to award raises. And it includes provisions to track salary decisions by districts. It would add “a layer of accountability with a reporting requirement that makes salary schedules, compensation increases … easily available,” Petrie said.
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In methodically picking apart the House plan, Beshear said it would underfund the state’s Medicaid program, which serves poor and disabled people. It fails to fund safety upgrades at juvenile detention centers and would halt efforts to shore up staffing in those centers, he said.
The House plan also would put limits on funding to respond to emergencies and natural disasters, he said. The amount of money available under the bill “wouldn’t get us through an ice storm,” Beshear said.
It could force a governor to call lawmakers into a special session to obtain the necessary funding, he said. Kentucky was pounded by natural disasters during Beshear’s first term when tornadoes hit western Kentucky in late 2021 and flooding inundated sections of eastern Kentucky in 2022.
Some of Beshear’s harshest comments in his review were aimed at the potential impact on the state’s workforce and the paperwork it would create for his administration. The House budget would dramatically reduce state personnel by eliminating funding for up to 95% of vacant positions, he said.
“This is just taking a hatchet and hacking at the executive branch without even looking,” Beshear said.
The House measure would snarl his administration in red tape, he said, by requiring that quarterly reports be submitted to the legislature for virtually every executive branch action. He called it an unworkable attempt to micromanage the executive branch.
“This is the type of red tape that prevents things from getting done in government,” Beshear said.
One looming decision for lawmakers is what to do, if anything, with the state’s massive budget reserves amid strong revenue collections. House Republicans have proposed tapping those reserves to make one-time investments totaling more than $1.7 billion for infrastructure, public safety and economic development and to help pay down unfunded liabilities in public pension systems.
With the budget process in its early stages, the governor said hopes changes will be made — either in the House or when the executive branch budget measure goes to the Senate. But with supermajorities in both chambers, Republican lawmakers will determine the final contents of the state budget.
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A Georgia high school teacher was arrested Wednesday after allegations of inappropriate contact between a teacher and a minor student surfaced at Lee County High School.
Danielle Weaver, 29, of Leesburg, is charged with child molestation and improper sexual contact by an employee, agent or foster parent, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI).
Lee County High School requested the Leesburg Police Department investigate the allegations on Feb. 3, and the GBI was called to assist the following day.
Danielle Weaver, 29, of Leesburg, Ga., is charged with child molestation and improper sexual contact by an employee. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office)
Investigators identified Weaver as the “subject,” and identified the victim as a student under 18 years old at Lee County High School, according to officials.
GBI agents continued the investigation along with the Leesburg Police Department, and arrest warrants were obtained for Weaver on Tuesday.
A Google Maps street view photo of Lee County High School in Leesburg, Ga. (Google Maps)
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Weaver turned herself in to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, and was later released on bond, according to a report from WALB News.
This investigation is active and ongoing, according to the GBI.
The incident allegedly happened at a high school in Georgia. (Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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Once complete, the case file will be given to the Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
Leesburg is located in South Georgia, and is about an hour and a half north of Tallahassee, Florida.
Lee County High School’s communications team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Southeast
Federal court clears way for Ten Commandments to be displayed in Louisiana public school classrooms
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A federal appeals court cleared the way Friday for a Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, lifting a lower court block and reigniting debate over religion in public education.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit voted 12-6 to lift a block first imposed in 2024, finding it was too early to determine the constitutionality of the law. Critics argue the requirement violates the separation of church and state, while supporters say the Ten Commandments are historical and foundational to U.S. law.
The court said in the majority opinion that it was unclear how schools would display the poster-sized materials, noting that the law allows additional content, like the Mayflower Compact or the Declaration of Independence, to appear alongside the Ten Commandments.
The majority wrote that there were not enough facts to “permit judicial judgment rather than speculation” when evaluating potential First Amendment concerns.
A federal appeals court on Friday lifted a lower court block on Louisiana’s Ten Commandments classroom law, bringing the measure closer to taking effect. (John Bazemore/AP)
In a concurring opinion, Circuit Judge James Ho, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, wrote that the law was constitutional and “consistent with our founding traditions.”
“It is fully consistent with the Constitution, and what’s more, it reinforces our Founders’ firm belief that the children of America should be educated about the religious foundations and traditions of our country,” Ho said, adding that the law “affirms our Nation’s highest and most noble traditions.”
Circuit Judge James L. Dennis, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, wrote in a dissenting opinion that displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms would amount to “exposing children to government‑endorsed religion in a setting of compulsory attendance.”
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A federal appeals court ruling on Feb. 20 allows Louisiana’s Ten Commandments classroom mandate to proceed for now. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)
“That is precisely the kind of establishment the Framers anticipated and sought to prevent,” he added.
The ACLU of Louisiana and other groups representing the plaintiffs said they would pursue additional legal challenges to block the law.
“Today’s ruling is extremely disappointing and would unnecessarily force Louisiana’s public school families into a game of constitutional whack-a-mole in every school district,” the groups wrote in a joint-statement. “Longstanding judicial precedent makes clear that our clients need not submit to the very harms they are seeking to prevent before taking legal action to protect their rights.”
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Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry praised the appeals court decision on Feb. 20 allowing the Ten Commandments classroom law to move forward. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, file)
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Friday praised the court’s decision, writing on Facebook, “Common sense is making a comeback!”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a statement following the ruling, saying schools “should follow the law.”
“Don’t kill or steal shouldn’t be controversial. My office has issued clear guidance to our public schools on how to comply with the law, and we have created multiple examples of posters demonstrating how it can be applied constitutionally,” she said.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said schools should follow the Ten Commandments display law after a federal appeals court lifted a lower court block on Feb. 20. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Joseph Davis, an attorney representing Louisiana in the case, celebrated the court’s decision.
“If the ACLU had its way, every trace of religion would be scrubbed from the fabric of our public life,” he said in a statement. “That position is at odds with our nation’s traditions and our Constitution. We’re glad the Fifth Circuit has allowed Louisiana to display the Ten Commandments in its public school classrooms.”
Friday’s ruling came after the full court agreed to reconsider the case, months after a three-judge panel ruled the Louisiana law unconstitutional.
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A similar law in Arkansas faces a federal court challenge, while Texas implemented its own Ten Commandments classroom requirement last year.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Guy Fieri once had ‘nothing else to sign’ on the beach but postcards; now, he’s built a food TV empire
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MIAMI BEACH – Twenty years ago, a contestant named Guy Fieri on the second season of what was then “The Next Food Network Star” showed up at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival with little more than spiked hair and ambition.
“He came to that festival that year and was walking around signing postcards because he had nothing else to sign,” recalled Lee Brian Schrager, founder of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival and its New York City counterpart.
Today, Fieri is one of the most recognizable faces in food on television. But, in 2006, he was just another up-and-comer working a crowd on the sand.
Speaking to “Fox & Friends” from Miami Beach, Florida, Friday morning, Fieri said he wasn’t chasing TV fame.
“I was doing what I wanted to do,” he told Steve Doocy while walking the beach. “I wanted to be a great dad. I wanted to be a great husband. I wanted to be a chef. I wanted to own my own restaurant. So, I had accomplished the things I wanted in life and never really saw the other side of it.”
South Beach Wine & Food Festival founder Lee Brian Schrager and celebrity chef Guy Fieri pose for a photograph back in 2009. (South Beach Wine & Food Festival)
Two decades later, Fieri still comes back.
“He’s been part of our festival every year since he won ‘Food Network Star,’” Schrager told Fox News Digital.
The knack for spotting and elevating talent is part of the festival’s legacy as it marks its 25th year in Miami Beach.
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Schrager recalled a similar instinct with Giada De Laurentiis. When her agent suggested she might be ready the following year, Schrager pushed back.
“I said, ‘I don’t want her next year. I want her this year so she’ll remember where she got her big start,’” Schrager said.
Giada De Laurentiis, pictured here in 2015, was another celebrity chef who got her start at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. (Manny Hernandez/Getty Images)
Yet the festival doesn’t claim to have created celebrity chefs.
“We don’t take responsibility for turning anyone into a superstar,” Schrager told Fox News Digital. “We do take some credit for giving them a platform and putting them in front of their fans.”
“Rock stars became chefs and chefs became rock stars.”
Over the past 20 years, the platform has grown alongside the broader transformation of food culture.
“Rock stars became chefs and chefs became rock stars,” Schrager said.
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What began as a one-day wine event on the campus of Florida International University evolved after Schrager was tasked with reimagining it. His directive was to “make it better — not bigger, but better.”
Schrager had a solution.
The South Beach Wine & Food Festival is where chefs like Fieri “became rock stars,” said Schrager, founder of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. (Jason Koerner/Getty Images)
“Move it to the beach, partner with the Food Network, get all their celebrities and make it more than just local,” Schrager said.
Today, the festival draws marquee names from the culinary world as well as from music and entertainment. Among those who showed up for Thursday night’s Burger Bash event were comedian Bert Kreischer and Cloud 23 hot sauce founder Brooklyn Peltz Beckham.
Chefs don’t get paid for appearances at the festival.
“If it’s somebody new, the first question out of their agent’s mouth is, ‘Oh, what’s the honorarium? What’s the fee?’ I’m like, ‘Zero,’” Schrager said.
Brooklyn Peltz Beckham is among the celebrities to attend the food festival for free. (Scott Roth/Invision/AP)
The model works, Schrager said, because the festival operates as a nonprofit benefiting FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management.
“Everyone’s doing it to support the cause, or they’re doing it because they want to do it,” Schrager said. “It’s not a bad place to be in the middle of winter.”
Schrager, left, appears along with Rachael Ray and Brooklyn Peltz Beckham onstage at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s Burger Bash. (Scott Roth/Invision/AP)
The festival has raised more than $50 million for student scholarships.
“To me, that’s why we do it,” Schrager said.
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Along the way, the festival has outlasted many imitators and weathered shifting food trends by staying nimble.
“We listened to the consumers,” Schrager said.
Fieri, left, and a shirtless Bert Kreischer share a moment onstage at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. (Jason Koerner/Getty Images)
“There was never any ego involved in this festival.”
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He added, “Our goal was never to be the biggest.”
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“It happens that we turned out to be the biggest, but being the best, or at least doing our best, has always been the most important to me.”
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