Governor Andy Beshear’s seventh “State of the Commonwealth” and final budget address was delivered in new confines Wednesday evening in Frankfort — a packed lobby of the Thomas D. Clark Center For Kentucky History.
A multi-year renovation of the state capitol well underway, Beshear spoke on major hopes for the Commonwealth over the next two years, including increased economic development, more job creation, continued affordable housing and disaster recovery efforts, an expansion of health care, heightened focus of public health progress, transportation improvements, public safety, second chances and recidivism, disaster response, a promise for education and a prayer toward “Pre-K for All.”
But before he took the podium, Reverend Dr. Daniel Corrie Shull, of Louisville’s Burnett Avenue Baptist Church, offered a prayer that touched on some history from south western Kentucky.
Silas House — Wednesday’s emcee, author and poet laureate for Kentucky — also brought a local familiar face to the stage for a salute to America.
Under the 60-day session, Beshear and the General Assembly will try to work through as much compromise as possible for the state’s two-year budget, but his asks are many.
Among the executive branch’s priorities include:
+ $70 million for site development, $100 million for large-project infrastructure and $25 million for rural economic development
+ $150 million into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, in order to leverage private funds totaling more than $1 billion in new housing statewide
+ A fully-funded Medicaid provision, while lowering exchange costs behind $100 million for kynect, which would expand waiver slots, support nursing students and create a $125 million rural hospital fund
+ $159 million for educator raises, higher per-pupil funding, and another $560 million for teacher pensions
+ $50 million for food banks, and $75 million to help families with utility costs
+ And an unnamed costly support for universal pre-K, which he called “the most effective investment” of his budget.
In fact, of his entire address, Beshear spent most of his time on this subject.
He attested that “right now, more than half of Kentucky’s kids are showing up to kindergarten already behind” — arriving at school with fewer vocabulary words, missing color concepts and sometimes without potty training.
Since most Kentucky parents can’t afford pre-K rearing, he wants to see it changed — especially as other states in the country see it through — and he attests it will put many parents back into the workforce.
And he didn’t stop there.
Among 2025’s celebrations, he said, were Kentucky’s ability to move “not left, not right, but forward” — through the creation of 68,000 new jobs, the major developments like GE Appliances, General Matter and Tate, the construction and opening of new hospitals and facilities for places like West Louisville and Pikeville, the continued decline of overdose deaths and increase of mental health professionals, the repair and replacement of more than 660 bridges and 20,000 miles of roads, the increase of Kentucky State Police to nearly 1,900 staffers, and more.
He also teased that he may have other aspirations, perhaps in the 2028 national election cycle.
Beshear’s full address:
On-the-ground coverage can be found at The Kentucky Lantern:
