Gov. Matt Bevin’s veto slows sending money to fund education

Rep. James Kay (D-Versailles) says his efforts to correct an error that removed $40 million in lottery funds from needs-based student college scholarships in the final hours of the legislative session was thwarted by a veto from Gov. Matt Bevin. It breaks the spirit of the “Powerball Promise” sending money from the lottery to fund education, Kay says.

Long before the end of the 2016 Legislative Session Kay, who represents part of Franklin County in the 56th District, made several floor and committee speeches on the importance of the General Assembly keeping true to the lottery statute provisions.

Kay says he caught the budget error and both the Senate and House chambers passed the correction in House Bill 10 in the remaining two hours before the session’s end, but Bevin vetoed the bill Wednesday.

“The lottery fund is governed by the law, which says in plain English that 45 percent of proceeds go to merit scholarship and 55 percent to need-based scholarships,” Kay told The State Journal. “The law was supposed to balance the ills of gambling against the aid for students to go to college.”

Every budget cycle the General Assembly and past governors have diverted those funds toward other educational purposes, Kay said.

During his budget speech, Bevin vowed he wouldn’t direct lottery funds into anything other than what they were intended for.

He mentioned a high school student in his speech and called her by name, and while those funds will be diverted to other educational programs, the funds will still be diverted from the lottery funding pool designated for the College Access Program (CAP) and the Kentucky Tuition Grants Program (KTG), both of the state’s needs-based scholarship programs.

Bevin spokeswoman Jessica Ditto said the Bevin administration has ended the practice of sweeping lottery funds.

“We have ended the practice of sweeping lottery funds. One hundred percent of lottery funds is now going to education,” Ditto said. “That means $78 million more than the previous budget. There is $40 million more for need-based financial aid programs plus additional funding for a dual-credit scholarship program for high school students and the Work Ready program.”

The dual-credit scholarship and Work Ready programs are funded by Bevin’s veto of House Bill 10, which puts the funding mechanism from lottery funds back in the executive budget bill.

“To be clear, past governors and General Assemblies have used this money for education in one way or another,” Kay said. “So, the statement that the lottery funds go toward education is political spin to make everyone feel good. The truth is that the poorest students have had scholarship monies stolen from them in the name of other educational programs.”

From fiscal year 2011 to fiscal year 2016, both scholarship programs received $28.5 million less than provided by statute.

Last year, 135,636 students were eligible for the CAP program, but it could only assist 80,554 as a result of insufficient funds.

Despite 36,932 students qualifying for the KTG program in 2015, 13,049 students were denied as a result of funding levels.

“I support Work Ready and Dual Credit programs, but they should either be funded in the General Fund or not funded if we can’t afford it,” Kay said.

“I’ll tell you who can’t afford this practice are the low-income students who won’t be able to go to school because tuition is rising exponentially, college is unaffordable without unreasonable student loan debt and politicians take their scholarships mandated by law.”

By Brad Bowman
The State Journal