Written by Joe Sonka of the Courier-Journal
A bill that would strip a governor’s power to appoint his or her own Transportation Cabinet secretary stems partly from former Gov. Matt Bevin’s heavy use of the cabinet’s discretionary road fund in the waning days of his administration, Senate President Robert Stivers told The Courier Journal.
Stivers, R-Manchester and co-sponsor of the bill, also accused past Democratic governors of abusing this power, but said Bevin hoarded millions of dollars and then drained the funds in order to aid his unsuccessful reelection campaign.
“… I did not think (it) was appropriate, what he did,” Stivers said. “Retaining virtually all of the discretionary monies and then using it in the last 90 to 120 days to make nice press announcements … to try to get himself ingratiated with various voting blocks here in the state.”
The bill’s main sponsor, Sen. Jimmy Higdon (R-Lebanon) said the governor receives roughly $30 million annually in discretionary road money, “and when you see a governor save a large portion of that discretionary money for an election year, one might question the motives.”
Stivers specifically alleged Bevin hoarded his discretionary funds in 2017 and 2018, then blew through those funds in the following months with press conferences handing out checks ranging from $500,000 to $800,000 to local officials to add blacktop to local roads.
(Cross-posted via the Kentucky Press News Service. Read the rest of the article at the Courier-Journal.)
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