Latest news with #Kentuckians'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
KY attorney general says Fayette school board didn't give public notice before tax vote
(Fayette County Public Schools) Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman's office says the Fayette County Public Schools board failed to give proper public notice before voting to increase occupational taxes within the district. The opinion released Wednesday said the board violated state open meetings laws, which says school districts must publish a notice about tax proposals in a local newspaper at least a week before meeting to vote on the proposal. The attorney general's office also refuted a recent claim by the school district to local media outlets that the state law doesn't apply to the tax increase because it is a 'county-level tax' also needing approval from the Fayette County Fiscal Court. The opinion said state law 'expressly recognizes that levying an occupational license tax is a power shared jointly by the School Board and the Fiscal Court.' It adds that a fiscal court vote could not happen unless the school board 'certified' the new tax rate. 'Accordingly, when the School Board properly certifies a new rate, the Fiscal Court's role is ministerial; the discretion and decision-making power lies with the School Board — which is why it is the body that must give public notice prior to voting on whether to impose the additional tax,' the opinion said. 'Therefore, it is the opinion of this Office that the Fayette County School Board's May 27 vote to increase the occupational license tax was unlawful.' The board voted 3-2 to approve the tax increase of 0.25% about a week ago. The tax rate would have taken effect in January. The board approved a $848 million proposed budget with the tax increase that would cost residents an average of $13 more per month, local media outlets reported. However, Coleman's office wrote the resolution for the tax increase 'is void and of no effect.' 'Tax and spend government is a danger to Kentucky's future, especially when officials who should be accountable to Fayette County voters try to ignore the rules to raise taxes,' Coleman said in a statement. 'If the Fayette County School Board members believe they need more of Kentuckians' hard-earned dollars, they should clearly and publicly make their case before their own constituents.' Based in Lexington, Fayette County Public Schools is the second largest school district in the state with more than 41,000 students. Sen. Amanda Mays Bledsoe, a Lexington Republican, requested Coleman's office review the legality of the school board's vote. 'This validates what so many in our community, including myself, felt: Taxpayers were shut out of a huge decision about their own tax dollars,' Bledsoe said. 'I'm calling on the Fiscal Court to take no action today and for the school board to remedy this misuse of its authority. The board should table any further discussion of a tax increase until trust can be restored.' Consideration of the school board's tax increase request is on the agenda for the fiscal court's Thursday meeting. An FCPS representative did not immediately return an emailed request for comment Wednesday.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Will Medicaid changes ‘heal or hurt?' Kentuckians disagree in Louisville debate
From left, journalist Deborah Yetter, Jim Waters of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions and Emily Beauregard of Kentucky Voices for Health discuss Medicaid during a gathering of the Louisville Forum, May 15, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd) LOUISVILLE — As Republicans in Washington advanced a proposed Medicaid work requirement Wednesday, two Kentucky advocates speaking in Louisville disagreed on the wisdom of the policy. A House committee chaired by U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, approved a plan for trimming $625 billion in federal Medicaid spending over the next decade that includes new copays and work and reporting requirements. The vote is an early step in moving the changes, part of a massive tax and spending bill, through both chambers of Congress. The federal Medicaid work requirement would not take effect until 2029, under the bill approved by Guthrie's House Energy and Commerce Committee during a marathon session that lasted 25 hours. U.S. House panel passes GOP plan that cuts Medicaid by $625B, adds work requirement The federal-state Medicaid program pays for almost 1 in 3 Kentuckians' health care. The Louisville Forum already was planning to host a debate around the question: Will changes to Medicaid 'heal or hurt?' after Medicaid also took center stage in Kentucky's 2025 legislative session. Deborah Yetter, a Kentucky Hall of Fame journalist who writes for the Lantern, moderated the Wednesday panel between Jim Waters, president of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, and Emily Beauregard, executive director of Kentucky Voices for Health. Waters and Beauregard spent a large chunk of the debate discussing the ins and outs of Medicaid work requirements. During the legislative session Kentucky lawmakers added a mandated work requirement for Kentuckians between the ages of 18 and 60 who don't have dependents and are both 'physically and mentally able to work.' Waters said that 'there's going to be some hurt whenever you try to rein in a program that's really exploded in cost' and said Medicaid 'was intended to be for the truly disabled, indigent.' District of Columbia 38% Alaska 36% New Mexico 36% California 35% New York 34% Louisiana 34% Kentucky 31% Oregon 31% Hawaii 29% West Virginia 29% 50 states and D.C. 24% Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities 'It was not meant to be a destination,' he said. 'It was meant to help along the way.' 'Contrary to maybe what some people think, there is not an automated taxpayer machine there in Frankfort,' he said. 'I mean, taxpayers are not an endless source of resources, so resources are limited, and they need to be spent in a way that actually helps people.' Beauregard said 'we don't need work requirements for Medicaid' and said reporting requirements often lead to administrative hurdles that keep people from being able to prove their employment, such as hard-to-prove seasonal work or literacy issues. Beauregard said work requirements are 'short sighted' because 'it is a prerequisite to work that you are healthy.' 'While we do spend a decent amount of money on Medicaid, the cost of being uninsured is much greater — and it's not only greater to the individual, it's greater to our entire economy and to our health care system,' she said. For Waters, Medicaid is 'unsustainable' as it is. 'Don't we want fewer people on Medicaid? I think that should be the goal,' Waters said. 'Fewer people on Medicaid means when people are in the private workforce getting coverage from employers, are independent, are experiencing the dignity of work and effort,' he said. 'If everybody, pretty much, is working …. that's receiving Medicaid benefits now, like I've heard, and then it's a very small percentage that aren't, what's the problem with implementing a program that gets the rest of those folks onto an employer's payroll and off of the taxpayers' benefit plan.' Lawmakers have cited fraud prevention as a motivator to more thoroughly oversee and rein in Medicaid. Beauregard said 'there's very little fraud for individuals' and that fraud is 'mostly in the provider arena, and it's not widespread.' 'Individuals aren't able to take advantage of their Medicaid coverage for nonmedical purposes,' she said. 'You can't take your Medicaid card and use it to purchase groceries or go on a vacation. Very few people are getting a root canal for the fun of it.' Waters believes 'there's more fraud that we even know right now' and called on the newly established Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Board to 'be aggressive in looking at what fraud is happening and the extent of it.' 'Taxpayers deserve to know what that is, and to have somebody looking at that,' he said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hard choices face Kentucky Republican tasked with recommending Medicaid cuts
A pro-Medicaid message lights up the Capitol grounds as a U.S. House committee chaired by Kentuckian Brett Guthrie prepares this week to recommend budget savings that could affect the program that pays for almost 1.5 million Kentuckians' health care, May 7, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Photo byfor Caring Across Generations) As U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie prepares to lead a debate on the future of Medicaid, his home state of Kentucky has more at stake than most. Guthrie, R-Bowling Green, is chairman of a House committee that on Tuesday is set to start proposing $880 billion in federal budget savings over the next 10 years. Guthrie's assignment will be impossible, experts say, without cutting the federal-state program that pays for almost 1 in 3 Kentuckians' health care. 'Medicaid has become important to local economies throughout the state and a key pathway to health care for many Kentuckians,' says the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in a statement last week that also mentions the Chamber's 'long voiced concerns about the impact of rising Medicaid costs on Kentucky's finances.' 'Efforts to control Medicaid spending will be necessary,' says the pro-business group whose top recent priority has been continuing to lower Kentucky's income tax. 'Policymakers, however, will need to take a balanced approach with input from key stakeholders.' Guthrie, a West Point graduate and former state legislator, is not publicly discussing specifics ahead of the markup, a spokesperson for the committee said Friday. 'Chairman Guthrie and Energy and Commerce Republicans are ready to strengthen, secure, and sustain Medicaid for generations to come and for the Americans the program was intended to serve,' said Matt VanHyfte, the director of communications for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Sounding a common GOP theme, he said Medicaid was intended 'to assist the 'traditional population' which are expectant mothers, children, low-income seniors, and people with disabilities.' Medicaid was expanded beyond that traditional role in 2010 when Congress — with no Republican votes — enacted the Affordable Care Act, a law that became known as Obamacare. By then the number of uninsured had topped 46 million, nearing 1 in 5 Americans; medical bills were increasingly pushing sick people into bankruptcy as hospitals shifted costs onto the dwindling share of insured patients. District of Columbia 38% Alaska 36% New Mexico 36% California 35% New York 34% Louisiana 34% Kentucky 31% Oregon 31% Hawaii 29% West Virginia 29% 50 states and D.C. 24% Source: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities Under the Medicaid expansion, the federal government offered to pay 100% of the costs for state Medicaid programs to begin covering low-income, able-bodied adults who can't afford or who lack access to private health insurance. Kentucky, a poor state with lots of sick people, has aggressively embraced the new option, and that has 'changed the dynamics considerably,' says Mark Birdwhistell, an expert on Medicaid and the University of Kentucky's senior vice president for health and public policy. The Medicaid expansion has been 'a great benefit to the health care delivery system at the University of Kentucky and all over Kentucky, particularly Southeastern Kentucky,' Birdwhistell told the Lantern. 'It's been a salvation for small rural hospitals in Eastern Kentucky and good for health outcomes as well,' Birdwhistell said. The rate of uninsured Kentuckians fell from 14.4% in 2013 to 6.1% in 2015, the year after the Medicaid expansion took effect. In 2023, 5.6% of Kentuckians' were uninsured compared to 8% of the U.S. population. Birdwhistell has been spending a lot of time in Washington sharing his knowledge with Kentucky's congressional delegation and with staff of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services which oversees Medicaid, Medicare and the Children's Health Insurance Program. In an interview with the Lantern, Birdwhistell discussed some of the Medicaid proposals the Republicans who control Congress are considering as they look for savings to pay for continuing tax cuts enacted in 2017 during President Donald Trump's first term. The proposal that would be the 'most problematic' for Kentucky, Birdwhistell said, is one to lower the matching funds the federal government pays for the Medicaid expansion. After paying 100% of the expansion for a few years, the federal match was lowered to 90%, leaving states to pick up 10% of the expansion cost. By contrast, the federal government picks up 71% of the cost of insuring Kentucky's traditional Medicaid population. (Kentucky receives a higher federal match than most states because it's based on a state's per capita income and Kentucky's is comparatively low.) Of Kentucky's $19 billion Medicaid budget, almost $15 billion comes from the federal government and about $4 billion from state sources. If Congress decides to lower the expansion match to the lower share for the rest of the program, Kentucky would have to provide an additional $1.4 billion to continue covering the almost 500,000 people in the expansion, according to an estimate by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. 'It would be difficult for the General Assembly to come up with that amount of money,' said Birdwhistell. Birdwhistell said he understands why some members of Congress question the more generous federal match for the Medicaid expansion, but said, 'In Kentucky, in my opinion, the benefits outweigh the downside.' Another option being floated would impose per capita caps on federal funding for Medicaid, in essence a block grant based on the size of the covered population, which Birdwhistell said would likely cause negative impacts for the traditional Medicaid population especially the disabled and frail elderly, new mothers and babies who need neonatal intensive care. Under a cap, some patients could be denied care if their costs exceeded a designated amount, he said, making it difficult to administer and producing 'negative policy outcomes.' If a per capita cap is the Republicans' chosen alternative, Birdwhistell said it would be better to apply it to the expansion population who are healthier, younger and cheaper to insure. Among the almost 1 million Kentuckians covered by traditional Medicaid is Caden Plemons, 19, of Bowling Green. He has Down Syndrome and autism and is 'primarily nonverbal,' says his mother Rheanna Plemons who worries lawmakers will subject Medicaid to 'broad, sweeping cuts, without doing any research to ensure that it's not decreasing the standard of care for individuals with intellectual disabilities.' Caden also receives services through Kentucky Medicaid's Michell P. waiver, which helps people who have intellectual disabilities live more independently. Caden's community living supports include staff to help him with daily tasks like dressing and going to appointments and getting out to enjoy go carts and other activities. 'He's thriving in the community because of the services that we have received over the last 19 years,' Plemons said. Caden's waiver also covers respite care so Plemons and her husband can 'take a break every now and then.' 'Sometimes people don't realize: if you have a child who has a severe disability, such as my child, that's 24 hours a day care, seven days a week,' Plemons said. 'I work. My husband works full time. So if we want to take a break, even to go out to have dinner with just the two of us, then somebody's got to be there with Caden, even though he's 19 years old.' Another option under consideration for trimming Medicaid costs is a work requirement. Birdwhistell estimates that more than half of able-bodied Kentuckians covered by Medicaid — the working poor — already hold low-wage jobs. The income limit for most working-age adults to qualify for Medicaid is 138% of the federal poverty level. That works out to $44,367 a year for a family of four which 'in some areas of the state is quite a few people,' said Birdwhistell. Enforcing a Medicaid work requirement would require funding an expanded bureaucracy to keep up with new reporting demands and insure compliance, Birdwhistell said. The Republican-dominated Kentucky legislature this year enacted a Medicaid work requirement that will be up to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's administration to bring online. Critics view work requirements as a smokescreen for using red tape to push people off the Medicaid rolls. Megan Rorex, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist in Bowling Green, predicts new reporting demands would snag her Medicaid-covered clients. Many of them work multiple part-time jobs, often in the restaurant industry, and would lack the time or bandwidth to keep up with an additional layer of paperwork in a program that she considers already overcomplicated. 'Any bureaucratic policy that's unnecessary is a problem to navigate if you're already working multiple jobs. It adds another layer of stigma and stress,' she said. Some Republicans, including Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget and an author of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 agenda for the second Trump administration, want to limit states' use of levies on health care providers — called provider taxes — to leverage higher Medicaid funding from the federal government. Kentucky levies a number of provider taxes that bring additional federal Medicaid funds into the state and pay for state directed payments that increase hospitals' Medicaid compensation to levels that on average are what private insurers would pay for the same services. So far, congressional discussion has focused on capping provider taxes at 5% of hospital patient revenue which would not affect Kentucky because provider tax rates here are below 5%, Birdwhistell said. Kentucky is using these payments to incentivize quality improvements, such as more frequent well-child visits and screenings for disease. Hospitals must meet the quality objectives to qualify for the extra funding, which Birdwhistell says has been 'extremely successful' in transforming UK Healthcare into a 'value-based organization.' He said he's advising federal officials that Kentucky's use of provider taxes to improve quality are models worth replicating in other states. A complaint voiced by some Republican state lawmakers during this year's session in Frankfort is that Medicaid spending increases each year — almost $2.6 billion budgeted from Kentucky's General Fund in fiscal year 2024 — without producing improvements in health outcomes Birdwhistell said it takes a long time to realize the return on investment in health care. 'These are generational issues. It takes a person's lifetime before you can say what the savings were.' And Kentuckians are inching out of the nation's basement on some health indicators. In 2024, Kentucky advanced to 41st among the 50 states — up from 45th in 2016-2021 — in America's Health Rankings, an annual study by the United Healthcare Foundation based on a variety of health, behavioral and socioeconomic metrics. On the upside, The rate of colorectal screenings in Kentucky rose from 20th nationally in 2022 to 10th in 2024. Kentucky's obesity rank improved from 48th in 2022 to 40th in 2023. And Kentucky's drug-related deaths declined from 47th highest among the states in 2022 to 45th in 2024. Kentucky ranked 16th nationally in availability of primary care providers last year, down from 11th in 2023. The study also identifies plenty of room for improvement. Kentucky ranked 49th for adults with multiple chronic conditions in 2023 and 45th for percentage of households experiencing food insecurity in 2024. While Guthrie's role in potential Medicaid cuts is not expected to hurt his chances next year for reelection to a 10th term, Republicans representing swing districts in Congress could face a voter backlash, and some are refusing to vote for Medicaid rollbacks pushed by more conservative colleagues. Republicans' narrow margin in the House means even a few defectors could doom budget provisions, while a few midterm defeats next year could give Democrats control of the chamber. Candidate Trump promised to protect Medicaid, and the White House reiterated that promise in March, but Trump also is urging Congress to enact the House budget blueprint that he calls the 'big beautiful bill' — goals that appear to be in conflict. Guthrie will be a 'key player,' says Birdwhistell, as his committee works this week to move the House budget proposal closer to a vote by the full House. Tres Watson, a former spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky, echoed the talking point that Guthrie and many Republicans are working to return Medicaid to its original, pre-Affordable Care Act, 'reining in what many Republicans view as out of control entitlement spending, getting away from what was originally intended to be … a trampoline, not a mattress,' Watson said. Kentucky's top Democrat, Gov. Andy Beshear, has joined Democratic governors in calling on Congress to protect Medicaid funding. In a Democratic Governors Association press call last week, Beshear, the group's vice chair, told reporters that 'gutting Medicaid would impact families in a substantial way.' He said half of Kentucky children and 70% of long-term care costs in Kentucky are covered by Medicaid. 'Massive cuts to Medicaid is an attack on rural America, and if they do it, these Republican representatives and senators are saying they don't believe that the people of rural America deserve the same access to health care as those in urban America,' Beshear said. 'Certainly it would devastate my state, but it would devastate so many of our communities in every single state across the United States.' The fate of rural hospitals is bound to weigh on Republicans who were sent to Washington from red states. Even if hospitals are not forced to close, Medicaid cuts could force hospitals to lose services, says Ben Chandler, who retired last year as president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Before that he was Kentucky attorney general and auditor and represented the state's 6th Congressional District from 2004 to 2013. For Chandler the debate highlights the need for broad reform that would move the U.S. away from relying on employers to provide health coverage through a for-profit insurance industry that wields enormous influence on Capitol Hill. 'It's ridiculous we don't have Medicare for all or whatever you want to call it,' said Chandler who voted against the Affordable Care Act in 2010 because a proposal for a government-run 'public option' health insurance plan was removed from the bill as a concession to the insurance industry and its supporters. Chandler called the U.S. system 'accidental,' born of World War II wage caps that inspired employers to compete for workers by offering a hospitalization benefit. The U.S. spends twice as much on health care per capita as other large, wealthy nations while U.S. health outcomes are far worse than those in other nations. Says Chandler, 'It's the only system in the world like it.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
AG Coleman tries to prevent 'increased costs' on KY vehicles
HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) – Attorney General Russell Coleman has called on the U.S. Senate to block California's attempt to 'push' its 'agenda' on the nation's automotive industry. AG Coleman says in a letter signed by 26 attorneys general to U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, he encouraged Senators to use the 'Congressional Review Act' to rollback an EPA rule that would increase the costs of Kentuckians' cars and trucks. I-69 rehab project continues in Hopkins County on May 3 AG Coleman explains in the final hours of President Biden's term, the EPA issued a rule approving California's attempt to ban gasoline-only cars by 2035. The Biden Administration's EPA had previously approved California's rules to require that half of all heavy-duty trucks be electric by 2035. The letter raises additional concerns now that California is trying to increase that mandate to include all trucks. Southbound U.S. 41 restricted to one lane 'One state cannot dictate how the other 49 live. It's bad policy and it's simply unfair,' said Attorney General Coleman. 'Along with AG colleagues from more than half the states, we encourage the U.S. Senate to reverse the radical legacy of the Biden Administration.' The letter can be viewed below. 04.24-FINAL-California-Waiver-LetterDownload 'Eyewitness News. Everywhere you are.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Yahoo
Kentuckians have the right to delete '23andMe' data after bankruptcy declaration: Here's how
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — Attorney General Russell Coleman urged Kentuckians to delete personal information on their accounts on a popular genealogical history website after its bankruptcy announcement. In a news release on Wednesday, Coleman urged state residents to delete their 23andMe accounts to protect their genetic information from possibly being sold or leaked online. He reminded the public of the Kentucky Genetic Information Privacy Act, which gives users the right to delete their accounts and genetic data, as well as the right to ask for the destruction of any samples of genetic material the company has. Boyle County educators, students cope with internet outage Kentucky, Mississippi aim to end personal income taxes Kentucky Humane Society helps animal shelters across the state impacted by severe storms 'We have laws in place that protect Kentuckians' rights and their personal information,' said Coleman. 'Every Kentuckian who did business with 23andMe should consider taking the proper steps to safeguard their sensitive information.' State officials said those who wish to delete their account can do so by taking the following steps: Log into your 23andMe account on their website. Go to the 'Settings' section of your profile. Scroll to a section labeled '23andMe Data' at the bottom of the page. Click 'View' next to '23andMe Data.' Download your data: If you want a copy of your genetic data for personal storage, choose the option to download it to your device before proceeding. Scroll to the 'Delete Data' section. Click 'Permanently Delete Data.' Confirm your request: You'll receive an email from 23andMe; follow the link in the email to confirm your deletion request. Bourbon County double murder suspect found naked, covered in blood, on US 60 The attorney general's office said in a news release that if you previously chose to have your saliva sample and other SNA stored by 23andMe and want to opt out of that preference, you can do so under the 'Preferences' tab on your account settings page. Kentuckians who used 23andMe can also withdraw consent to third-party teachers using your genetic data from the account settings page under 'Research and Product Consents,' per a news release. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
