Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball has asked the Franklin Circuit Court to rule that the Beshear administration must implement an unfunded law passed in 2024 that aimed to give much-needed relief to kinship care families.
Ball, a Republican, filed a lawsuit Thursday after a year of back-and-forth between the Republican-controlled legislature and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration over Senate Bill 151.
The law — on paper but not yet in reality — allows relatives who take temporary custody of a child, when abuse or neglect is suspected, to later become eligible for foster care payments.
Ball’s lawsuit names Beshear and Eric Friedlander, the outgoing secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS).
Ball’s lawsuit, among other things, asks the court to declare that “to abide by their constitutional duty to execute the law, Governor Beshear and CHFS must do what it takes to execute all of the General Assembly’s laws using the funding they have.”
Norma Hatfield, who is raising two grandchildren and is a longtime advocate for kinship care families in Kentucky, is “thrilled” by Ball’s lawsuit.
“I’ve been waiting for somebody to do something. It’s just been extremely frustrating,” Hatfield told the Lantern. “I am just thrilled that she’s taken this on for these kinship families.”
Ball said in a statement that the suit is “about doing what is right for Kentucky’s most vulnerable children and their caregivers. They deserve transparency, accountability, and meaningful action.”
Crystal Staley, Beshear’s spokeswoman, reiterated that he supports the bill.
“Lawmakers had many opportunities to deliver the funding during both the 2024 and 2025 legislative sessions, but chose not to,” Staley said. “It is simple: The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled the state cannot implement programs and policies if it doesn’t have the funding to do so. It’s disappointing the auditor would file a taxpayer-funded lawsuit without even attempting to speak with the administration about the issue first.”
‘Tortured reading’ of the law
CHFS officials said it would cost $20 million to implement the law, which was not appropriated by the General Assembly when it passed. Lawmakers have criticized the administration for not finding the money in its existing budget.
While the law has remained in limbo many Kentuckians raising minor relatives must make do without the level of government assistance that foster families receive.
The Beshear administration has cited the state Constitution and two court cases, including a 2005 state Supreme Court decision, that it says precludes the executive branch from spending money the legislature has not appropriated.
In her Thursday lawsuit, Ball calls Beshear’s interpretation of that case, Fletcher v. Commonwealth, a “tortured reading” of the law.
“As the policymaking body and holder of the power of the purse that determines the proper level of funding to give state agencies to carry out the Commonwealth’s laws, the General Assembly says that Governor Beshear and CHFS have more than enough money to carry out SB 151 and must do so,” the lawsuit says.
The legislature enacted a new two-year state budget this year but took no action to appropriate the money the Beshear administration insists is needed.
An estimated 59,000 Kentucky children are in what’s commonly called kinship care. Research shows that staying with family has better outcomes for children, but government financial support for kinship care has been lacking in part because caregivers make an important decision hastily, under stress and without all the information they need.
When the state removes a child from a home, grandparents and other family members often choose to take temporary custody rather than have the child go into state custody. State custody is the first step toward foster care.
That first decision is permanent under current law which has excluded kinship caregivers who take temporary custody from ever receiving the $750 a month that foster parents receive for each child.
Hatfield hopes this lawsuit can settle the debate over the 2005 Supreme Court decision for good, she said.
“If the cabinet and the governor are going to keep citing this, and the legislature doesn’t agree with the interpretation that the cabinet and the governor’s making, then we are going to have this problem in the future,” she said.
Lawsuit cites ‘blatant disregard’ of Constitution
In October, Ball’s office announced an inquiry into the issue aimed at discovering what funds, if any, the cabinet could use to implement the law.
In her lawsuit, Ball says the Beshear administration officials “refuse to even cooperate” with the inquiry, using the same logic used to not implement SB151.
“To rectify this blatant disregard of their constitutional duty and their obstruction of the (Auditor of Public Account’s) investigatory authority — obstruction that, to the APA’s knowledge, no governor or executive branch agency has ever committed in the history of the Commonwealth — the APA is here to ask this court to remind Governor Beshear and CHFS of their constitutional duty to execute and obey the law,” the lawsuit states.
The impasse between the Democratic governor and Republican legislature on this issue sends just one message to Hatfield, she said: “I see them saying, ‘I won’t move one inch, even though grandma’s losing thousands of dollars for that child. I’m not moving one inch.’”
That’s “shameful,” she said.
“Politically, isn’t it better in the long run to show that you’ve stepped in for that grandmother, you’ve stepped in for that child, and you have a success story?” Hatfield asked. “Instead of putting up a barrier saying, ‘I am right and I do nothing’?”
--30--
Written by Sarah Ladd. Cross-posted from the Kentucky Lantern.
