Here are Gov. Beshear’s key vetoes overridden by the 2024 KY General Assembly

Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear didn’t like them, but that doesn’t mean more than 20 bills he vetoed won’t become law.

The Republican-led state House and Senate last week wasted no time in overriding the vast majority of Beshear’s vetoes on several GOP priority bills.

In addition to the vetoes below, House and Senate leaders ruled that Beshear did not have the legal authority to issue a line-item veto of House Bill 8 because it was a revenue, not appropriations, bill. Because they consider the veto moot, the House forwarded the bill to the Secretary of State’s office without any override.

The governor disagrees, according to spokesperson Crystal Staley.

“The governor’s actions were legal and constitutional, and the administration has already won a similar legal case on this matter,” she wrote.

Additionally, the legislature overrode Beshear’s veto of House Bill 18 earlier in the legislative session. That bill will prohibit local communities from passing bans on landlords discriminating sources of income, such as Section 8 voucher discrimination.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council was considering its own ban before the legislature passed the bill.

High-profile bills

House Bill 5, called the Safer Kentucky Act by supporters, is a sweeping anti-crime bill with tougher penalties for many offenses and an estimated price tag of more than $1 billion over the next decade.

In his veto message, Beshear said HB 5 included “some good parts,” including a new statute on carjacking. But the governor objected to many other portions, including criminal penalties for public homelessness and much longer sentences for a wide array of crimes without any additional jail or prison funding.

Several Democratic lawmakers fruitlessly asked their Republican colleagues on Friday to uphold Beshear’s veto.

Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, said her city has more than 2,400 homeless people, roughly 500 of whom are children.

“We all know that being homeless is not a crime,” Camuel said. “But criminalizing homelessness only makes it worse, and it adds to an individual’s or family’s misery.”

Republican sponsors of the bill held a ceremonial signing Monday with Secretary of State Michael Adams signing the veto override.

House Bill 7 would legalize and regulate self-driving cars on Kentucky roads. It was vetoed by Beshear on the grounds that Kentucky did not have enough time to test such vehicles before they were legalized. However, sponsor Rep. Josh Bray, R-Mt. Vernon, has pointed to the success of other states in legalizing them.

For the second year in a row, the Senate advanced legislation that would help protect fossil fuel-fired power plants in Senate Bill 349. The bill would increase regulatory hurdles for utility companies looking to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants; the bill has been advocated for by the state’s rural electric cooperatives and coal industry interests.

The commission would likely extend the life of coal plants that are no longer economical for certain companies — a point that bill opponents, the president of Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, have said will be costly to ratepayers and make it harder to transition to renewable energy.

In one of the last key efforts of Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, Senate Bill 299 reshaping the state’s regulatory landscape for horse racing and gaming, was overridden by both chambers easily. The override came over the governor’s objections that it would require the state to shift oversight of a key part of the economy too quickly.

“Any effort to create an independent corporation should be drafted, vetted and approved over months. This version had just days. In its current form, it endangers horse racing, sports wagering and charitable gaming,” Beshear wrote in his veto message.

House Bill 622 got significant media attention for passage during a time of transition and health questions for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It will take the governor out of the process of replacing a U.S. Senate vacancy and change it to a pure special election model, similar to how vacancies for U.S. Congress seats are filled in Kentucky. It made it past the governor’s veto easily in both chambers.

House Bills

A raft of other House bills were overriden on Friday, with both chambers passing every bill that was vetoed in full.

• Almost all line items on budget bills House Bill 1 and 6 — the $2.7 billion one-time appropriations bills and the continuing state Executive Branch budget — were overridden by both chambers. The only one not overridden was an analysis of all active and inactive coal mining sites in Kentucky to be carried out by the Department for Natural Resources. Beshear argued this was an unfunded mandate that would overburden the department. The legislature ended up overriding a veto attempting to erase language mistakenly sending $200 million to the incorrect agency for a grant program. Legislative staff has said they intend to fix the issue this session.

• House Bill 136, which limits environmental audits that Jefferson County can carry out, was vetoed as “another attack by the General Assembly on Jefferson County.”

• House Bill 388 would make all Louisville Metro Government elections nonpartisan, among other things. Beshear called it “antidemocratic” to make such a local change without approval of Jefferson County voters. Republicans argue that making elections nonpartisan would require mayors and councils to seek votes beyond traditional Democratic strongholds.

• House Bill 513 would require legislative approval for the removal or installation of statues and art in the Capitol rotunda. Beshear vetoed it as an encroachment on the Executive Branch, and pointed out that under the bill the Historic Properties Advisory Commission would have had no authority to remove the statue of former president of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis as they did in 2020.

• House Bill 723 would set up a commission with some power over a large federal grant program, with a slight majority of it being appointed by the other statewide constitutional officers, who are Republicans. Beshear alleged that it was unconstitutional, as the governor did appoint a majority of the board.

• Beshear vetoed House Bill 804, which critics have said allows groups to strategically avoid Franklin Circuit Court, because he claims it is unconstitutional like similar efforts have been found in the past.

Senate Bills

Though relatively fewer Senate bills were vetoed, either chamber didn’t delay in overriding all six Senate Bills that were vetoed.

• Senate Bill 16, or the so-called “ag gag” bill that makes it a crime to record a concentrated animal feeding operation or commercial food manufacturing or processing facility without the facility’s owner’s consent.

• Senate Bill 198 would create the Kentucky Nuclear Energy Development Authority. Beshear said he supported some of the aims of focusing on including nuclear in Kentucky’s energy mix, but that the board’s composition leaning towards private industry which he argues violates the state constitution.

Reporter John Cheves contributed to this report.