FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky’s new GOP majority in the state Legislature has voted to tell the state’s Republican governor that if he wants to spend taxpayer money, he has to ask them first.
Gov. Matt Bevin on Monday vetoed a portion of House Bill 471, which said the state Legislature alone has the final say in who gets to spend up to $100 million of settlement money from a lawsuit against Volkswagen. On Wednesday, state lawmakers voted unanimously to override that veto, so it becomes law anyway.
Bevin vetoed four bills total, and the Legislature voted to override all of them. It’s the first time the Kentucky Legislature has overridden a governor’s veto since 2013.
“The Legislature is the only body that can appropriate money, and we wanted to make that real clear,” Republican House Speaker Jeff Hoover said.
Lawmakers also voted to override bills about mental health care, naming roads and regulating drones. Hoover said it was important for lawmakers to override the governor so “that we maintain legislative independence.”
Bevin said he vetoed part of the Volkswagen bill because the state Legislature is only in session for a few months every year and he did not want to wait for them to spend the money. In a veto message, he pledged to strictly follow the requirements placed on the money as part of the settlement over Volkswagen cheating the emissions tests on its cars.
But lawmakers have been hesitant to hand the governor too much power when it comes to the budget. Last year, the state Supreme Court ruled the governor broke the law when he ordered spending cuts at public colleges and universities without asking the Legislature for permission.
Republicans are now firmly in control of both chambers after winning a majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in nearly 100 years. But Bevin surprised GOP leaders with his vetoes earlier this week, including a veto of Senate Bill 91 that would allow a judge to order some people with mental illnesses into outpatient treatment.
The law would apply only to people who have been involuntarily committed at least twice in the past year, have a diagnosis of a serious mental illness and have symptoms of anosognosia - a condition where people do not realize they are sick.
The bill is named “Tim’s Law” after Tim Morton, a Lexington man diagnosed with schizophrenia who often refused treatment and was hospitalized 37 times before he died in 2014. On Wednesday, mental health advocates rallied outside the Senate chambers, urging lawmakers to override the veto. It passed the Senate 34-3 and the House 95-0 earlier this month.
Bevin vetoed the bill because he said it would restrict people’s liberties “simply based on a belief that the individual might not otherwise comply with his or her mental health treatment.”
But Ellen Doyle, a 52-year-old Louisville resident with schizoaffective disorder, said she spent years living on the streets before she got the treatment she needed at Bridgehaven Mental Health Services in Louisville at the urging of her family.
“I couldn’t have done it unless I had people who could kind of make those decisions for me at the time,” she said.
Votes in the House and Senate to override the veto were met with cheers from mental health advocates who watched from the galleries.
Republican Senate President Robert Stivers said the vetoes do not indicate a rift between GOP leaders and the governor.
“The Constitution and the process is working and we just have a differing opinion on the appropriateness of the legislation,” Stivers said. “Overall, we have had a great working relationship and have had a wonderful session.”
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