Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has vetoed portions of a state spending bill that he says will prevent budget cuts to a variety of state programs.
Beshear vetoed portions of House Bill 510, whose chief purpose was to spend an extra $68 million the state received in a settlement with tobacco companies. Lawmakers spent $23.5 million of that money on preschool, agriculture development and health care programs, and they spent $26.6 million to plug an estimated deficit.
But state budget officials now say the deficit has grown to $37.8 million. The original bill called for automatic budget cuts to fix the budget if that happened. Beshear on Monday vetoed a portion of the bill to prevent those automatic budget cuts. Instead, Beshear said his actions ensure the affected programs will have access to some of the extra money.