The Democratic governor's proposal offers an early glimpse into some of his priorities for the next two-year state budget — if he wins another term this November. The budget will ultimately be shaped by the Republican-dominated legislature during the 2024 session.
Beshear's plan comes about a month after his Republican challenger, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, unveiled his own proposal which includes awarding recruitment and retention bonuses to bolster police forces.
The governor wants to shift all statewide law enforcement pension plans back to defined pension benefits, fund upgrading body armor and boost training stipends for officers — including making part-time officers eligible for the stipend.
“With a historic budget surplus, there is no excuse not to provide the help that is needed, the best equipment to all law enforcement,” the governor said at a news conference. “Heroes like these deserve the best wages, the best benefits, the best training. And that is exactly what my budget proposal will do.”
The governor proposed an additional $2,500 pay raise for a group of officers that includes state police troopers and vehicle enforcement officers. It follows up on the large pay raise previously awarded to state troopers — a bipartisan policy supported by Beshear and lawmakers.
Other parts of Beshear's plan would raise the current $4,300 training stipend to $4,800 and provide grant funding — from a $20 million fund — for body armor to better protect law officers.
"If any of them face the worst of the worst, at least they have the best of the best body armor protecting them,” Beshear said.
Public safety issues have risen to the forefront of Kentucky’s closely watched gubernatorial campaign.
Beshear preceded Cameron as Kentucky’s attorney general, and the bitter rivals are trying to one-up the other in touting their crime-fighting and police-friendly records.
Cameron touted his plan Wednesday as a better road map to combat crime.
“I am still the only candidate in this race with a plan to reduce crime,” the attorney general said in a statement. “And I am the only candidate in this race who actually has the relationships in the legislature to deliver.”
If elected, the Republican challenger has said the first budget he presents to lawmakers would include working to develop $5,000 recruitment and retention bonuses for law enforcement.
Meanwhile, Beshear is touting the upswing in the ranks of state police. When the next cadet class graduates, the number of sworn troopers will grow to about 940. That’s the highest number of troopers employed since 2006, with applications surging from people wanting to join, he said Wednesday.
Cameron has proposed requiring pursuit of the death penalty against anyone convicted of murdering a police officer. He pledged to work with lawmakers to pass a wiretapping law to support investigations of drug-cartel and gang-related crime. And he vowed to push for a standalone carjacking law.
While Cameron has attacked the incumbent's crime-fighting record, a recent law enforcement report showed that overall serious crime rates fell across Kentucky in 2022 — with double-digit declines in reports of homicides, robberies and drug offenses.
Cameron also blasted the governor’s decision to allow the early release of some nonviolent inmates during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some people released committed new crimes, Cameron said. Beshear has noted that more than 20 governors from both parties took the same action to release low-level, nonviolent inmates near the end of their sentences to help ease the spread of the virus in prisons.