The conflict deals with what's known as the Commonwealth Office of the Ombudsman, a government watchdog agency that was previously attached to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, or CHFS.
Kentucky lawmakers moved the Ombudsman to the Auditor's Office and are now requesting full access to the database for the watchdog.
But Beshear says there's one problem — laws already on the books that he says restrict access outside of the cabinet. He says the cabinet doesn't feel comfortable handing over that access until the law is clear.
"And the challenge here is, I'm sure the General Assembly intended for the Ombudsman to be able to do what they need to do, and I support them having the access, but we have a written statute that is on the books that says we can't provide certain access," the governor told reporters during his Thursday briefing.
Beshear said the dispute is not a political one, and he agrees with the request from the Ombudsman. But until the General Assembly meets again and changes the law, he says his administration and the Auditor's Office need to come to an agreement.
Critics claim the legislature's "clear intent" was for the Ombudsman's office to have access to the database, calling it a "common sense reform" to "end the practice of the cabinet investigating itself."
