Beshear, auditor clash over executive overspending allegations

The dispute began with findings released by Auditor Allison Ball, with her office pointing to more than $46 million in advertising and out-of-state travel costs as lavish spending on the taxpayer's dime.

Responding to the findings Thursday, Beshear questioned their status as a report, claiming his office was never contacted in the process. The auditor's office says the expenditure review was never meant to be a formal audit.

"That testimony was wrong and they didn't ask questions because it was merely a political attack," Beshear said. "If you're in the auditor's office, just do the work. That's all we're asking. We don't have anything to hide."

The governor then rolled off a long list of items from the auditor's office testimony, offering brief, pointed rebuttals to each one.

Take a six-figure spend by the Office of Medical Cannabis on a media campaign. Beshear said the auditor got the number and purpose wrong, saying it was $93-thousand for training videos, in part, meant to inform law enforcement of what's legal and what's not.

Ball's office, on the other hand, said the governor mischaracterized testimony surrounding the $339,000 item, adding that the spending in question was not bid out. Beshear's response...

"Her person testified that this didn't go through a competitive bidding process. That's a real accusation. That's wrong. The work was done under a master agreement that was competitively bid and awarded."

In a statement to WUKY, the auditor's office wrote, "In short, the governor failed to address all of the most concerning expenditures we testified about, and he has provided no proof to support his assertions about the expenditures he talked about today."

The tone of the responses signals a potentially lengthy dispute ahead.

Beshear's Defense

Hear Beshear's full response starting at 52:00 minutes in the video below.

Auditor's Office Full Response

The General Assembly asked us to do a review of the state accounting system, called eMARS, to report to it what Governor Beshear and his appointees say they are spending state and federal dollars on. Everything we reported in our presentation came directly from eMARS as logged by Beshear administration officials. If the Governor’s criticism of this presentation is that it is not a formal audit, we never said it was. This is simply an expenditure review as to what is reported by the Governor’s administration in eMARS.

The Governor commented on seven specific expenditures that we testified about. To start, what is interesting is that he ignored many of the most concerning expenditures we noted in our presentation. Here are specific responses, with supporting documentation to each expenditure he commented on:

1. The Governor claimed that we testified that the Office of Medical Cannabis spent $339k for a media campaign. That was not our testimony. We specifically stated, “CHFS’s Office of the Secretary and Office of Medical Cannabis paid one vendor $339,365.90 for” advertising services, examples of which are some of the services quoted in our PowerPoint. What we were talking about are the expenditures listed in the attached spreadsheet called “Doe Anderson Expenditures.” We have also included sample invoices showing examples of the expenditures we talked about. Finally, we have included the document that shows that the Office of Medical Cannabis did not bid out for the services it obtained from Doe Anderson (“No Bid Justification for Doe Anderson”). That form is called the SPR1 form, and it is used to exempt purchases by agencies from the competitive bidding requirements; you can see on the form that the “Type of Request” was a “Non-IT No Bid Request.”

2. The Governor claimed that we criticized DCBS for paying $6,000 to the Lexington Legends for 435 foster kids to attend a baseball game. That is false. We’ve attached the invoice for the $6k expenditure to the Lexington Legends that DCBS itself uploaded in support of the transaction that we are referring to. The invoice states the transaction was for “sponsorship-sponsor game, 30 second commercial during every home game, 5 concourse display nights.” And the transaction was coded in the “Advertising” section of eMARS. There is no evidence that we’ve been given that shows this expenditure was to take foster children to a baseball game. We also pointed out this expenditure in the comment letter we submitted on December 22, 2025, about 922 KAR 1:565 (2025.12.22 – FINAL APA Comment Letter 922 KAR 1_565), that regulation being DCBS’s proposed kinship care regulation, to which DCBS is legally required to respond. We have yet to receive a response to any of the expenditures we pointed out in the comment letter.

3. The Governor admitted to DCBS spending $15k for a meeting at the Natural Bridge. This comes at the same time that the Governor lowered KTAP benefits in Kentucky by 35%, https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/every-penny-counts-kentucky-kinship-care-families-about-see-benefits-cut#:~:text=Increased%20demand%20and%20limited%20resources,according%20to%20Kentucky%20Youth%20Advocates, and is refusing to execute SB 151 for the benefit of Kentucky’s kinship care families, https://kentuckylantern.com/2025/12/22/advocate-and-auditor-raise-concerns-about-kentucky-kinship-care-proposal/, because he says that DCBS doesn’t have the money to do both of those things.

4. The Governor claimed that DMS did not spend $198k for a media campaign. Attached is the invoice showing that expenditure for that campaign.

5. The Governor made claims about our testimony about the alleged black market of illegal licenses being sold to undocumented noncitizens. We clearly stated at the presentation and in our PowerPoint that this was an “allegation” based on public reporting. The Governor ignored that part of our testimony.

6. The Governor made a claim about the $34k Medicaid provider forum that we noted in our presentation. Attached is the invoice for that forum (“Medicaid Meal”). We have yet to see any evidence supporting the Governor’s claims about that forum.

7. The Governor claimed that a significant portion of DCBS’s $915k in legal services that we noted are for court-ordered payments. Like with the $6k Lexington Legends expenditure, you can see that we pointed out this expenditure in our December 22, 2025 comment letter, again, to which we have yet to receive a response.