In total, the extra funds amount to $781 million that would have normally gone to the state's Rainy Day Fund. But Beshear says he's redirecting a portion of those funds to erase a cut to Medicaid provider reimbursement rates, which would have put a variety of services at risk.
"My administration will apply $255 million from these funds to close the Medicaid gap and reverse the General Assembly's cuts," Beshear said Wednesday. "This means the providers and services that our families rely on will not be at risk this year. There will be no 4% cut."
The cuts, which could have put disability services in jeopardy, led to a large rally in Frankfurt by families and other advocates.
While Beshear's actions may allow some of those rallygoers to breathe a little easier this fiscal year, Health Cabinet Secretary Dr. Steven Stack cautioned that a second round of even deeper cuts is still on the books, and the General Assembly would need to take further action to ward off those reductions.
"Legislative action remains necessary when they come back in 2027. The cuts in 2028 are even larger than those that were in 2027," he warned.
While Beshear has pinned the blame for the cuts on the Republican-led General Assembly, GOP leaders have said they gave Beshear flexibility to protect priority services. So far, they have not signaled a legal challenge to his actions.