Kentucky's state Senate voted Monday to stop Treasurer Jonathan Miller's raid on the General Fund by removing a payment to his bankrupt Kentucky's Affordable Prepaid Tuition program from the House budget bill.
Despite Miller's insinuations that the removed payment represented savings dollars of Kentucky families participating in the program, the $13.7 million actually was taxpayer money not intended to shore up the KAPT deficit. That money would have to be removed from elsewhere in the budget. KAPT has consistently lost money on investments and squandered millions on promotional expenses since 2001.
Billed as a program to help Kentucky families pay for future higher education expenses at current prices, KAPT would only be sustainable if investment returns exceeded tuition cost increases and KAPT expenses. Miller's response to the Senate's refusal to fund the bail out of his program has been extreme: "(It) is inexcusable, unconstitutional, and immoral," Miller said, claiming falsely that KAPT is "financially healthy" and that the Senate was using KAPT money to fund a basketball gym.
As presently structured, KAPT can most accurately be described as an entitlement program to help middle- and upper-income families pay for college expenses. Miller states that shortfalls in the program can be covered by the nearly-worthless Unclaimed Property Fund, which isn't true.
