Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear did not veto budget language earlier this spring defunding ObamaCare in the Bluegrass State because, he said, federal funds would be available to fund it throughout the two year budget cycle.
That was a lie and he just admitted it in writing.
In an executive order filed with Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes late yesterday, Beshear attempted for the third time to administratively create the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange with the following admission:
"WHEREAS, operation of kynect in Kentucky will be funded entirely with federal funds until January 1, 2015, at which time its operations will be wholly funded from revenues generated by and through the Exchange." (emphasis added)
Generating revenue "by and through the Exchange" would require the creation of a tax and an appropriation, neither of which can the governor do on his own. Beshear's two previous attempts to create the exchange by temporary reorganization executive order, which is what this is, failed in the 2013 and 2014 General Assemblies when the legislature declined to ratify them as required by the relevant statute KRS 12.028. Subsection 5 of the same law forbids the governor from putting its provisions into effect until the next session of the General Assembly. He has now violated this law three times, despite stating on federal grant applications requesting over $200 million in federal funds that the exchange had been legally created.
Two current lawsuits in state court seek to clarify the constitutional issues limiting Beshear's authority in this matter. They are 13-SC-652 and 13-SC-667.
