LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Kentucky governor vetoed a bill that would have merged Louisville's Public Defender's Office with Kentucky's Department of Public Advocacy.
Both Metro Government and the state fund Louisville's Public Defender's Office.
However, the bill would remove the funding the office receives from Metro Government.
Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed the measure and expressed concern over how the state would fund the office. That is something Louisville's Public Defender's union emphasized.
"This doesn't make sense for the budget," public defender Cat Vining said. "If we don't have any actual plan about what's going to happen. We don't even know how it's going to affect the budget. We have no plan for the budget. We're really hoping that it feels very common sense to use to see that this bill is not good for anyone."
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Jason Nemes, said the state should have no problem absorbing the costs associated with merging Louisville's Public Defender's Office with the state.
"What happens right now is the state pays for two-thirds of the cost and the county pays about a third of the cost approximately. And what we're going to be doing now is the state will pay for the full cost," he said.
When WHAS11 FOCUS reporter John Charlton asked how much the city financed, Nemes answered $4.5 million. He said it's not too much for the state to absorb either.
"If that's in the overall scheme of things, not much at all. And it's the right thing to do. It's a state responsibility," Nemes said.
The legislature still has an opportunity to override the governor's veto after the recess period.
Nemes said he expects they will override the governor's veto, and confidently added the legislature will override all the governor's vetoes.
Read part of the Kentucky Public Advocacy Commission and the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender statement below. Click here to read their full statement:
The passage of HB 568 on March 16, 2023, represents the culmination of a decades-long effort to unify the statewide public defender system and consolidate indigent defense services in Kentucky under the Department of Public Advocacy (DPA). This legislation will “advance the equality, effectiveness and efficiency of public defense” throughout the state.
However, Jefferson County was the only one of Kentucky’s 120 counties at that time which was statutorily required to establish and fund a full-time public defender program. That requirement was legally suspect from the outset and, as DPA grew and evolved, it became increasingly difficult to justify it from a political, structural management, equitable and economic standpoint. Funding was an annual struggle for the Louisville office and, realistically, a separate, independent office and operation wasn’t sustainable. Consolidation has long been considered inevitable by past and current leadership in Frankfort and Louisville, dating back to the early 1980s. There has always been a recognition that it was never a question of whether merger would occur, only when.
Read the Louisville Public Defender's union statement below:
We appreciate Governor Beshear hearing the concerns from the employees of the Louisville Public Defender’s Office and vetoing HB 568. We agree with his statement that this merger should not be done hastily with no analysis of the budgetary impact. We hope any discussions on a merger between the Louisville Public Defender’s Office and the Department of Public Advocacy going forward include a financial and transitional plan with meaningful input from all stakeholders.
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