FRANKFORT, Ky. — A day after revealing his official budget proposal for the next two fiscal years, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear sat down with WHAS11 to discuss what's ahead for his second term -- and whether his plans beyond that include a run for national office.
WHAS11 started by asking Beshear, whose rocky relationship with the Republican-led state legislature has been well documented, what makes him confident GOP leadership will consider an 11% pay raise for public school educators across Kentucky.
"Because all our surrounding states are doing it," Beshear said, citing Tennessee, which this year passed its largest teacher salary increase in state history. "That's who we're competing with."
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Beshear said there are already 'good conversations' happening between his administration and Republican lawmakers in power in Frankfort. In a one-on-one interview Tuesday, Beshear doubled down on his reasoning from the day after he secured a second term.
"What you've heard about our relationship and the willingness to pass things were from a period of time when I was going to be up for reelection; I'm now term limited," the governor said. "They don't have to worry about a win or a loss for me. It's a chance for the relationship to change too."
When asked which state Republicans Beshear has spoken to directly, he said 'both House and Senate leadership,' including Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers -- who was one of the few GOP lawmakers in attendance at Beshear's inauguration on Dec. 12.
"We don't have a regular meeting set up, but [Stivers] certainly reaches out, and I reach out," Beshear said. "There are some ideas out there, that weren't brought to us, that may end up in their budget that I think could be dynamite, could work really well. And so I look forward to hearing about those too."
One area Beshear and Stivers could potentially see eye-to-eye on is their view of Kentucky's SEEK formula, which had been used to decide how much money the state legislature invests in each school district for the last 30-plus years.
In an interview with WHAS11 in November, Stivers hinted the state funding model itself could be outdated and may soon need updating -- citing inflation.
And in Beshear's budget address on Monday night, he proposed putting more dollars into the formula itself, increasing funds per student.
"I think what [Stivers] is also talking about is the growing inequity between different school districts and what we could do to address that," Beshear said Tuesday. "And that's something I'm certainly open to talking about."
WHAS11 News also asked Beshear if he'd consider running for office outside of Kentucky following his second term's completion, which he already has publicly committed to finishing.
Beshear, 46, didn't rule it out.
"Listen, this is a job that I love – I can't imagine any of those will be possibilities in the future," he said. "And the only way I would do it is if I felt that I could make some extra difference. I don't have any plans beyond these next four years. It's the first time in my life where I don't know what's next, but I'm also not worried about it -- for the first time in my life."
State lawmakers will return to Frankfort in the new year, as the legislative session kicks off on Jan. 2.
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