Kentucky Auditor Finds ‘Concerning Luxury’ Spending By Democrat Governor
Kentucky’s Republican auditor recently spoke to Fox News Digital regarding a report she released that highlights concerns about excessive spending in the state’s executive branch led by Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, who is widely perceived to have presidential ambitions in the future.
Allison Ball issued a report earlier this month detailing spending by the executive branch for fiscal year 2025, which was entered into the state’s system. She flagged issues that demonstrate extravagant spending of tax dollars that “needs to stop.”
The “concerning expenditures” listed include $183,576 in out-of-state travel costs, which encompass $7,632 for a limousine in Germany, $17,013 for a dinner at a Kentucky distillery, and $360,000 for 75 people attending a two-day conference within the Commonwealth, Fox News reported.
“We saw some really excessive, really worrying and questionable expenditures,” Ball told Fox News Digital.
“For example, one of the things we saw is that the governor and the tourism cabinet spent about $338,000 on a nonprofit called First Saturday in May. So, for people who are not from Kentucky, the first Saturday in May is when the [Kentucky] Derby happens. So, that money actually went to events for VIPs to come in and celebrate and observe the Derby,” she added.
Ball stated that the spending data was entered by the executive branch into the Commonwealth’s eMARS system. While she recognizes that elected officials may need to allocate more funds for security than ordinary citizens, she classified much of the flagged spending as “luxury items.”
“I absolutely think the governor needs security. We want people to be safe. We don’t want anything to happen to our elected officials,” Ball explained. “But this is the time when you look at, OK, are you spending an excessive amount? And I think $7,000 for limo services in Germany, $5,000 to navigate the airport in Switzerland, hotels like in Beverly Hills, Aspen.
“We even found an expenditure in the hundreds of dollars for something called the Caribou Club, which is a private club in Aspen. So, these expenses are essentially luxury items when you’re looking at where they’re at and the amount of money that’s being paid,” she said.
Beshear was critical of the auditor and her report in comments to local media.
“They never asked us any questions, and you have to do that if it’s an audit report,” Beshear recently told WHAS-11. “All they did was take lines, and they didn’t ask questions because if they had gotten the answers, they couldn’t have done the political attack that it was.”
Ball said it’s “no surprise” when elected officials push back on reports like hers, “but my job is about transparency.”
Ball’s report highlighted $39 million in expenditures by the executive branch’s advertising divisions across various departments, over $7 million in out-of-state travel, more than $23 million on in-state travel, and over $16 million allocated for training sessions, conferences, food, and trade shows.
“It’s a budget year, and this is when the General Assembly is actually crafting what money they’re going to appropriate through all levers of state government. And that’s why they asked us, this is early in the process, and they wanted to know, ‘OK, what is the executive branch spending its money on?” Ball explained.
“And they specifically asked us about travel. They asked about conferences. They ask us about food and beverage because those are the things usually that can get out of control quick if you’re not paying close attention. So, we’re here just to provide information,” she went on.
Governor Beshear informed CNN last summer that he was considering a presidential bid for 2028. Many believe he could be a strong candidate due to his popularity as a Democrat in the deeply conservative state of Kentucky.
The Hill reported that Beshear confirmed he is still contemplating a run, but he will not make a final decision until his term as governor concludes in late 2027.
The Republican-Controlled U.S. House of Representatives Passes Major Bill 216-211
Legislation that would criminalize gender transition treatments for minors, such as surgery and hormone supply, and punish providers with up to ten years in federal prison was approved by a divided House on Wednesday.
On a vote of 216 to 211, the bill—which civil rights organizations claimed was among the most extreme anti-trans legislation ever considered by Congress—was approved nearly entirely along party lines.
It is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate, where it would require a bipartisan alliance to move forward. However, the ultraconservative Republican majority and President Trump’s priorities were reflected in its discussion and passage in the House.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia pushed it through the House after she demanded earlier this month that Speaker Mike Johnson bring her bill to the floor in exchange for her backing of the defense policy measure she was otherwise threatening to sabotage.
According to Greene, the legislation fulfilled one of Trump’s major campaign pledges, and Congress must take action to formalize his executive order banning gender-affirming medical procedures.
“Most Americans agree that kids just need to grow up before they do anything radical, like a mastectomy on a 15-year-old girl,” she said on Wednesday on the House floor, pointing at a poster board of a child who had undergone such a surgery.
Greene has recently gained odd new respect from some Democrats for disagreeing with the president on a number of issues. She abruptly announced last month that she was leaving Congress one year before the end of her term.
“If a child believes they’re a unicorn, do adults take their word for it as well?” Greene said, adding that in electing Trump in 2024, the American people voted to end gender transition treatments.
Republican Representative Barry Moore of Alabama claimed that Democrats were indoctrinating children by falsely framing gender-affirming procedures as necessary.
“It is not lifesaving care,” he said. “It is child abuse.”
In response, Democrats claimed that proponents of the bill were attempting to replace medicine with ideology by focusing on a small and vulnerable group of trans youth. They claimed that by threatening parents with jail time, the law violated their rights and gave politicians the authority to make extremely private decisions for families.
“Does anyone believe that the Freedom Caucus and President Trump love America’s children more than their parents do?” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland.
California Democratic Rep. Mark Takano said the surgeries on minors that Greene described were extremely rare.
What the bill would really do, he said, is ban “safe and effective medications for an entire group of people.”
Takano said that the bill would not make children safe and that it would “interfere with parental choice and open private medical data up to investigation.”
A second anti-trans bill, also supported by Greene, that would prohibit Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care for trans youth is scheduled to be voted on by the House later this week.
The first openly transgender lawmaker to serve in Congress, Rep. Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware, claimed before Wednesday’s vote that Republicans were “obsessed” with transgender people and were concentrating on a “misunderstood and vulnerable 1 percent of the population” rather than taking any action to safeguard Americans’ health care.
“They think more about trans people than trans people think about trans people,” McBride said, speaking to reporters on the steps of the Capitol. “They are consumed with this and they are extreme on it.”
Three Democrats and four Republicans voted across party lines. Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both from Texas, and Don Davis of North Carolina voted for the measure.
Republicans Gabe Evans of Colorado, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York, and Mike Kennedy of Utah voted against it.
Legislation that would criminalize gender transition treatments for minors, such as surgery and hormone supply, and punish providers with up to ten years in federal prison was approved by a divided House on Wednesday.
On a vote of 216 to 211, the bill—which civil rights organizations claimed was among the most extreme anti-trans legislation ever considered by Congress—was approved nearly entirely along party lines.
It is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate, where it would require a bipartisan alliance to move forward. However, the ultraconservative Republican majority and President Trump’s priorities were reflected in its discussion and passage in the House.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia pushed it through the House after she demanded earlier this month that Speaker Mike Johnson bring her bill to the floor in exchange for her backing of the defense policy measure she was otherwise threatening to sabotage.
According to Greene, the legislation fulfilled one of Trump’s major campaign pledges, and Congress must take action to formalize his executive order banning gender-affirming medical procedures.
“Most Americans agree that kids just need to grow up before they do anything radical, like a mastectomy on a 15-year-old girl,” she said on Wednesday on the House floor, pointing at a poster board of a child who had undergone such a surgery.
Greene has recently gained odd new respect from some Democrats for disagreeing with the president on a number of issues. She abruptly announced last month that she was leaving Congress one year before the end of her term.
“If a child believes they’re a unicorn, do adults take their word for it as well?” Greene said, adding that in electing Trump in 2024, the American people voted to end gender transition treatments.
Republican Representative Barry Moore of Alabama claimed that Democrats were indoctrinating children by falsely framing gender-affirming procedures as necessary.
“It is not lifesaving care,” he said. “It is child abuse.”
In response, Democrats claimed that proponents of the bill were attempting to replace medicine with ideology by focusing on a small and vulnerable group of trans youth. They claimed that by threatening parents with jail time, the law violated their rights and gave politicians the authority to make extremely private decisions for families.
“Does anyone believe that the Freedom Caucus and President Trump love America’s children more than their parents do?” said Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland.
California Democratic Rep. Mark Takano said the surgeries on minors that Greene described were extremely rare.
What the bill would really do, he said, is ban “safe and effective medications for an entire group of people.”
Takano said that the bill would not make children safe and that it would “interfere with parental choice and open private medical data up to investigation.”
A second anti-trans bill, also supported by Greene, that would prohibit Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming care for trans youth is scheduled to be voted on by the House later this week.
The first openly transgender lawmaker to serve in Congress, Rep. Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware, claimed before Wednesday’s vote that Republicans were “obsessed” with transgender people and were concentrating on a “misunderstood and vulnerable 1 percent of the population” rather than taking any action to safeguard Americans’ health care.
“They think more about trans people than trans people think about trans people,” McBride said, speaking to reporters on the steps of the Capitol. “They are consumed with this and they are extreme on it.”
Three Democrats and four Republicans voted across party lines. Democrats Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both from Texas, and Don Davis of North Carolina voted for the measure.
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Republicans Gabe Evans of Colorado, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York, and Mike Kennedy of Utah voted against it.
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