LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky Senate unanimously passed its version of House Bill 500, a $31 billion two-year state budget, on March 18, making significant changes from the House version while bringing the spending plan closer to final approval, according to reporting from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy.

The budget bill appropriating roughly $31 billion of state tax revenue over the next two fiscal years cleared another key hurdle Wednesday, as the Kentucky Senate quickly passed an amended version. The new 228-page version of HB 500 was presented to members of the Senate budget committee just before their meeting that morning. The bill cleared the committee, then was posted online for the public to read, and then passed by the full Senate chamber four hours later.

Among the major changes to the Senate version of HB 500 was that it spends approximately $400 million more and leaves less in the budget reserve trust fund, also called the state's "rainy day fund." The Senate's budget would grow the fund from $3.7 billion to $3.9 billion, roughly $800 million less than the House budget.

State retirees will also celebrate the inclusion of a "13th check," an $81 million expense to account for cost-of-living increases in recent years. Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ryland Heights, serves as chair of the Senate Appropriations and Revenue committee and told reporters the proposed investment is "the right thing to do," as those retirees have not had a cost-of-living adjustment since 2010.

The GOP-controlled Kentucky Senate unanimously passed its version of the two-year state budget Wednesday providing less money than the House for public schools but substantially more for Medicaid, while cutting a number of state agency budgets. The Senate plan provides $4,626 per student in fiscal year 2026-2027 and $4,774 per student per student in fiscal year 2027-2028 through the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) formula, which provides monies to school districts, slightly less than what the House proposed.

Another large change in the Senate budget involves Medicaid benefits. The House budget appropriated $220 million less than what the Beshear administration projects will be needed to pay out those benefits — with the GOP chairman of the House budget committee saying he didn't believe their estimates — but McDaniel said the Senate bill is closer to what was requested. McDaniel also noted the Senate's budget makes a 2.5% annual reduction in payments to Medicaid managed care organizations — the private insurance companies that administer Medicaid benefits — saying those savings would be used to increase reimbursement rates for fee-for-service health care providers.

The budget gives 2% annual raises to all state employees as well. The next step for the bill that outlines spending for dozens of executive branch agencies is likely a conference committee, where leaders of the GOP supermajority in both chambers will hammer out differences for a final version of the bill. They are expected to send that bill to Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear by April 1 — the last before the governor's veto period — so they could override any potential veto on the final two days of the 2026 session in mid-April.

The League of Women Voters of Kentucky has criticized moving a bill through a legislative committee and to a final vote in one day as an anti-transparency maneuver, depriving the public of time to weigh in.