‘An open book’: Gov. Beshear defends record on tornado relief fund after GOP criticism

Lexington Herald-Leader (KY)

Gov. Andy Beshear offered his most forceful defense yet of his administration’s handling of the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund on Thursday following a week of heavy criticism from Republicans.

Following a Herald-Leader report last week, which revealed an unknown number of $1,000 checks paid for with donated money intended for survivors of the 2021 tornadoes ended up in the wrong hands, Republicans — including Treasurer Allison Ball, lawmakers, gubernatorial hopefuls and the state GOP — pounced on what they’ve called the fund’s mishandling by the Democratic governor’s administration.

But Beshear pushed back at his weekly Team Kentucky update, saying the fund provided the much-needed flexibility to respond quickly and effectively to survivors’ needs.

“As you look at a $52 million fund, if you look at an error or a fraud rate that is at or below 1% for that fund, that is better than any government-run, associated fund you will find anywhere in the United States,” he said. “At the end of the day — like a group from Western Kentucky said to us this morning — it meant there was $52 million out there to help rebuild this community.”

In early December, the Public Protection Cabinet issued more than $10 million in $1,000 increments — about 10,040 checks — from the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund. The cash did not come from taxpayer dollars, but thousands of donations from across the country.

As of Wednesday morning, the Treasury said it has stopped payment on 196 checks from the tornado relief fund.

A cabinet spokesperson previously said checks were canceled for reasons other than suspected fraud, like change of addresses or other clerical issues, but did not respond to a Herald-Leader request for a numerical breakdown of reasons for stopped payment.

Beshear finally provided insight into some of those reasons:

Check recipients were determined by using FEMA and private insurance claims, which Beshear has said saved the commonwealth time and money in identifying survivors.

And, Beshear noted, while there are still dollars in the fund account, they’re all designated for specific projects, like rebuilding housing and other long-term needs.

Lawmakers in both chambers are working on legislation concerning special purpose funds this session.

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Crofton, introduced Senate Bill 99 on Wednesday. If passed, the bill would require a report and analysis of all relief funds to the Legislative Research Commission at the end of each fiscal year. Information on donors, expenditures and recipients would be required in the report. (The fund is currently already subject to open records requests, which makes this information available to the public, if requested.)

Additionally, Westerfield’s bill would require the disclosure of award amounts, eligibility criteria and “fraud and risk mitigation procedures for administration of the relief fund.”

In the House of Representatives, Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chairman Jason Petrie, R-Elkton, told the Herald-Leader he is also planning to file a bill to require more oversight of such “off-budget accounts.”

There is also a Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund, which was established after the July flooding that devastated large swaths of Eastern Kentucky and has raised about $13 million.

Both the tornado and flood relief funds have paid for the funerals of all victims of the disasters.

Beshear said the funds were “critically important” and cautioned lawmakers against ending the funds or limiting their flexibility.

“All they’ll do is mean that there is less money available in future events,” Beshear said. “The other real concern — because every name that we sent a check to either came from FEMA or private insurance companies — if they go after, ‘How could you rely on those lists?’ FEMA is going to respond by saying, ‘I guess we have to have even more questions and even more that people have to do to qualify for one of the payments.’”

Beshear said the funds are “an open book.”

“There’s nothing to investigate. It’s all right there,” Beshear said. “But in terms of oversight or reporting, we’re happy to do regular reports and if people want to put that into law, that’s fine. We’re not concerned at all about more people wanting to know where it goes — but they already do.”

Beshear also said he’d be concerned about legislative appropriations being required to spend fund money, which would slow down the process of getting it to where it’s most needed.