Court orders $18M released to Kentucky universities

After months of litigation, Kentucky's public universities and colleges are slated to receive nearly $18 million this week that Gov. Matt Bevin tried to cut from their budgets earlier this year.

The schools should get their respective shares of the funding within three days, according to an order Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate signed Monday. Lawyers for both Bevin and Attorney General Andy Beshear, whose battle over the university cuts reached the Kentucky Supreme Court, agreed to the order Wingate approved.

Beshear's lawsuit against Bevin culminated last month in a 5-2 ruling by the state Supreme Court. The justices decided the governor could not legally order the financial reductions he had imposed on Kentucky's universities. Bevin did not ask the court to reconsider its decision.

Kentucky State University was exempted from the 2-percent cuts Bevin ultimately ordered for the 2015-16 fiscal year. The money Kentucky's other schools are waiting on has been held in a separate account while Beshear's case against Bevin made its way through the court system.

Read more: http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/ky-governor/2016/10/17/bevin-beshear-agree-free-university-funds/92294770/