title:  KY Gov. Matt Bevin Slashes Funding For Ethics Investigations, Elections Oversight
text: Kentucky governor Matt Bevin recently introduced a budget proposal that will virtually eliminate the agency designed to investigate corruption in his own office.Bevin s budget includes deep cuts to the state s Executive Branch Ethics Commission. The agency, which was created in the 1990 s, was formed in response to an FBI investigation which led to the indictments of almost two-dozen members of the state legislature.According to Katie Gabhart, the executive director of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, the budget cuts will essentially hamstring the agency. We will be an investigative and auditing agency with no investigator and auditor,  Gabhart told state lawmakers, who are deliberating on the budget proposal this week .  Public servants are going to violate the ethics code   and if they know we have an ethics commission with so few resources that we can t enforce the code, then what is the point of having one? Also included in the proposed budget cuts is funding for the state s Registry of Election Finance.As the name of the agency implies, the office is charged with monitoring political campaigns and enforcing campaign finance laws in Kentucky.John Steffen, Executive Director of the Registry of Election Finance, told lawmakers that the governor s proposed budget cuts would leave the office without the ability to hire an auditor.State lawmakers responded by suggesting that the law could be changed so that some candidates would not be required to file campaign disclosures.In response, Steffen said I don t know what statutory obligations can be changed and not render our entire agency meaningless. Bevin was elected governor of Kentucky in November of 2015, amid accusations of election rigging. Bevin holds the distinction of being one of only three non-democratic governors to hold office in Kentucky since WWII.Prior to assuming the position of governor, Bevin was best known for delivering a political speech at a cockfighting rally in 2014, before losing an embarrassing senate race to Mitch McConnell.He later gained national attention when he praised Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, after she refused to provide marriage licenses to LGBT couples.It should come as no surprise that Bevin s budget seeks to slash the very agency which was created to investigate ethics violations committed in his own office.We saw the same thing from former Texas governor Rick Perry, another politicians with close ties to the Koch-backed Tea Party, in 2013.Nor should it be any surprise that the budget would virtually eliminate campaign finance oversight.The cuts are clearly designed to give corrupt Tea Party politicians like himself free reign in the state, without fear of political or legal repercussions.Image credit: Gage Skidmore, via Flckr 