Bevin: Clerk names to come off marriage forms
FRANKFORT, Ky. - Matt Bevin promised Friday that soon after he becomes governor on Dec. 8, he will issue an executive order to remove the names of county clerks from marriage licenses - a step he said will protect county clerks from being jailed for their religious beliefs.
"One thing I will take care of right away, we will remove the names of county clerks from the marriage forms. That is going to be done. The argument that that cannot be done is baloney," Bevin said during his first news conference since his election victory on Tuesday.
Also during the news conference Bevin repeated his pledge to dismantle kynect, the state’s health insurance exchange that has been hailed as a national model. He added that he will not be releasing his tax returns - even though he said during the campaign that he would do so if elected.
The Republican governor-elect spoke with reporters for only about nine minutes in the Capitol Rotunda in between what he said was a busy schedule of meetings with his transition team and legislative leaders of both parties. Though Bevin frequently clashed with reporters during the campaign - refusing to answer questions from some - the news conference was not confrontational and he only wouldn't answer questions about why he will not release his tax returns.
While he repeated his Election Night comment that Republicans and Democrats must work together as "one Kentucky" to tackle the challenges ahead, he made clear that he believes voters gave him a mandate to carry out his conservative agenda.
"I think the people of Kentucky have clearly spoken ..." he said. "We have a clear political mandate where the people clearly state, 'We want something new. We want to be heard.' "
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One thing Bevin said he will do quickly is issue an order that addresses the situation of Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, who was jailed by a federal judge in September for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite a U.S. Supreme Court order legalizing such marriages.
Outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear has said only the General Assembly can make such a change, and Beshear declined to call a special session of the legislature to change the marriage licensing form and procedure.
But Bevin said Friday, "We've already changed those forms three times for crying out loud. ... I do intend to make that change. We will take the names off of those forms. We will do that by executive order. We will do it right out of the gate."
Bevin said the changes will allow a marriage license to be filed and recorded with a clerk like other legal documents such as mortgages or deeds without the clerk being the issuer. "This is one way that we will remove something from the landscape that frankly doesn't even need to be there."
Asked for a response to Bevin, Beshear spokesman Terry Sebastian referred back to Beshear's earlier statements that the General Assembly has by law given the duty to issue marriage licenses to clerks and that a governor cannot change a law by executive order.
Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Liberty Counsel, a legal group representing Davis, said Friday that Davis was pleased to learn of Bevin's comment.
"I think it helps this case tremendously because it shows that there are ways to accommodate these clerks and this is exactly what Kim Davis has requested from the very beginning,” he said.
But Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw, a Republican, said she supports the position of the county clerks’ association, which wants clerks to continue issuing marriage licenses with the names of the clerks on them.
“I assume that (Gov.-elect Bevin) is aware of the fact that the clerk’s association had a vote and voted not to support having the name taken off,” Holsclaw said.
Regarding kynect, the online service people use to shop for health coverage or determine whether they are eligible for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, Bevin said his "intent is to have it wound down by the end of next year.”
Instead, Bevin said he will transition people to the federal site, Healthcare.gov, to shop for insurance under the law also known as Obamacare.
Bevin said 34 states never created a health exchange and Kentucky simply doesn’t need one.
“It adds no value,” he said. “It is a redundancy that we as taxpayers in this state are paying for twice.”
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But the decommissioning process will be complicated and costly - state officials have estimated shutting down kynect could cost upward of $20 million, money the state would have to repay the federal government, which financed the startup. Federal officials also require a 12-month notice before a state can shut down an exchange.
And health advocates warn many people are likely to go without insurance if the state shuts down kynect, which has been praised as simple, accessible and easy to use.
“There will be a lot of people who fall through the cracks,” said Bill Wagner, executive director of Family Health Centers in Louisville, a network of community health clinics.
In addition to offering a good website, kynect has knowledgeable staff on hand to help with problems and assist with enrollment, he said. As a result, Kentucky has had enormous success with locating and enrolling people in health care plans, many of whom had never had insurance, Wagner and other health advocates said.
Kynect operates a call center that employs about 175 people to answer calls as well as people around the state known as “kynectors,” who help with questions, according to a presentation the Cabinet for Health and Family Services made this year to a legislative committee.
It also has sponsored a massive community outreach effort to identify potential customers, visiting local fairs and festivals, setting up storefront kynect offices and hosting scores of informational events.
Since Kentucky implemented the federal health law in 2013 by executive order of Gov. Steve Beshear, about 400,000 Kentuckians have enrolled in Medicaid and another 100,000 purchased private health plans through kynect. Kentucky’s success in enrolling people resulted in the sharpest drop in the nation of residents with no health insurance, now about 9 percent.
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“It’s taken a whole lot of work to make that safety network in this community,” Wagner said. “In the transition to the federal site, people will fall through the cracks.”
But the health plan has long been the target of Republicans in the Kentucky legislature and nationwide, who criticize it as excessively broad and costly.
Bevin also said Friday that his administration will begin work immediately to scale back the Medicaid expansion authorized by the federal law that permits people with incomes of up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level to enroll. That’s an annual income of about $33,000 a year for a family of four.
Bevin said he wants to obtain permission, or a waiver, that would allow Kentucky to create its own plan that would include some cost-sharing by consumers instead of the mostly free coverage Medicaid now provides.
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A handful of states including Indiana have obtained federal waivers to create their own Medicaid expansion plans, with most involving cost-sharing through co-pays or premiums. Bevin said he expects to create a similar plan for Kentucky.
“It will involve people having some skin in the game ... taking personal and financial responsibility for these things,” he said, repeating a pledge he made often during his campaign.
But that doesn’t mean people will lose coverage right away, he said, adding his administration will make the changes in “a thoughtful way.”
“It isn’t an attempt to cut people off,” he said. “It is an attempt to have people take responsibility.”
Bevin said he does not plan to enroll people in Medicaid at up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level as the federal government has required of all states so far and Kentucky currently does. He said he believes the state can design its own plan that the federal government - which funds the Medicaid expansion at 100 percent through 2016 - will accept.
Bevin said he plans to begin announcing appointments to his administration next week with appointments to the jobs of general counsel and chief of staff in the Governor's Office likely to be among the first. He said many key posts will be announced before the inauguration. "But we're not rushing to simply fill things. It's important for people to understand we're going to do this in the proper way."