Kentucky governor
agrees to fund Baptist college that expelled gay
student

Kentucky governor Ernie Fletcher cut $370 million from the state budget, but spared $11 million for a proposed pharmacy school at a private Baptist college in southeastern Kentucky that recently expelled a student for being gay. The Republican governor said he is using his line-item veto power to reduce the level of debt in the $18.1 billion budget. "I will not criticize any of the projects which the legislature selected," Fletcher said in a televised budget address Monday evening. "But to reduce the level of debt, we must reduce the number of projects." Fletcher said he would not veto funding for a proposed pharmacy school at the University of the Cumberlands, the private Baptist college in Williamsburg that became the center of debate in state capital Frankfort earlier this month after administrators expelled an openly gay student. Fletcher said he based that decision on the fact that the $10 million for construction and $1 million for scholarships for the proposed project came from coal severance taxes paid by coal companies, not by individual taxpayers in the state. "This is a difficult issue and one where there is no definitive case law establishing the legality," the governor said. "I believe we need to answer once and for all in Kentucky the legality of funding private faith-based institutions." Before money is released for the project, Fletcher said he will ask the courts to determine the constitutionality of providing state funding for construction projects at private institutions. Legislators have used their constitutionally allotted 60 days for the general assembly's 2006 session and cannot return to override vetoes. The Kentucky Fairness Alliance, angered that the university expelled a student for acknowledging he is gay, had vowed to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the appropriations if Fletcher doesn't veto it. Christina Gilgor, the group's executive director, said she was surprised that Fletcher announced he would seek a court ruling on the issue. "He's really looking for a reason to support state-subsidized discrimination," Gilgor said of Fletcher's decision. Public funding, she said, should not go to a religious school that does not allow gay students to attend. James H. Taylor, president of the Willliamsburg college, said he expects plans for the pharmacy school "to move forward with considerable dispatch." Taylor, in a statement, also thanked Fletcher for leaving the money in the budget for the pharmacy scholarships. Senate president David Williams, a Fletcher ally who included money in the budget for the private college, said he believes providing state funding for the school is constitutional. (AP)