Resolution would create KY DOGE Task Force

Resolution would create KY DOGE Task Force March 6, 2025

Rep. T.J. Roberts, R-Burlington, listens as a member of the House State Government Committee asks a question about House Concurrent Resolution 50. The resolution would establish the Kentucky Discipline of Government Efficiency (KY DOGE) Task Force. A high-resolution photo can be found here.

FRANKFORT — A resolution to create a task force to examine executive branch spending advanced from the House State Government Committee on Thursday.

Rep. T.J. Roberts, R- Burlington, and Rep. John Hodgson, R-Fisherville, are the primary co-sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution 50.

“House Concurrent Resolution 50 establishes the Kentucky Discipline of Government Efficiency Task Force, which is an interim committee to examine our financial practices, particularly the executive branch,” Roberts said. “Further, the (resolution) makes clear that our focus will be on the transition to zero-based budgeting.”

According to the legislation, the 10-member task force, also known as KY DOGE, would meet at least twice a month during the 2025 interim of the Kentucky General Assembly. The task force’s findings would be considered in the biennial budget drafting process in 2026.

The resolution would require the task force to report its findings no later than Oct. 1, 2025.

Roberts said the KY DOGE Task Force would “ensure that when we are spending the people’s money through our tax system, that it is done in an efficient manner.”

Hodgson said he spent four years during former Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration working on a similar effort that was successful.

“In the span of four years, we were able to cut out 200 unneeded boards and commissions,” Hodgson said. “We downsized the workforce by about 10% — more than 3,000 people — without any reduction in service … The government not only survived, but was doing better at the end of that process. I think there are many more opportunities.”

Committee chair Rep. David Hale, R-Wellington, asked who would make up the 10 members of the committee.

Roberts said there would be four House Republicans, four Senate Republicans, one House Democrat and one Senate Democrat on the task force.

“This would compose it similar to what the partisan make up of our current body is,” Roberts said, adding the members would be appointed through the regular committee appointment process.

The Kentucky General Assembly has budget review subcommittees that meet throughout the year to examine certain areas of the budget, like education and transportation spending. Rep. Matthew Lehman, D-Newport, asked Roberts and Hodgson how the KY DOGE Task Force would be different from that subcommittee process.

Roberts said the focus of the task force would be to examine the funding base.

“The budget review subcommittees, they are focusing on specific parts of the budget that we are already voting on, that we are already having legislative oversight,” he added.

Lehman said a legislative report from 2001 on zero-based budgeting compared to performance based-budgeting already exists.

“I’m just not exactly sure what (the task force) is going to accomplish that isn’t being accomplished by the current budget process and our interim joint budget review subcommittees,” he added.

Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville, said that as the former chair for the Budget Review Subcommittee on Postsecondary Education, he believes the task force would be helpful.

“Nobody ever looks at what’s in the base,” Tipton said. “And the question is, are there things in that base that maybe aren’t working? If they’re working well, if they’re providing services, we need to keep them.

“But if there are things in that base that are not productive, that are not beneficial to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, maybe we need to cut them out and reinvest those funds in areas where they can truly benefit the commonwealth.”

HCR 50 advanced from the House State Government Committee by a 16-3 vote with one pass vote. It now goes before the full House for consideration.

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https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/publicservices/pio/release.html#HCR50-030625