FRANKFORT — Republicans on the House budget committee approved a revised state budget proposal Wednesday that removes a spending cap that was raising worries of sharp increases in health insurance costs for public employees and retirees. The executive branch budget will allocate $30 billion in Ge neral Fund revenues toward K-12 schools, universities, health care, prisons, government agencies and other state expenses over the next two years.  The new version of House Bill 500 somewhat addresses concerns that advocates and the minority of Democrats in the chamber had about the initial budget bill.  HB 500, changed through a committee substitute, increases funding for school districts compared to the initial budget that lawmakers introduced and removes a cap on the state’s contributions to retirees’ and public employees’ health insurance costs, something that had alarmed educators and retired workers.  Republican Rep. Jason Petrie, chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee which voted to advance the budget bill, cautioned lawmakers the budget process was “still at the very beginning” given that the House and the Kentucky Senate would have to “hammer out differences” between the two chambers. The full GOP-controlled House of Representatives could pass HB 500 on Thursday and send it to the Senate because the bill has the required number of readings.  “We take all information in as it’s coming in, and try to assess it — breadth, depth and ripple effect — and make sure we’re making good decisions for Kentuckians,” Petrie said, mentioning he anticipates getting more information from state agencies about their needs in the weeks ahead.  House Republicans issued subpoenas this week seeking more information they argue is critical from Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration, a move a Beshear spokesperson called “a stunt with no merit.”  Cap got scrapped Earlier this week, a coalition of groups launched the “Scrap the Cap” campaign in Frankfort to call on lawmakers to vote against any state budget proposal that would shift health insurance costs to workers and retirees. The coalition includes the Kentucky Education Association, Kentucky Public Retirees, Kentucky Government Retirees and Teamsters Local 783.  House Democrats filed several amendments to HB 500 last week before the committee substitute was unveiled, including one that would have added $279 million for the Kentucky Employees’ Health Plan. In a press release Wednesday evening, House Democratic Floor Leader Pamela Stevenson said removing the health insurance contribution cap was the right decision, but the budget “still does not meet the moment.”  “Families are struggling with the cost of housing, child care, groceries, and health care. When we have the resources to respond, we should use them,” Stevenson said in a statement. “If affordability is the challenge facing Kentucky families, then affordability should be the priority in this budget,” For education funding, the initial House budget  provided no increase in the $4,586 per-pupil funding through the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky program, or SEEK, the formula that allocates monies to school districts. In the new version of HB 500, per pupil SEEK funding would increase to $4,626 per student for the next fiscal year and to $4,792 per student in the next year of the biennium. Petrie told lawmakers this amounted to a 2% increase to SEEK funding in each fiscal year.  School transportation funding provided through SEEK, however, would remain static at the current fiscal year level of about $399 million provided per fiscal year.  A coalition of advocates earlier on Wednesday argued even with the school funding increase, state lawmakers were still chronically underfunding school districts, health care benefits and other state agencies.  Natalie Cunningham, the outreach coordinator for the progressive think tank Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, told reporters that Kentucky families “are struggling to make ends meet and to meet basic needs,” arguing that the state needed to ensure that Medicaid and the food assistance program Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, were available to Kentuckians in the wake of cuts by Congress to both.  “Too many years of inadequate budgets have left the commonwealth with so many unmet needs. We need substantial raises for our teachers and better funding for our schools. We need transformative investments in housing, childcare and universal preschool,” Cunningham said.  The think tank wrote the new version of the budget continues to underfund Medicaid benefits by more than $200 million compared to the Beshear administration’s budget request.  $3 billion budget reserve would get another $617 million Jason Bailey, the center’s executive director, said lawmakers are allocating  hundreds of millions of dollars to the Budget Reserve Trust Fund — the “rainy day” fund — to make it easier to meet fiscal requirements to continue lowering the state’s income tax rate.  It’s a goal of Kentucky GOP leadership to eventually eliminate the state’s income tax. Petrie said the budget would deposit approximately $617 million into the Budget Reserve Trust Fund. The pool of money already has more than $3 billion in reserves. Andrew McNeill, a former deputy budget director under Republican Gov. Matt Bevin and the executive director of the free market-focused think tank Kentucky Forum for Rights, Economics and Education, in a statement praised lawmakers for moving forward a budget “that refrains from spending every available dollar and doesn’t rely on reserves to cover ongoing expenses.”  McNeill’s statement also cautioned against “an excessive number of earmarks” in the current budget that funded nonprofits and government programs “that have gone without meaningful review for years — in some cases, for decades.”  McNeill earlier this month spoke before a legislative committee urging lawmakers to not fund the nonprofit Teach for America, which recruits college graduates to serve as teachers, because of his concerns over past Diversity, Equity and Inclusion references promoted by the nonprofit.  Bob Babbage, a former Democratic Kentucky state auditor and secretary of state, who appeared before that committee meeting as a lobbyist for Teach for America, called such arguments against the nonprofit “spurious” that “don’t stand up” to the positive results of Teach for America in Eastern Kentucky schools.  The new version of the budget has a $700,000 allocation for Teach for America. 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