Legislation Detail

Lance: I like the tuition increase caps, would prefer short AND medium term caps (eg 5% and no more than 20% cumulatively over 5 years)… or tied to the CPI.
How can the senate confirm Gov picks when not in session? Do we need more student representation, it isn’t a co-op?
Best to hold off until next session for this one.

Very good bill. Needs to be taken up and passed immediately

Overall not a terrible bill. But it could open the door for more abuse of the system by lowering requirements for denial of benefits.

This cuts the patient out of the payment loop altogether, what keeps the Facilities from expoliting this with LONG states?

Not sure just how often this program would be used. Would it maybe be wiser to give our National Guard troops training in this area and call them up when needed?

The entire point of the bill is the assumption that sexual orientation and gender identity can’t be changed, but this plies in the face of a massive explosion in the incidence of atypical cases of each. There is no doubt that they can be influenced.
It’s a social agenda posing as legislation.

What IS this program?

At a minimum this needs the qualifier “…SOME OF the educational costs…” added.

Are any of these test exorbitantly expensive, or inaccurate?

Lance: Interesting law. Not sure how common this is, but it is roughly similar to trafficking child pornography.

Would leaving this on the books make it, in effect, a trigger law?

Doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Just as long as they are hiring the most qualified for the position.

Seems like harmless requirements but not a high priority

Note: I’m skeptical of how much economic benefit data centers (as opposed to tech companies) bring to the state… They definitely use a lot of energy, how many good paying jobs do they bring in, what secondary industries do they help? Also, could the company trim staff from 20 or 30 employees down to 10 after 2 years?
We need some more extensive assurances here.

Will lead to explosion in the amount local cities and county charge businesses/employees on wages, and hence customers to operate.

A lot of convincing should be required to implement this tax.

The central concern of salvage titles must remain certification of safety and full diclosure. Not sure that allowing electronic registration affect either.

Straight-forward bill, simple and important. All of these are high pressure, high stress jobs dealing with life and death; definitely susceptible to PTSD, etc. Good bill. We need to look out for the mental well being of our first responders and make sure they are not penalized when they have to step away from the job.

No issue with this other than why doesn’t it include all first responders?

Is this a new team that is being created, or is it consolidating control of an existing group of people under a specific Department? Bill is a bit confusing with the definition section seeming to establish a new department. Nevertheless, seems fine.

Some concern about how accurate a guess the district would be making on this, or if schools would overestimate the costs in their input to the GA to get more funding.

Need more thought on how to address this problem in a way that isn’t burdensome to employers.

Need to have a provision that any time a person’s fingerprint is collected (for any purpose), the data is destroyed unless they have a felony conviction. Why should your fingerprint data be permanently added to a database because you are willing to house a child in an emergency charitably?

There are some good parts to this bill. There are racial discrepancies in maternal deaths/outcomes, it should be looked into and solutions found. But the focus on racism and the requirements for employees of these facilities to be pushed into “training” on these topics is too much.

If you want people to be able to drink in yoiur store, get a liquor license.

I see the possible good from a law enforcement standpoint, but Is this an infringement upon someone’s right to refuse medical treatment?

Better yet, how about disbanding the commission? We know there are racial disparities in virtually everything. Let’s just focus on giving EVERYBODY opportunity, judge people solely on competence and performance, and let that sort things out. Meritocracy, a radical concept.

This is a fine and reasonable bill, only quibble is maybe only a partial credit for replacement employee.
This comment isn’t at all targetted at it specifically, as this credit is easy to justify…
Republicans have to start considering: Are we going to give a tax credit for every good activity? When does this just become technocratic social engineering?

Most states allow felons to vote. It doesn’t usually make that much difference electorally. KY only allows this restoration by Gov. (in constitution) currently.

Section 2: Yet another requirement for businesses to comply with.

Expands recent law on coal… Why not other important industries? Ag, petrochem, alcohol, free speech social media…

Good that it stresses making reasonable accommodations for the clients in these facilities and differentiates facilities that care for dementia patients.
Overall, this seems mostly reasonable.

*The exception should be sealed juvenile records.

Can see this being beneficial in some cases, but is this necessary for all cases?

This isn’t currently a winning position with the electorate, will require resetting of societal mindset over years. Nevertheless, there are bills seeking to weaken the existing prohibitions on abortion in this state among Republicans (eg rape, incest, pre-heartbeat, only surgical, etc. exemptions). This bill does throw down the gauntlet that there are much more restrictive possibilities as well if they want to force the issue.
Laura has lots of thoughts on this…. Too many for here. The Trigger law allows for prosecution of those who prescribe abortifacients or perform abortion procedures. Prosecuting the mother is a bad, bad, bad idea.

HB214 is a much better bill regarding AG’s independent inquiry.
Requires inquiry in every county.
Asking for adequate parking in consolidated precincts – why not do away with consolidated precincts? Smaller is better. Prohibit electioneering during the early in person voting period (fine). We need ONE DAY VOTING, not voting days. Rest of it is okay.

I have no issue with figuring out how to maximize the impact of federal dollars, including for providing child care assistance to family’s that genuinely need it. Any expansion of the program that incentivizes the state raising kids rather than parents is a non-starter. This needs more exploration from Republicans to figure out that balance.

Risk of Radon is region-specific, why not make this zone 1 specific? Or issue guidelines/recommendations to county fiscal courts to regulate this at the county level.

I get the logic here, but if they are taking advantage of KY’s medicaid reimbursement system, they should have at least SOME physical presence in the state, this would give out of state telehealth providers a big advantage of KY providers.

Seems like reasonable clarification but not a high priority

Good safety precaution. Not sure how expensive these are. If they are cheap, everyone should already have them. If not, perhaps there should be a grant for small schools?

Good idea: Seems like they are dangerous, the law is always racing to keep up with these sorts of thing. Will need expert analysis to really proof the bill and make sure it is appropriately definited and targeted.

Need best of both bills.
Would be EVEN stronger if prohibition was ANY deductions for any org that uses any portion of proceeds for political activity, these bills SEEM to exempt only the funds going for political activities.

Not sure about making it a “violent offense” though. Why not keep “violent offense” as engaging in unjustified physicall violence?

Wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with a grant to each student teacher or loan forgiveness but both in combination seems excessive.

The idea that someone who can do a job in another state cannot do it is KY is just a fiction and used as a barrier to entry for people seeking employment here.

Excellent idea. We must protect our native industry. Shame so little of this is made in KY.

Good accommodations for the fishermen and women of the state. However, this shouldn’t invalidate fishing licenses or esp. catch limits; needs to be amended if it does.

This implementation of a ban of sex reassignment and gender-altering care attempts to address it by imposing all of the penalities possible without outright banning it: banning public funding, incl. Medicare services, stripping licenses (and criminal penalties tied to failure to report), allowing for lawsuits over ambiguous injuries…
It has all of the hallmarks of an overly massaged and lawyered approach. Should have just included Section 5 of HB120, and imposed ciminal penalties.

Student behavioral issues are the single biggest problem in education (other than lack of parental involvement). HOWEVER, students must have a right of appeal. Due process is a constitutional right, and teachers and principals are generally going to be in the correct, but they cannot be allowed to be dictators.

Reasonable requirements for insurance to cover and a good focus on the practitioner’s responsibility to monitor the history of the patient and recommend alternate treatments before prescribing controlled substances. Should help with prescription pill abuse epidemic facing the Commonwealth.
Lance: The motivation here is good (find a way to keep people in chronic pain off opioids if possible), but do we want everyone here with a claim of chronic pain to be taking 20 visits to alternative pain therapies? Seems ripe for fraud, need protocols to avoid this.

Way too restrictive to the employer. Too liberal for the employee. You would gain 1 hour of leave for every 30 hours worked, which calculates to 69 hours per year of a 40 hour work week.
Let employers set their own policy (or make the minimum requirements FAR lower).

Bill was butchered by Comittee sub, now it is a version of indecent exposure law and only focused on sexually explicit conduct.

Good requirement that physicians are not required to divulge that they are participating or to report on other physicians who are. I think it would be a good idea to also include nurse practitioners and nurses in this legislation. They have some of the same issues to contend with as physicians.

Need best of both bills.
Would be EVEN stronger if prohibition was ANY deductions for any org that uses any portion of proceeds for political activity, these bills SEEM to exempt only the funds going for political activities.”

There are no specifics about what constitutes a pilot program, and what data will be required to demonstrate that it has a positive impact on students. Seems much too vague. With detailed specifications, it would be worthy of full support.

Section 5, directing the vote on recreational marijuana, should be stricken. If this is not stricken, we should oppose.

No. I will oppose anything that allows the government to regulate firearms and ammunition. The legislation wants to allow urban counties with high gun violence to be able to regulate firearms sales and ammunition…. while acknowledging that many Kentuckians are responsible gun owners. This is not the way to stop gun violence.

This bill proposes that individuals with disabilities have an attorney to represent their wishes rather than a Guardian ad Litem which is an attorney that represents the client’s best interests (not the client himself or herself) in the guardianship proceedings. The GAL acts as an inveigator to get to the truth of whether a guardian is needed. The role of an attorney in representation is to protect and advance the client’ rights, claims, and objectives. A person needing a conservator or guardian may not be in a position to express their true needs, only their desires. Once a guardian is appointed, SB85 would also require court supervision of the guardians actions when the disabled person is married or there is another interested party. The court should consider a spouse’s interest when selecting a guardian so they do not then have to supervise the guardians actions. Bad bill.

This is a good way for local police departments to shore up their police force with trained, qualified candidates. Also saves money for the department. Would like to see it expanded to cover any police department in the state.

Should be a possible money maker for local gov’t and also possibly eliminate illegal and dengerous street racing. Should include safety protocols and regs.

Some lasers can be dangerous, but I am not sure if it should apply to all lasers. Needs a minimum power in definition.

Possibly SHELL BILL. These bills are sometimes used to slip in changes to the law through late amendments or subs with little scrutiny. Bad for govt transparent.