PASSED ONE CHAMBER
Download a Printable PDF (right-click below) of these Detailed Evaluations
DISCLAIMER: These bills have cleared one Chamber, and are at real risk of becoming law.
| Category & Support Type | Bill & Summary Priority Level & Detailed Evaluation |
Primary Sponsor & Status (Prim. Reviewer) | |
| Education | HB101 | KDE cannot mandate COVID-19 vax requirement to attend school. Opposed only because HB92 is stronger bill. |
J. Decker |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Very similar to HB31, but from a different angle. Doesn’t cover postsecondary schools. HB92 is the stronger bill. | Passed House |
| Criminal Code | HB103 | Redef of “torture” of a dog or cat. Makes it a Class C felony for each act | R. Dotson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Clarifies existing language and increases penalty for each offense. Makes each offense a separate crime. Lance: I would prefer retaining the provision that a first, single offense, is a serious misdemeanor, but multiple or repeat violations rises to felony. |
Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB11 | Tied to HB2, reallocates $16.6M from the transportation budget for electric charging station pre-payments to the Building of a Veteran’s nursing home in Bowling Green. | J. Petrie |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Just procedural, re-allocating the $16.6M that HB2 requires from the transportation budget. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB115 | Cleans up language related to what constitutes a police service animal and removes penalty for assault when killing a police service animal if a person reasonably feels they have to do so to save a life. | B. Wesley |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Solid bill, no issues with it. Just will be a matter of building support. | Passed House |
| Elections | HB116 | Amends existing legislation to allow the KY Association of Conservation Districts to submit names of nominees. Requires that all candidates and supervisors be at least 21 years of age | F. Rabourn |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Have no problem with this bill | Passed House |
| Health | HB125 | Reqs Dep of Public Health to incorporate information on Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias into already existing materials, publish it on its website and distribute it to local health dept. | K. Moser |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Good information for the public to know about, but not really a high priority. I’m not sure that Alzheimer’s disease and its contributing factors are well understood enough to make this highly effective, but fine. |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB13 | Changes the annual physical exam requirement for school bus drivers to every 24 months. | K. King |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Lowers the requirements still at a reasonable level to reduce barriers for school bus drivers. However, need an exemption if the person has certain medical issues that require yearly or more examination (eg heart condition). | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB130 | Allow the Soil and Water Conservation Commission to procure heavy equipment (and make admin. regs) for loan or lease to conserve soil resources, preventing erosion, and protect water resources. (*Idea is fine, need clear spending and lease constraints.) | A. Neighbors |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Sentiment and idea here is fine. Needs clarifying language about which circumstances dictate leasing out equipment and which cases you would loan equipment out. Doesn’t limit how much can reasonably be spent on purchasing this equipment. Leaves open a lot of room for abuse. |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB144 | Provides protection from warrantless in-person access to, or surveillance on, private open land by law enforcement. Requires law enforcement to utilize body cameras and audio recording devices while there. | J. Hodgson |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Good bill. Restricts the ability of police to come on a person’s property for surveillance. It does provide a few exceptions: if an officer has a warrant, is putting down a wounded animal or has the owner’s permission. |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB146 | Reqs Office of Unemployment Insurance to advise claimant of additional benefits & job training opportunities & other reasonable changes. Adjusts minimum weeks of benefits up from 12 weeks to 16. (*Don’t love removing the scaled unemployment to duration schedule, if anything it should be region specific.) | R. Webber |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Requires Office of Unemployment Insurance to advise claimant approved for benefits of additional benefits training opportunities and financial aid resources available. Adds training provided by the Trade Act of 1974 to the definition of approved training. Adds disaster unemployment assistance and trade readjustment allowances to the programs not considered advanced benefits. Adjusts minimum state unemployment rate from 4.5 to 6.5 percent and the minimum weeks of benefits from 12 weeks to 16…
Overall not a terrible bill. But it could open the door for more abuse of the system by lowering requirements for denial of benefits. |
Passed House |
| Health | HB148 | Provides for the written assignment of substance or mental health benefits to a substance abuse or mental health facility. Requires state employee health plan and state postsecondary institutions comply. | R. Webber |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Seems rather harmless, as most policies I’m sure already cover this. However, not a high priority.
This cuts the patient out of the payment loop altogether, what keeps the Facilities from expoliting this with LONG states? |
Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB150 | Amends def of a car dealer “franchise.” Permits a new motor vehicle dealership to propose a successor agreement. Limit audit and document retention requirements on recall work. (*What problem is this fixing? Auto manufacturers having too much power over dealers?) | K. Upchurch |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Seems to be trying to give more liberties to the owner of dealerships when dealing with the manufacturer. If the dealership cannot maintain the requirements put on his or her business by the manufacturer, they should try to renegotiate, or sell off the franchise to someone who is willing to abide by it. Don’t expect a change in the law to fix the issues. | Passed House |
| Firearms & Military | HB153 | Firearm Anti-commandeering. State and local gov’t shall not help fed enforce federal FIREARM BANS (incl magazines). This one applies criminal charges for individual cops who break law. (*That may be too much?) | J. Bray |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Firearm Anti-commandeering. Prohibits any state, county, city or educational institution law enforcement officer from enforcing federal firearm bans, and prohibits state or local authorities from enacting measures for that purpose. Also includes bans on attachments to firearms, such as larger clips. Criminal charges for individual cop is too much, enforcement should be at the unit or division level. |
Passed House |
| Health | HB156 | Incl psychiatric residential treatment facilities in the definition of “facility.” Includes communicable disease outbreak and resident communicable disease status to exemptions for essential personal care givers | M. Dossett |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Guess this is just to clarify existing law and make it clear to the administrators of these facilities. | Passed House |
| Firearms & Military | HB157 | Creates the Kentucky Urban Search and Rescue Program under the Division of Emergency Management. (*Wouldn’t it accomplish 2 priorities to just have National Guard trained in this?) | M. Hart |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Specifies it’s administration, requirements for crafting policies, procedures and regulations. Makes an appropriation.
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? |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB160 | Incr reporting reqs for entities using mixing zones to mitigate water pollution. | C. Freeland |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Not an expert on these methods but more reporting reqs are good when dealing with pollution. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB164 | Allows employment or appt of persons as young as 18 yo by jails, but reasonably limits what an employee under the age of 21 is allowed to do (eg only perimeter). | S. Heavrin |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Seems pretty reasonable. I would suggest that an employee under 21 who is working in the secure perimeter of a jail should always have a partner over 21 with them. | Passed House |
| Other | HB165 | Reqs reporting by end of year regarding the Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership Program, and permits the child care provider to terminate an active contract created pursuant to this program. (*The program is a gov’t handout to businesses, will be great to see if there is return on investment.) | S. Heavrin |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Seems pretty harmless, just not a very high priority.
What IS this program? |
Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB167 | 69 pages of changes to the veterinary field. Deals with reqs for attaining license for vet, vet technician and vet assistant. Deals with types of fields related to vet care… Nothing seems amiss here on a quick pass, but waiting on impact statements. Needs to be throughly reviewed in committee. | M. Koch |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Very long bill. Very detailed. Nothing in it seems very harmful. Will restrict membership in the veterinary field. | Passed House |
| Health | HB170 | Reqs health insurance coverage for oocyte and sperm preservation services and medical services which are related to testicular and other urological cancers. | P. Flannery |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Not a bad bill. It’s good that it exempts religious organizations from the requirements. | Passed House |
| Education | HB172 | Changes the requirement for a barbering school to have one teacher with 36 months teaching / administrative experience to 12 months. (*Like lower licensing reqs, but maybe 24 and lowering barbering lic. reqs too?) | M. Clines |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Barely more experience to run a barber school than become a barber with this bill. Lower the educational and apprenticeship req for barber as well. From 36 to 12 seems a drastic jump. Why not 36 to 24? |
Passed House |
| Health | HB176 | Cab of Health and Family Services shall develop guidelines and regs for health facilities’ workplace safety assessments and workplace safety plan. | J. Nemes |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good bill. Everyone wants to have a safe workplace both for the employees and the visitors. Health care workers are at particularly heightened risk. | Passed House |
| Health | HB180 | Reqs health benefit plans and Medicaid cover biomarker testing. (*Key for preventative medicine.) | K. Moser |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | It can be a cost cutting measure due to early detection of disease indicators. It could be an alternative for a patient, allow them the coverage to try it.
Are any of these test exorbitantly expensive, or inaccurate? |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB188 | Allows construction management-at-risk entities and construction manager general contractors to self-perform jobs up to 20% of the cost of the project when a subcontractor fails to perform. (*Seems like a good protection to assure a project actually finishes.) | J. Dixon |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Allows construction management-at-risk entities and construction manager general contractors to self-perform when a subcontractor fails to perform or when certain conditions are met. Allows contractor to use materials and supplies from a supplier or subcontractor or tools or equipment leased from a subcontractor.
Seems like harmless requirements but not a high priority |
Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB189 | Removes the transfer of lottery revenues from the Collaborative Center for Literary Development. (*Moves funds to other parts of the General Fund.) | K. Banta |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Doesn’t say where those revenues are now going to, only “to the reading and diagnostic fund.” Needs clarifying | Passed House |
| Elections | HB191 | Creates the procedures for filling an unexpired term on the consolidated local government council. (*Good, though 24 hours is short, and does 60 days put election on a Tuesday?) | J. Bauman |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | In the case where the vacancy occurs 3 months prior to the election, and no special election will be called, I would suggest codifying an extension of the filing deadline for new candidates to apply to be on the ballot. Note: Writ of vacancy within 24 hours is a tight window. 60 days from writ might not put election on a Tuesday. |
Passed House |
| Health | HB196 | Estab Mental Health Safety Center (SafeKY) within the University of Louisville. Require SafeKY to develop and maintain a free to use real time electronic mental health application 24/7/365. (*Good idea; Better built privately, maintained by Family and Health services.) | K. Fleming |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | I have a concern that there is no requirement of parental notification within this program. Also, not sure if we can trust the woke universities to not use this kind of service to groom children. Better to build the app privately, and maintain it through Family and Health Services. |
Passed House |
| Health | HB200 | Estab a health care provider / GA partnership for scholarship funds for health care workers in areas of high demand. (*Only if pandemic mandate firings reinstated and no racist DEI component.) | K. Fleming |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | Another attempt to fix the health care shortage that many of these facilities brought on themselves by mandating the jab as a condition of employment. How about rehiring those who were let go with back pay. Also I do not like the language included on page 5 lines 19 & 20 :”to improve racial and ethnic diversity within a specific designated health care credentials…” | Passed House |
| Health | HB207 | Allows law enforcement agencies to create their own wellness programs. Records are to be kept confidential, not subject to subpoena or open records request. | K. Bratcher |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good to maintain confidentiality with the mental health protection programs for officers. Does allow for exceptions when an officer threatens suicide or violence towards another clearly identifiable person | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB21 | Set-up a process for homeless persons to obtain driver’s licenses or alternative ID using various homeless resource provider addresses. | R. Bridges |
| Oppose | Medium (Committee review+) | How does an employee know that a person is actually homeless, etc.? What impact does this have on voting? How does this impact non-citizens? What qualifies a support org. to issue such a certification? Need more thought about the ways this could be exploited and manipulated by bad actors. |
Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB210 | Contains provisions for insurer insolvency. Makes various other technical changes to regulation of insurance industry. | M. Pollock |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | There is zero chance that all 100 of the legislators in the House who voted for this bill actually understood it in its entirety. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB217 | Incl appl for salvaged titles under the electronic registration system. | M. Meredith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Not a bad change, but not a high priority.
The central concern of salvage titles must remain certification of safety and full diclosure. Not sure that allowing electronic registration affect either. |
Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB222 | Extend the levy for hazardous waste management assessment against hazardous waste generators from June 30, 2024 until June 30, 2032. (*Reasonable to make them pay forpay for long-term clean-up.) | J. Gooch Jr |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Need to keep funding for state assistance with clean up of hazardous chemical spills | Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB225 | Removes compulsory annual dues above cost to join and perform discipline operations required of members of the bar. | S. Doan |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Bar members should not have to pay excessive membership dues to an organization that may not align with their beliefs. Kentucky is a right to work state | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB226 | Estab admin of behavioral community crises response (counseling for disaster situations) and transfers admin from Dep. of Military Affairs to Cab. for Health and Family Services. | J. Bauman |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Will be good to have this service under one entity, that can be used on a daily basis but especially during a crises.
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. |
Passed House |
| Elections | HB230 | Reqs the Sec of State to report to the GA, county clerks, and public on website regarding voter reg cleanup. | J. Hodgson |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Great idea. Would require a report of registered voters by address in each county, so that voters can verify their own address. Would love to know why the county clerks can’t do voter roll cleanup, only the Sec of State (that is my understanding anyway)? |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB231 | Allow Dep. of Community Based Services to request name and fingerprint-based criminal background check adults in home in which a child is placed during an emergency placement. (*Need discard of fingerprint data.) | D. Elliott |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Would like for the check to be done prior to the placement, but it does stipulate that it’s for emergency placement.
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? |
Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB232 | Incr min financial responsibility for adjuster licenses. Estab. reqs for public adjuster contracts, notice rights, inspection, investigation of claims and conflict of interest. (*How burdensome?) | R. Duvall |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Lots of changes to the requirements for adjusters to follow. Very detailed. Don’t see any problem with it, just not a high priority.These seem like reasonable, but need some feedback on how burdensome these changes would be for insurance adjusters. |
Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB236 | Reqs that financial managers involved with gov’t pensions in the state act solely based upon pecuniary factors (ie making money), not ESG or ideological factors. | S. Sharp |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Financial managers involved with gov’t pensions in the state must act to maximize risk-adjusted returns solely based upon pecuniary factors (ie making money), not ESG or ideological factors. Solid bill, and simple, I always wonder why it doesn’t extend beyond gov’t pensions. There shouldn’t be any other factors worthy of interest for a financial advisor, they have a fiduciary responsibiliy. | Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB237 | Allows possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages at non-licensed venues within or sharing a boundary with an entertainment destination center with a license. (*Get a liquor license if you want people to be able to drink.) | M. Meredith |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Seems to be a way to get around having separate liquor licenses for businesses next door.
If you want people to be able to drink in yoiur store, get a liquor license. |
Passed House |
| Health | HB238 | Prohibit discrimination against donation of organs to disabled persons. (*Good bill, bad official title from LRC.) | D. Bentley |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Pretty straight-forward. Don’t hold having a disability against a person when choosing who gets a limited supply of organs. Doctors should use their medical judgement in determining whether disabled person can follow the post-donation care protocols, that’s it. | Passed House |
| Education | HB241 | Cleans up some language that qualified mental health professionals can write exemptions from compulsory school attendance. | J. Bray |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Small change. Takes out language referring to psychologists and psychiatrists and switches to established legal definitions about qualified mental health professionals. | Passed House |
| Education | HB244 | Estab high school(s) according to the Kentucky Guard Youth Challenge Program run by the Adjutant General of the National Guard. (*Fine if most funds are federal.) | C. Fugate |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | The program sounds like a positive one. I don’t think we need significant state tax dollars going to construction of new schools in the state and funding their administration, when we have to funding the ones we have and they aren’t as effective as they need to be given the investments made in them. My understanding is that most of the funding is coming from Federal Sources however. If true, then fine. |
Passed House |
| Health | HB248 | Estab reqs for cert of recovery housing. Permits local gov’ts to assume inspection and enforcement duties. Direct the Dep. of Medicaid Services to seek approval to provide coverage for certified recovery houses. (Why regulate this?) | S. Heavrin |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Definitely need to promote recovery houses as a response to the drug addiction problems our communities are facing. It isn’t clear how regulating them does that, however. Not clear what it does at all actually. Is there a lot is frauduent half-way housing? |
Passed House |
| Criminal Code | HB249 | Incl killing a child <12 yo as aggravating circumstance for death penalty. | N. Wilson |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Should definitely be a consideration in the sentencing phase. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB257 | Estab KY contribution trust fund to take charitable donations (eg to disaster relief efforts) and req the reporting of deposits to and expenditures from the fund. | J. Petrie |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Hesitance with this is, why aren’t these funds just going to charities? Should be a provision that these funds get reallocated entirely to non-profits aid organizations which do not discriminate against religious charities. |
Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB258 | Remove the req for various state agencies to report to the Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue. (*Removes excessive & duplicate reporting.) | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good that it will free up duplicate reporting requirements. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB259 | Adjusts dates and reporting reqs for state agencies to report their budget analysis on odd numbered years to the GA / LRC. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Moves dates and moves the reporting requirement to the Legislative Research Commission rather than the General Assembly. No problem with this bill. | Passed House |
| Criminal Code | HB262 | Remove references to manufacturer’s instr. for breath testing equipment, instead standard operating procedures. | P. Flannery |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Pretty harmless change but not a high priority | Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB264 | Estab General Reg Sandbox Advisory Committee and KY Office of Reg Relief. Applicants who demonstrate innovative offering or service can apply to have gov’t regs set aside while bringing product to market. | P. Pratt |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Seems like a good idea to free up red tape for businesses. However, would like to see it done through existing gov’t structure, rather than creating new bureaucracy. Also, I understand the need for meetings discussing innovative business practices to be private to protect trade secrets, but outside of that those meetings should be subject to public disclosure. |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB28 | Estab 4th Thurs. in March Tuskegee Airman Day. | D. Frazier Gordon |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Fine, nothing objectionable here. Not an official state holiday, just recognition of heroes. | Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB287 | Decr admin regs for charitable gaming orgs. (*Should retain background checks.) | K. Bratcher |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Not a bad bill. I don’t like removing the fingerprint requirement for license applicants. If they are running charities, we need to know they are of high character. |
Passed House |
| Education | HB288 | Prevents ALL K-12 schools from entering into NDAs relating to misconduct involving a minor. Reqs school districts disclose any allegations or investigations to other districts and employee criminal background check every 5 yrs. Prohibit schools from hiring a violent or felony sex crime offender. (*Must protect due process.) | J. Tipton |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Good bill with good requirements, must protect our children. I would want to strike out “within the last 12 months” for an applicant to disclose being the subject of an ongoing investigation or disciplinary action.A simple allegation or investigation finding nothing should not condemn a person. |
Passed House |
| Firearms & Military | HB29 | Remove KY residency req for internment in vets’ cemeteries. | D. Lewis |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good bill. Don’t have any problem with this. | Passed House |
| Health | HB290 | Change regs for prescribing and dispensing controlled substances, and synchronization schedules. Update list of controlled substances allowed under a health plan benefit. (*Why remove hydrocodone?) | S. Bratcher |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | Most of this is regulatory updates. The part I can’t understand is why remove hydrocodone from the list as a prohibited Schedule III controlled substance. Wasn’t hydrocodone a huge part of the opioid epidemic crisis in the state? | Passed House |
| Criminal Code | HB3 | Relatively straight-forward changes to the juvenile justice criminal code, incl. procedures for handling truancy, evaluate treatment options for violent offenders. (*Murder may justify longer lack of recidivism period to seal records.) | K. Bratcher |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Juvenile justice criminal code changes, incl. procedures for handling truancy, evaluate treatment options for violent offenders. Also requires detainment for 48 hours (excluding weekends) of violent offenders until a hearing can be held. Nothing too controversial here. *Sealing of records after 5 years of non-offense is ok, but Murder may warrant longer lack of recidivism. |
Passed House |
| Elections | HB302 | Elections omnibus bill: Reqs AG select 6 random + 6 counties with highest rates of irregularities, for indep. inquiry. Consolidated precincts must incl. adeq. parking (OK). Electioneering limits for in-person absentee voting or training election officers (Good). Penalties for felons who attempt to register to vote. (*Good ideas here, most provisions don’t go far enough; eg HB214 is better admin. indep. inquiry bill.) | J. Decker |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Requires AG select six random counties and six counties with highest rates of irreg. for indep. inquiry. Require Attorney General to promulgate administrative regulations to establish uniform procedures for inquiry. Require that petitions for consolidated precincts include adequate parking accommodations. Prohibit electioneering during any days of in-person absentee voting or during training for election officers. Prohibit any candidate beaten in the primary from running for the same office in the general. Only “death” as a condition to fill a vacancy in the nomination of a candidate. Prescribe penalties for felons who attempt to register to vote.
HB214 is a much better bill regarding AG’s independent inquiry. |
Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB303 | Removes several state offices and creates new offices within Dep for Business and Community Development. Includes companies in the hydrogen transmission industry in Bluegrass State Skills Corporation Grant-in-aid and Skills Training Investment Credit programs. Increases grants-in-aid from $200,000 to $500,000. Changes amount of loan loss payments for western KY disaster relief from the original $200M to $100M. Incl companies involved in hydrogen transmission in KY Enterprise Initiative Act, KY Business Initiative program and the KY Reinvestment Act. Stipulates that employees must pay maximum state income tax unless triggered by local tax rates. | J. Branscum |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | A lot packed in this bill. Most appears to be for economic development of the hydrogen transmission industry and for disaster relief for western KY. Don’t have much of a problem with it, except the stipulation that employees must pay maximum state tax amount. There are lots of $$$ being doled out to corporations, does it have to be paid for by the employees in the affected communities? | Passed House |
| Health | HB311 | Prohibit Medicaid from req health professional or medical group maintain physical location in KY to be eligible as a Medicaid provider if they exclusively offer services via telehealth. | R. Raymer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Don’t have a problem with this but would like to see the requirement that the provider exclusively offers service via telehealth be removed. Why not allow other providers also.
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. |
Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB313 | Redef “eligible project” to include when matching funds are available either on publicly owned property or meets certain cond. Elim. eligible grant recipient 10% match req. Bases program eligibility on census population, Caps avail funds at $2M per county, and DQs projs that receive discretionary mega-development funding. | A. Bowling |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Seems to be reasonable requirements and adjustments, but not a very high priority. | Passed House |
| Education | HB319 | Estab interstate compact for mutual licensure of teachers. | J. Tipton |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | No major issue with this, but won’t it create price competition with other (neighboring) states? Prefer a more general approach were all professions have cross-licensure, not just teachers. If you can do a job in another state why are we creating barriers to doing it here? | Passed House |
| Education | HB32 | Allow hiring of classified personnel without a high school diploma if the school district allows the employee the opportunity to obtain one at no cost to the employee. | K. Jackson |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Could help slightly alleviate unskilled staff shortages in the school system. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB320 | Allow applicant with nonresident operator’s license and comm. driver’s license to take the KY CDL skills test for $150. | C. Freeland |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | No issue with this. Would make it easier to get more CDL drivers in-state, we have a need in the work force. |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB328 | Makes participation date in County Employees Retirement System if entering KY Dep. of Criminal Justice Training Police Corp program prior to July 1, 2003 shall be date training began. | D.J. Johnson |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Reasonable provision, just not sure how many officers this will affect. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB329 | Reqs State Treasurer to either revise, cancel or keep effective any contract in which the Gov’t Contract Review Committee issues non-binding recs to the secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet. | M. Hart |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Require the secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet to revise, cancel or keep any contract issued pursuant to the Governor’s constitutional powers.
Seems like reasonable clarification but not a high priority |
Passed House |
| Education | HB331 | Reqs all middle and high schools to maintain & at least all coaches are trained on portable automated external defibrillators & CPR. | R. Palumbo |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Reqs all middle and high schools to maintain & are trained on portable automated external defibrillators. All coaches trained on its use and on CPR. Defibrillator kept on hand at all practices and games. Required to annually certify compliance.
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? |
Passed House |
| Health | HB334 | Reqs an application to increase the number of beds by an immediate care facility for individuals with an intellectual disability to be consistent with the state health plan under certain circumstances. | D.J. Johnson |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | More regulatory red tape, but they should have to stay in compliance. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB338 | Estab prospective juror may elect to be relieved of service on jury for the period summoned, if the juror is age 70 or older. | A. Neighbors |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No problem with this. | Passed House |
| Health | HB345 | Prohibit discriminating in pricing based on an applicant’s health status, claims experience, receipt of health care or medical condition for purchase of Medicare supplements. | K. Moser |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Reasonable prohibition. | Passed House |
| Health | HB349 | Permit expedited partner therapy for sexually transmitted infection. Permit self testing for immunodeficiency virus. Remove penalty for someone who donates organs, skin or other tissue while knowingly being positive for immunodeficiency virus. | D. Bentley |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Would need to strike out the provision that you remove the penalty for someone who knowingly donates while having virus in order to support. | Passed House |
| Criminal Code | HB353 | Exclude testing equipment used to determine the presence of chemically toxic substances or hazardous compounds in controlled substances from the prohibition of possession of drug paraphernalia. Exclude fentanyl found on testing equipment from the definition of fentanyl. | K. Moser |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Seems to be reasonable requirements. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB357 | Amend KRS: correct outdated references to specific interim joint committees, correct titles of various state officers and update the the names of several state and federal agencies. | D. Hale |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Corrections are needed, but this could be another shell bill. Not sure. | Passed House |
| Education | HB36 | Removes ” insured” from the definition of “student loans” that can be financed and purchased by the Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation. | T. Truett |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Essentially doesn’t require all student loans to be insured in order for the state to help in financing them. Fine, but if they aren’t insured doesn’t the state take on heightened repayment risk? If so, need controls on that. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB360 | Catch-all bill eliminating a slew of property and usage taxes. (*This needs to be broken into a lot of separate bills, so we can selectively vote for the tax exemptions that make sense.) | J. Petrie |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | This appears to be a catch-all bill for the several bills that have been introduced this session dealing with tax breaks for different products and services. If you want an exemption on taxation of bullion and currency, you have to accept exempting lobbyists from the service tax. If you want to exempt farm equipment and livestock from local and state taxation, you have to accept exempting distilled spirits property from local taxation. Even want to exempt tax receipts from human service transportation delivery ( taxis ) from excise tax. Too many bad provisions of this to support. |
Passed House |
| Criminal Code | HB369 | Remove language describing a series of felony offenses. Allow expungement of juvenile records with multiple felonies arising from one incident | S. Miles |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Should only expunge felonies with a clean record for at minimum 5 years as an adult. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB373 | Revisions lots of law enforcement certification statutes, most good. (*MUST remove ability of deputy jailers and corrections staff to make arrests outside of jail. Court security officers MUST be trained in order to make arrests…) | J. Blanton |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Lots of good recommendations for changes. I think though that court security officers should have the same requirements as other deputies, since they deal with a criminal element on a daily basis. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB380 | Allows 20 yo to attend police officer basic training so long as they turn 21 prior to conclusion. | S. Witten |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Seems like a reasonable adjustment that will help with recruiting young officers. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB385 | Reduces req # of candidates submitted to Gov for appt to Geographic Information Advisory Council from six to three. | M. Imes |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | More choices could be better but not a big deal. | Passed House |
| Criminal Code | HB386 | Expand reqs to move over or slow down when approaching emergency or public safety vehicle to incl any vehicle displaying a warning signal. | M. Imes |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No problem with this but not a high priority | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB387 | Amends multiple statutes to update references to more newly established committee names. | S. Heavrin |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Needs updating but not a high priority | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB39 | Reorganizes KY Horse Park Commission, its duties and function. (*Wait 1 year, plus No bill with racist “affirmative action” provisions should ever be codified into law.) | P. Pratt |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Does a good job defining the duties and responsibilities of the Commission. My only problem with this bill is the language used on page 5 lines 6 and 7…”including staff development and training programs for affirmative action.” Don’t understand why we are encoding affirmative action into statute. | Passed House |
| Health | HB391 | Req long term care providers to eval and discuss opps for joint training as new regs and guidelines announced. | A. Neighbors |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Just a suggestion. Has no teeth behind it. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB393 | Change subject entities from public agencies to governmental bodies. Allow city to sell or dispense of items without value. Increase limit from $5K to $10K at which city may sell property…. | J. Dixon |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Lots of minutiae about operations of municipalities. Not opposed but not a high priority. | Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB394 | Changes financial statement reqs for professional employer org initial and renewal application. Reqs submission of wage reports and pay all contribs to the Office of Unemployment Insurance. | P. Pratt |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No problem with any of this but not a high priority. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB4 | Specifies processes and timelines for approving, building, and decommissioning electric generation facilities. | J. Branscum |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Nothing seemed particularly objectionable here. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB401 | Adds Div. of Records Management and rename the Div. of Information Technology to the Div. of Electronic Services within the Office of Technical Services within the Dep. of KY State Police. | D. Hale |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Could be a shell bill. Not certain. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB419 | Require a current copy of all digital parcel and tax district data be securely stored with the Commonwealth Office of Technology’s geographic information clearinghouse. Restrict data from being redistributed, sold, shared or used for any commercial or unauthorized purposes. | C. Freeland |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No big problem with this just not a high priority. | Passed House |
| Education | HB421 | Allows school districts to contract for road improvements, replace energy-inefficient buildings on their properties. (*Must be clear, Transp. Dept is not required to approve reimbursement for improvements.) | K. Timoney |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | No problem with school districts being able to put in the work to try and expidite building replacements and road improvements. It should remain clear that submitting an application does NOT mean that other parts of government is required to pay for them. | Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB429 | Limit security requirements, amount available for lending. Permit a state bank or trust company to elect to comply with lending limits applicable to national banks. | M. Meredith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good requirements. Banks should not be allowed to loan money that they cannot back up. | Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB433 | Establish dates for the renewal and reinstatement of deferred deposit service business and check cashing licenses. Allow the commissioner to modify dates when necessary to facilitate common practices and procedures among the states. | C. Stevenson |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Reasonable requirements for the banking industry to follow. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB442 | Appropriate funds for payment of claims against the Commonwealth. | D.J. Johnson |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Many claims listed in this bill which were found to be legitimate, but red tape kept the funds from being appropriated. Definitely need to make these claimants whole. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB444 | Amend to clarify fiscal biennium. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | This is a minor, but correct, correction given 2 year budget cycle. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB446 | Allow monies in EKSAFE and WKSAFE funds to be used as loans for replacement, renovation or expansion of certain police, fire and ambulance stations. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | No problem with this. They cannot rebuild to greater than 120 percent capacity and loan must be re-payed. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB448 | Each branch of government shall have in process of preparation and revision plans and needs of its budget units and existing and prospective sources of income for the next two years. Upon receipt of estimates each branch shall revise its budget as it deems warranted. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Seems like a reasonable requirement for state agencies to follow. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB455 | Defer annualized use allowance payments for local facility projects to 2023-2026 biennium. | J. Blanton |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Not sure why it says making an appropriation therefor, when it appears that the funding will not be allotted until the 2024-2026 biennium. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB464 | Reqs matching non state funds from nonprofits be dollar for dollar for Civil War sites and one for each three dollars for Revolutionary War sites in order to receive funds from the KY battlefield preservation fund. | D. Elliott |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Requires that matching non state funds from nonprofits be dollar for dollar for Civil War sites and one for each three dollars for Revolutionary War sites in order to receive funds from the Kentucky battlefield preservation fund. No problem with this bill. | Passed House |
| Health | HB470 | Req reporting (with criminal penalty) and strips license and funding from anyone conducting “gender-affirming(altering) care (GAC)” and “gender(sex) reassignment surgery” on minors. Bans state funding and performance of GAC. Allows for civil liability for “injury” sustained via providing GAC (incl for insurer). (*Why adopt the left’s nomenclature/euphemisms?) | J. Decker |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Multi-faceted bill. Don’t misinterpret the following, it is a good bill and apparently more likely to move than the more staightforward HB120.
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… |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB49 | Makes mostly procedural changes to the KY Public Pensions Authority, some required by court order, incl for mental disability claims. | J. Tipton |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Makes changes to the KY Public Pensions Authority, some required by court order. Mostly procedural clarification.
Permits voting by phone in trustee elections. Provides that if you receive mental disability retirement funds, then return to work in a similar position, benefits will cease until case is heard by a vocational expert and decided. When filing for disability, if the first medical examiner denies the claim, the individual may seek opinion of second examiner. If second examiner approves claim, it shall go to a third examiner to decide status. Mostly harmless bill. Recommend for passage. |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB500 | Prohibits sale or lease of agricultural land to foreign nationals from some countries. (*Not bad, but: Must specify in 22 C.F.R. sec. 126.1 if countries are paragraph (d)(1), (d)(2) or (f)->(z)? Existing ownership? Targeted to near military bases?) | R. Heath |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | I’m not totally opposed to this. China’s purchases have made a lot of news recently, esp. near military installations. This prohibits sale of farm land to citizens of various unsavory countries. Concerns: It isn’t entirely clear, reading 22 C.F.R. sec. 126.1, which countries specifically this applies to as there are several lists there. It doesn’t seem that this applies to already existing ownership interests. I worry that this is targetting citizens of other countries, when the real issue is with that country’s gov’t itself, and this might hurt overall investment. If the issue is national security, perhaps distance from a military base restriction might be more targetted to the purpose. |
Passed House |
| Health | HB502 | Creates separate categories for permanent and temporary direct care staff. Seems to shift reporting requirements toward temporary staff. | R. Raymer |
| Amend to define “permanent direct care staff” and “temporary direct care staff.” Not really sure why this distinction is necessary. | Passed House | ||
| Govt Regulations | HB506 | Adds multiple options for short-term dispensation of retirements benefits (4 and 5 years of monthly payments). Removes prohibitions on retiring double dipping the system. | W. Thomas |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Establishes a partial lump-sum option with or without survivor rights as a payment option for retiring members of the Kentucky Employees Retirement System. Adds 48 and 60 monthly lump-sum payments to the already 12, 24 and 36 monthly payment and a lifetime benefit that is actuarially reduced to reflect the payment. Requires the Department to advise retirees of the cost / benefit of this plan. Appears that it also removes provisions that prohibit retiring, then returning to work and double dipping the system.*Don’t like allowing double dipping, even if it means fewer people returning in a shortage. |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB507 | Places a moratorium on building and remodeling local correctional facilities if it is financed with debt. (*Likely good provision while interest rates are historically high.) | J. Bray |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Places a moratorium on building and remodeling local correctional facilities if it is financed with debt. Exception if court of law orders specific construction or if building damaged by natural disaster. Opposed to deficit spending, but not sure why the state feels the need to compel this. | Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB513 | Allows board to set fee for an eyeglass/contact lens dispenser license. (*Why is there ANY license fee, if it was just $75.) | W. Williams |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | If the license is only $75, why are we even charging a fee here? Answer isn’t to allow for higher fees but rather to go to no fees. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB519 | Makes the CEO of the KY State Fair Board a member of the board (bringing total to 10). | S. McPherson |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Add the president and CEO of the Kentucky State Fair Board to the tourist and convention commissions in counties containing a first class city or a consolidated local government. Not sure why the president /CEO is needed on the commission. May spread he/she thin. | Passed House |
| Health | HB52 | Def stress injury, allows me increased length of treatment for stress-related injury to firefighters and allows lifetime cap on benefits. | K. Banta |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | good bill. There is some worry that this could potentially be exploited, as with many psychological injury. Better to err on the side of taking care of first responders. | Passed House |
| HB522 | |||
| Passed House | |||
| Govt Regulations | HB534 | Allows legally req notices published on digital news website if site meets certain quals. Allows local gov’t to publish ad directing public to its notice section on a digital news website. (*Should be in addition, not alternative, to local paper.) | S. Dietz |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | It would be great for local governments to post information on their website and when available post information on a newspapers digital website, but this should not exempt local government from also posting this information on the newspapers hard copy. We need full transparency from our government agencies. Some people do not have internet access, or they are hesitant to get on the internet. They should not be required to mail in a request for information and then hope it gets mailed back in a timely manner. | Passed House |
| Education | HB538 | Sets regs to remove disruptive students from the classroom and expel those who are violent. (*Very important bill. Must add due process provisions, students/parents must have right to appeal.) | T. Truett |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Sets protocols and regulations allowing teachers to remove disruptive students from class and principal to expel violent or permanently remove disruptive students from classrooms.
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. |
Passed House |
| HB540 | |||
| Passed House | |||
| HB544 | |||
| Passed House | |||
| Education | HB547 | Codifies/clarifies right to religious expression by public school teachers. (*Some concern with (3)(g) and #1A establishment clause.) | C. Fugate |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Great bill. The only possible issue I might have is with section (3)(g)… I’m not sure that we want to give teachers carte blanche to have religious expression and ability to distribute materials to students outside instructional time but while still operating under official duties. That can potentially be dangerously close to “establishment” if abused. Rest of the bill is great. | Passed House |
| Taxes & Spending | HB553 | Cleans up the Biennial Payroll to remove allocation for actuarial costs related to paid sick leave. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Fine. Apparently is was just a placeholder amount anyway, so it cleans up the accounting. | Passed House |
| HB568 | |||
| Passed House | |||
| Govt Regulations | HB586 | Adds CEO of the KY League of Cities to KY Ed and Workforce Collaborative. (*Adds a lobbyist to a counsel, but actually makes sense to be on this.) | R. Webber |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Include the executive director / CEO of the Kentucky League of Cities on the Kentucky Education and Workforce Collaborative. Not sure why the director /CEO needs to have a position there. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB587 | Adds an internal auditor to the KY Public Pensions Authority. | R. Webber |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Require the KY Public Pension Authority to appoint or contract for the service of an Internal Auditor to audit the pension funds. Auditor not subject to hiring / employment provisions of KRS Chapter 18A. Good provision. Someone needs to make certain that pension funds are being protected. |
Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB594 | Effectively eliminates “skill-based grey machines” by prohibiting them returning money (only non-cash redeemable merchandise). (*Better approach is regulation, eg HB525/HB256). | K. Timoney |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | This is a very difficult bill to evaluate. It’s purpose seems vague. Def “Amusement Machines” with the objective of distinguishing them from gambling devices, and permits their use. Provides a penalty for anyone operating a gambling machine illegally. It assumes the proliferation of illegal gambling machines is such a problem that they must be distinguished from amusement machines. |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB62 | Redefines ” real estate brokerage” to include those who advertise for sale an equitable interest in a contract for real property. | D. Meade |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Not a high priority. Lance: Seems to include a common practice in commercial real estate under the umbrella of real estate brokerage regulation. |
Passed House |
| Firearms & Military | HB63 | Incl Space Force in definition of Armed Forces. Amends Interstate Compact on Ed Opportunity for Military Children to incl the children of National Guard and Reserve personnel. | S. Bratcher |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | good bill, we added a new branch of the military, so need to include it in all existing legislation. | Passed House |
| Firearms & Military | HB64 | Extends period of time that a peace officer employed before December 1, 1998 may be separated from service before losing certification status from 100 days to 365 | M. Dossett |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Seems like a good bill, it can be a hassle to regain certification and is a police officer’s fitness for the job going to degrade that much in 100 days? Plus 100 days isn’t that long to find a next job. 1 year seems reasonable. low priority |
Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB70 | Restricts the KY Lottery or Corporation, it’s board or employees, from releasing the name or likeness of any winner of a lottery prize over 7 million who elects to have their identity withheld | K. Banta |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Solid bill, the rare person that comes into this level of money quickly can be the target of both scammers and thieves. | Passed House |
| Health | HB75 | Alters def. and establish program to increase Medicare fee-for-service reimbursements. | B. Reed |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Seems like a change in the law to aid hospitals getting more completely reimbursed by Medicare for outpatient services. Don’t understand this one completely, but seems like a no lose change to the law. | Passed House |
| Other | HB76 | Sets up dates throughout the year to annually recognize different types of agriculture production. | B. Reed |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Not sure of the necessity of this, but suppose it’s harmless. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB78 | Cleans up language on familial relationships, replaces “consenting adults” with ” consenting persons”, makes any non-consenting person a victim. | K. Banta |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good clarification of existing language. | Passed House |
| Govt Regulations | HB83 | Estab. expiration date and process for judgement liens. Provides that the expiration date can be postponed by the courts. | P. Flannery |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good to have the liens expire without further court action. But could it harm someone who doesn’t realize they need to seek continuation in court | Passed House |
| Business Regs | HB9 | Creates and sets up administration of the Government Resources Accelerating Needed Transformation Program. (*If federal dollars are already available, go get them.) | R. Heath |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Establishes a matching grant fund of $2,000,000 federal for economic and community revitalization in areas of coal country. Has a sunset provision of Dec 31, 2026. If the federal dollars are already earmarked for this purpose, it should be utilized. | Passed House |
| Firearms & Military | SB101 | Reqs peace officers stay on the force for 5 instead of 3 years to avoid charge for retraining. | J. Turner |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Extends contracts for training of peace officers from 3 to 5 years that the officer must stay on the force, or the officer must repay the training cost upon leaving. No problem with this bill. | Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB104 | Revise membership reqs (incl Senate confirm) and term lengths of new members of KY Authority for Educational Television (KET). Current members appointed by Gov expire on effective date of act. (*Fine, but wait 1 year.) | S. Meredith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Not real sure why these changes are needed. Must be a pressing concern. More centrally, why can’t this wait until after the Governor race? Allowing the Gov to appoint replacements won’t change a lot. Why not wait and see if a Republican is the next Gov? |
Passed Senate |
| Education | SB107 | Estab new nominating committee to pre-screen 3 candidates for each opening that the Gov can fill on KY Board of Ed. (*What if Repub. party fought for principles: meritocracy, no identity politics & not codifying Sex & Race quotas into law (eg 1.2b, 1.5)?) | M. Wilson |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Not great legislation anyway. It’s meant to constrain the governor to only selecting somewhat vetted candidates for the KY Board of Ed, but the Governor will appoint the members of this committee as well (to 6 year terms). So, primarily it just adds yet another layer of bureaucracy. I’ll never support any legislation that codifies racism or sexism in the form of quotas. That Republicans voted for a similar measure to constrain the appointments to the existing KY BOE is astonishing (perhaps they were duped in negotiations with Beshear to embracing discriminatory Democrat ideology, DEI, and identify politics).NOTE: 1.2b2 (appointments based upon proportionate political affiliation) is a subtly powerful piece of legalese (also adopted for appointment of KY BOE in existing law) that potentially can be used to reform our state post-secondary ed system’s political biases both in terms of faculty and aministrators political affiliations. |
Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB109 | Estabs registration exemptions for investment advisors. No need to register if 5 or fewer clients in this state, or if servicing private funds (like venture capital). (*We need MORE regulation for “finance”, esp. private funds.) | C. McDaniel |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Establishes registration exemptions for investment advisors. No problem with this bill. (*We need MORE regulation for “finance”, esp. private funds.) |
Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB11 | Elim ability (for the Governor) to close the road between the Capitol and Annex. | J. Schickel |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Minor bill, but the Governor should have never closed the road anyway. | Passed Senate |
| Health | SB110 | Allows KY Board of Nursing to suspend or reprimand nurse if nurse ion adult care-giver misconduct registry or finding of abuse or neglect of a child. Allows traveling nurse from another state to practice on very short-term basis. Limits # of nurse educators on KY Board of Nursing to between 3 and 6. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | I like adding the causes to suspend or reprimand a nurse. They should have already been there. I don’t like allowing a nurse from another state to practice in Kentucky who is in the state on a non routine basis. Not even sure what that means as a qualification. | Passed Senate |
| Health | SB111 | Expand reqs to serve as director of health in counties containing city of first class. No longer have to be a physician if master’s degree in public health or a related field and 5+ years experience. | A. Mays Bledsoe |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Don’t have a problem with this just think it should cover every county. I worry that these positions will no longer req actual medical experience. Sometimes Master’s of Public Health are SJWs who didn’t have the motivation to do actual social work. If we do this, we need to reign in their powers and ability to control policy. |
Passed Senate |
| Taxes & Spending | SB112 | Allows the sharing of tax information when requested for an audit. | C. McDaniel |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Not a very high priority. Reasonable that taxing jurisdiction should have this info. I do worry that this inclreases the chances that tax info can then be leaked, however (much as Trump’s tax returns got leaked). | Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB115 | After comm sub, an indecent exposure law that prohibits sexually-explicit content from being exposed to minors. (*Still support, but now lower priority.) | L. Tichenor |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Kentucky would become one of only a handful of states to regulate adult-oriented businesses officially at the state level. Includes all sorts of sexual conduct, or nudity, related businesses from adult bookstores to strippers in the definition. Also includes any biz hosting drag shows. Lists about 10 different types of biz that are associated with families or children: churches, child-care facilities, schools, YMCA, youth sports facilities, parks, etc. Requires 1000 foot distance of adult biz from any of those or another adult-oriented biz. Also requires the exclusion of minors. Long past due for this sort of aggressive state level regulation to protect children and families.Currently only the most egregious of activity, like indecent exposure, is limited at the state level.Bill was butchered by Comittee sub, now it is a version of indecent exposure law and only focused on sexually explicit conduct. |
Passed Senate |
| Criminal Code | SB119 | Slight changes to def of sex crimes: sexual abuse to sexual assault; expand sexual contact. (*Fine; should consensual incest be sexual assault?) | M. Deneen |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Usually it is extremely difficult to change these criminal statutes. I’m not sure what great need this bill fulfills, but it is a slight improvement in language for the most part. I’m not sure that incest between consenting adult, which I’m fine with continuing to be illegal (just to be clear) should be considered “sexual assault” however. |
Passed Senate |
| Health | SB12 | Bars reporting requirements or employer penalties for physicians participating in “wellness programs” for work stress-related counseling. (*Good idea, but only if it extends to other health professionals.) | D. Douglas |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | No significant problem with this. It’s a restriction of businesses, but a very reasonable one. However, it needs to apply to all Medical Professionals, not just physicians… or not at all.
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. |
Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB120 | Planned communities must file declaration with county clerk where community is located. Provides how an association shall be organized, with reqs for board and members, via bylaws. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Reasonable protocols for planned communities. Way too much direction on how those communities should be set up. But that may be a good thing for people who wish to live in a restricted neighborhood. | Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB122 | Desig areas of Capitol Annex and parking spaces adjunct to Capitol and Annex to be (re-)allocated to GA and LRC. (*OK, but isn’t the issue a lack of space? Build more.) | R. Mills |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | Some of this seems reasonable. Where are these relocated people and parking spaces going to go? Shouldn’t the solution be to expand or build a new parking garage with addl space for most of these relocated services? |
Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB123 | Allow notaries to perform notarial acts in another state if it is performed in a civil action or legal proceeding originating in the Commonwealth. | J. Turner |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Allow notaries to perform notarial acts in another state if it is performed in a civil action or legal proceeding originating in the Commonwealth. Minor bill, seems reasonable. |
Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB126 | Estab official protocol for requesting/obtaining a change of venue in specified civil actions. | J. Howell |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Seems to be a simple, effective way of accomplishing a change of venue. | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB128 | Reqs each school district annually report sick leave balances, and TRS report contain actuarial valuation, total liabilities, and costs for Teacher’s Retirement System. | J. Higdon |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Largely administrative requirements to check costs to the state. Side-note: Teachers are allowed to accrue 300 days of sick leave?! Should mandate that they be converted 3 or 4 to 1 for vacation days gradually down to a more reasonable number. |
Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB129 | Prohibits selling of data for automated plate readers and storage of data for more than 90 days with exceptions. (*Good regs to limit abuse of info.) | J. Higdon |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Defines terms and establishes limitations on use. Prohibits the selling of data. Prohibits storage of data for more than 90 days with exceptions. Good bill. | Passed Senate |
| Health | SB135 | Req Cab for Health and Family Services set up panel to study and provide info on perinatal mental health. (*Some similarity to HB282.) | S. Funke Frommeyer |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Fine, why aren’t they already providing this information? | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB138 | Specifies the duration and type of employmnet permitted for substitute teachers based upon education. (*15 college credits is awfully few.) | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Reqs Ed Standards Board to issue substitute teacher certificates based on education attained. Specify what type of employment they are valid for. No problem with this but I hope it doesn’t make it harder for the schools to get substitutes. | Passed Senate |
| SB141 | A. Mayes Bledsoe | ||
| Allows cities that use their own collection procedures for collection of property taxes to place liens on the unpaid property tax bills. No problem with this bill. | Passed Senate | ||
| Govt Regulations | SB144 | Mirror to HB464. | R. Girdler |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | The same as HB464. No problem with either of these. | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB145 | Returns eligibility decisions for nonresident student participation in interscholastic athletics to the KHSAA (rather than the recently imposed outright ban). | S. Funke Frommeyer |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Returns eligibility decisions for nonresident student participation in interscholastic athletics to the KHSAA. Don’t have a serious problem with this but I hope it doesn’t lead to increased recruiting of student athletes across the state by other schools. |
Passed Senate |
| SB148 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| Education | SB150 | At present, SB150 (Wise) focuses just on pronouns, health care opt outs, and transparency (incl. curricula). | M. Wise |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Patient Bills of rights. Doesn’t do a whole lot. Allows teachers to use whatever pronouns they want. Schools have to inform parents and get permission for medical treatments. Schools have to allow parents access to curricula and get prior consent from parents before any human sexuality content is addressed in class. | Passed Senate |
| SB153 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| Education | SB156 | Estab state reading research center to replace Collaborative Center for Literacy Development (prob. the most important priority in K-12 ed). (*Change is needed, but why will this iteration be better, more data reqs?) | S. West |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | The state’s reading proficiency scores for K-12 are terrible. There has been substantial criticism of the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development for not emphasizing “science of reading” learning models. This aims to reset that reading development research center with more data and reporting requirements. We need scrutiny over why THIS will work when the earlier center apparently hasn’t. | Passed Senate |
| SB158 | Directs state Auditor to contract with a third party to conduct a performance review of the Department of Juvenile Justice. Establishes authority and scope of the review. My only problem with this is the requirement that the review be completed by Oct, 2023. Seems that would be rushed and possibly not thorough. | D. Givens | |
| Passed Senate | |||
| SB160 | Exempt money in STABLE accounts from attachment, execution or garnishment. Moneys disregarded when determining eligibility for public assistance. Requires moneys to be transferred to the estate of the designated beneficiary upon death. No problem with this bill. | D. Carroll | |
| Passed Senate | |||
| Govt Regulations | SB162 | Estab reqs for reasonable enhanced safety protocols in Juvenile Justice facilities incl: local police backup, providing staff with pepper spray and tasers, emergency resp team and trainings. | D. Carroll |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | All of the suggested improvements to staff safety protocols seem reasonable and likely necessary to protect staff and other kids in the facilities. | Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB163 | Allows for some custom license plates and signage related to Country Music Highway. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Not a high priority, but fine. | Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB165 | Modifies permitted loan charges for consumer loan companies. (*We can’t cap the maximum APR at less than 25%-50%?!) | J. Howell |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Modifies permitted loan charges for consumer loan companies. Don’t like that the maximum allowed rates on these loans amount to 27-50 percent when calculated based on APR. | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB169 | Allows local board of education to enter into public-private partnerships. (*Would like some oversight mechanism and a time limit on contracts.) | M. Wise |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Allows school districts to enter into public-private partnerships. Fine… but the more entangled the school becomes with businesses, the more pull those businesses have over school decisions (eg Microsoft or Google offering tablets, then data mining our kids). This is often a double-edged sword |
Passed Senate |
| SB190 | R. Mills | ||
| Establish guidelines for changing the number of legislative members in a mayor-council form of government. Require that any ordinance eliminating a nonpartisan primary or repealing an ordinance eliminating a nonpartisan primary be filed with the county clerk in the year prior. Require that redistricting be completed by November in the year preceding an election. No problem with this bill. | Passed Senate | ||
| SB192 | P. Wheeler | ||
| Provides the process for how a utility can apply for bonds. Do not like page 11, lines 13-20 that the customer of a utility, if they switch provider, is still liable for the cost of the debt service to the utility. | Passed Senate | ||
| Criminal Code | SB199 | Makes using of a tracking device on a motor vehicle without consent of the owner / lessee a Class A Misdemeanor. | R. Girdler |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Criminalizes the use of tracking devices on motor vehicles without the consent of the owner / lessee. Good bill. | Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB20 | Mirror to HB 155 | R. Mills |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Good bill. Did need to be expanded to include any device on a gov’t network, and now does. | Passed Senate |
| SB202 | S. West | ||
| Allows local school board to place a student in an alternative program in lieu of expulsion. Require school board to review an expulsion 30 days prior to end date to determine if an expulsion shall end or continue. | Passed Senate | ||
| SB203 | R. Stivers | ||
| Places additional safeguards on medical and mental health records involving court cases. Good bill, wish he was concerned about health records for people’s immunization status. | Passed Senate | ||
| SB206 | A. Mayes Bledsoe | ||
| Increase the minimum monthly annuity from the Police and Fire Retirement Fund of urban-county governments from $1,250 to $1,500. Good adjustment based on inflation. | Passed Senate | ||
| SB209 | J. Carpenter | ||
| Passed Senate | |||
| SB213 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| SB226 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| SB229 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| Govt Regulations | SB231 | Mirror to HB519. | J. Adams |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Add the president and CEO of the Kentucky State Fair Board to the tourist and convention commissions in counties containing a first class city or a consolidated local government. Not sure why the president /CEO is needed on the commission. May spread he/she thin. | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB24 | Open up KEES scholarships for private and homeschool students with strong test scores. | J. Schickel |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Expands the Kentucky educational excellence scholarship program to students who didn’t graduate from a public school in Kentucky, and sets parameters for that. | Passed Senate |
| Taxes & Spending | SB241 | Sets procedures for Dep of Fish and Wildlife Resources to acquire Cumberland Forest Conservation Easement. | R. Webb |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Seems fine. Does this state that they owners can continue to conduct oil, gas, and coal mining, operations and transport accross the property? What’s being Conserved here? | Passed Senate |
| SB247 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| Education | SB25 | Clean up language so achieving three hours of DUAL (college) credit counts as a postsecondary readiness indicator. | M. Wilson |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Innocuous. Completing a college course or equivalent is obviously an indicator that a student is ready for college. | Passed Senate |
| SB252 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| SB263 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| Criminal Code | SB268 | Allows for assessment of child support to person convicted of causing the death of a parent of a minor child through DUI. (*Very creative. Perhaps should include 1st and 2nd degree murder.) | D. Yates |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Interesting and creative idea. Why limit this to DUIs which actually are far down the list of offenses to which this should be applied (not being an intentional killing of another, just wanton dangerous behavior)? I could get behind 1st and 2nd degree murder even more than DUI, and I can live with this for DUI offense. |
Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB277 | Estabs various revisions of regs of dams and floodplains, including the collection of inspection reports rather than certifications | J. Turner |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | All of these revisions seem reasonable. We definitely need to prepare more extensive/comprehensive floodplain plans. | Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB28 | Allows small farm wineries to sell up to 30K gallons of wine to retailers. | M. Wilson |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good proposal to give these small businesses an additional source of revenue (bulk buyer). | Passed Senate |
| SB281 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| Criminal Code | SB282 | Makes hit & RUN driving criminally injurious conduct, which allows for insurance compensation. | D. Harper Angel |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good change to the law generally. Closes loophole of not being able to get insurance compensation if the other driver runs. | Passed Senate |
| Health | SB29 | Estab eligibility criteria for Medicaid managed care orgs and limit # contracted by Dep of Medicaid Services to <=3. (*Hopefully not anti-competitive, but due to enhanced ability to scrutinize.) | S. Meredith |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Think it’s a good thing to limit the number of organizations they contract with, too many and it MAY be difficult to properly scrutinize. However, Not a high priority though. I’m always concerned that when there is a limit on number of participants that this is ripe for corruption / backroom deals when picking which ones get to participate. |
Passed Senate |
| Education | SB3 | Set up state fund and contract with insurers to cover liability insurance for teachers. (*Great pro-teacher & recruitment bill; needs annual notif. req that state now covers this.) | R. Mills |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Estab a state fund to cover the liability insurance ($1M for one offense, $3M aggregate) of teachers. Teachers following school policy shouldn’t be subject to frivolous lawsuits without protection. Need an economic impact assessment, how much does this actually cost the state? It can/should be justified in lieu of big salary raises though (reduction in expenses is just as good as a bump in pay, as inflation demonstrates). |
Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB30 | Reqs biz to present automatic renewal or continuous service offers clearly to consumers before purchase. Reqs biz to obtain consumer’s consent before changing terms, easy cancellation, and prior notice of change of service. (*Why so many exemptions?) | R. Girdler |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Good recommendations. But I think there are too many organizations exempted: political subdivisions of the state, insurers, banks and roadside assistance providers. I see why you may want to exempt them from some requirements but not all. | Passed Senate |
| Taxes & Spending | SB33 | Creates a KY Cybersecurity Center and dedicated trust and revolving fund from the GA to be housed within and run by the University of Louisville. | M. Nemes |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Intent of KentuckyCYBER is to research best cybersecurity practices, to assist KY Private and Public Sector in maintining high quality cyber defenses, and to form a high quality incident response team. High priority need (cybersecurity needs are rapidly escalating) but one that likely needs thorough review in committee in terms of how it is implemented. Concerns: (1) The fact that it is being set up at the University of Louisville may be controversial for competing schools (though the bill references existing expertise there in section 1.1). Fine, though provisions should be made for students at other commonwealth schools to attend courses in cybersecurity at UL remotely. Could a truly non-partisan entity be set up with multi-university involvement (perhaps even connected to Fort Knox)? (2) That any University is staffing and operating it (section 1.2) raises concerns in terms of its ability to be nonpartisan as is stated as in section 1.4f. This is a bigger issue that needs to addressed legislatively in terms of university hiring. (3) Should this be a dedicated fund and trust, or just part of general fund. Section 1.5-9 |
Passed Senate |
| Health | SB37 | ONLY the pharmacist in charge of an out-of-state pharmacy would be required to be registered, not any contracted pharmacists. | J. Adams |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Summary states: “Amend KRS 315.0351 to add that pharmacist in charge of an out-of-state pharmacy is required to be licensed in the Commonwealth.” This seems to be the opposite of what the bill actually does, it states that ONLY the pharmacist in charge is required to be licensed/registered, not any contracted pharmacists. Wouldn’t this make the licensing requirement less for contracted pharmacists operating under an out of state pharmacy less than that for an in state pharmacy in accordance with KRS 315.030? |
Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB4 | Reqs public utility that wants to retire a coal-fired, nat. gas-fired, or steam power plant to estab that the power grid will be sufficiently reliable and resilient during peak demand. (*Too much coal in this state to settle for brown-outs/black-outs as electric cars get added.) | R. Mills |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | These coal plant retirements are meant to promote a woke (Bloomberg funded) environmental agenda, not improve reliability and performance of the power grid. WIth China and India driving carbon emission growth, it’s an ill-advised and self-sacrificial agenda, and not in the state’s near or long-term agenda. We need an all of the above energy production model. When Fusion and advance fission generator tech is ready, come revisit this. | Passed Senate |
| Criminal Code | SB40 | Reqs that a Office of the Kentucky State Medical Examiner run genetic tests on any person under 40 that dies of unexplained causes. (*Needs opt-in, or opt-out provision.) | P. Wheeler |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Needs to be opt-in by the family members, or at the very least with an opt-out option for the family. Genetic tests provide information NOT ONLY about the person tested, but about everyone that they are closely related to (none of whom can consent to that disclosure). Some people simply may not want to know about their genetic predispositions. Without stronger protocols in this state restricting the use of genetic information, this opens up significant privacy concerns. |
Passed Senate |
| Taxes & Spending | SB42 | Reqs Finance Cabinet to contract with an outside entity to monitor Public Employee Health and Pharmacy benefit claims to reduce fraud and waste. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Requires the secretary of the Finance Cabinet to contract with an independent entity to monitor all Public Employee Health Insurance health care service benefit claim. Allows the contract to include pharmacy benefits claims monitoring if used in lieu of the contract to monitor pharmacy benefit claims. Excludes health care benefits for Medicare eligible retirees from the purview of the monitoring entity. | Passed Senate |
| Health | SB43 | Allows a resident of a facility to designate an essential person, who could be a family member, who can visit even during a communicable disease outbreak. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Amends KRS 216.505 to include communicable disease outbreaks and resident communicable disease status to exemptions for essential personal care visitors. Full endorsement. One of the cruelest aspects of the COVID lockdowns was the denial of family to elderly in facilities. |
Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB46 | Reorg Office of the State Veterinarian, renaming divisions primarily. | J. Howell |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Seems entirely procedural, renaming divisions, etc. | Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB48 | Reorg Office of Health & Family Services, moving child support enf to office of AG. Creates Disability Determination Services program. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | The changes seem mostly reasonable. I suppose it makes sense to give Inspector General a more prominent place in the Department. A Disability Determination Services program seems reasonable. Child Suport Enforcement does seem like a function of the AG / justice division. | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB49 | Extends the provisional certification period for teachers from 2 to 4 years. | M. Deneen |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Simple bill, lessens the time pressure on people trying to transition into the teaching profession. | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB5 | Reqs school boards to establish processes for complaints about “harmful to minors” material: Principal, then school board, then keep the 1 child away from it. (*Bbark, but no bite: No legal appeal (“progressive” school board?), HTM def. isn’t up to SCOTUS scrutiny (2 legs), leaves vulgarity unaddressed, public libraries?,…) | J. Howell |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | The spirit of the bill is right, if somewhat limited, but the implementation isn’t even close to where it needs to be. At the very least, this needs to substitute in a better definition of harmful to minors and give some recourse beyond the local school board. |
Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB52 | Reqs doc storage fees (eg by county clerk) be held in a separate fund for their stated purpose (doc storage), not other country uses. | M. Nemes |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Fine, not a high priority. Keeps county from using these fees as a slush fund. Should consider this for multiple types of fees. | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB54 | Similar bill as HB85, but without the trade schools. | J. Carpenter |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Fine, but HB85 is better by including trade schools. | Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB57 | Establishes Cosmetology and Licensure Compact with oversight commission. (* We don’t need another cross-state employment compact. Just allow anyone certified or with experience in another state to be certified automatically here, in any industry: HB343.) | A. Mayes Bledsoe |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | Adopt the Cosmetology and Licensure Compact and establish the Cosmetology Commission to oversee. Not sure why this is needed. Is there alot of interstate Cosmetology going on? | Passed Senate |
| Health | SB58 | Allows physicians to sell and fit hearing aids. Specifies tasks that a speech language pathology assistant may do. | A. Mayes Bledsoe |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Allows physicians to sell and fit hearing aids. Specifies tasks that a speech language pathology assistant may and shall not do. No problem with this bill. | Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB60 | Allows for motorcycle licensure by completing rider training course rather than having to take standard test. | M. Deneen |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Reasonable alternate method of licensure. Low priority. | Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB62 | Elim reqs that the govt disclose personal info, in particular nonprofit’s list of donors. (*Need close look at all contexts to which this applies.) | W. Westerfield |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Create new sections of KRS Chapter 61 to prohibit a public agency from releasing personal information in possession of the agency, or require a contractor or grantee with the public agency to provide a list of nonprofit organizations to which it provides financial support. | Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB64 | Alters security reqs for funds transfers; regs use of electronic docs as authoritative. (*Bill is very difficult to process, needs much scrutiny.) | W. Westerfield |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | The Uniform Commercial Code is dense and hard to process, to the point that it is actually a problem. The part that seemed most noteworthy was altering the ability to use electronic documents as authoritative. | Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB65 | Removes a particular deficient regulation. (*Nothing wrong with this, but just do this for EVERY deficient regulation: HB40.) | S. West |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | AN ACT relating to deficient administrative regulations and declaring an emergency. 803 KAR 1:006, Employer-Employee Relationship, 907 KAR 1:026, Dental Services’; 907 KAR 1:038, Hearing Program; 907 KAR 1:632, Vision Program. This has passed the Senate. They have changed the KAR’s. Nothing jumps out at me, but may need some with medical knowledge to check on the 907 KAR’s. | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB70 | Re-ups the ability of schools to institute performance-based professional development pilot projects. (*Fine, but perhaps time to specify what belongs in these projects, and how to evaluate.) | D. Givens |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Amend KRS 156.560 to implement the performance-based professional development pilot project from the 2023-2024 school year through the 2025-2026 school year; Require the Kentucky Department of Education to report on the project by August 1, 2027.
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. |
Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB71 | Adds other related adults (fine) and hospital administrators(?) to the hierarchy who can authorize an organ donation, and research/training to the list of reasons. (*Should be tied only to what donor and family would want, not hosp. admin.) | B. Storm |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | -Add other related adults and hospital administrators to the hierarchy of those who can authorize an anatomical gift; Add research for the advancement of donation and transplantation science as an acceptable use; Add donation for therapy, education, and research for advancement of donation and transplantation science to the statewide electronic registry. * No issue with these changes except the biggest change, allowing the hospital administrators to authorize an organ donation. The person before death, a blood relative, spouse, or close caregiver who understood the person’s wishes should make these decisions… not just a reserve for the hospital to just harvest organs. |
Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB72 | Allows rebuilt and salvage cars to use the “speed title” process, with some limitations. (*OK, as long as other safeguards keep unsafe cars off the road here.) | B. Storm |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | To restrict the Vehicle Department’s ability to make exemptions from the speed title process for rebuilt and salvage vehicles. Analysis: No reason I know to oppose, other than wasting the legislature’s time. There must be a small group to whom this is important. No reason NOT to speed up rebuit/salvage titles, as long as the cars are actually safe. |
Passed Senate |
| SB75 | |||
| Passed Senate | |||
| Govt Regulations | SB79 | Renames Crime Victim Address Protection Program as Safe at Home Program. Estab. guidance on program execution. | J. Raque Adams |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Name change is fine, some of the loosening of restrictions here need to be reexamined. Seems sensible. |
Passed Senate |
| Criminal Code | SB80 | Prohibit a registered sex offender from loitering within 1,000 feet of a school, playground, or day care. Include healthcare providers working in an emergency room to exemptions for third degree assault. (*May need more precise definition of loitering.) | D. Carroll |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | KRS 17.545 already prohibits registered offenders from residing within 1,000 feet, this bill adds that they cannot loiter within 1,000 feet. It is not bad legislation except that there needs to be a definition for loitering added to KRS 17.500 to cover. There are businesses located within 1,000 feet of prohibited areas so defining what loitering looks like is important. No issues with adding healthcare provider (and they have listed where to find definition of “healthcare provider”) to list of protected workers. | Passed Senate |
| Education | SB81 | Reqs certified private and parochial schools operate with standard minimum instructional year instead of “not less than the public school district”. (*Standardizing it removes ambiguity, BUT MUST NOT impose an hours req.) | A. Mays Bledsoe |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | Reqs private and parochial schools to operate on a school calendar with a minimum school term and student instructional year as defined in KRS 158.070 instead of for a term not less than the public school district in which the child resides. Short summary sums it up. Short bill requiring private and parochial schools to have minimum school term and instructional days set by state, not according to local school district. Support this. |
Passed Senate |
| Firearms & Military | SB89 | Authorize urban-county governments to re-employ police officers who have retired (up to 25 officers or 10% of current force). Officers cannot continue to accrue addl retirement and health benefits, but can draw pension. | D. Douglas |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Authorize urban-county governments to re-employ police officers who have retired from the urban-county government Police and Fire Fund. Can be no greater than 25 officers or 10 percent of the current police force (odd limit?).
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. |
Passed Senate |
| Education | SB9 | Def. “hazing,” (ie (abusive) organizational initiation rituals) “student,” and “organization”. Differentiates Class D & Class A misdemeanor varieties. | R. Mills |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | There is a differentiation made between Hazing in the first degree (intentionally or wantonly participates and the result is serious physical injury or death) and Hazing in the second degree (recklessly participates in hazing without a stipulated outcome). Second degree allows a defense if the act was part of reasonable and customary (a) athletic competitions, (b) law enforcement training; or (c) military training. It can be a reasonable and customary event that still leads to the serous injury or death of a person. Shouldn’t the defense apply to first degree as well? The burden would be on the plaintiff to prove it was not reasonable and customary. Think about athletes who collapse. | Passed Senate |
| Health | SB90 | Reqs chem dep treatment centers provide transportation services so persons can leave. | J. Higdon |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Simple enough, surprised this is an issue that needs addressing. Perhaps should have reasonable cost reimbursement provision (eg from patient) at least for persons who can pay. Mostly want to limit unfunded mandates. | Passed Senate |
| Govt Regulations | SB92 | Regs use of assistance animals in public accom to assure person actually has a documented need for one. | J. Higdon |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Amend KRS 258.119 to allow the animal care assistance fund to receive fines; amend KRS 258.500 to define “person” as a person with a disability who has an ongoing therapeutic relationship with a health care provider and stipulate who can be a health care provider under the definition, establish requirements for an assistance dog to be granted public accommodation. | Passed Senate |
| Health | SB94 | Removes prescribing authority from most APRNs unless partnered with doctor. | J. Adams |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Unnecessary regulation, APRNs are extensively trained. This would reduce the ability to find medical care for a wide range of issues in many rural and remote parts of the state. | Passed Senate |
| Criminal Code | SB97 | Adds lasers to list of deadly weapons. (*Needs to specify a min power.) | P. Wheeler |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Amend KRS 500.080 to define” laser,” and to modify the definition of “dangerous instrument.”
Some lasers can be dangerous, but I am not sure if it should apply to all lasers. Needs a minimum power in definition. |
Passed Senate |
| Business Regs | SB99 | Reqs any entity running a “relief fund” for disasters report information about who is donating and on what it is spent. | W. Westerfield |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Solid bill. We need transparency about where all this money is coming from and going. | Passed Senate |