Legislation Detail
Download a Printable PDF (right-click below) of these Detailed Evaluations
2024-Detail – Kentucky Liberty Caucus – 20240320
DISCLAIMER: These recommendations are preliminary with 1 or 2 conservative citizens from the Kentucky Legislative Action Committee (KYLAC) having read the legislation, and hence with limited collaboration and commentary. Opposition to a bill is NOT a reflection of Legislator quality.
Feedback is appreciated. The KY Legislative LONG Session begins January 2, 2024 (and is 60 days long).
| Category & Support Type | Bill & Summary Priority Level & Detailed Evaluation |
Prim Sponsor & Reviewer | |
| Business Regs | HB15 | Various measures to strengthen consumer rights wrt the data collected about them from businesses: Right to access, to correct, to understand those procedures, etc. | J. Branscum |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Concurrence |
Lots of similarities to SB15, see commentary there. Needs more comparison to see which is better, but this is a strong bill that deserves support. Should be open to possible expansion with parts of SB15. | L |
| Business Regs | HB24 | Estab consumer rights in regard to collection, storage, and sharing of data. | P. Pratt |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Very similar to SB15. Need to get both of these reconciled into one bill. With the massive amount of data mining occurring on (and selling of) consumer data, this is overdue for regulation. |
S |
| Business Regs | HB34 | Allows recog of occupational licenses and gov’t certificates from other states, incl. using work experience as a basis. Excl interstate licensure compacts. | S. Doan |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Seems to be a reasonable way to issue licenses to new arrivals to the state. It also is a comprehensive approach rather than the piecemeal approach we have been taking. Virginia and South Dakota (prob more) already have this and it is a big advantage recruiting workers. If someone is licensed and or has been legally performing a job in another state for an extended period of time, it is both unnecessary and anti-competitive to issue addl licensing reqs here. We need more workers in almost every industry, why not lower barriers for skilled professionals to more here? HB 343 from last session. The current approach of forming “reciprocal licensure compacts” with various other states is far inferior. You have to pass a bill in every industry and every such compact, you get roped into an agreement with another supra-state layer of bureaucracy, and more generally… I’m not particularly concerned if KY licensure allows people to work, that’s a problem for OTHER states finding people competent to work in them (let’s just take care of getting employees and workers for OUR state). *If you want more people to work, you lower the barriers TO working: reduce moving and housing expenses so people can live where the jobs are, and reduce licensure reqs so that people can enter the industry more easily (and the people already in it don’t have a monopoly). Amendment: Would love a provision that if the board denies an occupational license from any other state on the basis of scope or insufficiency of preparation, then they must provide a report to the GA Admin Rev committee with specs for an expedited supplemental program to obtain licensure. |
L |
| Business Regs | HB204 | Moves right to have a CON hearing to more favorable terms for the applicant. | M. Proctor |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Great bill, this may be the most likely to pass with a high impact of the CON bills this session. This just assures that the current CON hearing processes are more fair: allowing applicants to have legal counsel in hearings, restricting who can request a hearing, etc. | S |
| Business Regs | HB402 | Estab min state reqs for adult-oriented businesses; eg min distance from places where families gather. | N. Tate |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | One of the more important bills this session. KY is WAY behind here, TN has had similar laws for about 30 years. Requires that an adult-oriented business (various definitions) should be at least 1 city block from family-oriented locations (parks, daycares, churches, etc.). Also requires that they not allow people in who may be under 18, or be viewable from the outside. All of this is common sense and it’s amazing that it hasn’t been state law (only some local city ordinances exist). SAME AS SB147. Amendment: only thing I see missing here is a req that these businesses officially be licensed by the state and perhaps regulated by a board. Perhaps that will be added in future sessions. |
L |
| Business Regs | HB450 | Prohibits social media companies from allowing minors to create accounts without parental consent. | N. Wilson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | This bill would require all (new?) social media users in the state of Kentucky to provide age verification. This would put us near the leading edge (in a good way) in protecting children, but this is a problem all over the world. Social media is ON NET a mind poison for young people and every study that comes out concludes something similar, period. Change must come SOON. Amendment: Will this require age verification of adult users who already have accounts in Section 2(1)a.2.? Perhaps it shouldn’t, just make it for new accounts and accounts currently listed as under-age to ease the culture shock. The requirement that the social media company SECURELY(?) discard ID after verification should have some penalty for failure to comply, and also for retaining information that compromises anonymity beyond age verification, unless this is retained for all users. |
L |
| Business Regs | HB452 | Prohibits financial institutions from discriminating against an individual based on a social credit score. | S. Sharp |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | I would like to see the threshold lowered below a bank with over 100 Billion in assets or a processor that has processed over 10 billion in the last year. This law should affect all financial institutions. Great bill though. | S |
| Business Regs | HB463 | Reqs digital service providers to register the age of the user, create parental monitoring tools and prevent minors from being exposed to obscenity. | S. Dietz |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Note similarities between this and HB450 and HB241. I think all of these bills could be consolidated into one really strong bill. All are attacking the same issue but from different angles. Amendment: Nothing stops an 8 year old from putting in that they are 18+ when registering. There has to be actual age verification (eg provide picture of license with name and birthday when making a new account. Amendment: There’s very weak enforcement here. |
S |
| Business Regs | HB474 | Reqs financial advisors /investors to disclose ESG commitments to, and obtain written consent from, customers. | S. Sharp |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Excellent idea. This needs to pass immediately. L: I don’t know that the idea is high priority in terms of huge impact, but the importance of the issue is. Companies need to focus on fiduciary responsibility and stop pushing social agendas, period . |
S / L |
| Business Regs | SB15 | Def numerous consumer rights, and reqs for large companies that collect and sell consumer data (incl legal penalties). | W. Westerfield |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Lots of similarity to HB15, need to make sure the best parts of these to bills make it into law. This bill is expansive, and needs much more study. The topic is highly important, addresses a major need, and clearly gets the law close to where it needs to be, however. SB15 from last session as well. Let this be WW’s big win this session. |
L |
| Business Regs | SB147 | Estab min state reqs for adult-oriented businesses; eg min distance from places where families gather. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
One of the more important bills this session. KY is WAY behind here, TN has had similar laws for about 30 years. Requires that an adult-oriented business (various definitions) should be at least 1 city block from family-oriented locations (parks, daycares, churches, etc.). Also requires that they not allow people in who may be under 18, or be viewable from the outside. All of this is common sense and it’s amazing that it hasn’t been state law (only some local city ordinances exist). SAME AS HB402. Amendment: only thing I see missing here is a req that these businesses officially be licensed by the state and perhaps regulated by a board. Perhaps that will be added in future sessions. |
L |
| Business Regs | SB164 | Allows schools to arrange transfer (articulation) agreements from trade school and technical training institutions to regular proprietary scholastic institutions. | S. Funke Frommeyer |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
This is a great idea. This allows trade schools and technical school students to get academic credit in the course of their trade or technical training without loss of time or credit. It would allow trade schools and technical schools to concentrate on skill training. We need plumbers, electricians, pipe fitters, and all trade skilled people badly. I am firmly for this. | D |
| Business Regs | SB176 | Creates civil penalties for contractors who misclassify employees as independent contractors when bidding on public work projects. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Very precise, well written, detailed bill. Recommend passage. L: Employers have started hiring people as “independent contractors” rather than employees to get around providing them a slew of benefits. Baring a more comprehensive reform, it seems reasonable to require that businesses NOT do that when they get lucrative state contracts. |
S / L |
| Business Regs | SB182 | Reqs any employer that mandates immunization for employment accept medical and religious exemptions. Permits cause of action if employers violate this and someone gets injured by a vaccine. | S. West |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | I’m going to be enthusiastic if ANY covid mandate ban or exemption finally gets through the general assembly. This is a pretty good one because (a) it attacks one of the most egregious violations of rights, forced vaccination (btw, I am generally pro-vax, but anti-FORCED vax), but also (b) this applies to private employers as well. Here’s hoping something like this finally gets through. I believe 17 states have some sort of COVID mandate ban; but not KY?! | L |
| Business Regs | SB285 | Name, Image and Likeness Bill. | M. Wise |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Shell bill. Don’t like the process, but seemed like a good bill, and urgent… if the committee sub (which is not currently available) is as described. |
L |
| Business Regs | SB306 | Requires any person, business or agency to accept cash as payment in face-to-face transactions. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This has been needed for awhile. L: This is a crucial safeguard against tracking of all purchases by gov’t or corporate entities, and esp. important with the emergence of CBDCs. The statement on US currency that this is for all debt, public or private actually has no functional meaning in federal law (though it should). |
S / L |
| Business Regs | SB364 | Reqs retail electric suppliers have a plan to provide adequate reliable electricity at the lowest possible cost. States that suppliers have a privilege, rather than a right, to provide service. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Really good requirements. Particularly like that if a supplier is notified that they have a problem supplying their customers and fail to correct, another supplier is allowed to provide service there. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB3 | Allows AG to estab a human trafficking working group of experts. Reqs posting of signs with info on contacting the Nat’l Human Trafficking Resource center in hotels, airports, bus stations, etc. | S. Miles |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Solid bill. The Working group portion should be a high priority. No issue with the data compilation. Amendment: I could honestly do without the mandated signage for private businesses. MAYBE it will help save someone, but it feels like overreach, esp. every truck stop bathroom, and hotel, tbh. I can understand the publicly owned and financed train stations, bus stations, airports, and rest areas. |
L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB5 | Incr punishments for, and protections against, a wide range of violent criminal offenses, and regs homelessness encampments. | J. Bauman |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Concurrence |
Omnibus bill. There is a lot of good here, incl some controversial measures (strengthening shopkeeper’s prerogative, urban homelessness regulations…), but also some bad and given that we are dealing with the criminal code we need to make sure we aren’t locking people away longer than is appropriate (KY already has one of the highest incarceration rates in the US & world). This also should have been 6+ bills, given the huge impact and wide range of topics addressed. Amendments: (1) Make no change to the definition of “serious physical injury” (heightens the criminal severity of familial disputes, which are the most common and emotionally-driven, vs calculating and intentional); Sec 44. (2) Lower the felony classes (to C) for the new crime of carjacking if no deadly weapon was used and it is a 1st offense (B is 10-20 years in prison; C is 5-10); Sec 9. (3) Change 3 strikes portion (Sec 1): if none of violent felonies are a capitol offense, the 3rd and any future criminal offense has a 1 class sentencing escalator (Felony D=>C; MisD A=>Felony D)… 2 strikes, then we throw the book at any future offense. (4) Would love a “Swatting” inclusion within terroristic threatening (Sec. 33 & 34) and increase penalties for blocking a highway (eg as an illegal protest), (5) for a 1st violent felony, I would prefer that there be no increase in minimum time served, if need be… reduce it for subsequent felonies only; and (6) Exception for temporary “boondocking” in a vehicle outside of a municipal city limits (esp. on side of highway) in homelessness regs (Note: this one was added by floor amendment). |
L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB700 | Insurers must provide coverage for pregnant women & maternity care. Victim of sexual assault insurance coverage provided by the state. Child care services and college tuition paid for child born of sexual assault. A parent of a child born by sexual assault does not have custody rights if the perpetrator. An adopter of a child born of sexual assault shall have non-recurring adoption expenses paid by the state. | J. Nemes |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Love Them Both Act. Doesn’t clarify if the victim of a sexual assault will have their insurance paid for life. Doesn’t clarify whether the tuition will be paid for any child born of sexual assault or just for Kentucky residents. Would this be offered for any student in any state? L: Great bill, that needs some clean up (see amendments), but if it gets it this is one of the most important bills of the session. Includes a lot of the insurance provisions of HB10, and HB380 (same questions apply here; see commentary). Also, Provides that the state will pick up the insurance costs for woman who is impregnated via sexually assualted (I think only during the pregnancy). Provides that a child produced via sexual assault receive free college tuition (same as foster and adopted kids now). Provide child care assistance program for child up to age 1 for a child in this situation. I support the concept here, but a question that follows throughout: What if the criminal complaint is NOT verified (eg accused is acquited); does making an unfounded accusation get a person free insurance, a child free tuition? Why isn’t the sexual assaulter required to reimburse the state? Amendment: In Section 15, should the forcible adoption provision be applied under a “clear and convincing evidence” standard, like the excellent section 23? In Section 16, shouldn’t the reimbursement of nonrecurring adoption expenses be accessible to ANY adoption? In Section 18, I’d be fine for the child care assistance program being applied through at least age 2 at least. I think this also probably should apply to foster and adoptive kids too. I don’t think I agree with the concept in Section 22 of the child receiving compensation as a crime victim. The mother is, but the child is a blessing and being brought into the world regardless of who your parents are doesn’t make you a victim, or lesser. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB126 | Limits the Gov’s ability to grant pardons or commute sentences for 30 days prior to elections and for a period after elections. | C. McDaniel |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Great idea. This limits the governor’s ability to grant pardons or commute sentences for 30 days prior to elections and for a period after elections. Amendment: Should be from 30 days before election through Inauguration Day, except for commutation of sentences in Death Penalty reprieve situations. If you want to pardon someone as Governor, you have to do it before the election so the voters know your priorities. Also, should require that all pardons be done individually and by name, not by class of criminals. |
M |
| Courts & Crimes | SB206 | Adds add’l criteria a court may consider in determining the best interest of a child. Prohibits court from considering the socioeconomic status of the parent or caretaker. | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Very thorough list of the criteria the court is required to consider. L: I’m not sure that SES should be taken off the list of considerations… I’d just prefer that these be tiered and it placed on 2nd tier. Money does matter, it just shouldn’t be determinative. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB207 | Reqs Commonwealth to bear the burden of proof by clear and convincing evidence in a temporary removal hearing. Removes admissibility of hearsay as evidence. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | An order for a temporary removal is permissive and not mandatory (ie you may remove the child, not must remove the child). Clear and convincing burden of proof should be required in all court cases; and hearsay should never be allowed. These are standard features of due process that get waved when children are involved. |
S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB276 | Allows for a civil action against a website that provides pornographic content without age verification. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Must verify person is 18 or older. Must not keep verification data. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB354 | Reqs open hearings in all juvenile cases. Remove immunity of persons reporting child dependency, neglect and abuse and participation in a judicial hearing… | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Also removes req of malice for falsely reporting & sovereign immunity of the state.
Very good recommendations. People’s lives can be ruined with false accusations. |
S |
| Education | HB2 | Alters KY Constitution to allow the Legislature to fund non-public schooling (devil is in the details). | S. Miles |
| Only If Amended | High (Pass this session) *Passed Both |
Every state but KY & ND has implemented a version of school choice, because (a) it’s immoral to trap a child in an ed situation that doesn’t meet his needs due to his parent’s finances & (b) it’s established that school choice improves not only private, but also public, school outcomes. Now, given the dynamics within the legislature, if a school choice amendment gets on the ballot it likely will be one cherry-picked (like HB2) & forced through by Rep leadership. That said, I cannot support this language for 2 main reasons: (1) I don’t believe this stilted legalese with no mention of the actual lived problem(s) that it should be addressing in the text (ie poor families can’t afford to give their kids any other option if their public school doesn’t meet their needs) has much of any chance to pass in this poor state in a populist election cycle, after it gets massacred with negative ads on “welfare for the rich”. That loss will be used by blame-shifters to keep a better amendment off the ballot for a decade+, * whereas SB358, HB208 and HB208 Amendment 1 are all VASTLY more likely to pass with voters. (2) This “in particular places” phrase aims to circumvent the general applicability req of Section 59 and/or 60, codifying geographic discrimination in the KY Constitution. Doing so asserts it is affirmatively RIGHT in our Constitution that families in one part of Kentucky (eg Louisville) should be able to get their kids taxpayer-funded ed help, while another (eg Harlan County) will be trapped in a failing ed situation only because of their zip code. School choice is needed everywhere. No version of school choice that exempts the Section 59 or 60 restrictions is worthy of support, this is the Constitution. The “we will fix it next session” logic, often very reasonable on KRS bills (even on this topic), does not apply altering a foundational document. * This also isn’t legally airtight. Thinking that “as it deems proper” gives the legislature a blank check to do anything it wants is not how citizens or Sup. Court will interpret it (if it were, it would be in every amend.). One has to specify how it relates to the other parts of the constitution, and/or strike those sections out (eg in 184) it intends to render completely void. The reference to KY Const. Section 171 may mean something will be done to property taxes, what? Most importantly, (a) I STRONGLY doubt HB2 avoids the referendum req of Section 184 (“notwithstanding” < “shall not prevent”, and it needs to make it clear that this ballot amend. IS the 184 tax referendum; the GA already has the ability to do most of what HB2 does, the problem is that Section 184 reqs a tax referenda before doing it), and (b) the Sup Court can still use Section 183 to strike down any bill that affects public school funding in any way on THAT basis. HB208 addresses most of this. Amendment: Some grown-ups need to merge the good things from this & HB208 and put something that addresses the real issues everywhere in this state, appeals to voters in this election cycle, IS legally airtight, and that KY can be proud of by bringing parents options EVERYWHERE. R: I like this proposed amendment, because it is clean and clear, with no limitations. It will permit the GA to have freedom to legislate as it thinks best. However, upon further review, I see serious problems with it that need to be remedied. First, it does not expressly remove the req for a tax referendum to spend money outside of the common (public) schools. Second, it attempts to provide for special legislation notwithstanding Section 171, saying “in particular places”. This will give the courts an easy way to strike it down, since laws have to be generally applicable, not special. Third, it starts out with legalese, “notwithstanding sections….”. That will be confusing and off-putting to voters. It should start out with “The General Assembly may provide financial support…” and move the “notwithstanding” to the end of that sentence. Da: Section 1 Why not put to give… “all” families and children, regardless of income, race,creed, or sex”….the problem I see here is this needs to be explained in terms of fundamental fairness to all Kentuckians. The less legalese and more plain talk will do more to persuade voters. |
L / R |
| Education | HB9 | Comprehensive ban on DEI admins, related mandatory statements, trainings & discriminatory hiring or enrollment practices from public higher ed. | J. Decker |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Definitely one of the most important bills this session. In same vane as SB6, but more comprehensive and appropriately aggressive. Comprehensive DEI (“Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and often now Belonging) administrator (officer) bans in public higher ed: Public colleges have to eliminate these positions and expend no resources on their mission, not just alter their focus as in Section (2)(4) of SB6. Schools cannot alter the composition of the student body, or hire, fire, promote, contract renew,… on the basis of religion, race, sex, color, or national origin, nor require statements in support of this ideology. Eliminates “bias incident investigation” teams which are used to police (often without due process) legal speech and limits such speech policing to bonafide student harassment cases. Gives the AGs office, employees, and applicants cause to sue for discriminatory treatment (complaints about this ballooning legal liability here are overblown, suing is not easy or cheap and this is difficult to prove, but should be punished when it does occur; wouldn’t oppose some caps though, like SB6). Unlike SB6, regulates governing boards of each institution and Council on Postsecondary Ed. Amendments: There are actual majors that specialize in divisive concepts. If those divisive concepts cannot accumulate credit, are those majors disbanded (fine with me), or would the credit ban apply only to non-majors? Florida’s approach was to disallow these courses to be applied to core curricular requirements (ie general ed requirements, the courses that all students are required to take), making them only elective or part of a major. J P: Eliminate/Halt all DEI-related practices and guidance by KY colleges & universities. I strongly support this bill. DEI is a Marxist-driven blight on this state and our country as a whole. Regarding course work, I interpreted it to ban credit for any course that promotes DEI (presumably because those tenets directly conflict with our Civil Rights Act of 1964). If it doesn’t, it should. |
L / J |
| Education | HB46 | Open up KEES scholarships for non certified private and homeschool students with strong test scores. | S. Rawlings |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Expands the Kentucky educational excellence scholarship program to students who didn’t graduate from a public school in Kentucky (eg homeschoolers and other non-certified private schools), and sets parameters for that. The idea is that since “GPA” isn’t really a reliable way to evaluate these students, use performance on standardized tests (eg ACT) as an indicator of how good of a student they were/are/will be. Same as SB7. Also same as SB24 from last session, which passed the Senate. It’s time to finally pass this. |
L |
| Education | HB96 | Reqs K-12 schools to have a 1 to 2 minute moment of silence at schools. | D. Fister |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Good idea. This may be a long enough period of silence to become awkward and create discipline problems, but kids will adjust. Amendment: Could make it 30 seconds to 2 minutes. |
D G |
| Education | HB119 | Allows homeschoolers to participate in public school extracurricular activities (eg band, sports). | R. Dotson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | It’s time for this bill to finally get a look and discussion after multiple years (Was HB119 last time; the House passed a Tebow bill (this should be much broader than that, as the sports stuff is the MOST controversial) back in 2017!). Good bill, these parents are taxpayers as well, why shouldn’t their kids be able to make use of public school resources for their kids?
Amendments: Why INTERscholastic, why not scholastic as well (drama club, chess club, whatever)? Why only homeschool, why not any private school without an extracurricular? |
L |
| Education | HB208 | Allows state to fund education outside common schools without a referendum. | J. Calloway |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | This bill is, in my opinion, the most important of the session. (Note: HB2 on same topic.) Great. If this passes it requires that it be put on the November ’24 ballot for voter approval. The state does not have a right to do whatever they want with our tax dollars, nor to subsume a parents’ duty to educate their Children. One size does not fit all. No one wants ignorant children who can’t compete and that is what we are producing… This state is crying for school choice, and Our kids need it. Amendment 1 is a Version of the bill without any mention of means testing. (Amendment: I would amend it to include the language “regardless of race, creed, color, or sex” to increase the appeal on the ballot.) R: I like it with floor Amendment 1. I do not support it in its original form. L: Note every version allows GA to define all relevant terms. The 2 most important (and positive) parts of this const amendment, aside from it giving the GA wide discretion but requiring them to actually do something, and being legally sound (eg addressing its relation to reqs of Section 184), are: (a) it has populist appeal in this economically poor state because it immediately identifies the problem that it is addressing which should have sympathy from everyone wherever they live (specifically, most poor parents don’t have educational options for their kids in cases that the public school isn’t working for them; this gives them options), and (b) it actually addresses the elephant in the room, the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Section 183 where currently the state only has a responsibility to public schools, which in turn must meet the Sup Court’s legislating from the bench def of “efficient” (equitable)… instead this says the state’s responsibility to public schools is not providing Equity but Oversight, and the state also has an affirmative responsibility to provide some funding to education outside of the common schools. (Note: I do think there should be some measure of equitable distrib of ed funding, but that ISN’T in the Constitution, only the statutes, but the Sup Court created it and has used it as a cudgel.) Amendment: Sentence 1 COULD be interpreted to mean that each parent has an individual right to some funding (of course, that “portion” may be defined near zero) for their child’s educational cost (probably intentional). Striking “for parents of children” would make it clearly a general responsibility to fund education, not each parent has a right to funds (that’s where I’d be on this). |
D / L |
| Education | HB224 | Def free speech on campus and prohibits institutions from infringing upon this right & Estab penalties. | S. Maddox |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Very thorough and detailed. L: Good legislation, covers lots of speech suppression issues on college campuses. Higher ed should be bastions of free speech, not enemies of it… but “Progressive” Marxists are profoundly ILliberal. HB139 from last session. It’s time this finally got some movement. DEI & CRT regulation is a hot topic this year, this bill keeps things from going too far. Why not deal with these free speech issues on campus comprehensively, while also dealing with DEI and CRT? |
S |
| Education | HB304 | Declares parental rights in their children’s education. | S. Baker |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Great requirements. L: Most of this didn’t make it into SB150 last session, why can’t we just address these issues well once, instead of rushing through half-measures at the end of session? Most of this amounts to the school system having to disclose what is happening with a child to his/her parents, which obviously should be in law already. Eliminates any requirement (ie no compelled false speech) to use pronouns opposite to a person’s biological sex (not just students). Reqs that parents wishes on instructional topics that they don’t want their kids to be exposed in writing are respected. Fixes the “or” ambiguity. Allows parents to file suit against the school district (not the employee) for violations of the statue, and for the employee’s license to be suspended for 2 years. Amendments: (1)3.b.4. shouldn’t it be ALL health or mental health services, beyond perhaps applying a bandaid; (1)2.b.6. shouldn’t you notify all parents regardless of whose kid has been molested or groomed? |
S / L |
| Education | HB346 | Reqs public school health instruction to incl human growth and development (fetal) instruction. | N. Tate |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Good requirement. I don’t know that this is urgent, but it’s definitely a good idea that I see a few states are proposing this cycle. Teaching teenagers about fetal development is so common sense it SHOULD be this session. Amendment: I wouldn’t even have the “opt-in” provision for this material (or any human development material; just strikethrough that addition), it should be opt-out (if even that). This isn’t “sex ed”, this is a video on simple human development, why do we need to have parent opt-in for THAT? |
S / L |
| Education | HB383 | Reqs school boards to set a policy forbidding student use of personal telecommunications devices (eg cell phones) during instructional periods. | J. Bray |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Will help all students focus on academics. L: This is a great idea being implemented haphazardly throughout the state as people figure out how much of a distraction these are. I have heard some school board objection to what I consider a no brainer that cell phones are used in some classrooms to supplement the lack of computers (I don’t regard that as a fully good faith objection given the cost-benefit trade off, but it’s at least a consideration). If your instruction requires a cell phone, teach something different or teach it differently IMO. This does allow that instruction exemption, although I think allowing that exemption is going to make enforcement of this difficult (“turn your cell phone in at the principal’s office and get it when you leave” is easily enforceable, “make sure the hard teachers don’t see it” won’t REALLY do what is intended). My only real topic for discussion is: would this be better handled, in the spirit among some of the party to “avoid local (school board) mandates”, as a req for a KDE regulation or even KDE bulletin / best practice recommendation. |
S / L |
| Education | HB446 | Req KY Dep of Ed to create a transportation policy for disruptive students on busses and for local boards of ed to implement it. | E. Callaway |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Uniform policy across the state for dealing with disruptive pupils and guardians. Discipline includes suspension of riding privileges for the pupil up to misdemeanor charges for threatening violence (incl for guardians). THIS is the core reason that finding bus drivers is so hard, student discipline. | S / L |
| Education | HB553 | Estab a student loan repayment program for veterinarians who serve at least 5 years in an underserved rural KY area with at least 50% of their practice in livestock. | M. Koch |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
This is a DRASTICALLY better use of resources than the Veterinarian doctoral program at Murray State (HB400 / SB289; and yes, it is either/or because we live in a world with finite resources including very few KY graduates wanting to be vets). It addresses the ACTUAL problems the state has in veterinary care, not the number of slots in veterinary schools (less than 100 minimally qualified candidates applied last year): (a) a lack of young people from this state wanting to be vets, and (b) a lack of vets willing to come serve in KY in livestock medicine and in rural locations. If we have a huge boost in undergrad recruitment and lots of people want to be vets, that is best handled by sliding into South Carolina’s vet school slots at UGA or Mss. St. that are being vacated in a couple of years. |
L |
| Education | HB612 | Prohibits use of the three cueing system of reading education in public schools. Prohibits postsecondary education training programs from instructing on the three cueing system. | J. Tipton |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Promotes the use of phonic system of instruction. L: I think the science is pretty clear that Phonics works. |
S |
| Education | HB652 | Prohibits public schools and postsecondary institutions in the state from complying with any Title IX mandate from the U.S. Department of Education that equates gender identity with biological sex. | J. Calloway |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Great bill. L: Almost everyone agrees with Title 9, very few think it is fair to apply it to boys in dresses. |
S / L |
| Education | HB683 | Prohibits the instruction of social and emotional learning in public schools. | C. Massaroni |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Just another type of indoctrination in the CRT/ DEI initiative vein. Social Emotional Learning is another way of phrasing: the state will teach children what is an acceptable and unacceptable thought, and way to treat everyone else (hint: not anything unsanctioned by the academie and the political establishment). This is the responsibility of parents. |
S / L |
| Education | HB719 | Allows physically demanding interscholastic athletics to satisfy the P.E. requirement for graduation. | S. Bratcher |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This could free up class time to focus on math or science perhaps. Debatable whether this is high priority, but it’s definitely a silly requirement that we can remove from students’ plate before graduation. |
S |
| Education | HB767 | Reqs school districts to implement social media safety mechanisms in internet access policies. Reqs social media safety policies to be given to all students grades 6-12. | K. Moser |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Parents have the right to opt their children out of the safety policy instruction. | S |
| Education | HB828 | Certify teachers for 5 years who complete a prep program and pass the req’d assessment. Removes internship req. Creates a teacher induction and mentor program. | K. Timoney |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Not real fond of the reporting requirements, but really like the mentoring program. Could really help new teachers. | S |
| Education | SB2 | Allows the employment of retired law enforcement or honorably discharged veterans to serves as school “guardians”. Adds reqs, including plans, for trauma-informed teams at each school. | M. Wise |
| Only If Amended | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Parts of this bill are very good. Guardians include: honorably discharged veterans, retired Kentucky state troopers, retired special and sworn law enforcement officers, and former federal law enforcement officers. I believe Texas, among some other states, implemented something like this. As long as the retired law enforcement or honorably discharged persons are properly trained, have no history if inappropriate violence, and are otherwise fully screened for mental issues (most of which is specified here)… great. Below is slightly overstating the case, but closer to the reality of the situation: A better approach on the “trauma-informed” approaches and teams is found in SB93 which strikes through all of this nonsense and ends this mechanism by which left-wing activism infiltrates the schools via mental health providers. Should schools have a person capable of counseling abused and neglected children or those who have experienced traumatic situations like death of someone they know? Yes. Is that what trauma-informed approaches mean in practice? No, it is too often “counseling” kids about how evil it is that their parents aren’t validating the child’s typically insane & stupid life choices. Amendment: Replace every section here on trauma-informed approaches that overlaps with SB93 with SB93’s striking-through approach. |
L |
| Education | SB6 | Bans any req that a collection of discriminatory CRT/DEI concepts be affirmed for employment, admission, or promotion in KY public higher ed. | M. Wilson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Both |
Overall, a strong bill (though see HB9 for a more comprehensive approach; dealing also with the CPE and Boards of Regents/Trustees). The list of CRT “divisive” concepts is very good. No major issue with the 1st half of the bill or the prohibitions on reqs to ascent to divisive concepts. This really needs to be merged with the Decker DEI bill (HB9) in the house, which is stronger in the back half on topics beyond hiring, firing, and statement, and more generally on enforcement (it bans DEI administrators, doesn’t try to reinterpret what they do, section 1(4)). In an ideal word it would also be merged with HB224 to make sure constitutional liberties are clearly protected even as we bring sanity back to campus. Amendments: “diversity initiatives” is used in subsection (4) without defining it, but even more, doesn’t ban the employment of people whose primary role is promotion of them. Personnel IS policy, JUST BAN THEM (as HB9 does). At the very least remove funding from the university in the exact amount of their salaries. I agree that promoting intellectual diversity is a prized means to an end of a university, but “diversity initiative” employees are not actually there to do that, regardless of how they spin it. Dol: BAN CRT and DEI, Teach our students real world needs, finances, etc. Schools are teaching kids division by race, the general public is not. It is way past time to stop funding schools if they keep teaching/pushing that agenda. |
L |
| Education | SB7 | Allows students in non-certified schools to receive KEES money. | M. Wilson |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Expands the Kentucky educational excellence scholarship program to students who didn’t graduate from a public school in Kentucky (eg homeschoolers and other non-certified private schools), and sets parameters for that. The idea is that since “GPA” isn’t really a reliable way to evaluate these students, use performance on standardized tests (eg ACT) as an indicator of how good of a student they were/are/will be. Same as HB46. Also same as SB24 from last session, which passed the Senate. It’s time to finally pass this. |
R |
| Education | SB93 | Removes DEI and trauma informed counseling approach from our K-12 public school system. | S. Meredith |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Great bill. Hope we can get this passed. L: This is really a few bills cobbled together, all of which I like. What this addresses that the other DEI bills this session don’t is the removal from K-12 (the other bills so far have been higher ed) of this “trauma-informed” mental health counseling that got added as a requirement a few years ago. Honestly, that would be best as a stand-alone bill (perhaps combined with efforts to include pastoral counselors as school mental health providers) since other bills are more comprehensive on the DEI portion of the bill. This is a big, important, and controversial enough change on its own. Dol: “Some” counselors have tried to PUSH a child into thinking they would need a sex change. Big PHARMA and some doctors are making a fortune at the children’s expense. NO CHILD under the age of 21 should be making that decision or encouraged down that road. |
S / L |
| Education | SB166 | Prohibits China affiliated nonprofits from contracting with KY schools (K-12 and Post-sec) to provide educational services. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | The fact is, China is our #1 geopolitical threat. Malcolm X, of all people, said “Only a fool would let his enemy teach his children.” If their government is funding these programs, it is a virtual certainty that they are intended for the benefit of the Chinese gov’t, whether or not they also benefit the US gov’t (and often, and increasingly, those interests conflict). Now, I don’t want to cast aspersions upon the Chinese people as a whole, or even suggest that Confucius institutes on our college campuses or chinese language academies that provide Mandarin and Cantonese language instructors to our schools are nefarious entities, or that the individual instructors are anything but well-meaning. They very well may all have positive intent for their students. A healthy skepticism and “better safe than sorry” approach at an institutional level is best here, however. At the very minimum these need to be CLOSELY monitored. Amendment: I’m VERY skeptical of the language banning this for non-public schools that receive state funds. I don’t know if that is constitutional given Rudasill (1979) and Section 5 of the KY Constitution… I really don’t want to open that door (at most, and I don’t like this precedent either, discount the state funding of private school proportionate to the per pupil cost of these teachers). |
L |
| Education | SB168 | Rem minority member req for school councils (SBDMs), changes election protocols, and incr parent membership from two to three. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | All of these are positive changes. Encoding racial quotas in our gov’t structure is an abomination and antithetical to Republicanism and a colorblind gov’t. Increasing Parent representation on site-based councils is also a big improvement. Note: this should have been done in SB1 a couple of years back rather than moving responsibilities away from SBDMs (Personnel IS policy). |
D G / L |
| Education | SB212 | Prohibits school district from entering agreements with providers of digital instruction that collect, share, or use data not directly related to the function of the service. Limits screen time per day for students. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Very good prohibition to keep these companies from mining data of the children. May be difficult for schools to track screen time for students throughout the day as they go from class to class but a great suggestion. This SHOULD get out in front of the Chromebook / Google social indoctrination. |
S |
| Education | SB358 | Allows GA to fund education outside of the common (public) schools. | G. Williams |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This language is somewhat close to HB208 Amendment 1 (without specific means testing language), and much better than the current language of HB2. (See detailed commentary on those bills.) I assume this is the compromise bill that leadership has decided to run with. I could quibble, I think means testing language is borderline necessary to pass on the ballot, but I could live with this and just hope Trump turnout and info campaigns push it toward pass. |
L |
| Elections | HB44 | Reqs a public listing of the number of voters by address. | J. Hodgson |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
This Bill may help get rid of the dead and moved voters and improve general voter roll integrity. R/L: Good bill! It includes a public listing of the number of voters by address so citizens can check their own address and notify the state if there are too many voters listed at their address. J P: Strongly Support this Bill. This is a no-brainer. Great provisions that should’ve already been law. |
D G / J |
| Elections | HB53 | Details a planned, mandatory hand-to-eye audit of an election-day result for a randomly selected race in each county in order to validate results. | J. Hodgson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
J P: As an amendment/addition to the existing statute, this is an excellent concept; but auditing one race in one precinct is totally inadequate to provide sufficient proof against election fraud in a county the size of Jefferson. Auditing only one precinct may be reasonable and sufficient for the majority of rural counties that have only 10-20 voting precincts, but some of our more populated towns like Bowling Green, Paducah, Somerset, Ashland, etc. may have 30-100 precincts. Lexington obviously even more. Jefferson County, however, has over 670 precincts. Auditing one would prove little-to-nothing to the host of citizens who have legitimately lost faith in the integrity of voting machines and our voting system as a whole. The audit should be based on some reasonable, workable metric (sliding % of precincts?) at least a significant portion of which should be selected by the losing candidate of the most significant race in that election. The County Clerk can administer as prescribed, but should be accompanied at all times by two individuals, one selected by the losing candidate and one selected by the winning candidate. The oversight prescriptions sound reasonable and adequate. John O & L: I don’t know what happened to your comments. I apologize profusely if something I did erased them. They were very good and worthwhile. | J / L |
| Elections | HB622 | Reqs Governor to sign a proclamation for an election to fill a vacancy in the office of United States Senator. Repeal statute requiring governor to fill vacancy. | S. Rudy |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
I would suggest you add a time frame in which the Governor will have to call for an election. Otherwise, he can drag the process out indefinitely. L: This is a high priority for obvious…… reasons. Many people, including myself, worry that the “select from this poll of 3 candidates” approach won’t hold up in court, Beshear obviously doesn’t think it will. This is a better approach anyway. What IS the time frame within which a special election has to happen/be scheduled? |
S / L |
| Elections | HB688 | Elim the 2 notarized Signatures from party members in a candidate’s district req to run in partisan races in the state. Retroactive to Nov, 2023. | J. Calloway |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Great bill, long overdue. This has long been a senseless requirement that is used to kick people off the ballot for paperwork errors. ANY candidate can find 2 people, even family members, like this in their district within a day; this just trips up people who are under a mistaken assumption that someone else is a member of a party, or who their notary didn’t catch space being filled in the wrong place. Each candidate already files a sworn attestation that they meet all requirements to run for office with a given party. The current law also discriminates, in practice, against people not located near Frankfort, who can rush another signatory to the capitol on filing day when an error is discovered, whereas some places in the state getting to Frankfort can take 4 hours. Amendment: Needs to declare an emergency to assure with no doubt that it applies to the upcoming primary election. There are recent court challenges around the time this was filed that could be affected potentially. |
L |
| Elections | SB39 | Bars lobbyists from making campaign contributions through various current loopholes: permanent committees, caucus campaign committees. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Good bill, Anti-corruption and reduces the ease of influence peddling in existing law. Amendment: Should include a prohibition on donations to a party’s building fund. Amendment: Dol: Corporate / companies lobbyist who could affect our health, food and environment should be BANNED from any type of lobbying. Case in point, look at NH HB1700 (2024) our food, health and environment, quality of life is being destroyed by advanced technologies and radio frequencies. These type of lobbyists should not EVER be allowed. |
L / D |
| Elections | SB80 | Disallow student or employee ID or debit/credit cards to be used as proof of ID for voting purposes. High Fidelity, Gov’t Issued Photo Voter ID only. | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
MUST have a photo voter ID. Credit and debit cards as a secondary identification is not a good idea, easy to counterfeit and we really need photo ID to make sure it is you. For employee and student (Photo) ID there is no way to confirm how thorough the employer or school was to determine if it is an actual authentic ID (that the person taking the picture is who they say they are, etc.). Falsifying these documents also would be a relatively easy thing to do. Amendment: Not too happy about the “personally known to election worker” loophole here either, nor SNAP/EBT Cards which are Gov’t issued but don’t even have a picture. (Social Security cards are iffy, no picture, but at least most people guard those closely.) |
D / L |
| Elections | SB108 | Enhances privacy for voters and returns the responsibility for updating voter rolls to the counties. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | At least some of these provisions should become law this session. Require that no election worker can attempt to influence a voter regarding registering or voting. States that the county clerk is responsible for removing a voter’s information when necessary (a process that purportedly has recently only been the purview of the SOS office). Require that the county board of elections purge voter registration roles as necessary and provide the updated list to the State Board of Elections once per month. (I would suggest that both the SOS and county BOE’s share this responsibility.) The outside groups provision is good, not allowing non-profits which are political in all but name to access and data mine KY voter data at scale. Amendment: If the outside groups provision doesn’t get us out of ERIC (which would be a good move) it should be, but some other network for making sure that voters aren’t registered in multiple state (approved by the general assembly) should replace it and the SOS should NOT be able to distribute our voter lists to other states without specific GA permission. |
M / L |
| Elections | SB172 | Reqs employees have ‘reasonable’ time off work to vote. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This requires an employer to allow an employee time to vote. This defines what an employee and employer is. It sets forth penalties for violations. If a corporation is guilty then it will lose its charter in addition to being fined up to $1,000.00 per incident. Amendment: The term ‘reasonable’ is used and it should define a specific amount of time instead (perhaps, at minimum 2 hours). Amendment: Also while modifying this bill, references to gender specific functions could be updated. The word ‘he’ is used and ‘person’ or ‘he or she’ would work as well. L: I’m not sure if it needs to be req’d by law, as all businesses that I know of have this policy, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt. I do like this better than making election day a full holiday. |
M |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB259 | Lower the concealed carry age from 21 to 18. | S. Maddox |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | If someone is old enough to serve in the military, they are old enough to carry. Note: this does NOT include an 18 student carrying a gun into high school. |
S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB288 | Allows concealed carry in public schools (not by students). Removes ban on concealed carry at postsecondary institutions. | S. Maddox |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Great bill. Simple and clean, the only reliable way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB329 | Allows police officers leave time to attend mental health treatment. | C. Freeland |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | “All police officers in a supervisory role shall receive specialized training on supporting police officers with mental health needs. ” This seems to be a pretty broad stroke. Who will supply the curriculum and who will administer? | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB357 | Prohibits financial institutions from targeting or discriminating against firearm retailers or customers. | D. Lewis |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Very good bill. Should something be added also to protect manufacturers? | S |
| Govt Regs | HB45 | Omnibus privacy bill, 5 categories of restrictions. Prohibits installation of a tracking device on person or property of another without their consent; exempts parental tracking of minors from the prohibition… | J. Hodgson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Great bill. Installation of these trackers without a warrant violates the 4th Amendment spirit, if not law. Unlawful use of a tracking device is a Class A misdemeanor. L: Prohibits retention of AI camera info, except in felony investigations, for more than 30 days (I’d argue this period should be far shorter, if not banned all together; tracking my whereabouts with AI for 1 second is too long). (*Note: Got worse in Comm Sub by expanding license plate reader information retention and sharing (LEO lobbying, no doubt).) Prohibits use of drones by the state for spying except for reasonable exceptions. Prohibits use of deep fakes (this is the section I have the most worries about on 1st Amendment grounds, as it is a cutting-edge area of the law and tech). Needs discussion as a lot of issues are addressed. |
B / L |
| Govt Regs | HB106 | Remove req to have more than 5 acres to hunt on one’s own land and need for a fishing license to fish in private pond. | S. Maddox |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Fixes law change from SB241 last session. Needs to have emergency declaration for immediate effect. Similar to SB5 and HB217, but with better fishing provision. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB214 | Def terms with regard to the rights of an individual with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Gives the AG the ability to protect against the violation of those rights. | M. Hart |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
People with developmental disabilities deserve to participate in society to the greatest extent possible and have their individual rights respected. Allows the Attorney General to institute civil action on their behalf. It’s time for this to finally move and get serious discussion, it has been filed multiple times in recent years. HB42 from last session. |
S |
| Govt Regs | HB309 | Bans appropriation of public funds (state, or local) for lobbying purposes or employing a lobbyist. | F. Rabourn |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Excellent idea, that needs to make it into the law one way or another this session. I should not be subsidizing someone against my will, via my tax dollars, to come lobby against my interests. The principle here seems similar to the Janus (2018) decision. Same as SB120. |
L |
| Govt Regs | HB326 | Reqs state and local contracts contain a provision that any iron, steel aluminum or manufactured goods be made in the USA. | J. Blanton |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Good requirement. Allows exemption upon approval where applicable. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB358 | Reqs that a designation of only male or female be entered onto a birth certificate. | B. Wesley |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Such common sense. I can’t believe we have to codify this. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB384 | Prohibits closing of the drive around the Capitol except in emergency situations. | J. Decker |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Shame we have to have a statute to address this. Can we FINALLY get this through? The reservations that the police have against this, and really any car access around the capitol complex, do not outway the benefits in terms of openness to the public. Note, this drive was open for DECADES before Andy took over. SAME AS SB75. |
S / L |
| Govt Regs | HB390 | Estab legal def of what a male is and what a female is. | D. Hale |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | SAME AS SB336. Establish that a male, man or boy is one that can normally produce sperm. It also establishes that a girl, female or woman is one who would normally produce ova. It states that there are two sexes, male and female. It also provides that under certain circumstances that it shall not be construed to prohibit separation of the sexes in the interest of maintaining safety, privacy, and fairness as specified in this section of the bill. In maintaining safety, privacy, and fairness, the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions and instrumentalities may provide single-sex environments for males and females where the sexes are not similarly situated, particularly with respect to biology. As illustrative, non-exhaustive examples, public entities in the Commonwealth may distinguish between the sexes with respect to prisons and other detention centers, athletics, living facilities, locker rooms, bathrooms, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers without violating antidiscrimination mandates. I copied in some text from the actual bill as I couldn’t have said it any better. |
M |
| Govt Regs | HB492 | Req each employee of a local gov’t who has access to federal tax information submit to a criminal background check. | M. Lockett |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Good idea. If they are not currently required, I would recommend the same for state employees (and those with access to state tax info), such as financial aid officers in postsecondary schools or the revenue department. |
S |
| Govt Regs | HB513 | Creates a process for submission of plans for installation or removal of statues and artwork in the State Capitol Rotunda and reqs approval of the General Assembly. | D. Hale |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Good requirement. An earlier bill, similar to this, was withdrawn (HB171), I think this version applies exclusively to the permanent displays in the Capitol building rotunda. Only given high priority due to the statue removal fad going around. |
S |
| Govt Regs | HB522 | Locates 5G cell tower 1,640+ feet away from the general public | J. Calloway |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | I think this is the same as SB161. This Bill (or K Bratcher’s) must at least get a review this year. EXCEPT AMEND w/ the following: remove the term 5G and replace with cell towers. Why? We have no concrete evidence as to what countries these cell towers are coming from and Section 2(3) line 6 thru 19 states – The local planning commission shall deny any public request for the inspection of this information, whether submitted under KY’s Open Records Act or otherwise, except when ordered to release the information by a court of competent jurisdiction. One has to wonder what is being hidden from the public about celltowers? What harm can they cause? Reference: Popular Mechanics April 2018 issue Psycho-Electronic Torture Fact Sheet which came from a WA state Fusion Center and INCLUDES the harm to our health by cell towers. United Nations (2019) 4 pg written statement to the Human Resource Council titled 5G is Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading on page 3 paragraph 3 is a LONG LIST of harm caused. |
D G |
| Govt Regs | HB819 | Reqs legislators be allowed to pre-file bills and that they be posted on the LRC website for the upcoming session. | C. Stevenson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | The new system (of working drafts that aren’t even posted on the website), purportedly intended to decrease the amount of bills filed, has been a failure in that mission. I count 1127 bills filed 2 days before the Senate filing deadline. The only result has been a reduction in public transparency. Bills are filed later in the session with less opportunity for the public to engage them and offer feedback as well as other legislators. Putting it in KRS statutes, rather than the house rules allows for fairness with the majority caucus suspending the rules whenever they want for any reason. Amendment: Add that all committee subs and amendments must be posted on the relevant bills webpage (perhaps ALSO in the committee meeting notes). Amendment: Req all committee subs and amendments be posted online at least 24 hours before and vote is held on them (perhaps with the exception of the final 3 weeks of the session). |
L |
| Govt Regs | HB831 | Bans public schools from using funds to advocate for or against any ballot initiative, directly or indirectly. | S. Baker |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | There’s a fine line between suppressing protected political speech and unconstitutionally compelling speech by using money to finance political speech that the “donors” don’t agree with. SCOTUS has drawn that line since Janus, and I think this is on the right side of it. I have no interest in infringing 1st Amendment rights, but entities that receive public money (the largest of which are the schools) should not be, in effect, using taxpayer money to advocate against taxpayer interests. Nothing here prevents a public school employee engaging in political speech on their own time and dime. This strikes me as the most likely of the public lobbying bans (all of which are good) to pass this cycle. I do worry that the school district portion will get struck down because it isn’t more broadly applied. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB5 | Removes req to have more than 5 acres to hunt or fish on your own land w/o license. | G. Williams |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Signed by Gov |
Fixes law change from SB241 last session. This should also declare an emergency. HB106 is a slightly better implementation of this idea, separating hunting and fishing and allowing land owner to allow any fishing on his private property without license. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB65 | Remove 3 deficient regs related to medicaid coverage of dental, vision, and hearing being used to circumvent the legislature. | S. West |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Fine, this was just a backdoor attempt to go around the legislature and add coverage of these 3 things to medicaid. Amendment: I don’t understand why the legislature doesn’t pass something like HB40 last session that automatically makes any regulation substantially similar to any regulation ruled deficient automatically null and void. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB75 | Vehicular flow between the State Capitol Building and the Capitol Annex on Capitol Avenue cannot be restricted by the Finance and Administration Cabinet. | J. Schickel |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
This would apply except in the case where emergency responders, law enforcement, fire department personnel, emergency medical staff, or the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet needed to temporarily block traffic to conduct their activities. L: WHY can’t this get heard in the house?! SB11 passed the senate easily last session. |
D |
| Govt Regs | SB120 | Bans the appropriation of public funds (state, or local) for lobbying purposes or employing a lobbyist. | G. Williams |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Excellent idea, that needs to make it into the law one way or another this session. I should not be subsidizing someone against my will, via my tax dollars, to come lobby against my interests. The principle here seems similar to the Janus (2018) decision. Same as HB309. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB130 | Prohibits state agency from discriminating based on one’s access to electronic means to obtain benefits or gain access to public buildings. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Requires cash payment to be accepted. L: Agreed, I’m a big fan of this subtly important legislation. The best bulwark against CBDCs, data mining, de-banking, and surveillance capitalism is for physical money to retain its importance and use. This bill also requires that non-digital IDs be accepted. |
S / L |
| Govt Regs | SB233 | Limits solar farms to less than one percent of a county’s acreage. Land can’t be acquired through eminent domain. | S. West |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Excellent start. We need to make sure our utilities are not focused on this sporadically reliable energy source that in the future will have to be dealt with as a hazardous waste. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB245 | Prohibits a public agency from employing or contacting with a lobbyist. Prohibits a public servant from using influence in a matter under the purview of the GA. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Much needed. Our tax money should not be spent lobbying against the interests of the taxpayers. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB317 | Estab property rights for individual’s name, voice and likeness. | W. Westerfield |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Much needed with the advent of new AI intelligence. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB336 | Estab legal def of what a male is and what a female is. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | SAME AS HB390. Establish that a male, man or boy is one that can normally produce sperm. It also establishes that a girl, female or woman is one who would normally produce ova. It states that there are two sexes, male and female. It also provides that under certain circumstances that it shall not be construed to prohibit separation of the sexes in the interest of maintaining safety, privacy, and fairness as specified in this section of the bill. In maintaining safety, privacy, and fairness, the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions and instrumentalities may provide single-sex environments for males and females where the sexes are not similarly situated, particularly with respect to biology. As illustrative, non-exhaustive examples, public entities in the Commonwealth may distinguish between the sexes with respect to prisons and other detention centers, athletics, living facilities, locker rooms, bathrooms, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers without violating antidiscrimination mandates. I copied in some text from the actual bill as I couldn’t have said it any better. |
M |
| Health | HB10 | Estab KY Lifeline for Moms program; expands and specs post-natal services that must be covered by insurance (incl KCHIP and medicaid); allows pregnant women to enter health care exchanges at any time. | K. Moser |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
“Momnibus” bill. Generally positive about the legislation. I’m most skeptical of the insurance expansions (open enrollment; expansion of KCHIP dental and vision) which need committee review, but even those don’t seem entirely unreasonable off hand. Seems odd that the “lifeline for Moms” is for practitioners, rather than also being accessible to moms directly. Renames, specifies, and expands the Kentucky maternal and infant health collaborative in KDHFS. Requires that KCHIP cover preventative services, dental & vision. Expands and specifies the post-natal services that must be covered by insurance carriers (eg breastfeeding). Reqs medicaid cover breastfeeding equipment and consultation. Requires health insurance exchanges provide a special enrollment period for any pregnant woman (big change here). Amendment: (1) If expanding coverage (I’m not necessarily a fan), perhaps exclude braces and cosmetic dentistry in KCHIP. (2) Implications of opening the insurance exchange for any pregnant woman needs more study. (3) If anything, I’m slightly disappointed that this legislation wasn’t expansive/ambitious enough given that it has gotten blessed by leadership. It seems HB380 is the expanded version of this. (a) Why NOT throw in elimination of sales tax on basic early childhood expenses: diapers, breastfeeding supplies, baby powder, baby wipes, child car seats, cribs (most anything but formula)? I have no issue with that. (b) Off the wall idea: I’d love for the state to contract with KY churches to provide a Finnish-style “baby box” to every newborn, maybe have them register during pregnancy to make sure they are taking prenatal vitamins and getting drug screening/rehab (with educational material and all of the bare minimum supplies). |
L |
| Health | HB48 | Estab right to refuse medical treatment. | S. Rawlings |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Very good bill. Amendment: Should include a patient can decide if they want to be medical flighted to a hospital and it be on the back of their drivers license. L: Not sure if “medi-flight” refusal belongs in this bill, though I suppose you should be able to refuse that. I would suggest language be added that a guardian can refuse treatment (though not examination) on the behalf of a minor under their care, so long as it doesn’t imminently threaten the life, or risk permanent disability, of the child. Dol: AMEND to include OPT OUT option on back of license for medi-flight. Some ppl have shared their loved ones are being medi-flight for NON LIFE THREATENING injuries and if a person does not have medical flight stat insurance would put a financial burden on families. This could possibly and probably has caused many families to go bankrupt. |
D G |
| Health | HB49 | Protects professional who don’t want to perform types of medical procedures they are opposed to performing. | S. Rawlings |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | No medical professional should be forced to perform any medical procedure that may go against their beliefs. | D G / L |
| Health | HB177 | Prohibits the state or state affiliates from requiring COVID-19 vaccine for minors. | R. Raymer |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Love the spirit of this but would like for it to be that they cannot require anyone to get the vaccine. L: Why can’t we get this over the finish line, or any COVID restrictions? Is this a conservative state or not? Probably should prohibit child masking here as well, if this becomes the 1 COVID bill the state passes (I believe 17 states have passed some form of COVID mandate ban). |
S |
| Health | HB316 | Estab KY Medicaid Oversight and Advisory Board of the KY GA to oversee the KY Medicaid Program | J. Petrie |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
The Kentucky Medicaid Program should be, as far as is possible, free of fraud. This board would formulate a thorough process of seeing that fraud is minimized. I am surprised that this type of board hasn’t already been created given the cost and purpose of medical care. Nevertheless, it is a worthy effort. |
D |
| Health | SB137 | If a CON is orphaned an application for a new entity shall be granted a nonsubstantive review. The orphaning entity is not permitted to have opposition. | G. Williams |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Reasonable requirements. L: Seems very reasonable. This is far less ambitious and thus more likely to pass than SB136. |
S |
| Health | SB145 | Health care facility may submit a current or prospective employee to a check of the child abuse or neglect or the adult abuse registries. | J. Adams |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
I would recommend replacing “may” with “shall” at least for prospective employees. I would also recommend replacing “or” with “and” as far as requiring them to check both registries. | S |
| Health | SB188 | Estab regs on Pharmacy Benefit managers. | M. Wise |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | My main concern is the cost impact. Could needlessly increase costs for insurers, which in turn means consumers. Mail order pharmaceuticals could benefit those on maintenance prescriptions or who don’t live near a pharmacy. I will wait until the fiscal impact statement arrives for a final verdict, this could potentially be a HIGH PRIORITY bill. Note: some of these provisions are in HB190. I also am concerned that this is really a bail-out / protectionist bill for an outmoded independent pharmacist model hiding under the cover of insurer regulations. I have nothing against local, independent pharmacists BTW, in rural areas in particular they do serve an important need. However, the market is the market, and if consumers prefer a different model, then fighting against that isn’t productive long-term. Nevertheless, this won’t be an outright OPPOSE because we DO need fundamental fairness in the PBM market (which in my understanding does not exist; hence, that biases the market in a different way) and this bill attempts to bring that. Amendment: I don’t love the provisions against mail-order pharmacies, in particular. Those do tend to reduce cost to the consumer. I do think it is reasonable to demand that the prescriptions from a mail-order pharmacy arrive on the timeline demanded by the prescription if they are going to be demanded by the PBM, however. |
L |
| Health | SB239 | Prevent reprisal for a medical professional refusing to provide a service because of a violation of their conscience. | D. Douglas |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Very good bill. I believe Illinois has had something like this for 30 years. | L |
| Health | SB267 | Allows a person in KY to refuse to take meds that have only been approved for emergency use. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | A person can refuse to have administered to them any drug, device or biologic that has only been approved by the secretary of the US Food and Drug Admin. for emergency use. It also requires that the person be advised of the medical consequences for refusing and also be advised if there are alternatives available and the risks and benefits of the alternatives. It is a one page bill. This reminds me of the covid shot situation in which businesses would require an employee to take the covid shot to remain employed. | M |
| Health | SB324 | Prohibits a health service provider from requiring an employee to enter a covenant not to compete. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | An employee after leaving a provider should be able to go to any other provider for employment. This happens in healthcare, I’ve only heard of it in high tech and with executives? | S |
| Other | HB47 | Allows for persons to seek damages if their religious liberty is infringed. Expands present RIFRA. | S. Rawlings |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Since Covid it is important that Government be held accountable for attempting to limit religious freedom. This bill addresses that. This applies to local government as well, city or county. | D |
| Other | HB241 | Reqs strict age verification guidelines for pornographic sites. Civil penalties for failure to comply. | S. Baker |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Great bill. Very detailed. It’s hard to believe this isn’t already the law. Do Republicans support hard core pornography being accessed by kids?! |
S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB1 | BUDGET – One-time appropriations totaling $178M in FY2023-4, $1.59B in FY2024-5, and $75M in FY2025-6 from Budget Reserve Trust Fund Account (ie Rainy Day Fund). | J. Petrie |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Priorities: Pretty aggressive paying down of pension liabilities at least for FY 2024-5 (very good, $750M, I’d even prefer more), $150M paying for drinking and wastewater infrastructure, $400M for matching fund for the GRANT program (great if it is this big, but this is far bigger than it was projected in HB9 last year; and hence needs extensive fraud monitoring), improving riverports, some rail & aviation pilot programs and infrastructure improvements, expanding KSP lab capabilities… Amendments: Fine with all of these priorities; fiscally responsible. Elsewhere in the budget, why are we issuing bonds for capital projects in this high interest rate environment rather than paying out of the rainy day fund? Wouldn’t we be saving substantial future interest payments? |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB58 | Creates the Tax Expenditure and Economic Development Incentive Review Board. | K. Fleming |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Excellent idea, at minimum this needs committee discussion and refinement soon. The gov’t has a responsibility to be good stewards of the taxpayer’s money. There have been several cases of massive incentive giveaways to private companies to induce them to start new factories, etc. in the state over the past half decade (some disastrous). We have also had a number of substantial changes to the tax code approved over that time (so benefitting particular industries). While not necessarily opposed to this activity under the right circumstance (given that other states are doing the same and it is a competitive market), we need to have a full economic assessment (ideally before a vote is taken) of (projected) ROI from any of these expenditures, and review/audit after they are made. Amendment: GIVE THIS TEETH. Make it such that this board must convene, discuss, and produce a preliminary report BEFORE the GA can vote to approve any expenditure / incentive of this sort to induce a company to relocate or expand here. Otherwise, this is largely for show. |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB112 | Freezes assessed value of a property when the owner claims the homestead exemption. | T. Huff |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Good bill. Implements HB111 as a regular bill. L: I’d suggest exempting the 1st 100K in primary residence property value as well (eg something like HB61). That way you advantage both people in highly appreciating areas (this bill) and also poor retirees (that bill). A case could be made that this shouldn’t apply if someone over 65 has over 100K in income from any source. |
S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB147 | Reqs question on ballot to ask the voter if they are FOR any tax increase rather than an ambiguous or confusing question. Estab the timing of the vote to be “next regular election”. | K. Fleming |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
R: This is a bill we requested after our experience with the school tax recall petition. KY Supreme Ct. allowed the school board to violate the requirements under the law, saying the legislature had not considered the possibility that the tax rolls would be certified late in the year. This makes sure it is clear that they have considered and provided for that possibility. Also, we hope it will ensure that the ballot question will be clear in any future tax recall. | M |
| Taxes & Spending | HB262 | BUDGET – Puts a definite cap on spending for $50M for natural disasters, and $1M for prison cost overruns, without a special session. | J. Petrie |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Not a bad idea. It seems these were blank check items in existing law. This doesn’t mean that we can only spend this much, just that the GA needs to approve additional spending. |
L – BUDGET |
| Taxes & Spending | HB263 | BUDGET – Standard Budget Boilerplate for Leg. Branch. Interesting that Senators each get almost twice the stationery allowance. | J. Petrie |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | It seems odd that the stationery allowance is twice as big as the house (presumably because their districts are about 2.5 times bigger). If the house is fine with it, so be it, we are talking literally about a few tens of thousand dollars total. Do Senators actually use more than twice as much? | L – BUDGET |
| Taxes & Spending | HB264 | BUDGET – Allocates funds for Judicial Branch, incl construction projects and prisons. | J. Petrie |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Allocates $508,116,200 (2024-5) and $522,878,500 (2025-6) for the Judicial Branch, over half a billion dollars for the first time with $1,351,900 and $1,396,900 toward retirement. Note: all of these Budget Bill would be much easier to process if they put the current fiscal year totals right next with them and/or the percentage change from the current fiscal year were labelled. Amendment: why are we issuing bonds to pay for construction projects in this high interest rate environment, rather than using the rainy day fund? |
L – BUDGET |
| Taxes & Spending | HB265 | Transportation/Roads Appropriations Bill. | J. Petrie |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
This is a bit outside of our scope in terms of offering thoughtful analysis this cycle. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB442 | Exempts nonprofits from sales and use tax. | J. Tipton |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Good way to support these agencies. L: I thought this was already the case, but when they started adding sales (“consumption”) tax to businesses, the Y started charging tax on programming. This is definitely a good exemption, and should be a high priority. |
S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB479 | Allows fire protection district to assess a fee against a premises for cost of maintaining necessary protection measures. Estab the distilled spirits environmental fund to reimburse property owners for cleaning expenses related to whiskey fungus. Adds a $0.25 environmental fee to each barrel stored annually. | C. Massaroni |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Good requirement that owners of these premises pay for fire protection costs and cleaning of local properties affected by the product. L: Helps mitigate much of the community damage caused by last session’s Barrel Tax revocation. I know this won’t pass given the political climate around the Barrel Tax last session, but a provision like this needs to make it into law pretty soon. |
S / L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB21 | Only req disabled persons to file for the Homestead Exemption once, unless their disability status changes. | M. Deneen |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Currently have to reapply annually. Very reasonable. L: I agree that yearly is too often. I do worry that disability status changes enough that a once per decade req makes more sense here. It likely would help eliminate fraud. |
S / L |
| Transportation | HB266 | This seems to be the Master Highway Project Plan from the Transportation Cabinet. | J. Petrie |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
268 pages. This is a bit outside of our scope in terms of offering thoughtful analysis this cycle. | L |
| Transportation | SB91 | Estab permanent full-time drivers license center in each state senatorial district. | J. Higdon |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Long overdue. Same as HB60. Some would perhaps like to see it returned to every county. L: I think 1 per senate district is probably closer to the right number. |
S / L |
| Transportation | SB380 | Estab who is allowed to use automated license plate readers, parameters for privacy protection. Allows State Police to establish an annual review process. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This is the most comprehensive bill I have seen for protection of privacy rights for citizens wrt AI license-plate readers. | S |
| Provides $4M funding for administration of $45.7M farm bill grant for land owners and matching $45.7M in tax deductions for agricultural land conservation easements by Bluegrass Land Conservancy. | |||
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | They have 5 years to use this money for conservation easements or it is clawed back by the Federal Gov’t. It seems somewhat reasonable, I don’t mind if landowners want this federal tax money to make this land a permanent conservation easement (though I’m not sure of the ROI for the Federal Gov’t doing it woth our grandkid’s money in debt). Amendment: Best to split this into a smaller multiple year allocations (perhaps $1.5M 1st year, $1M next) that can be renewed. |
L |
| Business Regs | HB512 | Excl agreements between KY Horse Park and entertainers contracted for events from the definition of “personal service contract.” | M. Koch |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) *Passed House |
Already an exclusion for contracts less than $5000. Anything more SHOULD be subject to additional oversight. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB513 | Creates a process for submission of plans for installation or removal of statues and artwork in the State Capitol Rotunda and reqs approval of the General Assembly. | D. Hale |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Good requirement. An earlier bill, similar to this, was withdrawn (HB171), I think this version applies exclusively to the permanent displays in the Capitol building rotunda. Only given high priority due to the statue removal fad going around. |
S |
| Education | HB514 | Shell Bill. | J. Tipton |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Be on the lookout. I ventured into this before I saw the shell bill possibility. |
M |
| Education | HB515 | Shell Bill. | J. Tipton |
| Be on the lookout. | S | ||
| Education | HB516 | Shell Bill. | J. Tipton |
| Be on the lookout. | S | ||
| Govt Regs | HB517 | Estab official protocols and procedures for the Legislative Ethics Commission. | D. Meade |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Good clarification of existing language. Reqs Legislative Ethics Commission provide a draft of its proposed response to an advisory opinion request at least 10 days before it is scheduled to consider. Reqs Commission determine whether there is reason to believe someone committed or is about to commit an ethics violation. Five votes equals an inquiry. Less than five complaint dismissed. |
S / L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB518 | AN ACT relating to firearm safety. | K. Herron |
| Govt Regs | HB519 | AN ACT proposing an amendment to Section 32 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to qualifications of members of the General Assembly. | K. Herron |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB520 | AN ACT relating to destruction of firearms. | K. Herron |
| Transportation | HB521 | Exempts federally documented vessels from property taxation. Establishes the waterway usage tax. | K. Upchurch |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | I like that it doesn’t tax boats that are domiciled in the Commonwealth. But it seems to be difficult for Fish and Wildlife officers to able to distinguish whose boats are or aren’t without owners having to carry extra documentation. Too easy also to switch tax onto everyone. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB522 | Locates 5G cell tower 1,640+ feet away from the general public | J. Calloway |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | I think this is the same as SB161. This Bill (or K Bratcher’s) must at least get a review this year. EXCEPT AMEND w/ the following: remove the term 5G and replace with cell towers. Why? We have no concrete evidence as to what countries these cell towers are coming from and Section 2(3) line 6 thru 19 states – The local planning commission shall deny any public request for the inspection of this information, whether submitted under KY’s Open Records Act or otherwise, except when ordered to release the information by a court of competent jurisdiction. One has to wonder what is being hidden from the public about celltowers? What harm can they cause? Reference: Popular Mechanics April 2018 issue Psycho-Electronic Torture Fact Sheet which came from a WA state Fusion Center and INCLUDES the harm to our health by cell towers. United Nations (2019) 4 pg written statement to the Human Resource Council titled 5G is Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading on page 3 paragraph 3 is a LONG LIST of harm caused. |
D G |
| HB523 | For unemployment claims, reduces the number of search activities from 5 to 2 and the number of applications or interviews from 3 to 1. | J. Blanton | |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Makes it easier to draw unemployment. Not good policy. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB524 | Estab the KY Rural Jobs Act of 2024. Allows no more than $50 million of capital matching grants for investment in growth businesses in Eastern or Western KY. Allows up to $100 million in investment authority. | J. Blanton |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Stipulations stated that if a bank wouldn’t approve a loan and that employment positions would have been eliminated if not for the capital investment. Doesn’t sound like companies on an upward trajectory. Government should not be trying to pick winners. This is Democratic socialism at its best. | S |
| HB525 | Estab reqs and standards for telehealth social work. | R. Bridges | |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Hopefully this is used on a very limited basis. I can’t see being beneficial for the patient long term. | S |
| Business Regs | HB526 | AN ACT relating to landlords and tenants. | D. Grossberg |
| Business Regs | HB527 | AN ACT relating to roofing contractors and making an appropriation therefor. | D. Grossberg |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB528 | Extends the 5% rate for assistance with next generation 911 capabilities until July 1,2025, then 2.5%. Extends 7.5% rate for 911 service to July 1st, 2025, then 10%. | M. Hart |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
There are currently only 6 counties that have not upgraded. Perhaps you could let the 5 percent for upgrades lapse this year. | S |
| Education | HB529 | Removes the authority of the Ed Professional Standards Board to req successful completion of assessments prior to certification. Allows local school boards to estab score reqs. | K. Banta |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | As many of our schools are failing and students are not at their grade level achievement we cannot dumb down the requirements for teacher certification. I know there is a shortage of teachers but lowering entry standards is not an option. | S |
| Health | HB530 | Reqs commissioner of the Dep of Insurance to review each Medicaid managed care orgs’ compliance with network access reqs as other managed care orgs. | D. Frazier Gordon |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No problem with this clarification. | S |
| Transportation | HB531 | Exempts hybrid vehicles from paying the electric vehicle reg fees. | S. Doan |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | The amendment to the existing bill would remove hybrid vehicles from paying the same registration fees as an electric vehicle or motorcycle. An electric vehicle and motorcycle is defined as a vehicle that has to be plugged into an electric source periodically. It differentiates a hybrid vehicle by defining that a hybrid vehicle or motorcycle does not have a plug in socket and can operate with either an electric motor or an engine. | M |
| Govt Regs | HB532 | Removes the once per 4 year attestation engagement req from special service gov’t entities with expenditures <$25K per year. | W. Lawrence |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No real issue here, minor change in the law for minimal resource expenditure entities. They still have to do an annual report. | M / L |
| HB533 | Incl payment of working capital expenditures as an allowable use for money received from the sale of bonds. | A. Neighbors | |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
No problem with this. | S |
| Health | HB534 | Prohibits Medicaid and insurers from requiring or using certain utilization reviews for prescription drugs that contain Naloxone. | R. Duvall |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
This drug needs to be easily accessible for people with a loved one fighting addiction. | S |
| Education | HB535 | Allows completion of a half credit course in civic literacy in high school to also fulfill the civic ed test graduation req, including specific subject matter. | R. Duvall |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Good requirement. L: I generally agree that increased civic education is a good idea, but these curricula have been used as a vehicle to promote student left-wing political activism. Amendment: Some safeguards should be put in place against these courses being used for THAT left-wing activism… (1) Specify specific curriculum (eg Hillsdale College 1776 curriculum; see HB807 from FL 2019: House Bill 807 (2019) – The Florida Senate (2) No course credit, extra credit, or other incentive shall be given for any type of activism. |
S / L |
| Health | HB536 | AN ACT relating to contraceptives. | S. Stalker |
| HB537 | AN ACT relating to bereavement leave. | S. Stalker | |
| HB538 | AN ACT relating to pregnancy resource centers. | S. Stalker | |
| Business Regs | HB539 | AN ACT relating to wages for employment. | R. Roarx |
| Business Regs | HB540 | AN ACT relating to leave from employment. | R. Roarx |
| Business Regs | HB541 | AN ACT relating to employment. | R. Roarx |
| HB542 | AN ACT relating to hazardous duty retirement for solid waste management services enforcement officers of a consolidated local government. | R. Roarx | |
| Health | HB543 | AN ACT relating to drug disposal. | R. Roarx |
| HB544 | AN ACT relating to child and maternal fatalities. | R. Roarx | |
| Elections | HB545 | AN ACT relating to vacancies in office. | R. Roarx |
| Elections | HB546 | Lower age a person can be a representative from 24 to 18. | R. Roarx |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Since schools are not teaching children civics. 21 may be appropriate but even then it is iffy. L: 24 is fine, why would we want 18 year olds making decisions on topics that require wisdom and life experience? |
D G / L |
| Education | HB547 | Reqs all new Dep of Ed buildings have single user toilets. | A. Camuel |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Might as well put cat litter in the corner OPPOSE this bill. L: I’m not as opposed to this (though I’m not gung ho that it should be a requirement), to me it’s not a significant imposition to put 1 single-use restroom in a main school building (likely with hundreds of people). The problem is putting such a facility in every building used for instruction, including say a single classroom double-wide used as supplementary space which may have no other bathroom facilities at all and also the possibility that KDE regulations require A LOT of these in buildings substantially adding to costs. 1 per main building I can live with. |
D G / L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB548 | AN ACT relating to sodomy. | A. Camuel |
| Education | HB549 | AN ACT relating to social studies curriculum. | A. Camuel |
| Education | HB550 | AN ACT relating to early childhood programs. | J. Raymond |
| Courts & Crimes | HB551 | AN ACT relating to cold cases. | K. Herron |
| Health | HB552 | AN ACT relating to hospital price transparency. | R. Roberts |
| Education | HB553 | Estab a student loan repayment program for veterinarians who serve at least 5 years in an underserved rural KY area with at least 50% of their practice in livestock. | M. Koch |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
This is a DRASTICALLY better use of resources than the Veterinarian doctoral program at Murray State (HB400 / SB289; and yes, it is either/or because we live in a world with finite resources including very few KY graduates wanting to be vets). It addresses the ACTUAL problems the state has in veterinary care, not the number of slots in veterinary schools (less than 100 minimally qualified candidates applied last year): (a) a lack of young people from this state wanting to be vets, and (b) a lack of vets willing to come serve in KY in livestock medicine and in rural locations. If we have a huge boost in undergrad recruitment and lots of people want to be vets, that is best handled by sliding into South Carolina’s vet school slots at UGA or Mss. St. that are being vacated in a couple of years. |
L |
| Education | HB554 | Allows the governing boards of state institutions to obtain property insurance outside the state fire and tornado insurance fund with stipulations. | M. Meredith |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
No problem with this so long as the insurance is a cost savings for the entity. Could make this a requirement. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB555 | Clarifies the interpretation the construction of statutes by the GA. Intent is to comply with the state and federal Constitution and intend a just and reasonable result. | S. Rawlings |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | States that “words and phrases that have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning in the law, shall be construed according to that meaning ” I would add the requirement “and that definition shall be included in the statute. ” I’m concerned about the meaning of “rule that statutes in derogation of the common law are to be strictly construed shall not apply. No statutes should be derogatory to common law. | S |
| Health | HB556 | AN ACT relating to coverage for injectable epinephrine devices. | C. Stevenson |
| Business Regs | HB557 | Creates an interstate Compact for the Practice of Dietetics. Reqs a license to practice. | J. Tipton |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Is there any activity in the state that you don’t want to license, regulate and tax. | S |
| Business Regs | HB558 | Shell Bill. | P. Pratt |
| Be on the lookout | S | ||
| Business Regs | HB559 | Shell Bill. | P. Pratt |
| Be on the lookout | S | ||
| Education | HB560 | Estab strong parental rights in dealing with the cabinet or its representative. | S. Doan |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | States that “If upon initial contact the cabinet has reasonable cause to believe that exigent circumstances exist that present an imminent danger to the child’s life of or health and there is no time to seek a court order …may take all measures necessary to protect the child prior to disseminating information regarding the parent’s rights. ” This gives too much leeway to the cabinet intervene. | S |
| Business Regs | HB561 | Cabinet for Economic Development and the Council of Area Development Districts to develop a program to create opportunities for local government to help increase the supply of childcare and childhood education services in the community. | S. Heavrin |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
If a local community wants to implement this, they don’t need state government to tell them how to do so. More socialist engineering from state government. L: It’s true that local communities SHOULD implement this. I see this differently however, it is actually the zoning restrictions of local communities that are contributing to the lack of affordable childcare by preventing people from running a daycare out of their home, where costs & overhead can be dramatically cut. Stopping those local restrictions allows the market to respond to a need.Amendment: My issue isn’t that this is the state stepping into local issues (local control is NOT a core principle of conservatism; it’s case by case), it’s that this bill overcomplicates a very good idea, puts it under a cabinet bureaucracy and takes forever implementing it. Do we need a Certified Child Care Community Designation Program administered by the Cabinet for Economic Development adviser by a Council of Area Development Districts? Why can’t we just say, “A home-based child care business can be started in any residence by a certified provider & any business can provide child care services for employees on premise as long as it is run by a certified provider, or staffed by parents themselves on a co-op basis.” Amendment: If we feel we must continue running everything through a gov’t bureaucracy then at least bump the speed up tro start by August of this year. Declare an emergency. |
S / L |
| Business Regs | HB562 | AN ACT relating to dietitians. | R. Palumbo |
| Govt Regs | HB563 | Creates the KY Water and Wastewater Assistance for Troubled or Economically Restrained Systems Program. Help finance water utilities in depressed areas. | J. Bray |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
The infrastructure already exists to serve this function in a limited capacity. Not sure the extra layers are necessary. Still, fine with this. | S |
| Education | HB564 | Creates a $150 tax credit per dependent for educational supplies. | W. Lawrence |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | No big problem with this. | S |
| HB565 | A board member of a waste management district shall serve until their successor is appointed and qualified, not to exceed 60 days, after which the position becomes vacant. | E. Callaway | |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
No problem with this. | S |
| Elections | HB566 | Const Amend to restore felony voting and civil rights within 5 years after parole. | K. Herron |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | With the exception of the Amendment below, I have no strong feeling about this one way or the other. On the one hand, after a person has completed their punishment for a crime (side-note: prisoners don’t “pay their debt to society”) it behooves a society to find a way to reintegrate them and restore reasonable rights. On the other, A person who commits a felony is grossly violating among the most important laws in a society. Why should they then get to determine what those laws are going forward? Amendment: This MUST exclude felons convicted of Murder or Manslaughter. If you kill someone, eliminating THEIR ability to vote forever, you shouldn’t get your own vote back either. That would keep from violating a very basic level of fairness. Frankly, people convicted of those offenses shouldn’t have them restored even by pardon. |
L |
| Education | HB567 | AN ACT relating to teachers. | B. Chester-Burton |
| Education | HB568 | AN ACT relating to workers’ compensation for educators. | B. Chester-Burton |
| Courts & Crimes | HB569 | Estab an automatic expungement process for specific misdemeanors and felonies. | K. Bratcher |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Exempts from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements agricultural workers, domestic servants and employees of retail stores, service industry, hotels, motels and restaurants if net receipts are less than $95k. Removes req of paying people to drive to the location of their job. Removes req that the 7th day be overtime if you work every day in a week. Doesn’t require that a lunch break be paid if it is taken at a time different than designated. L: I’m sympathetic to deregulation here, but most of these are bare minimum reqs that are very politically popular. Is the minor deregulation improvement here (these aren’t drastic changes) worth the political hit of looking unreasonably anti-worker? Doubtful to me. The future for national Republicanism is as a pro-Worker (re: not pro-union) party. Time to start activing like it. The ONLY one of these I think might be worthy of consideration is restaurant employees who get compensated in tips… but even that might be so unpopular as to not be worth it. |
S |
| HB570 | AN ACT relating to emergency shelters. | B. Chester-Burton | |
| Education | HB571 | Reqs KY Dep of Ed to create a professional dev training schedule for certified personnel. | J. Nemes |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Surprised this wasn’t already required. | S |
| Business Regs | HB572 | Shell Bill. | P. Pratt |
| Be on the lookout. | S | ||
| HB573 | AN ACT relating to Black History Season. | G. Brown Jr. | |
| Health | HB574 | Allow and add reqs for a physician licensed in another country to obtain a provisional license to practice in the Commonwealth. | K. Moser |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Must stay in the employ of a sponsor for 3 years. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB575 | Prohibits nonresident alien or agent associated with certain countries (eg China, Iran) from the purchase, lease or acquisition of agricultural land in KY. Estab the KY Foreign Investment Review Board to review applications for appeal. | R. Heath |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Don’t normally like the creation of new boards, but this one will be necessary if this is implemented and it’s relatively small. Think this prohibition is necessary. L: This is similar to HB500 last session. This version is more measured and has a built-in appeals process. Overall, it’s just a better bill and I can support it if some questions are addressed. The fact is, foreign investment in America is on net a massive positive, so why limit it? The lingering question for me is, what public good does limiting the investment of NON-Gov’t AFFILIATED private citizens (not talking about gov’t investment, or gov’t controlled businesses) from ANY foreign country serve? I am interested in the justification here. If we are limiting purchases of areas around military bases, I would understand that. If investments become so high that it drives out American farmers so we can’t produce our own food… I would understand that (though we aren’t anywhere close to that point). In general, we need to be open to those who are willing to work and contribute to our economy LEGALLY if we want to be globally competitive. Amendment: I’d prefer that this board just be a commission of another existing board if that can be worked out (we have way too many boards). |
S / L |
| Business Regs | HB576 | AN ACT relating to wages. | J. Raymond |
| Govt Regs | HB577 | Incr pay rate for PVA officers. | S. McPherson |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
55 percent increase in pay is way too much. Lower it down below 25 percent with a formula for COLA increases and then maybe there can be a discussion. L: Should be noted to ethics that the sponsor is an appraiser and thus works with PVA a lot, though by all accounts a good guy. Sheri Quinn/ DOLLY – OPPOSE – Dol says taxpayers are struggling to pay their food, gas, rent and being taxed to hilt. When does the greed stop? |
S |
| Business Regs | HB578 | Reqs lending institution in KY not release a consumer report or credit score to a third party unless there is a written agreement from the person to do so. | S. Bratcher |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Any organization that lends money in KY is covered by this bill. This bill also allows the offended person to pursue a civil lawsuit if this bill is violated. The Attorney General may institute an action against any consumer reporting agency alleged to have violated this bill. | M |
| Govt Regs | HB579 | Reqs the condemnor to make video or audio recording of the negotiation if the owner of the property agrees. | M. Dossett |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | In addition to the video or audio recording it also requires good faith negotiations and that the negotiation recordings be available publicly as well as being available as a result of an open records request. It also requires a survey of the property be paid for by the condemnor. This is only a 3 page bill so is an easy read. | M |
| Elections | HB580 | Various election provisions to make sure nobody legally allowed to vote is denied the vote. | J. Decker |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Keep in mind, the committee sub substantially changed the bill. HFA4 further substantially changes the bill (including not increasing the compensation for elections). The bill WOULD HAVE: Allowed SOS to enter into agreements with outside entities for voter list maintenance. Raises state compensation to clerks from $0.25 to $1 per voter reg & $0.50 to $1.50 per election per voter. With the sub and amendment, it does neither. Most of these changes amount to uncontroversial technical changes (esp. now), so overall not opposed, but… Clerks DO need more compensation from the state ($1, $0.75(?) per reg; $1.50, $1 per election… should it scale up over the next 3 elections?) with which to run elections. VOTING ADMIN is a core constitutional function of the gov’t. Inadequate funding is forcing a move to a voting center model that may not be the desire of every community, and opens communities up to technical/printer errors in a print-on-demand model… this is the most important part of the bill and should just be made a standalone if need be. * Note: HFA1 actually removes these increases (I’d rather take care of it now and at least double the money in a budget year with big presidential year turnout.) WHY DO WE HAVE TO HAVE OMNIBUS BILLS? Make this 3 or 4 different bills (eg one for appropriations changes; one for voter eligibility; one for new board of elections powers; electioneering; …) and vote on more, smaller, more digestible bills. MUST HAVE AMENDMENTS: Amendment: Section (1) should require the KYBOE or SOS get us out of ERIC ASAP, find alternatives, let the GA (not the board) vote on that replacement in 2025, and put restrictions on who may have API-level access to any of this shared voting data beyond name, date of birth, and address (incl NO outside entities). The idea behind the ERIC system is great (states enter their voter registrations into a central DB so they can cross-reference people who may be registered in more than one), BUT it is not clear who gets access to that data, including left-wing non-profits. Amendment: Section (6) in original bill needs to make clear that electioneering IS permitted outside of (100; or ideally less, eg 75) ft from the entrance door at any property used as a polling place within 24 hours of the polls being open. Technically, private property can set their own electioneering (eg political signage) policy on their property outside of the 100 boundary currently, allowing for the suppression of political speech. It would also be nice to outlaw bull-horns and noisemakers; prevent handing out anything of value like food or drink except in an emergency, etc. Amendment: Section (11) should require retention of video surveillance for 75 days (60 days doesn’t even cover until presidential inauguration day)… why can’t we just put the video on a flash drive and preserve it a year or more? |
L |
| Business Regs | HB581 | Allows competition amongst filling stations or electric charging stations. | K. Upchurch |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
This is a one page bill. This bill prevents a governmental entity from limiting competition for filling stations or electric charging stations. This bill shall not prohibit a local jurisdiction from subjecting retail filling stations to restrictions similar to those applicable to other businesses. | M |
| Govt Regs | HB582 | Remove the req hybrid vehicle owners must pay an ownership fee the same as all electric vehicles | R. Palumbo |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Taxation over reach again. | S / D |
| Govt Regs | HB583 | Reqs officials in an affected area of an environmental emergency be notified of that emergency. The time frame in the bill is 7 days. | W. Lawrence |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
This requires proper authorities to be notified within 7 days of an environmental emergency in their district be notified. Amendment: If it is an emergency then the officials should be notified much sooner than 7 days. 24 hours should be reasonable. |
M |
| Education | HB584 | AN ACT relating to education. | C. Stevenson |
| Transportation | HB585 | Adds another custom license plate for qualified EMS workers or retirees. | K. Upchurch |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | This is straightforward and should not be considered political in any way. This ads a custom license plate for either current or retired EMS workers. | M |
| Govt Regs | HB586 | Change “conservation officer” to “game warden.” Move water enforcement duties from the State Police to Fish and Wildlife. Establish resident and non resident outfitter licenses. | D. Hale |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Support moving water enforcement from State Police duties. Need clarification on ” ‘Shooting range’ or ‘range’ means a public facility owned or managed by the department (Fish and Wildlife) or a facility owned or managed by an affiliated partner…” Would this outlaw ranges not affiliated with the department? Later a permit required for a range. Need clarification here. | S |
| Education | HB587 | AN ACT relating to public charter schools. | C. Stevenson |
| Education | HB588 | AN ACT relating to the Teachers’ Retirement System and declaring an emergency. | C. Stevenson |
| Health | HB589 | Dental insurers must make payments to providers when contractually obligated due to coverage plan with insured. Providers must reimburse payment made by insured within 45 days of being paid by insurance. | M. Pollock |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Seems to be a good requirement. | S |
| Transportation | HB590 | Exempts vehicle property valuation increases after January 1, 2021 from tax for the January 1, 2024 to January 1, 2025 assessment dates. | M. Dossett |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Inflation has caused this phenomenon of used car values increasing and the taxpayers should not have to pay it. | S |
| Business Regs | HB591 | AN ACT relating to investment firms. | A. Camuel |
| Transportation | HB592 | Clarifies that the compensation of a dealer by a manufacturer, component manufacturer or distributor shall not be less than the dealer acquisition of parts and service. | T. Smith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Clarifies existing language so that car dealers (now only for big trucks) aren’t compensated less than they have to pay to replace components under warranty. | S |
| Transportation | HB593 | Shell Bill. | J. Blanton |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Transportation | HB594 | Shell Bill. | J. Blanton |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Elections | HB595 | Adds Independent expenditure committee to receive unlimited contributions for the purpose of supporting or opposing a candidate or slate. Treasurer of a committee doesn’t have to be a KY voter if the chair is. Limits on a committee doesn’t apply to a PAC. | DJ Johnson |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Lots of bad stuff in this bill. A member of the GA may utilize funds from a campaign to pay for fees incurred from legal services while defending a matter rising from their campaign, election or performance of their official duties. Able to raise ticket price for campaign events from $200 to $2000. Removes the requirement that a committee not authorized by a candidate shall not include the candidate’s name and is required to file reports. Terrible bill. | S / L |
| Govt Regs | HB596 | Estab reqs for a city to annex county land. Must provide written notice and make interlocal agreement on shared occupational or insurance tax. Annexation can be defeated by a petition of 51 percent of the voters and landowners of the area. | J. Dixon |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Very detailed bill to protect the rights of the county and the landowners. L: It’s a good bill and clearly a lot of work went into it. I’d prefer that the petition requirement in Section 1(2) be left at 50% rather than 51% (or 50%+1). It seems like a minor difference, but often annexing land can affect only a handful of people (say 10 property owners of large farms; 5/10 vs 6/10). If half of the people actively don’t want to be annexed (and want to maintain the status quo) and are able to get all of them in a matter of tens of days to sign a petition against it, that should be sufficient, no? Why do you have to have an outright majority in opposition just to NOT to be swallowed up by a city? |
S |
| Govt Regs | HB597 | Prohibits the sale or distribution of cultivated meat in KY. | C. Massaroni |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Cultivated meat is that which is produced from cultured animal cells. Protect our farmers. L: This needs a committee hearing to expose everyone to the science here. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB598 | Makes Rape, Sodomy, and Sexual Abuse of a person 12 or under a capital offense, and increases other penalties with serious physical injury. | C. Massaroni |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | This violates the principle of proportionality, the punishment should fit the severity of the crime… whereas the Gov’t can be as harsh as “an eye for an eye”, it cannot be “a head for an eye”. Keep in mind, all of these crimes are at least 5-10 years in prison and most are 10-20, or 20-50 years in prison. Is sexual assault on a person under 12 are horrendous crime? Absolutely. Is it equivalent to killing someone? No. A decade or more of hard time in prison as a child sex offender is a proportionate horrendous penalty.Amendment: Limit this only to bumping Sexual Abuse of a person 12 or under to a Class C felony. |
L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB599 | Creates two degrees of felony offense for possession of a destructive device or booby trap device. | E. Callaway |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | One for possession and a more serious offense for utilization. | S |
| Elections | HB600 | AN ACT relating to elections. | R. Palumbo |
| Taxes & Spending | HB601 | AN ACT relating to an eligible caregiver tax credit. | A. Camuel |
| Taxes & Spending | HB602 | Authorizes payment to entities that have provided services to the state, audited but funds not appropriated to pay. | S. Riley |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
No problem with this. State needs to honor its commitment. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB603 | Changes the fee for Personal ID cards. | S. Stalker |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Since illegal immigration is a hot topic for voter ID and Democrat is proposing it, and the Bill does not clearly state what the purpose is for it, I would OPPOSE this BIll. | D G |
| Courts & Crimes | HB604 | Shell Bill. | D. Elliott |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Education | HB605 | Allows KY Dep of Ed to enter into an agreement with building and construction trades to develop professional training credit for counselors and teachers. | T. Truett |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Good bill. I might suggest you change from grades 7-12 to 9-12. Let kids be kids rather than worrying about jobs before high school. |
S |
| Transportation | HB606 | Shell Bill. | K. Upchurch |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB607 | Reqs utilities to furnish reliable and affordable utility service. | J. Gooch Jr. |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Could be a shell bill. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB608 | Shell Bill. | W. Thomas |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB609 | Shell Bill. | W. Thomas |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB610 | Shell Bill. | W. Thomas |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Education | HB611 | Reqs truant officer to file a complaint with the county attorney against a parent who has allowed a child in kindergarten to grade 5 to be absent without excuse for 15 days or more. | J. Bauman |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Probably good in most instances. KY (and JCPS in particular) has INSANELY high truancy rates. | S |
| Education | HB612 | Prohibits use of the three cueing system of reading education in public schools. Prohibits postsecondary education training programs from instructing on the three cueing system. | J. Tipton |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
Promotes the use of phonic system of instruction. L: I think the science is pretty clear that Phonics works. |
S |
| Govt Regs | HB613 | Shell Bill. | R. Bridges |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB614 | Shell Bill. | R. Bridges |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB615 | Shell Bill. | R. Bridges |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB616 | Shell Bill. | D. Elliott |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB617 | Estab the KY Youth Mobile Crisis Response Program within Cabinet for Health and Human Services to provide crises intervention for addiction, mental health mediation or suicide prevention. | K. Moser |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Another board created. “Providing culturally and linguistically appropriate equity driven services. ” What does equity have to do with this? “Create a credentialing process and criteria for qualified crisis responders who are not otherwise licensed or credentialed as mental health professionals. ” ??? | S |
| Health | HB618 | Set reqs for testing for STDs rather than just HIV. Person convicted of procuring another to commit prostitution is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor if they knew they had a STD. | D. Bentley |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Knocks what was a Class D felony for procurement with HIV to a Class A misdemeanor, and establishes that standard for any sexually transmitted disease. L: Overall, this is a really good bill. Knowingly spreading any sexually transmitted disease should be criminal. I’m not sure that the penalty should be the same for any disease though. Amendment: Keep HIV (and MAYBE Herpes and HPV) as Felony convictions. Other STDs are easily curable, and inexpensively. HIV is not only deadly in most cases still, the treatment protocols are hundreds of thousands of dollars over the rest of a lifetime and puts everyone in your life (incl. children you might have) at risk. That SHOULD be a Felony. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB619 | Allow the aggregate of terms to exceed the longest term for someone convicted of a felony who is convicted of another while on parole or while awaiting trial for another felony offense. | N. Wilson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Cannot add on while awaiting trial for another offense. L: This is a bit confusing, but it allows for a sentence to exceed the maximum if it is a consecutive sentence for events that occur when a person is out on bail or bond. |
S |
| Transportation | HB620 | Prohibits use of cellphone, or other electronic communication device, etc while driving and at a stop sign,etc. | M. Pollock |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Seriously? At a red light? OVERREACH! | D G |
| Govt Regs | HB621 | Add the North American Championship Rodeo and the National Farm Machinery Show’s Championship Tractor Pull to the list of shows owned and operated by the State Fair Board. | R. Heath |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
No problem with this. | S |
| Elections | HB622 | Reqs Governor to sign a proclamation for an election to fill a vacancy in the office of United States Senator. Repeal statute requiring governor to fill vacancy. | S. Rudy |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed House |
I would suggest you add a time frame in which the Governor will have to call for an election. Otherwise, he can drag the process out indefinitely. L: This is a high priority for obvious…… reasons. Many people, including myself, worry that the “select from this poll of 3 candidates” approach won’t hold up in court, Beshear obviously doesn’t think it will. This is a better approach anyway. What IS the time frame within which a special election has to happen/be scheduled? |
S / L |
| HB623 | Shell Bill. | R. Heath | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB624 | Shell Bill. | R. Heath | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB625 | Changes rape, or sodomy in the first degree to a Class A felony | K. Banta |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | As KRS 510.040 is written, rape or sodomy in the first degree are not Class A felonies unless the victim was under 12 years of age or seriouly injured in the act. Without those conditions it is considered a Class B felony. This amendment makes rape or sodomy in the first degree, regardless of age or injury, a Class A felony. I support it. L: I personally think the current Class B with a Class A escalator in especially heinous situations is about right, but I can see the other side. This needs discussion in committee and public input. |
D / L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB626 | Estab penalties for disruption or impeding the legislative process of the GA. | J. Blanton |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
The language of this is too broad and general. The people have a right to assemble and petition their grievances. Sometimes it will be uncomfortable. I could see this being used arbitrarily to silence criticism. Keep in mind, this is in the context of J6, where some people were unquestionably violent and deserve jailtime (keeping the legislature from working should indeed be a crime of some sort), but the majority of even those convicted for years were non-violent and not even actually disruptive of any proceeding (peacefully walking through the capitol that was arbitarily closed to silence dissent, and which even a year earlier was perfectly acceptable). L: Political speech is prototypical 1st Amendment speech, but there is no doubt, people can’t be allowed to keep the legislature from working. I understand the motivation here, but it IS overly broad (“disorderly or disruptive conduct”, ascribing “intent” and establishing “knowingly” is always iffy). “Enters into or remains inside, conspires to enter into or remain inside, or facilitates another person entering into or remaining inside a chamber or GALLERY of the General Assembly, or ANOTHER ROOM INSIDE A LEGISLATIVE BUILDING that is set aside or designated for the use of the members of the General Assembly.” This should have a non-confrontational committee hearing to hear feedback and refine the language here. Amendment: I think the sponsor’s intent is good. Just limit it to being in the gallery or on the chamber floor after being ordered to leave, or engaging in activity that it intended to disrupt the ability of the legislature to function as determined by a court of law. If it needs to be expanded, expant it at that time. Going slow here is the best approach on something so 1st Amendment sensitive. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB627 | Waive sovereign immunity of the Dep of Fish and Wildlife and give liability when the operation of commission managed land results in damage to adjacent landowner’s property. | S. Miles |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB628 | Reqs Public Service Commission to issue final orders within 6 months of the filing of an application to be a utility. A contracted professional shall make all findings open for public inspection. | W. Williams |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good requirement but not a high priority. | S |
| Business Regs | HB629 | AN ACT relating to utility service disconnection reports by retail electric suppliers. | L. Willner |
| Education | HB630 | Allows Western KY University to offer up to 5 Research Doctorate programs | M. Meredith |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Doctorate Degree programs, usually terminal degrees, are offered in the 6 comprehensive universities in the Commonwealth only at the NKU Chase Law School, or in medicine via remote programs at UK. This bill allows up to 5 Research Doctorates, approved by the CPE, to be offered at Western Kentucky University. I think the intent is to broaden the expertise in areas of concern to the state as a whole. I see no reason this isn’t a good thing, provided funding isn’t watered down on the R1 research university doctorate programs. L: This is part of a slew of similar bills hoping to bring a Med School to EKU, and a Vet School to Murray State, as well as perhaps allow any comprehensive university to start petitioning the CPE to start adding doctoral programs. This particular one has the most justification of any of them. Western is clearly the 3rd biggest university in the state and the area is booming in population growth. Setting them on a course to become an R2 research university makes some sense. |
D / L |
| HB631 | Shell Bill. | D. Graham | |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Be on the lookout. | D G |
| Govt Regs | HB632 | AN ACT relating to state government. | D. Graham |
| Govt Regs | HB633 | AN ACT relating to birth certificates. | R. Palumbo |
| Govt Regs | HB634 | A family member of a deceased person may have the deceased person’s name changed if the name is the result of a marriage to a person arrested or charged with committing an offense which resulted in the death. | R. Palumbo |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Hopefully this will not be needed, but if it is I suggest striking out arrested or charged and replacing with convicted. Sometimes people are falsely accused. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB635 | Req actuary for the state retirement system to clearly note and describe new methodology of analysis. Reqs commissioners of the Dep of Insurance and Dep of Corrections to include detailed fiscal impact statements. | D. Meade |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Reasonable requirements. | S |
| HB636 | Replaces “executive director” with “commissioner.” | M. Meredith | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Possible shell bill. | S |
| HB637 | Shell Bill. | M. Meredith | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB638 | Shell Bill. | M. Meredith | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB639 | Shell Bill. | M. Meredith | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB640 | Shell Bill. | D. Osborne | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB641 | Shell Bill. | D. Osborne |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB642 | Require health benefit plans to cover coronary calcium image testing. | S. Witten |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Another tool for a physician to use for preventative measures. | S |
| HB643 | Ensure that home and community based waiver programs include attendant care and unskilled in-home care services and that adult day health and home health care providers include skilled nursing visits. | D. Frazier Gordon | |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Reasonable requirements. | S |
| Education | HB644 | Shell Bill. | B. McCool |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB645 | Makes changes to near death scope of treatment form. | R. Raymer |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Clarifies different levels of treatment patients can request and who can make decisions. | S |
| Business Regs | HB646 | Shell Bill. | M. Lockett |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | The technical changes don’t actually improve the law. Be on the lookout. |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB647 | Adjust date from July 1, 2024 to July 1, 2026 for public-private partnerships for capital projects greater than $25 million | R. Heath |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | No problem with this. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB648 | Shell Bill. | D. Meade |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB649 | Establish the crime of sexual extortion as a felony. Require superintendents to notify students in grade 6 and above and their parents of the crime. Requires secondary and postsecondary schools to display pertaining to sexual extortion crime and victim helpline numbers. | S. Baker |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement. | S |
| Education | HB650 | Permit Bible literacy courses to students in grades 7 and above. Permit it to count as a language arts course. | D. Hale |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Currently offered for grades 9 and above and credited as a social studies credit. Good bill, not sure it is a high priority though given that it is permitted in high school already. |
S |
| Business Regs | HB651 | Create a commercial dog breeder license, establish fees and penalties. | DJ Johnson |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Yet another license. | S |
| Education | HB652 | Prohibits public schools and postsecondary institutions in the state from complying with any Title IX mandate from the U.S. Department of Education that equates gender identity with biological sex. | J. Calloway |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Great bill. L: Almost everyone agrees with Title 9, very few think it is fair to apply it to boys in dresses. |
S / L |
| Health | HB653 | The cabinet for Health and Family Services shall provide non-emergency transportation for Medicaid eligible patients, including trips to pharmacy. | C. Aull |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Government overreach. Not sure how badly this will be abused. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB654 | AN ACT relating to courts. | D. Elliott |
| HB655 | Shell Bill. | J. Gooch Jr. | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB656 | Removes outdated reporting requirements for the Energy and Environmental Cabinet relating to the Water Pollution Control Act. | J. Gooch Jr. |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No problem with this. Could be a shell bill though. | S |
| HB657 | Require owner of land comprising a subdivision, in a county without a planning and zoning commission, to record a plat of the subdivision with the county clerk. | R. Bridges | |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Will protect the purchaser of a plat. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB658 | Shell bill | D. Lewis |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Shell bill. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB659 | Technical change. | J. Bray |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No issue with this. Trivial impact. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB660 | Shell bill. | J. Bray |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Shell bill. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB661 | Exempts from pension spiking prohibitions incr in rates of pay that are authorized or funded for a class of employee by an employer, or mandated by a collective bargaining agreement. | J. Blanton |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Good requirement. If your employer gives everyone in your class of employee a pay raise, or if your union negotiates raises, that should be reasonably factored into your retirement benefits.Amendment: This should not apply to people who are in an employee class of less than 4. As is, this could be a way to give a CEO/Superintendent or a small group of leaders a pass on pension spiking provisions, by defining them into their own pay class. |
S / L |
| Education | HB662 | Shell Bill. | S. Miles |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB663 | Shell Bill. | S. Miles |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB664 | Allows money in the KY Aviation Economic Development Fund to be used for programs supporting aviation education and workforce development. | K. Fleming |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Not what it was established to do. More expenditure of tax payer money. | S |
| HB665 | AN ACT relating to the Office of Safer Communities, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring an emergency. | K. Herron | |
| Courts & Crimes | HB666 | Shell Bill. | D. Elliott |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB667 | Creates a KY work opportunity tax credit contingent on the federal work opportunity tax credit. | J. Branscum |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | I would be able to accept if it was just for the veterans, but there are too many other classes eligible. | S |
| Business Regs | HB668 | Shell Bill. | J. Branscum |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB669 | Shell Bill. | J. Branscum | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB670 | Shell Bill. | J. Branscum |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB671 | Shell Bill. | J. Branscum |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB672 | For child care services: defines “contract substitute staff member” and establish licensure exemptions. Removes exemptions for instructional programs for school aged students. Develops standards and training related to quality based graduated early childhood rating system. | DJ Johnson | |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Nothing too bad in this. | S |
| Business Regs | HB673 | Prohibits a planned community from preventing a homeowner from displaying any American or state flag on a pole on private property. | J. Bauman |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Can’t believe we need a statute for this. L: Agreed, I wouldn’t rate it a high priority but it’s common sense. |
S |
| Govt Regs | HB674 | Invalidate Daylight Savings Time, and have permanent standard time, in KY. | S. Doan |
| Oppose | Low (Can wait) | L: I have no idea why this is a priority, or popular. Why DON’T people want the hours of the day aligned with when the sun is actually up? People want kids standing out at bus stops in the dark? I’m not 100% sure that this doesn’t violate federal law, but assuming it doesn’t, it is going to put us at odds with neighboring states which all do observe DST for half of the year. |
S / L |
| Education | HB675 | Provides that training activities for licensed providers of early intervention services for children are offered by various licensure boards. | K. Timoney |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Speech, occupational and physical therapy. Good recommendation. | S |
| Health | HB676 | Shell Bill. | K. Moser |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Technical chance isn’t actually an improvement. Be on the lookout. |
L |
| Health | HB677 | Include medical laboratories in the definition of provider. | K. Moser |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No problem with this. Same as SB219. | S |
| Health | HB678 | Shell Bill. | K. Moser |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB679 | Shell Bill. | K. Moser |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB680 | Shell Bill. | K. Moser |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB681 | Establishes a $2000 tax credit for a teacher’s educator expenses. | C. Massaroni |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Help support our teachers. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB682 | Implements the IAN Alert system, enabling law enforcement to use all existing alert mechanisms to locate missing children with intellectual disabilities or mental illness. | C. Massaroni |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Purportedly all of the infrastructure is already in place here and it would just be utilizing existing alert systems, there would be only nominal costs. No issue with this. Similar to SB45, though that is for adults. Should see about combining these 2 bills through committee sub. |
L |
| Education | HB683 | Prohibits the instruction of social and emotional learning in public schools. | C. Massaroni |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Just another type of indoctrination in the CRT/ DEI initiative vein. Social Emotional Learning is another way of phrasing: the state will teach children what is an acceptable and unacceptable thought, and way to treat everyone else (hint: not anything unsanctioned by the academie and the political establishment). This is the responsibility of parents. |
S / L |
| Health | HB684 | Shell Bill. | S. Lewis |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Education | HB685 | Shell Bill. | S. Lewis |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB686 | Require members of the KY Authority for Educational Television be confirmed by the Senate. Require the board to be geographically, sexually, politically and racially proportional to the state. No members can have been a member of the executive branch in the previous year. | DJ Johnson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | I like the idea of making the board more diverse politically. Long overdue. Don’t like the idea of Senate confirmation. There is too long a period when the Senate is not in session. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB687 | Requires cities to enter into agreements with the county to subsidize the cost of lodging a prisoner arrested in the city. | R. Dotson |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Merely clarification of existing language. | S |
| Elections | HB688 | Elim the 2 notarized Signatures from party members in a candidate’s district req to run in partisan races in the state. Retroactive to Nov, 2023. | J. Calloway |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Great bill, long overdue. This has long been a senseless requirement that is used to kick people off the ballot for paperwork errors. ANY candidate can find 2 people, even family members, like this in their district within a day; this just trips up people who are under a mistaken assumption that someone else is a member of a party, or who their notary didn’t catch space being filled in the wrong place. Each candidate already files a sworn attestation that they meet all requirements to run for office with a given party. The current law also discriminates, in practice, against people not located near Frankfort, who can rush another signatory to the capitol on filing day when an error is discovered, whereas some places in the state getting to Frankfort can take 4 hours. Amendment: Needs to declare an emergency to assure with no doubt that it applies to the upcoming primary election. There are recent court challenges around the time this was filed that could be affected potentially. |
L |
| HB689 | Shell Bill. | D. Elliott | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB690 | Shell Bill. | A. Bowling |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB691 | Shell Bill. | A. Bowling |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | I don’t think the technical amendment does anything. What other committees are there except of the GA? Be on the lookout. |
L |
| Health | HB692 | Shell Bill. | K. Moser |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB693 | Shell Bill. | D. Elliott |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB694 | Give all public school full-time certified employees except superintendents (eg teachers) $2K, and classified (eg janitors) $1K, bonuses each of the next 2 years. | C. Fugate |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | I don’t THINK leadership in either chamber has a taste for specific raises above the percentage SEEK increases already in the budget. I’m not inherently opposed to this general idea, we just need to address the fact that not all teachers cost the state the same amount, given the different structures for pensions. Why not target raises for teachers in a way that restructures early career teacher pay without affecting mid to late career pay which are on the budget bleeding old pension system? |
L |
| Education | HB695 | Estab the Adaptive Kindergarten Readiness Pilot Project implemented by the KY Dep of Ed. | K. Jackson |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Gives parents below 400 percent of poverty line computer/ tablet and internet service.
Most parents who would sign up for this are already going to be working with their children. It’s ran by the KY Department of Education which is already doing poorly. I don’t trust the companies designing the curriculum. Waste of taxpayer funds. |
S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB696 | AN ACT relating to waiting periods for sales of firearms. | D. Grossberg |
| Health | HB697 | Shell Bill. | R. Duvall |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Business Regs | HB698 | Establishes the right to repair agricultural equipment. | C. Massaroni |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Establishes agreed to reasonable cost for sharing of proprietary data for the repair of equipment. This could also be extended to heavy equipment repairs. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB699 | Allows tax credit for rehabilitation of a certified historic structure to be carried forward for seven years after the rehab is complete. | K. Upchurch |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Would maybe be OK with this if it didn’t apply to a person’s residence. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for remodeling someone’s home. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB700 | Insurers must provide coverage for pregnant women & maternity care. Victim of sexual assault insurance coverage provided by the state. Child care services and college tuition paid for child born of sexual assault. A parent of a child born by sexual assault does not have custody rights if the perpetrator. An adopter of a child born of sexual assault shall have non-recurring adoption expenses paid by the state. | J. Nemes |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Love Them Both Act. Doesn’t clarify if the victim of a sexual assault will have their insurance paid for life. Doesn’t clarify whether the tuition will be paid for any child born of sexual assault or just for Kentucky residents. Would this be offered for any student in any state? L: Great bill, that needs some clean up (see amendments), but if it gets it this is one of the most important bills of the session. Includes a lot of the insurance provisions of HB10, and HB380 (same questions apply here; see commentary). Also, Provides that the state will pick up the insurance costs for woman who is impregnated via sexually assualted (I think only during the pregnancy). Provides that a child produced via sexual assault receive free college tuition (same as foster and adopted kids now). Provide child care assistance program for child up to age 1 for a child in this situation. I support the concept here, but a question that follows throughout: What if the criminal complaint is NOT verified (eg accused is acquited); does making an unfounded accusation get a person free insurance, a child free tuition? Why isn’t the sexual assaulter required to reimburse the state? Amendment: In Section 15, should the forcible adoption provision be applied under a “clear and convincing evidence” standard, like the excellent section 23? In Section 16, shouldn’t the reimbursement of nonrecurring adoption expenses be accessible to ANY adoption? In Section 18, I’d be fine for the child care assistance program being applied through at least age 2 at least. I think this also probably should apply to foster and adoptive kids too. I don’t think I agree with the concept in Section 22 of the child receiving compensation as a crime victim. The mother is, but the child is a blessing and being brought into the world regardless of who your parents are doesn’t make you a victim, or lesser. |
S / L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB701 | Shell Bill. | T. Smith |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB702 | Shell Bill. | D. Osborne |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Transportation | HB703 | Allows the Department of Highways to establish contracts with real estate brokers and appraisers to provide lawful right of way services. | S. McPherson |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Would probably be helpful as long as it has proper oversight. | S |
| Education | HB704 | Shell Bill. | DJ Johnson |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB705 | Shell Bill. | R. Raymer | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB706 | Restricts residual waste in a residual waste facility to be only allowed to be processed in the county in which it is produced. | R. Raymer | |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good requirement. Don’t need to be shipping this waste to other areas. | S |
| Health | HB707 | Shell Bill. | R. Roberts |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB708 | Establish a refundable tax credit for the enrollment fee of taking a firearm safety course. | R. Roberts |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | I actually really like the idea of a Tax credit to enroll in a firearm safety course. Unfortunately, this is going to create a searchable state gov’t record of you likely having a firearm. If there were a way around that, I’d be in. |
L |
| Health | HB709 | AN ACT relating to mental health coverage in connection with pregnancy. | R. Roberts |
| HB710 | Technical change. | K. Fleming | |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | I don’t THINK this changes anything in the law. Double check when the actuarial analysis comes back. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB711 | Adds addl exemptions (to life of mother) to legalize abortions in cases where doctor believes conception by rape, incest; ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion; fatal fetal abnormality… | K. Fleming |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | A more tactfully written version of SB99. See commentary there. No way should any of these bills get discussion this session. | L |
| HB712 | Estab KY Ohio River Regional Recreation Authority. Provide that area development district boards have the power and duty to cooperate with the KORRA. | K. Fleming | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Another board created to try to create economic development in a corridor of the state. No guarantee that the development will come or that those areas will have any increased economic activity. | S |
| Health | HB713 | AN ACT relating to coverage for the treatment of postpartum mood disorders. | R. Roberts |
| Govt Regs | HB714 | Estab def and clarifies reqs for members of the KY River Authority. | R. Dotson |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Not very significant changes. Low priority. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB715 | Removes post-deployment provision relating to eligibility for the military assistance trust fund. Expand KY National Guard Adoption Assistance Program to include former members and allow the adoption of stepchildren to qualify. | S. Dietz |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Good provisions for assisting our Guard members. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB716 | Allows local jurisdictions to issue firearms ordinances. | N. Kulkarni |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Not a chance. Again, local control is NOT a core conservative principle. It’s not ok to infringe #2A anywhere in the US. |
L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB717 | AN ACT relating to peace officers. | N. Kulkarni |
| Courts & Crimes | HB718 | AN ACT relating to pretrial release. | N. Kulkarni |
| Education | HB719 | Allows physically demanding interscholastic athletics to satisfy the P.E. requirement for graduation. | S. Bratcher |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This could free up class time to focus on math or science perhaps. Debatable whether this is high priority, but it’s definitely a silly requirement that we can remove from students’ plate before graduation. |
S |
| Education | HB720 | Establish the Adult Workforce Diploma Pilot Program. Provide payments to providers when students complete specific milestones. | S. Bratcher |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | $1000 paid to providers each time a student receives a GED. This could incentivise the provider to award diplomas even though student wouldn’t otherwise qualify. Not sure how many businesses would participate. Too much expenditure without knowing how much impact it would ultimately have. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB721 | AN ACT relating to child dependency, neglect, and abuse reports. | T. Bojanowski |
| Education | HB722 | Establishes the English learner enhanced support program to bring English learners to proficiency within three years. Established and overseen by the KY Department of Education. | S. Riley |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Unfortunately, this is a growing need in many districts. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB723 | Define eligibility for federal funds to areas impacted by high unemployment or coal-related job loss from mine and power plant closure with a matching state grant. Local universities shall assist local communities in identifying and applying for federal grants. | R. Heath |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Stipulates that state grants will not be made without matching federal funding approval. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB724 | Allows local government bodies to levy any tax not in conflict with the Constitution of KY. | J. Dixon |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | No new taxes. We are taxed enough already. L: My opposition is more that this opens up a complicated web of taxes that will be extremely difficult for citizens, but esp. businesses, to navigate… many of which will be imposed by unelected bureaucratic boards. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB725 | Establishes a framework for law enforcement wiretaps. Clarifies what eavesdropping is. | J. Bauman |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Very detailed bill. I think it is necessary to have uniform parameters for law enforcement / the courts to work under. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB726 | Overhauls banking regs and sets a commissioner over the Dep of Financial Institutions. | M. Meredith |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Long bill with tons of technical changes and new regulations on the banking industry. Amendment: In section 1, no way should we allow the Governor to appoint a newly created commissioner of the Department regulating one of the wealthiest and most powerful industries in this state without requiring a Senate confirmation of such a commissioner. |
L |
| HB727 | Allows school districts to issue general obligation bonds and obtain bank loans. Reqs Dep of Ed approval and competitive bidding. | M. Meredith | |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Clarifies some existing language. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB728 | Shell Bill. | S. Maddox |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB729 | Shell Bill. | S. Maddox |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB730 | AN ACT relating to a property tax installment payment program. | L. Willner |
| Taxes & Spending | HB731 | AN ACT relating to the individual tax rate. | L. Willner |
| Courts & Crimes | HB732 | AN ACT relating to college student criminal history inquiries. | L. Willner |
| Business Regs | HB733 | Shell Bill. | K. King |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB734 | Omnibus bill dealing with family and pregnancy care. | K. Timoney |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | This will need a lot of time in committee to hash all of this out. Huge expenditures in this need to be scaled back or eliminated. This should have been broken down into separate bills. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB735 | AN ACT relating to background checks on the sale or transfer of firearms. | K. Herron |
| HB736 | AN ACT relating to alcoholic beverages. | K. Herron | |
| HB737 | AN ACT relating to alcoholic beverages. | R. Roarx | |
| HB738 | AN ACT relating to hazardous duty retirement for code enforcement personnel of a consolidated local government. | R. Roarx | |
| Courts & Crimes | HB739 | Allows that an employer may petition for an order of protection after an incident of workplace violence. | A. Bowling |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Detailed bill with good requirements. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB740 | Creates the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline fund. Add a specialized license plate and appropriate funds. | A. Bowling |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Important to have this resource for those suffering severe depression. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB741 | Defines terms relating to block chain, allows individuals to use digital assets and self-hosted wallets. Exempts gain or loss transactions less than $200 from income tax. Allow digital asset mining businesses to operate within local ordinances relating to noise pollution. | A. Bowling |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Not sure that the people participating in this want government oversight and regulation of the industry. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB742 | Shell bill. | A. Bowling |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Shell bill. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB743 | Shell Bill. | J. Petrie |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. The Department being referenced here is the Department of Revenue. If there weren’t the potential of using these as shell bills, these 4 bills probably would just be one. |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB744 | Shell Bill. | J. Petrie |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB745 | Shell Bill. | J. Petrie |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB746 | Shell Bill. | J. Petrie |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB747 | Amends the definition of “abused and neglected child” to encompass “educational neglect.” Requires parent to surrender public financial benefits relating to the child when child is removed due to educational neglect. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good way to try and restore some discipline in the school. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB748 | Delete outdated language for the calculation of average daily school attendance. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Strikes out the nonresident student exemption. | S |
| HB749 | Shell Bill. | J. Petrie | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. Unnecessary technical change. |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB750 | Shell Bill. NOW, allows expenditures up to $100K and project expenditures up to $500K without filing certain paperwork. | J. Petrie |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
No real objection, just opposition to the use of shell bills to avoid scrutiny. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB751 | Clarifies the fiscal biennium, rather than calendar. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good clarification. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB752 | Clarifies the financial biennial. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Clarification | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB753 | Clarifies the fiscal biennium, rather than calendar. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good clarification. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB754 | Requires the Transportation Cabinet to provide budgeting assistance to the GA. | J. Petrie |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good requirement. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB755 | AN ACT relating to hate crimes. | D. Grossberg |
| Education | HB756 | Provides 20 days of maternity leave for school employees in addition to all other leave. | D. Grossberg |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | SAME AS SB205 I BELIEVE. This is on top of the 30 days of accumulated sick leave they may take currently. Too much. L: Obviously, mothers should have time off for having a baby. However, teachers already have a generous sick leave program that has been massively exploited with people having 500+ days of accumulated leave to spike their retirement. Not only is this on top of the potentially 30 accumulated sick days that can be used, there are also provisions allowing other employees to donate (banked) sick days to other employees. |
S / L |
| Health | HB757 | AN ACT relating to reproduction. | D. Grossberg |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB758 | AN ACT relating to assault weapons. | D. Grossberg |
| Business Regs | HB759 | AN ACT relating to affordable housing and making an appropriation therefor. | D. Grossberg |
| Health | HB760 | Shell Bill. | D. Grossberg |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB761 | Shell Bill. | M. Koch | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB762 | Reqs the KY Horse Racing Commission to determine the allocation and use of unclaimed pari-mutuel winning tickets. Allocates 10 percent to gambling addiction services, 25 percent to in-need track employees and 65 percent to track facility improvements. | M. Koch | |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Could be a better allotment percent used. L: Generally a good idea, I just assumed the track marked all of these as straight profit. More should go to addition services, less to track improvements, than is proposed here but otherwise this is a good idea. |
S / L |
| HB763 | Shell Bill. | M. Koch | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB764 | Removes hydrocodone from the list of prohibited controlled substances. Adds optometrist and physician’s assistant to list of practitioners. A prescriber or dispenser must have an active account with the electronic monitoring system. | R. Duvall | |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Cannot remove hydrocodone from the prohibited list. It caused the opioid epidemic in this state. OK with adding optometrist to list of practitioners but adding physician assistant is not necessary. | S |
| Business Regs | HB765 | Removes references to moral turpitude and good moral character in relation to state licensing. | B. McCool |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Strikes out “crimes involving moral turpitude shall mean those crimes which have dishonesty as a fundamental and necessary element, including but not limited to crimes involving theft, embezzlement, false swearing, perjury, fraud, or misrepresentation.” Woe to our state and nation when we abandon principles of decency in our society. | S |
| Business Regs | HB766 | Require licensing authorities for health care occupations to collect workforce participation data during the licensure renewal process. | K. Moser |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Lots of red tape but who would benefit from this data? | S |
| Education | HB767 | Reqs school districts to implement social media safety mechanisms in internet access policies. Reqs social media safety policies to be given to all students grades 6-12. | K. Moser |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Parents have the right to opt their children out of the safety policy instruction. | S |
| Health | HB768 | Reqs health benefit plans to provide coverage for the treatment of plagiocephaly (flattened skull of an infant ) and cranial banding. | K. Moser |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement. | S |
| Education | HB769 | Allows alternative teacher certification through a local cooperative training program. Must possess a bachelor’s degree or better or be working towards a degree. | M. Dossett |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | This may be helpful in addressing the teacher shortage. I would suggest that you say that a candidate without a degree will be within a year or two of obtaining one. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB770 | Provides that employer information requests by the Labor Cabinet include a particularized explanation for the request. | M. Dossett |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement. Don’t need to unduly burden employers. | S |
| Business Regs | HB771 | Permit the establishment of spendthrift trusts. Is not governed by any use or rule of law. Imposes a valid restraint on the transfer of interest of the beneficiary. | M. Lockett |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Very detailed bill. No problem with it. | S |
| Business Regs | HB772 | AN ACT relating to contracts. | P. Stevenson |
| Taxes & Spending | HB773 | Incr the environmental remediation fee from $1.75 per ton to $2.00. Allocates half to the county where the waste facility is located and half to the KY Heritage Land Conservation fund. | R. Raymer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Another tax increase. L: I’m more ambivalent/neutral about this. It is a tax increase, but the increase is going to environmental clean-up and the tax is on waste disposal by the ton. At least the tax fits the area of where it is being spent. Seems a reasonable amount as well. |
S / L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB774 | Shell Bill. | S. Witten |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Business Regs | HB775 | Establishes licensure requirements and operational standards for child care centers. | J. Calloway |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement for protection of administrators of child care facilities while defining responsibilities. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB776 | Establish record keeping and process requirements for reports of alleged child dependency, abuse or neglect. | J. Calloway |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Simple changes to clarify how to process a statement from someone reporting dependency, neglect or abuse. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB777 | Expand definition of contract. Establishes policies regarding timely payment. | S. McPherson |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Outlines financial penalties for failure to pay on time. | S |
| Business Regs | HB778 | Reqs the amount held back for improvement of real estate of $500,000 or more be deposited in a separate escrow account, and not waived by contract. | R. Bridges |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Reasonable but not a high priority. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB779 | Update terminology for precinct boundaries from a physical map to a digital file. | R. Bridges |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed House |
Good step to modernize election infrastructure. | S |
| HB780 | Incr the amount of data a professional licensure board has to collect and report for certain health care providers. | D. Frazier Gordon | |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Way too much information for them to collect and report. No requirement for anyone to do anything with the data. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB781 | Shell Bill. | C. Fugate |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB782 | Estab the Public Safety Telecommunicator Work Group. Dispatchers required to complete new training developed by the Group. | S. Lewis | |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Not sure if having three people submit a new training program is wise. Otherwise no problem with this. | S |
| Education | HB783 | Sets timeline for appointment of a search committee for superintendent of the KY School for the Deaf and for the appointment of the superintendent. | D. Elliott |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement. Like that members of the state Board of Education are not eligible. | S |
| Education | HB784 | Provides for a city of 5,000 or greater to petition for an independent school district. Petition filed with greater than 25% of voters would result in a ballot initiative at next general election. If passed, KY BOE will mediate / assist with transition. | J. Tipton |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Very detailed bill. Seems to cover most of the complexities of how to transition. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB785 | AN ACT relating to inheritance tax. | R. Palumbo |
| Govt Regs | HB786 | Fixes an omission of “the Cabinet of” Health and Family Services. | S. Heavrin |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No problem with this. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB787 | Shell Bill. | S. Heavrin |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB788 | Shell Bill. | S. Heavrin |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB789 | Shell Bill. | S. Heavrin |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB790 | Shell Bill. This one doesn’t even make sense. | S. Heavrin |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. Fathers are men. | L |
| Health | HB791 | Moves Stroke Response and Treatment report to GA to September 1st each year. Moves timeline for birth certificate reg from 10 days to 5. Reqs that individuals who file a report be a social worker with at least a year of investigative experience. | S. Heavrin |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | I like the requirement of a year’s investigative experience. The rest is minor adjustments. | S |
| Business Regs | HB792 | AN ACT relating to beauty services. | B. Chester-Burton |
| Business Regs | HB793 | Allows cosmetology exam be conducted in English, Vietnamese, and Spanish. | B. Chester-Burton |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Nope, require some basic English competency in EVERY public facing business. | L |
| Elections | HB794 | AN ACT relating to elections. | B. Chester-Burton |
| Govt Regs | HB795 | AN ACT relating to city meetings. | B. Chester-Burton |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB796 | AN ACT relating to firearms and making an appropriation therefor. | B. Chester-Burton |
| Business Regs | HB797 | AN ACT relating to wages. | B. Chester-Burton |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | HB798 | Adds knives with a blade longer than 3 inches to list of prohibited weapons on school campuses. | N. Wilson |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | I have no issue with the concept here, a kid shouldn’t bring a dangerous knife to school, but… Better way to alter the law here is to define deadly weapon for this chapter in 527.010 as the same as KRS 500.080 in the criminal statute (and refine that statute if necessary), rather than piecemeal additions of this sort. I don’t really think a 3 inch blade is that long, and 1-5 years in prison as a class D felony is VERY stiff. If we are handing out felonies, you really should need to bring it out with at least the threat to use it. |
L |
| Health | HB799 | Allow a student admitted to an inpatient facility to receive home and hospital instruction services effective on the day of admittance. | N. Wilson |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good requirement, but it could be difficult for the administration to provide in a prompt manner. | S |
| Education | HB800 | Reqs Dep of Ed to post public school employee salaries annually on the website. | S. Rawlings |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Other public employees and universities are required to do so, why not K-12 teachers and admins? Amendment: Salaries should be posted both per year AND annualized (given that most public school employees only work ~9 months). Amendment: Isn’t there a central database for all public employees (transparency.ky.gov)? Why not put this info there? |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB801 | Estab reqs for recognition of a Canadian money judgment in this state. Provide for uniformity of interpretation. | P. Flannery |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | This should be a federal issue dealt with by federal courts. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB802 | Estab reqs for recognition of foreign state monetary judgment in this state. Provide for uniformity of interpretation. | P. Flannery |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | This is a federal issue. Should be dealt with by federal courts. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB803 | Estab protection from harm for the public and government when an enacted statute is the subject of a temporary order or judgment. | P. Flannery |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Only the plaintiffs to the case affected by a stay until an appellate court has upheld. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB804 | Estab application for a transfer for a change of venue in specific actions. | P. Flannery |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Very little changed by this. Better to just leave it as it is. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB805 | Allows the general public to attend hearings involving a minor child except when the judge or a member of the proceeding asks otherwise. Lists conditions to be met to close hearings. | P. Flannery |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Prohibits personal identifying information about the minor from being released. Allows audio or video recording of proceedings. | S |
| Business Regs | HB806 | Prohibits discrimination against health care facilities by drug manufacturers if the same drug is offered at the same price in another state. | P. Flannery |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB807 | Reqs entities that own and operate a municipal electric utility establish an oversight board. Prohibits co-mingling of funds between utility and other government functions. Reqs anyone serving on the board to wait one year after serving on a municipal legislative body. | P. Flannery |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | As pertains to comingling of funds, need to specify that the utility may be used to collect other municipal fees such as garbage collection to simplify billing for the city. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB808 | Incr fee paid to guardian ad litem or court appointed counsel from $500 to $600. | P. Flannery |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | $500 is enough. No strong opposition to this, but we are writing bills to boost fees a hundred dollars? | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB809 | Estab Hardin Circuit Court as the court of original jurisdiction of specified contests and recounts. | P. Flannery |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | It would be good to move some of the influence away from the Franklin Circuit Court. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | HB810 | Shell Bill. | P. Flannery |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB811 | Shell Bill. | D. Bentley |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| HB812 | Shell Bill. | D. Bentley | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | HB813 | Allocates funds from the Juul case settlement to the smoking cessation program. | D. Bentley |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Same as SB335. What was changed here? Did they forget to bold and underline it? In any event, this seems like the obvious destination for these funds. |
L |
| Education | HB814 | AN ACT relating to public postsecondary educational institutions. | G. Brown Jr. |
| Taxes & Spending | HB815 | AN ACT relating to the partial distribution of pari-mutuel racing tax receipts to local governments and making an appropriation therefor. | A. Gentry |
| Govt Regs | HB816 | AN ACT relating to responsible gambling. | A. Gentry |
| Education | HB817 | AN ACT relating to elementary literacy and making an appropriation therefor. | P. Stevenson |
| Business Regs | HB818 | Shell Bill. | C. Stevenson |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. Technical changes are trivial. |
L |
| Govt Regs | HB819 | Reqs legislators be allowed to pre-file bills and that they be posted on the LRC website for the upcoming session. | C. Stevenson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | The new system (of working drafts that aren’t even posted on the website), purportedly intended to decrease the amount of bills filed, has been a failure in that mission. I count 1127 bills filed 2 days before the Senate filing deadline. The only result has been a reduction in public transparency. Bills are filed later in the session with less opportunity for the public to engage them and offer feedback as well as other legislators. Putting it in KRS statutes, rather than the house rules allows for fairness with the majority caucus suspending the rules whenever they want for any reason. Amendment: Add that all committee subs and amendments must be posted on the relevant bills webpage (perhaps ALSO in the committee meeting notes). Amendment: Req all committee subs and amendments be posted online at least 24 hours before and vote is held on them (perhaps with the exception of the final 3 weeks of the session). |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | HB820 | Reqs the Administrative Office of the Courts to develop and maintain a statewide database and searchable public website that contains information on state and local fines and fees assessed in criminal cases and civil enforcement action. | J. Decker |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Good intention with this but will create a huge financial burden to the court to record and report all this data. Might be better to just state that it is illegal to impose unreasonable fees or fines and instruct the Auditor to randomly investigate. | S |
| Govt Regs | HB821 | Estab procedures for KY delegation to an Article V convention | J. Decker |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | An Article V convention would be a disaster for the country, destabilizing the constitutional foundation of our entire legal system and putting all our rights at risk. We should not do anything to promote such a project. L: I’m more neutral about the idea, however why do we need to put these things in place (most of which are very reasonable) until we are voting to actually approve of one of these conventions? |
R |
| Govt Regs | HB822 | AN ACT relating to planning and zoning. | R. Roarx |
| Govt Regs | HB823 | AN ACT relating to the Kentucky Prescription Drug Affordability Board and making an appropriation therefor. | S. Stalker |
| Courts & Crimes | HB824 | AN ACT relating to employer requirements for victims of domestic abuse. | S. Stalker |
| Education | HB825 | Reqs the Auditor to conduct a full fiscal controls and operational performance audit of the KY Dep of Ed and provide a report to the Interim Joint Committee on Ed. | J. Tipton |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Good requirement. Would like to see you strike out the diversity, equity, and inclusion department from the Department of Education outright, I don’t care how much it costs, it should be gone, but I guess that would have to be done in a different bill. | S |
| Education | HB826 | Reqs schools to protect Jewish student who face credible threats and to defund and remove any student organization that “materially supports” a US designated foreign terrorist organization. | S. Sharp |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Very similar to SB 315, though it fails to define antisemitism, and has less extensive inclusions for schools, affiliated orgs, etc. There is the core of a really good bill here. The one thing this bill has that SB315 doesn’t have is Section (2)(2)(b) which prohibits any state funding for schools / universities that don’t protect their Jewish students from credible threats or which allow student orgs to “materially support” designated foreign terrorist organizations. Amendment: The core problem with this bill is, why is it singling out Jewish students? Why doesn’t ANY student deserve protection from credible threats, and why doesn’t any designated terrorist organization deserve opposition? Why are we codifying special religious or ethnic group protections into law? Amendment: I worry that “materially support” will be used to curtail 1st Amendment protected speech. |
L |
| Elections | HB827 | Shell Bill. | D. Meade |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Education | HB828 | Certify teachers for 5 years who complete a prep program and pass the req’d assessment. Removes internship req. Creates a teacher induction and mentor program. | K. Timoney |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Not real fond of the reporting requirements, but really like the mentoring program. Could really help new teachers. | S |
| Business Regs | HB829 | Updates basic regs for the use of medicinal cannabis, not prescribing if contraindicated, etc. | J. Nemes |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
All of these regulations seem reasonable. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB830 | Shell Bill. | D. Meade |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB831 | Bans public schools from using funds to advocate for or against any ballot initiative, directly or indirectly. | S. Baker |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | There’s a fine line between suppressing protected political speech and unconstitutionally compelling speech by using money to finance political speech that the “donors” don’t agree with. SCOTUS has drawn that line since Janus, and I think this is on the right side of it. I have no interest in infringing 1st Amendment rights, but entities that receive public money (the largest of which are the schools) should not be, in effect, using taxpayer money to advocate against taxpayer interests. Nothing here prevents a public school employee engaging in political speech on their own time and dime. This strikes me as the most likely of the public lobbying bans (all of which are good) to pass this cycle. I do worry that the school district portion will get struck down because it isn’t more broadly applied. |
L |
| Courts & Crimes | HB832 | Shell Bill. | D. Meade |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | HB833 | Allow sheriffs to appoint up to two individuals at certain vehicle dealerships to complete inspections. Creates an electronic vehicle inspection form. Increases fees. | D. Meade |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed House |
Fee increases are rather steep. $5.00 to $30 and $10 to $50. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB834 | For state employees, allow that the mileage reimbursement rate shall be equivalent to the IRS standard for business. | K. Banta |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Reasonable. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | HB835 | Incl pipes, pipelines, mains and conduit in the def of “real property.” | K. Banta |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Not sure why this would be necessary. | S |
| Elections | HB836 | AN ACT relating to elections. | J. Raymond |
| Education | HB837 | Allow property owned or leased by a school district to be used to house employees. | K. Banta |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Terrible idea. If a district has excess property, they should sell it and not lease property they have no use for. What is next, provide restaurants and stores for the teachers to shop at? | S |
| Health | HB838 | Specify that referral of complaints from the KY Abortion-Inducing Drug Certification Program complaint portal be made to the Office of the AG or any other state department. | N. Tate |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | SB1 | Sets up an endowed fund to support 5 multi-university research consortium funds in the state. | R. Stivers |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Reqs that the research consortium / group be multi-university and managed by the Council on Postsecondary Education. I very much like the idea and share the sponsor’s vision for this driving innovation and growth in the state. I think the KentuckyCYBER program (hopefully using our influential legislators in Washington to loop in Fort Knox and Fort Campbell federally for cyber-defense research money, or an NSA satellite campus) to tie together UL and Murray makes a lot of sense for this application… also an agricultural research consortium with Kentucky and Kentucky State (eg their PawPaw research program, and UK’s ag research farm and co-op extension offices) involved (probably Murray and Morehead too) also makes a lot of sense. I don’t love the CPE running it given their liberal proclivities, though I get the organizational fit and that isn’t a deal-breaker. (I’d feel a lot better if CPE and KYBOE both became partisan elected boards (eg SB8).) Amendment: (1) Should mandate that at least one of University of Louisville or the University of Kentucky be part of each consortium as elevating each of those universities to world-class status would pay enormous dividends down the road and they have the administrative resources to play lead on coordinating grant writing and distribution of labor. (2) A set portion of the endowed fund should be available for grant writing, but the bulk of the endowed fund should be structured so as to be available solely as matching grants (to incentivize seeking outside funds and to encourage outside investment by committing already allocated matching state funds). The state would match Federal or private money dollar for dollar (or perhaps 1 to 2 dollars) up to some point. |
L |
| Education | SB2 | Allows the employment of retired law enforcement or honorably discharged veterans to serves as school “guardians”. Adds reqs, including plans, for trauma-informed teams at each school. | M. Wise |
| Only If Amended | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Parts of this bill are very good. Guardians include: honorably discharged veterans, retired Kentucky state troopers, retired special and sworn law enforcement officers, and former federal law enforcement officers. I believe Texas, among some other states, implemented something like this. As long as the retired law enforcement or honorably discharged persons are properly trained, have no history if inappropriate violence, and are otherwise fully screened for mental issues (most of which is specified here)… great. Below is slightly overstating the case, but closer to the reality of the situation: A better approach on the “trauma-informed” approaches and teams is found in SB93 which strikes through all of this nonsense and ends this mechanism by which left-wing activism infiltrates the schools via mental health providers. Should schools have a person capable of counseling abused and neglected children or those who have experienced traumatic situations like death of someone they know? Yes. Is that what trauma-informed approaches mean in practice? No, it is too often “counseling” kids about how evil it is that their parents aren’t validating the child’s typically insane & stupid life choices. Amendment: Replace every section here on trauma-informed approaches that overlaps with SB93 with SB93’s striking-through approach. |
L |
| Agriculture | SB3 | Puts Dep. of Fish and Wildlife under the Dep. of Ag. Allows Ag Commish to appoint board members. | J. Howell |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | ||
| Education | SB4 | Limits the number of future sick days accrued by teachers to no more than 10 annually (300 total). Reqs the Teacher Retirement System to report on the balance of days annually. | J. Higdon |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Teachers can only accumulate 10 days per year, and 300 days total before retirement, in sick leave. Good minimum requirement but not a high priority because it isn’t remotely aggressive enough. At it is, this doesn’t accomplish a lot, but will probably pass because it doesn’t hurt anyone’s feelings (I’d chalk that up as “weak” legislating). The fiscal impact statement is VERY underwhelming.
Our pension systems are going bankrupt and are only being saved by dumping a billion dollars per year into them to hopefully get them solvent in the distant future (still, they are only 22-24% solvent). Drastic change needs to happen, and mostly it needs to happen to the benefits for grandfathered in employees on the old system who began working prior to 2014. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB5 | Removes req to have more than 5 acres to hunt or fish on your own land w/o license. | G. Williams |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Signed by Gov |
Fixes law change from SB241 last session. This should also declare an emergency. HB106 is a slightly better implementation of this idea, separating hunting and fishing and allowing land owner to allow any fishing on his private property without license. |
L |
| Education | SB6 | Bans any req that a collection of discriminatory CRT/DEI concepts be affirmed for employment, admission, or promotion in KY public higher ed. | M. Wilson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Both |
Overall, a strong bill (though see HB9 for a more comprehensive approach; dealing also with the CPE and Boards of Regents/Trustees). The list of CRT “divisive” concepts is very good. No major issue with the 1st half of the bill or the prohibitions on reqs to ascent to divisive concepts. This really needs to be merged with the Decker DEI bill (HB9) in the house, which is stronger in the back half on topics beyond hiring, firing, and statement, and more generally on enforcement (it bans DEI administrators, doesn’t try to reinterpret what they do, section 1(4)). In an ideal word it would also be merged with HB224 to make sure constitutional liberties are clearly protected even as we bring sanity back to campus. Amendments: “diversity initiatives” is used in subsection (4) without defining it, but even more, doesn’t ban the employment of people whose primary role is promotion of them. Personnel IS policy, JUST BAN THEM (as HB9 does). At the very least remove funding from the university in the exact amount of their salaries. I agree that promoting intellectual diversity is a prized means to an end of a university, but “diversity initiative” employees are not actually there to do that, regardless of how they spin it. Dol: BAN CRT and DEI, Teach our students real world needs, finances, etc. Schools are teaching kids division by race, the general public is not. It is way past time to stop funding schools if they keep teaching/pushing that agenda. |
L |
| Education | SB7 | Allows students in non-certified schools to receive KEES money. | M. Wilson |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Expands the Kentucky educational excellence scholarship program to students who didn’t graduate from a public school in Kentucky (eg homeschoolers and other non-certified private schools), and sets parameters for that. The idea is that since “GPA” isn’t really a reliable way to evaluate these students, use performance on standardized tests (eg ACT) as an indicator of how good of a student they were/are/will be. Same as HB46. Also same as SB24 from last session, which passed the Senate. It’s time to finally pass this. |
R |
| Education | SB8 | Reqs KY BOE positions to be filled by a partisan vote of the public rather than by appointment by the Governor. | M. Wilson |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Solid answer to the problem of the Governor filling this powerful board with ideologues. I’m not so certain that these low paying administrative board positions would be met with a ton of people that would want to run, however. Amendments: (1) Not 100% on excluding recent local school board members from running, but not strongly opposed. (2) Should at least bump compensation up on this most important board, responsible for regulations on over half of the state budget, up to the same as the legislature ($203; with or without per diem) given the added hassle of having to campaign over a HUGE district. (3) Need to find a way to divide these districts up so they aren’t so huge (maybe 13 seats=>3 Contiguous State Senate districts each). (4) If we are doing this, why don’t we add the CPE board in this process as well? These are arguably the 2 most important boards in the state, and the CPE suffers from the same issues we are trying to fix on the KYBOE. |
L |
| Elections | SB10 | Moves the election of our state officers (Governor, AG, Secretary of State, Auditor and Commissioner of Agriculture) to even years following 2027 election. | C. McDaniel |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) *Passed Senate |
This would not only save the state and local government money, but would also provide relief from the constant cycle of elections. Three every four years is too much. L: I’m of the opposite opinion here, I think we should move to 4 out of 4 years. “Election fatigue” is BS – You show up 1 or 2 days per year for 15 minutes, maybe someone knocks on your door once, and you get a few mailers… that fatigues you? After 150 years, people are suddenly fatiguing? Changing this bc Repubs only control every substantial electoral office in the state except one is silly, win the race. We have county clerks for a reason and the main one is running elections. If it costs a bit of extra money, the government is supposed to spend some money on its fundamental constitutional functions (like voting)… and we just added 3 more days of in person early voting with minimal complaint about cost. If some elderly retirees make an extra $300 for a few days doing their civic duty, so be it. Amendments: Various non-partisan races, eg Judicial, local non-partisan and school board… should be moved to 2025, and partisan state races (incl KYBOE?) should be moved to the Gov race year. This fixes the worry of people missing the non-partisan races when voting straight-ticket and establishes an every year voting habit with a lot of races on every ballot. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB11 | If a county attorney files a public offense petition against a child alleging certain crimes, the court will notify the school superintendent and principal, who will notify the child’s teachers. | J. Schickel |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (bad bill) *Passed Senate |
This could stigmatize a child with their whole school before they have even been given due process. If they are a threat to the school, then the courts should handle that via denying bond, and restraining order. Amendment: This should only happen when the child is adjudicated guilty. |
S |
| Taxes & Spending | SB12 | Provide a refundable tax credit of $1000 for every dep child under 6, for people earning under $50K or couple under $100K. | C. Armstrong |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | I generally support this idea. Amendment: However, the threshold for Individuals should be 1/2 the couples threshold (eg $60K), and I assume the numbers are reversed in 4(c)… should be: reduced by one dollar ($1) for every ten dollars ($10) above the income thresholds. |
L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB13 | Red Flag Law, violating at least the spirit of at least 3 Bill of Rights Amendments (#2, #4, #5). | W. Westerfield |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Please stop bringing this awful legislation back. If a person makes a threat, that is a violation of the law and prosecute them. If they meet the medical definition of being a danger to themself or others, involuntarily institutionalize them. Otherwise, due process and the right to bear arms are constitutional rights, not to be circumvented. STOP TRYING. |
L |
| Business Regs | SB14 | Adds two members to the KY Board of Cosmetology. Reqs Board to give tests in the applicant’s first or second fluent language and to provide and compensate for an interpreter. | R. Thomas |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Why do boards always get bigger, never smaller? No real problem with there being a nail tech. Amendment: I think that we should require citizens and immigrants to learn English (as indicated by the written test being in English), and not have to require others to make exceptions if they don’t. [I believe this has been adopted in the SCS.] Amendment: Just remove the ability of the board to bring criminal action, leave the board composition alone (or specify that one of the existing 5 is a nail tech or esthetician). |
S |
| Business Regs | SB15 | Def numerous consumer rights, and reqs for large companies that collect and sell consumer data (incl legal penalties). | W. Westerfield |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Lots of similarity to HB15, need to make sure the best parts of these to bills make it into law. This bill is expansive, and needs much more study. The topic is highly important, addresses a major need, and clearly gets the law close to where it needs to be, however. SB15 from last session as well. Let this be WW’s big win this session. |
L |
| Business Regs | SB16 | Prohibits the flying of a drone over concentrated animal feeding operations or bulk food processing operations and recording audio or video without the owner’s permission | J. Schickel |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) *Passed Senate |
If these facilities are doing no wrong, they shouldn’t need this protection. Exempts all but large operations. Not good at all. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB17 | Rather than some death cert being init marked by a med pro as “unknown cause” within 5 days, then a supplemental report filed when tests confirm cause, have med pro wait for results to come back to file any report. | M. Deneen |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
It’s probably a good bill, but I’m not sure this is the slam dunk bill that the Senate regarded it as. The current system reqs more paperwork (ie file an initial death certificate on a tight timeline, then file a supplemental report when all of the tests come back and something needs to be changed) than this would req for complex cases, but the current process give a definitive timeline for when the funeral director has to get an (initial) cause of death back from the medical professional and also when the (initial) paperwork would be filed with the state (between 10-15 days after death). This bill would have the medical professional holding on to the paperwork until any inquiry into cause of death is completed (which can sometimes take months in tough cases) before any sort of death certificate gets filed with the state. NOW, If the state registrar doesn’t care about having any initial paperwork within a couple of weeks after death and there isn’t any life insurance, probate court, estate planning, or social security admin death notification benefit to having that initial death notice within a couple of weeks THEN so be it, less paperwork is great if all else is equal. I do hope the House verifies that there aren’t any of those downsides to this new process, as that wasn’t adequately questioned in the senate hearing. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB18 | Reqs school bus supplies and equipment be consistent with federal safety standards & boards shouldn’t discriminate (on anything but price?). Finance Cabinet should track this. | M. Deneen |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
I have no real issue with this; if a product meets safety specs it should be available to purchase. This likely is meant to combat sweetheart deals and kickbacks from equipment suppliers/brands. I can see some limited advantage of sticking with well known brands and/or only a few suppliers, but not enough to overcome the advantages of true price competition and reducing likelihood of corruption via kickbacks. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB19 | Offers a tax credit for motor vehicle taxes paid by active duty military in KY if they had previously paid a similar tax in another state. | M. Deneen |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Reasonable. They shouldn’t have to be taxed twice when changing posts. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB20 | Incr penalties for violent offenders. Provides that anyone over 15 who commits a crime with a gun be tried as an adult. | M. Deneen |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
In favor of increased penalties. L: I’m less enthusiastic about this (though not necessarily opposed). We always need to be careful any time we are altering Criminal Code or dealing with juvenile justice. We can’t fall prey to knee-jerk response to “do something!”. Amendment: WW made some excellent points in committee that more factors than those 3(4)b (including gang involvement) should be considered and ARE considered elsewhere in the law. |
S / L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB21 | Only req disabled persons to file for the Homestead Exemption once, unless their disability status changes. | M. Deneen |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Currently have to reapply annually. Very reasonable. L: I agree that yearly is too often. I do worry that disability status changes enough that a once per decade req makes more sense here. It likely would help eliminate fraud. |
S / L |
| Govt Regs | SB22 | Incr pay for jury duty. | W. Westerfield |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Increases pay for jury duty from $5.00 per day to $125.00 per day. (It costs more than 5 dollars in gas to get to the Court House). Amendment: L: Maybe this should be $100 (can always quibble) on all of these jury bills with $50 or $60 for half day, often jury duty is quite short. NOTE: The biggest problem in our jury system is that juries are used too infrequently… prosecutors overcharge to browbeat (even innocent) defendants into taking a plea and people too often don’t get their day in court. HB176, HB104, SB22 are all similar. |
Dan |
| Taxes & Spending | SB23 | Freezes property value of the primary residence after the owner turns 65. | M. Nemes |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Freezes property value of the primary residence after the owner turns 65 or if someone over 65 buy a new primary residence, it will freeze it after the sale. Best implemented as a simple bill, not amendment: HB112. Amendment: Only for retirees with under $100K yearly income to include social security. The rich keep getting richer and want out of taxes. Amendment: AFTER OWNER turns 65 and ONLY for PRIMARY residence ONLY with the following stipulations: NO property increase for yearly income less than $75K per year; Property value increase 50% for yearly income 75K to $100K per year; Property value increase $25% for yearly income over $100K to 200K. Yearly income over $200K shall have no decrease in propoerty tax. Why? The wealthy keep getting wealthier while those struggling to get by are on the brink of losing their homes. The greed must stop. |
D G |
| Business Regs | SB24 | Reduces number of Medicaid managed care organizations in the state from 6 to 3. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
This would make the insurance risk pools roughly twice the size that they currently are. This number could be 2 or 4 just as easily. The normal rule is that more companies results in more competition, but it isn’t at all clear that more organizations here actually leads to true competition, lower cost, or better service… so fewer provides advantages in terms of insurance risk mitigation and hence price reduction and less risk of default. | L |
| Business Regs | SB25 | Ban municipalities from req landlords to take federal housing assistance vouchers (and fed housing regs that come with them). | S. West |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Similar to half of HB18. I understand that Lexington is proposing to put in an ordinance requiring that landlords take federal housing vouchers which sparked this bill.. UPDATE: It appears that the issue here is that Federal Housing Assistance (at least the type called Section 8) comes with significant strings attached which many landlords don’t want to follow: https://benefits.com/section-8/rules-regulations/ Amendment: it just seems that this law is more sweeping than necessary for achieving this purpose and could be better tailored to state that: landlords can turn down Federal Housing Assistance programs entirely for a property based upon the regulations that they impose (and hence turn down a tenant on that basis), but otherwise jurisdictions can ban discrimination based upon source of income if they choose. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB26 | This creates a new section in KRS for a Medicaid oversight board | S. Meredith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | This bill provides for members from the House and Senate to act as an advisory and oversight board for Medicaid issues. It is a very short bill and does not define what the board should or can do. It merely establishes the board. I assume legislation would follow to establish the scope of authority and involvement in Medicaid issues. | M |
| Business Regs | SB27 | Prevent Health Care facilities from charging an excessive price for medicine. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
A manufacturer shall not discriminate, or cause others to discriminate, against a 340B covered entity by refusing or withholding 340B pricing for a covered drug if the manufacturer offers the same drug at a 340B price in any other state. The attorney general will investigate if a person files a complaint. This is a good bill attempting to keep prices competitive. | M |
| Business Regs | SB28 | Sets a post-grad (2-year) residency req to practice podiatry with a full license in KY. Gives board ability to suspend any license for any violation of a reg. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
(Committee Sub version) Note: As with most industries, the people currently practicing don’t mind raising the barriers for new competition entering the field. That in itself is no reason to support this. Residency seems to be standard practice in most fields of medicine, however. |
L |
| Business Regs | SB29 | Permit an insured the right to choose a repair shop to replace auto glass and not be told by the insurance company what shop will do the repair. | B. Storm |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
This amendment uses a lot of words to describe what would be in violation of this act. The main point of this amendment is to allow the person who is insured to choose a shop to replace the auto glass and any driver assistance features that are incorporated in the glass. Many of the newer cars have complicated driver assistance features incorporated in the auto glass and the original bill does not address the requirement for insurance companies to pay for the repair or replacement of the driver assistant features and this amendment does require the insurance companies to cover those costs. | M |
| Transportation | SB31 | Details a litany of changes to insurance reporting when registering a vehicle and enhanced penalties for failure to comply. | J. Turner |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Don’t have much of a problem with this except that I don’t feel that personal vehicles not used in commerce should have to be registered. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB32 | Creates a limit for Marijuana concentration by blood test and creates an assumption that person is not under the influence if less than 4. | J. Turner |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | I suppose that is a legitimate number. | S |
| Transportation | SB33 | Reqs that operators license, registration and proof of insurance be provided at a traffic stop and license plate to be illuminated. Penalties for noncompliance. | J. Turner |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Travel (freedom of movement) is a right, not a privilege, therefore an operator license should not be required for an individual not in commerce. | S |
| Health | SB34 | Expands social welfare programs, housing, SNAP, etc. | W. Westerfield |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | We should be rewarding people to get off the government system, not to reward them for staying on government assistance. | D G |
| Taxes & Spending | SB35 | Creates a Trail Town grant fund. Provides grants up to $30K to each town. | M. Deneen |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Unnecessary spending. | S |
| Health | SB36 | AN ACT relating to syringe services programs. | R. Thomas |
| Govt Regs | SB37 | Create new section of the Open Records Act, to req officers, employees, and official custodians of public agencies to complete specified open records training. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Educates officers, employees and official custodians how to properly complete an Open Records Act, KRS 61.870 to 61.884. | B |
| Taxes & Spending | SB38 | Reqs all public schools with females aged 4-12 to provide at least 1 type of free feminine hygiene product free to girls. | D. Harper Angel |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Fine bill, probably limited cost. No changes, it states for females. L: No issue with this passing (low cost), however I might suggest that schools just be required to maintain a supply. Really this cost should fall on parents, but no issue with the school providing it to kids in need or in emergencies. |
D G |
| Elections | SB39 | Bars lobbyists from making campaign contributions through various current loopholes: permanent committees, caucus campaign committees. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Good bill, Anti-corruption and reduces the ease of influence peddling in existing law. Amendment: Should include a prohibition on donations to a party’s building fund. Amendment: Dol: Corporate / companies lobbyist who could affect our health, food and environment should be BANNED from any type of lobbying. Case in point, look at NH HB1700 (2024) our food, health and environment, quality of life is being destroyed by advanced technologies and radio frequencies. These type of lobbyists should not EVER be allowed. |
L / D |
| Taxes & Spending | SB40 | Allocates $0.33 per meal to districts that participate in the fed gov’t community eligibility provision to provide lunches to all kids in higher poverty districts. | C. Armstrong |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Same as HB189, see commentary there. | L |
| Business Regs | SB41 | Unnecessary reg. that defines retail pet shop, breeder, etc. and prohibits sale of retail dogs & cats (rabbits omitted this year). | D. Harper Angel |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Unneeded biz reg; banning the sale of dogs and cats by pet stores (except allowing the marketing for shelter animals). Only good part is the idea of retail pet shops partnering with animal shelters to adopt shelter pets. Very close to SB56 last session; similar but not as targeted as SB157. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB42 | Successively bumps up minimum wage. | R. Thomas |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Minimum wages should be determined by free markets, not by government. They are either so low that they don’t impact the market, or they are too high such that they lead to unemployment. |
D G |
| Courts & Crimes | SB43 | AN ACT relating to motor vehicle theft. | D. Yates |
| Govt Regs | SB44 | AN ACT relating to highway work zones and making an appropriation therefor. | D. Yates |
| Govt Regs | SB45 | Implements the Ashanti Alert system, allows law enforcement to use all alert systems to locate a missing adult. | D. Yates |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Purportedly all of the infrastructure is already in place here and it would just be utilizing existing alert systems, there would be only nominal costs. No issue with this. Should look into incorporating HB682 into this legislation as another alert mechanism. |
L |
| Transportation | SB46 | Allow windshield tint that allows as little as 70 percent light transmission. | G. Elkins |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
No problem with this but it can wait. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB47 | Req a crew of at least two persons during the operation of a train; provide exceptions; amend KRS 277.990 two include penalties for crews of less than 2 persons. | G. Elkins |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | This could help with some of the derailment and safety issues that have been happening. Same as HB33. | B |
| Courts & Crimes | SB48 | Allows for combining multiple (often retail) thefts within 1 year (rather than 90 days) into one offense with combination of total stolen. | D. Yates |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Good provision, allows time for cases to be combined and multiple petty thefts to aggregate into a higher penalty class. This could have a big impact on reining in organized retail theft. | L |
| Business Regs | SB49 | Sanctioning bodies to submit a calendar of events to the Board for all events in which an admission ticket is required. | D. Yates |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Not really high on the list of priorities. | S |
| Business Regs | SB50 | Allows Class B (small) distillers to self-distribute up to 5K gallons of spirits under specific regs. | S. West |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
No real problem with this (probably some quibbling could be done about cutoff thresholds). Not having to go through a distributor may help cut costs and increase profits for some smaller distilleries. (Apparently a similar provision was added for wineries and breweries, last year?) | L |
| Business Regs | SB51 | AN ACT relating to music therapy and making an appropriation therefor. | G. Neal |
| Education | SB52 | AN ACT relating to technology in education and declaring an emergency. | R. Thomas |
| Govt Regs | SB53 | Change the term “ward” to “protected person.” Allow respondent to retain private counsel. Incr pay for court appointed counsel, etc. | R. Thomas |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Incr hourly pay from $60 to $150 seems to be quite a jump. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB54 | AN ACT relating to heirs property and making an appropriation therefor. | R. Thomas |
| Govt Regs | SB55 | AN ACT relating to fishing in privately-owned lakes and ponds. | G. Boswell |
| Support | D G | ||
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB56 | Reqs owner of a gun to store it in a safe or render it inoperable. | G. Neal |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | A gun kept for personal protection cannot be kept in a safe or rendered inoperable. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB57 | Allows KPPA to lease space to move their offices to Louisville metro (from where?). | J. Higdon |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Where do they meet now? Why isn’t this going through the standard processes in the Finance Cabinet? Why is this necessary? Who benefits? Who owns the building? Why in Louisville? |
D G |
| Taxes & Spending | SB58 | Makes protest petitions easier to file, incl widening who can file, lowering number of req signatures, not req committee… for school tax protests. | G. Boswell |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Excellent bill. Makes protest petitions easier to file to protest school board property tax increases in a number of ways, including eliminating some onerous paperwork reqs, allowing any resident to file, lowering number of req signatures, not req committee… | S / D |
| Govt Regs | SB59 | Imposes no fines or collects no penalties for killing, pursuit, or possession of Red-tailed and Cooper hawks. | G. Boswell |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Through a Federal Depredation Permit, the federal government already allows farmers who produce poultry and livestock to kill predatory birds if they have tried non lethal methods to no avail. I believe this bill is not a good bill and do not support it. | D |
| Govt Regs | SB60 | Elim any req for a hunter education course to obtain a hunting or fishing license. | G. Boswell |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Reasonable. If you are getting a hunting license, presumably you already know the basics or are being mentored in doing it. | S |
| Elections | SB61 | Reqs excused in-person absentee voting shall be conducted only 13 days prior to election. Elim no-excuse in person absentee voting. | J. Schickel |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | All for eliminating no excuse in-person absentee voting. Must strike out 13 days of excused in-person absentee voting. Need to get back to election DAY. L: No excuse in-person absentee voting is popular, but I would maintain is unconstitutional. The best way to handle this would be with a constitutional Amendment to hard-coded allowable voting parameters. I have no real issue with in-person EXCUSED absentee ballots as long as it is limited in time span (13 days is reasonable), it’s much more secure than mail-in. |
S / L |
| Business Regs | SB62 | Amend def of a riverboat from one carrying 100 or more passengers to more than 40, to allow alcohol consumption on KY river. | G. Williams |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Not sure how big an impact this might have, but am okay with it. Apparently this should allow smaller tourboats to sell alcohol when using KY waterways, eg the KY River controlled by dams. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB63 | Rename and make permanent the information technology oversight committee. | G. Williams |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Renames the Investments in Information Technology Improvement and Modernization Projects Oversight Board to the Information Technology Oversight Committee, and makes it permanent. | R |
| Elections | SB64 | Def of “contribution” shall not be construed to include news stories, commentary or editorials by a person or group of persons. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Reasonable, but I hope that wouldn’t become an issue. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB65 | Remove 3 deficient regs related to medicaid coverage of dental, vision, and hearing being used to circumvent the legislature. | S. West |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Fine, this was just a backdoor attempt to go around the legislature and add coverage of these 3 things to medicaid. Amendment: I don’t understand why the legislature doesn’t pass something like HB40 last session that automatically makes any regulation substantially similar to any regulation ruled deficient automatically null and void. |
L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB66 | Elim the ability of postsecondary facilities and state & local gov’t to limit concealed carry in gov’t buildings. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Repeals KRS 237.115, Great bill. Hope it gets traction. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | SB67 | Reqs that a guardian ad litem (lawyer) appointed for any minor child receives a reasonable fee. | C. Armstrong |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Must protect the children. This is a reasonable expense to assure adequate representation. | S |
| Business Regs | SB68 | Allows limited and NQ2 licensed businesses to provide wine corkage (BYOB, with fee for drinking on premises). (*Fine, but must assure no NQ2 licenses issued for corkage in dry counties.) | R. Webb |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Creates a new section of KRS Chapter 243 to authorize wine corkage in conjunction with a meal by a limited restaurant or NQ2 retail drink licensee. Establishes conditions to remove a bottle of opened wine from the premises. Amends KRS 242.260 to exempt corkage from dry and moist territory violations. Amends KRS 243.020, 243.034, and 243.084 to conform. Bill is fine, but there MAY still be a loophole wherein a business could get an NQ2 license in a dry county and allow corkage to circumvent dry county laws. RS23 SB44 |
J / L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB69 | Elim req for tax recall petition to put property tax incr 4%+ overcompensating rate on ballot. Incr 4%+ would automatically go on ballot. | G. Boswell |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good requirement. The petition requirement here is needlessly onerous. The 4% cap is there for a reason, this should go on the ballot automatically. | R |
| Courts & Crimes | SB70 | Allows a donor to sue a charitable organization (eg endowment fund) for injunctive relief when it fails to abide by a donor imposed restriction. | P. Wheeler |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Fine with this generally. You gave the money under certain terms, if they don’t follow the terms of the agreement then they should have recourse. Apparently the AG office can enforce this, but if the AG office doesn’t want to go after a powerful charity (or just doesn’t have time) then there is a limited private right of action. Amendment: I’d suggest this only apply to donations of a certain size (say $100K). You give that amount of money, you get legal standing that they have to use it as you specify, a smaller donation and the recipient may reprioritize this gift. |
S / L |
| Health | SB71 | Reqs a dependency treatment center to provide transportation to someone voluntarily leaving their program without arranged transportation. | P. Wheeler |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Reqs transport be provided from treatment facility if participant voluntarily leaves. Also, requires them to notify the court and law enforcement if they violate a court order by leaving. Similar to HB408, but only dealing with transportation. Amendment: Should not require the facility to provide transportation for the individual, only allow resident to arrange for it. |
S / R |
| Courts & Crimes | SB72 | AN ACT relating to driving under the influence of intoxicating hemp products. | D. Yates |
| SB73 | AN ACT relating to marijuana. | D. Yates | |
| Health | SB74 | Adds a STATE child and maternal fatality review team to the local teams. Increases reporting reqs for the Health and Family Services Cabinet. | S. Funke Frommeyer |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) *Passed Senate |
Obviously we are interested in reducing child and maternal fatality, how are either of these measures likely to actually do that (esp. the state team, when we already have local ones). This adds more bureaucracy and reporting requirements, which medical facilities already have ad nauseum. If the bill were just the annual summary report of numbers of procedures and deaths then fine. Amendment: specify how these extra reporting reqs are going to get translated into outcome improvements. |
S |
| Govt Regs | SB75 | Vehicular flow between the State Capitol Building and the Capitol Annex on Capitol Avenue cannot be restricted by the Finance and Administration Cabinet. | J. Schickel |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
This would apply except in the case where emergency responders, law enforcement, fire department personnel, emergency medical staff, or the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet needed to temporarily block traffic to conduct their activities. L: WHY can’t this get heard in the house?! SB11 passed the senate easily last session. |
D |
| Govt Regs | SB76 | Local gov’t shall not adopt or enforce any ordinance relating to landlord or tenant laws that are in conflict with any law of the Commonwealth. | S. West |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Not sure if this is needed but no harm. | S |
| Elections | SB77 | Reqs exact match of voter tallies with ballot cast tallies. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Great bill. Requires non-certification of any race where the discrepancy could sway the result. Dol: SUPPORT should be paper ballots with hand counting ONLY and could be done in one day, like it use to. The system we have now supported by Beshear and Adams should be VOID until the voters decide. | S |
| Elections | SB78 | Reqs all voting machine components, firmware, software, etc be mfg’d in the U.S. by accredited DOD suppliers | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Provision 27. I don’t know if any KY counties use machines containing foreign-made software/firmware/components, but this issue was cited as a major concern by cy-op experts who examined machines in several swing states after the 2020 presidential election. Whether it is economically & logistically feasible to implement this prior to the Nov elections, I don’t know. But if our machines contain non-accredited components, I still consider it a high priority. | J P |
| Elections | SB79 | Revises the procedure for requesting and performing an election recount. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Nice to spell out the procedure properly so we don’t have a repeat of the 2022 fiasco. If a ballot candidate wants a recount of their election for any reason (even just to prove the process is reliable) and is willing to pay for it, they should be able to get it in a timely manner, period. The way to address questions about the election is through MORE transparency, not less. |
S |
| Elections | SB80 | Disallow student or employee ID or debit/credit cards to be used as proof of ID for voting purposes. High Fidelity, Gov’t Issued Photo Voter ID only. | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
MUST have a photo voter ID. Credit and debit cards as a secondary identification is not a good idea, easy to counterfeit and we really need photo ID to make sure it is you. For employee and student (Photo) ID there is no way to confirm how thorough the employer or school was to determine if it is an actual authentic ID (that the person taking the picture is who they say they are, etc.). Falsifying these documents also would be a relatively easy thing to do. Amendment: Not too happy about the “personally known to election worker” loophole here either, nor SNAP/EBT Cards which are Gov’t issued but don’t even have a picture. (Social Security cards are iffy, no picture, but at least most people guard those closely.) |
D / L |
| Education | SB81 | Changes make up of KY Higher Education Assistance Authority and Student Loan Corporation. | M. Wise |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Signed by Gov |
Same as HB221. No real issue with this, it seems to streamline admin of student loan collection programs. |
S |
| Elections | SB82 | Adds provisions necessary to allow for future non-electronic (addl to electronic) voting systems (eg notifying voters not to vote for more persons than allowed, on a paper ballot). | A. Southworth |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Positive change. Gives locatities the ability to choose non-electronic voting systems in the future without violating federal regulations. | L |
| Elections | SB83 | Removes straight party voting option from the general election ballot. | A. Southworth |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Positive: Would help voters to not miss down ballot nonpartisan races and measures. Negative: No way Republicans should give up this advantage after Democrats used it for decades. Amendment: Alternatives, Shift non-partisan races to the “off-year” election so everything on that ballot is non-partisan. Require election workers to tell every voter when they check-in that there are non-partisan races that need to be filled out independently. Move the non-partisan races to the top of the ballot, before the straight-ticket box and partisan races. |
S |
| Elections | SB84 | Strengthens def of a “risk limiting audit” to a real audit and requires it at the close of election. | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Like that if a full recount of the ballots is necessary, it will be billed to the machine vendor. L: There’s a lot to like here, I just think the request is too large to be able to gain legislative support. A less burdensome audit here has a better chance of getting passed, like HB53. |
S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB85 | Allows a jury to enhance the sentence of a repeat felony offender. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Felony must be in same category. L: Interesting idea, would need to be integrated into HB5 to get through this session. |
S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB86 | Sets up a treatment program for violent offenders. | A. Southworth |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Can’t strike out “attempted” from felony sexual offense or strike out “serious physical injury” or death. Serious injury can be life altering. Attempted sexual assault is as bad as sexual assault. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB87 | Repeal KRS 532.055 as it relates to jury sentencing. | A. Southworth |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | Does this remove sentencing by jury in felony cases (presumably leaving that up to the judge)? If so, I can’t back that… Amendment: Perhaps the defendant should be able to choose between sentencing by judge or jury. |
L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB88 | Allows home incarceration option for certain criminals. | A. Southworth |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Don’t think that we should release violent criminals or those convicted of sex crimes. Others I’m OK with. | S |
| Health | SB89 | Reqs Medicaid to pay for midwife services without a cost sharing req. | S. Funke Frommeyer |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Good option for women to have. Similar to HB173. | S |
| Education | SB90 | AN ACT relating to bus safety. | D. Yates |
| Transportation | SB91 | Estab permanent full-time drivers license center in each state senatorial district. | J. Higdon |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Long overdue. Same as HB60. Some would perhaps like to see it returned to every county. L: I think 1 per senate district is probably closer to the right number. |
S / L |
| Education | SB92 | AN ACT relating to the transportation of students and declaring an emergency. | D. Yates |
| Education | SB93 | Removes DEI and trauma informed counseling approach from our K-12 public school system. | S. Meredith |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Great bill. Hope we can get this passed. L: This is really a few bills cobbled together, all of which I like. What this addresses that the other DEI bills this session don’t is the removal from K-12 (the other bills so far have been higher ed) of this “trauma-informed” mental health counseling that got added as a requirement a few years ago. Honestly, that would be best as a stand-alone bill (perhaps combined with efforts to include pastoral counselors as school mental health providers) since other bills are more comprehensive on the DEI portion of the bill. This is a big, important, and controversial enough change on its own. Dol: “Some” counselors have tried to PUSH a child into thinking they would need a sex change. Big PHARMA and some doctors are making a fortune at the children’s expense. NO CHILD under the age of 21 should be making that decision or encouraged down that road. |
S / L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB94 | AN ACT relating to veterans. | D. Yates |
| Health | SB95 | Reqs K-12 public schools make reasonable accommodations for lactating students. | C. Armstrong |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | No real issue with this for lactating mothers. L: As crazy as it seems, this really needs to specify lactating female students with a newborn or infant child. Given all of the hormone experimentation, it isn’t impossible that a lactating male student could exploit this for whatever bizarre reason. Arguably this should apply to public post-secondary institutions as well. |
R |
| Courts & Crimes | SB96 | Expungement for minor crimes (eg. traffic violations misdemeanors) after 5 years | C. Armstrong |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | As long as it is for minor crimes only. | D G |
| Taxes & Spending | SB97 | Elim state sales tax on diapers. | C. Armstrong |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Note: I assume the intent here is to help young families with cost, but as written this would include adult diapers as well. R: In fact, it defines a diaper as absorbent clothing, which is so imprecise it could mean virtually any clothing. |
L |
| Education | SB98 | Allow for a high school student to be on the Board of Education as a voting member. | R. Thomas |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | I am not opposed to a high school student being on the board but I am opposed to that person being a voting member (note: I don’t think this does that, other than being allowed to vote on the chairperson). I believe the one teacher on the board should be the voting member. As it is now, they are not a voting member. I can appreciate the insight of a student but a teacher would have more experience. | D |
| Health | SB99 | Adds addl exemptions (to life of mother) to legalize abortions in cases where doctor believes conception by rape, incest; ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion; fatal fetal abnormality… | D. Yates |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | Almost none of this bill’s changes should be supported as they are rationally inconsistent with the existing law’s presumption that unborn human lives are worthy of state protection, but not above the life of the mother. First, medical treatment for ectopic pregnancy (life of mother) and removing a dead fetus/child by spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) is already legal as far as I can determine. Second, consensual incest shouldn’t even be an exemption (even if mistakenly done to avoid a potential birth defect, that should fall under a fatal fetal defect exemption), and non-consensual incest is rape (makes no sense as a distinct exception). It is literally only included in these discussions to take rhetorical advantage of the revulsion toward incest. Third, the rape exemption requires a logic that the life of an unborn child (fetus) is valuable and worthy of protection if he/she was conceived by consensual sex but not if conceived via rape, which is a monstrous position and violates the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law. Fourth, 10.7 would, in practice, legalize all abortion “medication”. Fifth, calling this Hadley’s Law is a grotesque politicization (esp. since as far as has been made publicly available she never sought, nor received, an abortion). Amendment: Fatal fetal abnormality is the only exemption that passes a basic rationality test (and, though I’m largely opposed, would perhaps be worthy of debate at some point among pro-life legislators), but this Sec. 4.5b,c implementation is poorly written (perhaps intentionally) “If the fetus the pregnant woman is carrying… is incompatible with sustained life outside of the womb” could be applied to every fetus prior to current medical viability. That may, in fact, be the intent as the subparagraph (c) makes “viability” the dividing line and makes it clear that the doctor is the sole legal arbiter of whether rape or incest claims are true (in violation of due process). |
L |
| Elections | SB100 | HORRIBLE & DANGEROUS BILL. Eliminates contribution limits to non-Federal political campaigns. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Anyone being allow to contribute any amount to any race in the state would make courting multi-millionaire donors the bulk of any state level race, and render the most well-connected to money candidates nearly unbeatable. This is EXACTLY what has happened in Indiana. The 10 or states that function like this have some of the most corrupt election finance in the country: Mississippi, Alabama, North Dakota (billionaire now Gov), Virginia (same). Amendment: So, how would one ACTUALLY improve campaign finance in this state: CUT the campaign contribution limits to $1K or even $500 per race per individual or political PAC. Eliminate Caucus Campaign Committees (or at least give them the same limit as a PAC). Put the same annual contribution limit on party Building Funds. Bump up the cash limit to $200 if you want, but prohibit the SOS from publicly disclosing the information of anyone who gives equal or less than that limit total on an election (right now, SOS discloses it if the candidate files it, even though they have no obligation to). Don’t allow candidates to loan their campaign more than some small multiple of the individual contribution limit.\ |
L |
| Business Regs | SB101 | Prohibits any local ordinance or reg preventing agritourism so long as health, safety and zoning are obeyed. | R. Webb |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good bill. I fail to see the downside here (or rather the upside of localities restricting agritourism). This is a good prohibition on onerous local biz regs. | L |
| Govt Regs | SB102 | Incr the maximum pay for board members meeting in a fire protection district to $150. | J. Schickel |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Rate increase too high, going from $25 to $150. | S |
| Health | SB103 | Estab licensure reqs for free standing birthing centers. | S. Funke Frommeyer |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Exempts facilities with no more than four beds from CON requirements. Same as HB199. | S |
| SB104 | AN ACT relating to insurance disclosures to dog bite and dog attack victims. | D. Yates | |
| Taxes & Spending | SB105 | Exempts Bullion (gold, silver, platinum…) and currency from state sales tax. | J. Schickel |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | These things are themselves used as media of exchange and hence an additional sales tax makes little to no sense. Almost the same as HB101 and SB121.
I do worry that the definition of “Currency” (in all of these bills) is the opposite of the intuitive understanding of the word “…is sold based on its value as a collectible item rather than the value as a medium of exchange;” implies that the currency portion is only for collectible coins (not medium of exchange coins). I don’t necessarily have an issue with exempting these as well, but they are effectively works of art or historical artifacts and hence their exemption isn’t as much of a slam dunk case. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB106 | Req Animal Control Officer to report suspiscion of child abuse or neglect (presumably because it is common where animals are being abused). | L. Tichenor |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Animal Control Officer who knows or who has reasonable cause to believe that a child is dependent,neglected, or abused shall immediately cause an oral or written report to be made to a local law enforcement agency or to the Department of Kentucky State Police, the cabinet or its designated representative, the Commonwealth’s attorney, or the county attorney by telephone or otherwise. This may save a child from abuse or neglect. Same as HB253. |
B |
| Transportation | SB107 | Update outdated fee structures for trucks and tow companies. Moves some vehicle fees for electric and hybrid vehicles to road fund. | J. Higdon |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Great bill. Hope we can get this passed. | M |
| Elections | SB108 | Enhances privacy for voters and returns the responsibility for updating voter rolls to the counties. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | At least some of these provisions should become law this session. Require that no election worker can attempt to influence a voter regarding registering or voting. States that the county clerk is responsible for removing a voter’s information when necessary (a process that purportedly has recently only been the purview of the SOS office). Require that the county board of elections purge voter registration roles as necessary and provide the updated list to the State Board of Elections once per month. (I would suggest that both the SOS and county BOE’s share this responsibility.) The outside groups provision is good, not allowing non-profits which are political in all but name to access and data mine KY voter data at scale. Amendment: If the outside groups provision doesn’t get us out of ERIC (which would be a good move) it should be, but some other network for making sure that voters aren’t registered in multiple state (approved by the general assembly) should replace it and the SOS should NOT be able to distribute our voter lists to other states without specific GA permission. |
M / L |
| Education | SB109 | AN ACT relating to Kentucky educational excellence scholarships and declaring an emergency. | C. Armstrong |
| Govt Regs | SB110 | Allows the mother to file for child support anytime after conception. | W. Westerfield |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Good requirement. L: See commentary on HB243 (which is a drastically more comprehensive bill). Amendment: I’m supportive of the idea, however this does carry with it issues related to difficulty establishing paternity, and presumption of maternal custody which may carry over post-natal. These issues need to be addressed here. |
S / L |
| Health | SB111 | Reqs Medicaid and state health plans to cover speech therapy for stuttering. | W. Westerfield |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Coverage of stuttering is common sense. L: This slips in the addition of dental and vision coverage to KCHIP program in section 4(6). That has nothing to do with the main purpose of the bill and should de removed for the bill to move forward. If you want to add that coverage, just make it a separate bill (I know it is in HB10 among other bills this session). |
S / L |
| Govt Regs | SB112 | AN ACT relating to traffic control signal monitoring systems and making an appropriation therefor. | R. Thomas |
| Business Regs | SB113 | Allows licensed marriage and family therapist licensed outside KY to be granted a license. | M. Wise |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No problem with this. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB114 | Reqs schools to post restricting carrying a gun into a school. Removes requirement that failure to post shall not relieve any person of liability. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Prefer stipulations of HB288 allowing carry on school grounds. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB115 | This limits which Federal Law enforcement officers that have any authority in KY | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | This bill allows only Department of Treasury officers that live in KY to have any peace officer authority in KY. It removes all authority for all other Federal Law enforcement officers including FBI, Secret Service, DEA, ICE etc., etc. L: I don’t necessarily disagree with the sentiment here, given how much these agencies have gone rouge. However, this is a major change to the law and needs extensive vetting in committee. Amendment: I would suggest a more workable solution would be to require any officers in the state on official business register their presence and intention with the state (both KSP and AG’s office). |
M / L |
| Business Regs | SB116 | WITHDRAWN | S. West |
| W | |||
| Govt Regs | SB117 | AN ACT proposing an amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to slavery and involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime. | G. Neal |
| Courts & Crimes | SB118 | Trespassing signs need to have purple paint when posted. | S. Meredith |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
This bill would be ok if the required color would be a color that does not have red or green in it. 8% of the male population are color blind and the dominant color blindness is red/green. I am red/green color blind and can not identify purple. As a suggestion isn’t yellow considered a color for caution? | M |
| Courts & Crimes | SB119 | Regs process of seizing an animal by animal control and makes the owner of the abused animal pay for the cost of caring for it while it is in custody. | J. Adams |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | The most relevant part of this bill is that if an official agency seizes an animal for abuse or cruelty or neglect then the owner can be required to pay for the cost to house, care and feed the animal including medical care if needed. If the owner is convicted of a felony relating to the seizure of the animal then the owner can be barred for 5 years from having another animal and can be required to have counseling and other professional help at the owner’s expense. L: I’m a little iffy on the 5 year ownership ban. |
M |
| Govt Regs | SB120 | Bans the appropriation of public funds (state, or local) for lobbying purposes or employing a lobbyist. | G. Williams |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Excellent idea, that needs to make it into the law one way or another this session. I should not be subsidizing someone against my will, via my tax dollars, to come lobby against my interests. The principle here seems similar to the Janus (2018) decision. Same as HB309. |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB121 | Exempts Bullion (gold, silver, platinum…) and currency from state sales tax. | R. Girdler |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Same as HB101, almost the same as SB 105. | L |
| Business Regs | SB122 | This bill defines that small businesses or individuals as a landlord can have a forcible detainer filed against a tenant. | R. Girdler |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | This bill defines that small businesses or individuals as a landlord can have a forcible detainer filed against a tenant. | M |
| SB123 | AN ACT relating to alcoholic beverages. | D. Yates | |
| Business Regs | SB124 | AN ACT relating to minimum staffing requirements for long-term care facilities. | R. Thomas |
| Transportation | SB125 | Allows various types of cities to have off road trails. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
This bill adds the following to existing law: Any city, county, charter county government, urban-county government, consolidated local government, or unified local government that operates a public OHV trail system.
This will allow for additional recreational activities in the state. |
M |
| Courts & Crimes | SB126 | Limits the Gov’s ability to grant pardons or commute sentences for 30 days prior to elections and for a period after elections. | C. McDaniel |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Great idea. This limits the governor’s ability to grant pardons or commute sentences for 30 days prior to elections and for a period after elections. Amendment: Should be from 30 days before election through Inauguration Day, except for commutation of sentences in Death Penalty reprieve situations. If you want to pardon someone as Governor, you have to do it before the election so the voters know your priorities. Also, should require that all pardons be done individually and by name, not by class of criminals. |
M |
| Taxes & Spending | SB127 | Estab KY Aerospace, Aviation, and Defense Investment Fund Advisory Committee. Sets up a joint public / private partnership for scholarships for aviation critical positions. | B. Storm |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Good requirement that no public money spent without a private match. Same as HB345. |
S |
| Business Regs | SB128 | With restrictions, allows 12-17 year olds to work for a nonprofit. | D. Givens |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
I would be concerned about people abusing this. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | SB129 | Changes “calendar year 2023 and 2024” to “a calendar year beginning on or after January 1st, 2023. | D. Givens |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No problem with this clarification. Makes it for all years moving forward. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB130 | Prohibits state agency from discriminating based on one’s access to electronic means to obtain benefits or gain access to public buildings. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Requires cash payment to be accepted. L: Agreed, I’m a big fan of this subtly important legislation. The best bulwark against CBDCs, data mining, de-banking, and surveillance capitalism is for physical money to retain its importance and use. This bill also requires that non-digital IDs be accepted. |
S / L |
| Elections | SB131 | Prohibits “synthetic” electioneering. Campaign ads that splice comments by a candidate to give an out of context appearance without clear disclaimer. | A. Mays Bledsoe |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Provides a remedy in court against the entity that produces the material and social media site where it is published (eg Facebook). I like the concept of this, but think it opens the door to a lot of court cases every election. Not sure the courts can distinguish properly where the line can be drawn. L: The legislation is interesting enough, highly topical, and ground-breaking enough that it deserves committee discussion. Some similarity to the Deep Fake legislation in HB45. Amendment: The biggest concern is how this can be impartially enforced and done on a timeline that allows for the damage to not be done in the 1st place. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB132 | Wanton endangerment including the discharge of a firearm becomes a Class C felony. Must serve 85 percent of sentence. | A. Mays Bledsoe |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good recommendation. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB133 | Curtails some of the emergency powers of the Governor during a disaster. Prohibits the director of the Division of Emergency Management from making orders, only recommendations. Removes “potential, threatened or impending occurrences” from enumerated emergencies. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Removes the power of the Governor to seize property during an emergency. I don’t think this happens much, but it’s good to rein it in ahead of time. |
S |
| SB134 | AN ACT relating to civil rights. | G. Neal | |
| Health | SB135 | Reqs exemptions from vaccines from colleges, long term care facilities, health facilities and employers. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Establishes a cause of action for violations. | S |
| Health | SB136 | Provides that all healthcare facilities except nursing facility beds and long term care beds shall be granted a nonsubstantive review of CON application by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. | G. Williams |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | This is a start but would rather see the elimination of CON altogether. L: So, this is requiring the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to (re-)review almost all CON applications? |
S / L |
| Health | SB137 | If a CON is orphaned an application for a new entity shall be granted a nonsubstantive review. The orphaning entity is not permitted to have opposition. | G. Williams |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Reasonable requirements. L: Seems very reasonable. This is far less ambitious and thus more likely to pass than SB136. |
S |
| Education | SB138 | Allow a proprietary school to seek a single accreditation for all schools it operates in the state. Allow adjunct instructors to be employed full-time. | G. Williams |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Less red tape is good. L: I agree with the reduce regulations sentiment here, but I fear that certification of all schools under a “brand name” could create unintended consequences… does buying a deficient school and putting it under your licensed brand make it now certified? We need teachers, being able to hire adjuncts full-time should help. They should have a full-time pay bump and benefits though (shouldn’t be a way to skirt benefits). |
S / L |
| Business Regs | SB139 | Estab a registration exemption for most private fund financial advisors. No need to register if both no location in state and 5 or fewer clients in this state, or if servicing private funds (like venture capital). | C. McDaniel |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Almost the same as SB109 which passed and was vetoed in 2023. No major objections here, though… Amendment: Needs clarification on whether a financial advisor that fulfills all terms requiring registration is released from that requirement by adding one client which is a private fund? |
L |
| Business Regs | SB140 | Removes the waiver application deadline for unemployment overpayment from 30 days to one year. | P. Wheeler |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
30 days is a pretty narrow window, no issue with it being extended, though 1 year seems like a lot. Amendment: Find the happy medium. |
L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB141 | Allows a $1000 tax credit for volunteer firefighters. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | May help recruitment of volunteers but not certain how much of an impact this may have. | S |
| Business Regs | SB142 | Paid parental leave for full-time employees of the state for birth, surrogacy, foster care placement, or kinship care placement. | A. Mays Bledsoe |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) *Passed Senate |
Employees can utilize personal days or FMLA for this. L: Not totally opposed to SOME accomodation here, but let’s face it… a part, even most, of natural birth parental leave (at least for females) is the physical recovery, which is not applicable to these situations. An additional portion of the leave is the added care needed for a newborn baby vs older children, this also might not be applicable to most of these situations. In short, oppose, or at minimum these leave days should be drastically less than for a woman delivering a newborn baby. |
S |
| Elections | SB143 | Codifies in KY Constitution that only US Citizens may vote in KY elections. | J. Howell |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Concurrence |
Obviously the change is positive (only US citizens should be voting), though this is already implemented in KY statutes in various ways already (which lessens the urgency, it’s mostly political posturing). I’m sure it would be popular on a ballot though (even with “Idiots and insane persons” in the text). SAME AS HB341. Amendment: I’m not sure how you alter this section of the constitution without modernizing the “Idiots and insane persons” provision (the partisan jokes write themselves). If it either strikes that provision or at least updates the language (“those judged by a court to be mentally incompetent”), I’m on board. It probably passes regardless. |
L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB144 | Reduces all death sentences to life in prison without probation or parole. | S. Meredith |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | This bill has 9 sections, the first being the operative one, adding a new section to KRS 530 which basically eliminates capital punishment and, for those where the sentence is not carried out, the death sentence disappears and it becomes life without parole or probation. The other 8 sections refer to details regarding the change from a death sentence to life without parole or probation. It also mentions youth and being allowed parole for capital crime. There are sections that refer to execution itself, ie treatment of the body. But all the changes and repeals reflect the change from a death sentence to life without parole or probation. SAME AS HB38. R: I strongly oppose this bill. If we respect human life, we need to have the availability of the death penalty for a person who intentionally, with malice, murders another person. Removing the death penalty cheapens the value of human life. The first 5 books of the Bible all require the death penalty. L: The death penalty isn’t working in this state, there have only been 3 people put to death since 1976. I’m in favor of actually putting it to use by limiting/expediting appeals, or ending it if we aren’t going to actually use it. J P: Strongly oppose. We need the death penalty on the books, if for no other reason than the mere possibility that it could cause a psychotic serial killer to do his work elsewhere. |
D |
| Health | SB145 | Health care facility may submit a current or prospective employee to a check of the child abuse or neglect or the adult abuse registries. | J. Adams |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
I would recommend replacing “may” with “shall” at least for prospective employees. I would also recommend replacing “or” with “and” as far as requiring them to check both registries. | S |
| Business Regs | SB146 | AN ACT relating to barbers and cosmetologists. | D. Harper Angel |
| Business Regs | SB147 | Estab min state reqs for adult-oriented businesses; eg min distance from places where families gather. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
One of the more important bills this session. KY is WAY behind here, TN has had similar laws for about 30 years. Requires that an adult-oriented business (various definitions) should be at least 1 city block from family-oriented locations (parks, daycares, churches, etc.). Also requires that they not allow people in who may be under 18, or be viewable from the outside. All of this is common sense and it’s amazing that it hasn’t been state law (only some local city ordinances exist). SAME AS HB402. Amendment: only thing I see missing here is a req that these businesses officially be licensed by the state and perhaps regulated by a board. Perhaps that will be added in future sessions. |
L |
| SB148 | Def terms for non-recourse consumer legal funding. Estab licensure reqs. Reqs contracts, prohibits certain actions. | P. Wheeler | |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Don’t normally like license requirements but in this case I think it is necessary to protect the consumer. | S |
| Health | SB149 | For state employee health plans, estab cost sharing reqs for prescription drugs. Reqs rebates to be passed through. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement that rebates will be passed down to the insured. | S |
| Education | SB150 | Establish new GPA qualifications and amounts for KEES program. | D. Thayer |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Raises GPA qualification from 2.5 to 3.0. Funding raised for a 3.0 from $250 to $264. For a 4.0 from $500 to $514. It’s good to have high expectations for our students. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB151 | Allows a child to submit a list of relatives or fictive kin to be placed with if removed from a home. Relative or fictive kin is able to apply to be a child specific foster home. | J. Adams |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
No problem with this except that I’m not sure every child would choose the best relative to be placed with. L: I THINK this allows for state assistance that goes to foster families to go to a relative (often grandparents) or close family friend that takes in a child. This needs a fiscal impact statement because this happens A LOT, given criminal convictions, deaths of a single parent, and drug addiction cases. I’m not against this in principle (in fact, it’s probably a great idea), but it would have a much bigger impact on the law than these subtle changes indicate. Amendment: if a child is now permitted to suggest a list of people they should stay with (esp. non-relatives), they need to be vetted at a higher level of scrutiny than when a custodian or guardian suggests people. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB152 | AN ACT relating to the abolition of the death penalty. | D. Yates |
| Courts & Crimes | SB153 | Allow people 70+ years old to request to be permanently exempted from jury duty, and make the exemption on the qualification form more prominent. | J. Turner |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Good requirement. No objection. 70 year olds can already opt out. This just allows them to do it once and it applies going forward. | L |
| Health | SB154 | Reqs the Board for Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy to be create policies and procedures to allow a patient to record a procedure done to him. | W. Westerfield |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | KRS 311B-010 states this is “in order to protect and safeguard the health and safety of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” I do believe that recording procedures, such as cat scans, mri, x-ray etc, by the patient makes sense. Medical procedures other that those (eg surgeries) could possibly expose a person to infection or other medical mallady, and may be impeded by recording. Amendment: I would amend to include this caveat: provided the person, or persons, recording are qualified and observe all hygiene and safety protocols. L: I’m sure the resistance to this is the possibility that it opens up the doctors or staff to malpractice lawsuits, even when the procedure works out fine (but especially if it doesn’t; Monday morning quarterbacking that could result in millions in lawsuits and increasing health care costs). That’s a legitimate concern. I’m probably opposed, but it is an interesting discussion to start. |
D / L |
| Business Regs | SB155 | Alters security reqs for funds transfers; regs use of electronic docs as authoritative. (*Bill is very difficult to process, needs much scrutiny.) | W. Westerfield |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
The Uniform Commercial Code is dense and hard to process, to the point that it is actually a problem. This version of the bill is 171 pages. It is close to SB64 from last session, but this one (I believe) attempts to omit the apparent gateway to CBDCs (central bank digital currencies) that hung it up last year with an exclusion at the end… However, several problematic parts still remain. To be clear, I have no issue with Bitcoin, or Ethereum, processing being legally streamlined… I have a big problem with CBDC’s. https://tomrenz.substack.com/p/the-tyrants-are-passing-state-laws Amendment #1: The definition of “Money” in section (1)(2)(y) explicitly excludes Bitcoin and Ethereum, but would include any future CBDC via subparagraph 3. This needs to have the definition reversed: 3. The term includes an electronic record that is a medium of exchange recorded and transferable in a system that existed and operated for the medium of exchange before July 1, 2024. Such an electronic record, or digital currency, may be recognized as money in the Commonwealth of Kentucky only if it can be verified as impossible to track without a warrant, by a minimum of three independent experts. a. Independent Expert means, for purposes of this section, an individual with the requisite expertise to evaluate the proposed money to meet the requirements of this section. Courts should construe this clause strongly in favor of ensuring high levels of expertise and independence. Amendment #2: Add the following provision… All banking and financial institutions in the Commonwealth of Kentucky shall be required to recognize at least one physical currency as “money”. This physical currency must be treated as the primary form of money in the state and valued to ensure it is the preferred form of trade within the state. No bank or financial institution shall penalize anyone for the use of physical money in Kentucky, nor shall they provide any incentives for the use of any digital currency. Physical and digital money must be taxed at equal rates. |
Dan / L |
| Business Regs | SB156 | Exempts poultry producers killing less than 20K birds per year from premits, or regs of the Cabinet of Health & Family Services. | A. Southworth |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | I’m generally sympathetic to deregulation, but 20K birds seems like a lot and no regulations at all?! Amendment: Certainly some hygiene protocols should be in place, and 20K seems like a lot. I can see the logic here for a family killing their own food, or even a legitimately tiny farm where these regulations make it prohibitive (maybe on the order of a thousand or two per year max). |
L |
| Business Regs | SB157 | Prohibits a pet shop from selling dogs or cats unless the animal was obtained from a shelter or a qualified breeder. | J. Howell |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | More government regulation and oversight of private enterprise. This strips the ability of municipalities to regulate the sale of dogs & cats at retail pet stores Note similarities and differences with SB41. This one allows the sale of dogs and cats from qualified breeders, that one doesn’t. Both are unnecessary regulations, though this one is somewhat better being targeted to cut out “puppy mills” feeding into retail pet stores. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB158 | Relating to settlements with a minor, establishes provisions for opening a restricted account or an annuity. | R. Girdler |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
No problem with this. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB159 | Provides for reimbursement of expenses for firefighters’ blood tests for PFAS (“forever chemicals”) contamination. | C. Armstrong |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) | Same as HB116. I don’t know that this is a bad bil, but it may be a bit out in front of the science. Apparently these sorts of chemicals (nearly 15K kinds are known) are present in some firefighting foams (I assume the reason firefighters are included here), as well as carpeting, packaging, etc. They are found in levels above the EPA recommended level in MANY public tap water locations (incl the Louisville area). Currently, how these chemicals relate to the certainty of detrimental effects on humans is inconclusive, according to the EPA.Encouraging testing for something that isn’t known for sure to be dangerous, and which are found in the environment and tap water, has litigation and frivolous lawsuits written all over it. Amendment: Put a start date of 2026 on this and I’d probably be on board. The state should consider banning these chemicals at the point, if the science continues to come back as very dangerous. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB160 | Reqs those who submit a birth certificate in applying for a vehicle license to have that certificate verified through EEVE, “Electronic Verification of Vital Events” maintained by the Nat’l Assoc. for Public Health Statistics and Info. Systems, to corroborate authenticity. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | ….Any valid effort to confirm vital record correctness makes good sense, especially when fraudulent documents are used to obtain other things like social security cards and voter id. I support this. | D |
| Govt Regs | SB161 | Only permit cellular antenna towers to be constructed beyond 1680′ from homes or where 10+ people regularly gather. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Simple enough, we don’t know the long-term effect to the continuously increasing EM radiation in our lives. Radiation is replete in our atmosphere, but there is no need to construct towers right on top of people as distance from one to the next, straight line, is almost moot. Why chance it until we absolutely know more? SIMILAR AND NEEDS TO BE MERGED WITH HB338. Amendment: 1680? Just make it 2000′ and include any new generation of wireless technology standard, 5G being the present standard. For example, if there is 6G or 7G, etc., this would be included as well. Dol: This Bill is long OVER DUE for all of our health and environmental safety.. It DOES NOT need to be merged with HB338, it is a bad Bill because that Bill wants a # of ppl it is effecting before locating towers away, United Nations 4 pg written statement (2019) to the Human Rights Council titled 5G/cell towers is Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading. It is way past time to start locating these towers away from the public now. |
D / D |
| Transportation | SB162 | Allows all law enforcement agencies to retain and access a copy of vehicle accident reports. | R. Mills |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
No issue with this, hard to believe this wasn’t the law already. | L |
| Govt Regs | SB163 | Allows gov’t agencies to decide whether a person is cremated or buried if no relative can be found. | G. Elkins |
| Only If Amended | Oppose (friendly) *Passed Senate |
The decision to decide burial or cremation should be made by the family, not the government. A set dollar amount should be decided as to what the govt agency will pay for. L: I’m not as opposed to this bill. The state still has to try to locate a family member, only when they can’t do that does this provision that the local gov’t agency which has to pay for burial or cremation makes the decision. Amendment: I DO think there should be a provision that the gov’t must also attempt to find the deceased’s will and see if method of burial / cremation is specified and that be respected. |
D G / L |
| Business Regs | SB164 | Allows schools to arrange transfer (articulation) agreements from trade school and technical training institutions to regular proprietary scholastic institutions. | S. Funke Frommeyer |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
This is a great idea. This allows trade schools and technical school students to get academic credit in the course of their trade or technical training without loss of time or credit. It would allow trade schools and technical schools to concentrate on skill training. We need plumbers, electricians, pipe fitters, and all trade skilled people badly. I am firmly for this. | D |
| Govt Regs | SB165 | KY Retirement System Board of Trustees do not have to disclose their social security numbers when applying to become a trustee, nor does an existing trustee who may be under subpoena, and those signing petitions regarding potential taxes being levied among several more examples. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | The information that is required of individuals who is selected to become a trustee in the Kentucky Retirement Sytem board does not have to disclose his or her Social Security Number in the application process. Since some of these selections are subject to public information laws it seem a good thing not to expose a social security number when it isn’t relevant to the selection process. There are other examples in this statue where the social security number is not necessary as well. | D |
| Education | SB166 | Prohibits China affiliated nonprofits from contracting with KY schools (K-12 and Post-sec) to provide educational services. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | The fact is, China is our #1 geopolitical threat. Malcolm X, of all people, said “Only a fool would let his enemy teach his children.” If their government is funding these programs, it is a virtual certainty that they are intended for the benefit of the Chinese gov’t, whether or not they also benefit the US gov’t (and often, and increasingly, those interests conflict). Now, I don’t want to cast aspersions upon the Chinese people as a whole, or even suggest that Confucius institutes on our college campuses or chinese language academies that provide Mandarin and Cantonese language instructors to our schools are nefarious entities, or that the individual instructors are anything but well-meaning. They very well may all have positive intent for their students. A healthy skepticism and “better safe than sorry” approach at an institutional level is best here, however. At the very minimum these need to be CLOSELY monitored. Amendment: I’m VERY skeptical of the language banning this for non-public schools that receive state funds. I don’t know if that is constitutional given Rudasill (1979) and Section 5 of the KY Constitution… I really don’t want to open that door (at most, and I don’t like this precedent either, discount the state funding of private school proportionate to the per pupil cost of these teachers). |
L |
| Education | SB167 | Reqs cursive writing to be included as a course of study in all elementary schools beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. | L. Tichenor |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
I’m not sure that cursive actually is a necessary skill (I’m not against teaching it, just putting it as a requirement for graduation, mandatory in elementary, etc. seems like an overstep); it doesn’t seem a high priority anyway. I’d need to see evidence for this. My guess is that if schools that teach cursive do better (likely) it’s due to this being a proxy for having demanding reqs, as schools where most kids are struggling see it as a lower priority and scrap it. This might not be a great illustration of this sentiment (or maybe it is), but: we can’t be caught up promoting traditional ed just for traditionalism’s sake, any more than we should pursue progressive ed for progressivism’s sake. Amendment: Just make it a recommended practice for schools or MAYBE part of the standards, definitely not a grad requirement. |
L |
| Education | SB168 | Rem minority member req for school councils (SBDMs), changes election protocols, and incr parent membership from two to three. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | All of these are positive changes. Encoding racial quotas in our gov’t structure is an abomination and antithetical to Republicanism and a colorblind gov’t. Increasing Parent representation on site-based councils is also a big improvement. Note: this should have been done in SB1 a couple of years back rather than moving responsibilities away from SBDMs (Personnel IS policy). |
D G / L |
| Education | SB169 | Estab the conditions and protocol for a recall of a member of the local board of elections. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Reasons for recall: “Neglect of duty”; wrongful act in performance; Acceptance of a bribe of money or other valuable consideration to induce failure to perform duties prescribed by law; Willful or careless failure to exercise due diligence in the performance of an official duty, or intentional failure to perform a duty imposed by statute or the Constitution of Ky. There should be no bribery or intimidation to perform their jobs when it comes to our children’s physical and mental well being. L: I feel like this is a big enough change to the law that it needs a serious committee vetting first, but there is lots of common sense reform here that probably can be applied to other offices as well. |
D G |
| Education | SB170 | Makes the number of school board members based on 3-year average enrollment population each 10 years. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | I generally like the idea. The fact that the JCPS only has 7 school board members for a budget of $2B+ and overseeing hundreds of schools and other districts (eg Anchorage, in the same county) has a board of 5 with a tiny fraction of each is somewhat crazy. Amendment: The formula probably needs modification (slower ramp with a lower peak; not sure we need 15 board members for anything below a whole state). |
L |
| Education | SB171 | Allow a superintendent to be removed for cause by a majority plus 1 instead of four-fifths board vote. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Seeing how the educational system is going from bad to worse, this Bill is long overdue. L: Working through the math here, the vast majority of boards have 5 members so majority plus one would be 4/5s, correct? If so, this is a subtle improvement to the law (more flexibility for different board sizes). Amendment: I’m not sure that I love the KY BOE being able to overrule 4/5 (or maj +1) of a board (though yes, it’s better than the Commissioner himself being able to do that). |
D G / L |
| Elections | SB172 | Reqs employees have ‘reasonable’ time off work to vote. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This requires an employer to allow an employee time to vote. This defines what an employee and employer is. It sets forth penalties for violations. If a corporation is guilty then it will lose its charter in addition to being fined up to $1,000.00 per incident. Amendment: The term ‘reasonable’ is used and it should define a specific amount of time instead (perhaps, at minimum 2 hours). Amendment: Also while modifying this bill, references to gender specific functions could be updated. The word ‘he’ is used and ‘person’ or ‘he or she’ would work as well. L: I’m not sure if it needs to be req’d by law, as all businesses that I know of have this policy, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt. I do like this better than making election day a full holiday. |
M |
| Health | SB173 | AN ACT relating to Medicaid home and community-based waiver residential services. | R. Thomas |
| Business Regs | SB174 | If a communication service provider damages a gas pipe without an attempt to locate, the operator shall report to the Public Service Commission the distance from the pipe to the communications terminal. | J. Carpenter |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Not sure what communicating this to the Commission will solve. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | SB175 | AN ACT relating to designating a special needs trust to receive state-administered retirement benefits. | R. Webb |
| Business Regs | SB176 | Creates civil penalties for contractors who misclassify employees as independent contractors when bidding on public work projects. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Very precise, well written, detailed bill. Recommend passage. L: Employers have started hiring people as “independent contractors” rather than employees to get around providing them a slew of benefits. Baring a more comprehensive reform, it seems reasonable to require that businesses NOT do that when they get lucrative state contracts. |
S / L |
| Health | SB177 | A super speeder (25+ mph over limit) assessed an extra $200.00 fee to be given to these funds: Bentley rural hospital, trauma care system, and emergency medical grant. Emergency medical grant fund established by this bill. | S. Meredith |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Second half is same as HB484. Amendment: Strike out the establishment of the emergency medical services grant fund. Creates new spending from GA without guarantee that it will alleviate targeted problem. |
S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB178 | AN ACT relating to firearms. | K. Berg |
| Courts & Crimes | SB179 | Prohibits a person from requiring, coercing or compelling another to undergo the implantation of an identification chip. | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Definitely should be a provision in law, get ahead of this coming tech. I would like to see this pushed further to prohibit coercing a person from getting implanted with a chip designed to enhance human functions, as Musk is working on now. Future employers may try to require this as a condition of employment. |
S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB180 | Restricts the use of facial recognition technology and biometric identifiers and the storage of this data. Prohibits its use as evidence. | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | I think this one needs to be fleshed out in committee. I love the spirit of it. It seems to me that most of these biometric identifiers can be obtained from a simple photograph or a person touching most any object. I would also think that DNA would be in here. The core issue is that AI technology and centralized databases have allowed mundane information to be tracked down to a person so easily, cheaply, and quickly. Are we saying that law enforcement can’t request a photo, videotape, or fingerprints that a suspect left in plain sight, or they just can’t run facial recognition or fingerprint identification on them? Same for private businesses? Anyway, there are some very interesting ideas here that I haven’t fully worked through but a detailed committee hearing would help expose holes and tighten this bill up a bit I believe. |
L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB181 | Creates new crime of coersing someone into sex, or using sexual material or history to coerce or blackmail someone. | J. Adams |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Clearly these things should be illegal, so I generally support the bill, I’m just not sure that this isn’t already illegal. Blackmail and extortion are already crimes… Amendment: If we are trying to truly clean up the legal code, it feels like 2 distinct illegal acts are being combined into one here: (a) Coercing someone (through any means) into doing something they don’t want to do sexually (ie adding sexual favors to the list of things that can be extorted), and (b) Using sexual information, material, or history to obtain something that the other person doesn’t want to give up or do (ie adding sexual information as something that can be used TO extort). |
L |
| Business Regs | SB182 | Reqs any employer that mandates immunization for employment accept medical and religious exemptions. Permits cause of action if employers violate this and someone gets injured by a vaccine. | S. West |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | I’m going to be enthusiastic if ANY covid mandate ban or exemption finally gets through the general assembly. This is a pretty good one because (a) it attacks one of the most egregious violations of rights, forced vaccination (btw, I am generally pro-vax, but anti-FORCED vax), but also (b) this applies to private employers as well. Here’s hoping something like this finally gets through. I believe 17 states have some sort of COVID mandate ban; but not KY?! | L |
| Health | SB183 | AN ACT relating to heat injury prevention. | C. Armstrong |
| Business Regs | SB184 | AN ACT relating to employment. | C. Armstrong |
| Business Regs | SB185 | AN ACT relating to prevailing wage. | C. Armstrong |
| Business Regs | SB186 | AN ACT relating to customer notices from broadband service providers. | K. Berg |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB187 | Reqs a 7-day waiting period for “modified” firearms. | D. Carroll |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | A person’s right to keep and bear arms SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED. L: WHAT would possess a Republican to file a bill like this? A modified weapon basically includes most anything using the AR15 platform… and this, “A semiautomatic version of an automatic rifle, shotgun, or firearm,” could mean virtually anything. |
S / L |
| Health | SB188 | Estab regs on Pharmacy Benefit managers. | M. Wise |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | My main concern is the cost impact. Could needlessly increase costs for insurers, which in turn means consumers. Mail order pharmaceuticals could benefit those on maintenance prescriptions or who don’t live near a pharmacy. I will wait until the fiscal impact statement arrives for a final verdict, this could potentially be a HIGH PRIORITY bill. Note: some of these provisions are in HB190. I also am concerned that this is really a bail-out / protectionist bill for an outmoded independent pharmacist model hiding under the cover of insurer regulations. I have nothing against local, independent pharmacists BTW, in rural areas in particular they do serve an important need. However, the market is the market, and if consumers prefer a different model, then fighting against that isn’t productive long-term. Nevertheless, this won’t be an outright OPPOSE because we DO need fundamental fairness in the PBM market (which in my understanding does not exist; hence, that biases the market in a different way) and this bill attempts to bring that. Amendment: I don’t love the provisions against mail-order pharmacies, in particular. Those do tend to reduce cost to the consumer. I do think it is reasonable to demand that the prescriptions from a mail-order pharmacy arrive on the timeline demanded by the prescription if they are going to be demanded by the PBM, however. |
L |
| Education | SB189 | Allows Murray State to start a doctoral program in veterinary medicine. | J. Howell |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Same as HB400. See the extensive commentary on HB400 detailing how this makes zero financial sense. Here are the non-financial reasons it makes no sense: This largely passed the House on false premises and a lack of hard evidence: (1) It was claimed that modifications of this sort to this area of the KRS was common, it is not. The Postsecondary education system in the state of Kentucky is designed with 2 Research Doctoral Universities (University of Kentucky and University of Louisville) and 6 Comprehensive Universities (and KCTCS) which do not conduct doctoral research. This distribution of roles is largely designed so as to raise UK and UL to world-class status and boost their profile for federal grants. The ONLY exception to this model is the Chase Law School at Northern Kentucky University which already existed at the time of adoption of this statute. This would be exception #2 to this model. (2) The principal expert witness, Dr. Parr?, cited Clemson University as one of 6 new vet schools in the past 50 years that had been created using the “distributed model”. Clemson will not be opening until the Fall of 2026 (which will open up contract slots at both UGA and Miss St. to expand the Auburn partnership to 50+ slots at bargain basement cost to the state) and they estimate their start-up costs for 80 student classes at $239M with $19M recurring. Note: Murray’s estimate, which would still be a bad investment, for their 70-75 student classes is at an implausibly low by comparison $89M(!) with $15M recurring. (3) The “distributive ed model” does not produce high quality vets at nearly the rate that clinical / traditional vet schools do (they are cheaper but you get what you pay for). There was little to no testimony about the board success rate of “distributed model” graduates. Nobody mentioned in testimony that less than 100 QUALIFIED students (136 total) in the state of KY even applied to Vet school, and much like med school you don’t really want the bottom 1/2 to 1/3 of applicants wielding a scalpel. Who are the target 70+ students per class here? Pretending that this won’t require the admission of students who should not even be in vet school and/or eventually the dissolution of the top tier Auburn partnership is willful blindness. (4) Multiple Republicans that voted HB400 out of committee expressed in their vote explanations that this DID NOT start a veterinary school, it was just a vote “to continue the conversation”. We can have the conversation right now, without changing the law to restructure the University classifications in the state. This is clearly a classic bait and switch where clearing a possible vet school leads to THIS “conversation”: drumming up some amount of private donations (say $10M), then the politically connected execs and associates of Murray State start lobbying Appropriators, then Murray invests in architectural drawings and contracts out some feasibility studies, maybe even some polling, then they build a building or two and start the “momentum” and “sunk cost” fallacies (look at all of the support this has, and we have already invested so much, and raised so much money… “we just need the state money to finish it,” otherwise it’s a waste). Best to bury this bad idea before it spreads. |
L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB190 | Creates a Voluntary KY Do Not Sell List related to firearms. Provides a method for someone to voluntarily surrender their firearms to the KY State Police. | D. Carroll |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Very similar to HB460. No way this is going to have the result you think it may. L: I don’t mind the voluntary surrender protocol as long as the person establishes that they are the legitimate owner of the firearms (not sure why they wouldn’t just sell them at a gun shop though). |
S |
| Education | SB191 | Adds nontraditional aged students to the goal of closing achievement gap. Incr % of university funding based on student success outcomes. Weight credentials based on the economic needs of the state. | D. Givens |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Generally positive about the bill. Amendment: Not sure you need to add nontraditional aged students to the list. When measuring outcomes, strikes out bachelor’s degrees earned per 100 undergraduate students. This needs to stay in as a measurement when comparing different size universities. |
S |
| Taxes & Spending | SB192 | Same as HB499. | D. Givens |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Same as HB499. Don’t like the ability to seek an exception to allow career and technical courses for students in grades 5-8. They are too young to be concerned with locking in a career path. Need to get back to focusing on the three Rs. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB193 | Reduces the number of people on the Animal Control Advisory Board. | J. Adams |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
All for reducing the size of boards, if not eliminating them. | S |
| Health | SB194 | Authorizes insurers to provide electronic communication to persons covered under an employer-sponsored health plan. | J. Adams |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Insured has the right to opt out. Insurer can’t penalize Insured for opting out. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB195 | Constitutional amendment to restore voting rights of certain persons convicted of felonies three years after completion of imprisonment, probation or parole. | B. Storm |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Supportive of this. Like the exclusion of violent offenders, sexual offenders election crimes, bribery and treason. This year other proposed amendments have a higher priority. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | SB196 | Hazardous employees hired after July 1, 2013 are considered Tier 3, this would allow hazardous employees to go into the Tiere 2 after 10 years of service. | C. McDaniel |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | A REHIRE (whether from a hazardous or non hazardous position to a hazardous position, SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED to revert back to the Tier 2 system. However, if the 10 year HAZARDOUS employee is NOT A REHIRE, they should be allowed to go to the Tier 2 system. Why? The rehiree is receiving a salary AND a pension from the Tier 1 system. The pension system is deeply in debt and taxpayers, who most will never receive 1 pension let alone two. MOST rehires probably have a VERY CUSHY life – 2nd home, 3/4 cars, VACA homes, buying rental property, etc. Meanwhile most taxpayers are struggling to pay their bills and pay for childcare while they work. Who is considered in a HAZARDOUS position? Go back to who was originally deemed HAZARDOUS (there could possibly be some departments added who should NOT be deemed as hazardous). When the pension system originally started, KRS61.637 – an employee by a participating agency prior to August 1, 1998, shall have his or her retirement payments suspended for the duration of reemployment. Somewhere along the way greed (or desperation for employees) consumed those who decided to take advantage of taxpayer funded dollars by allowing rehires to receive a pension as a rehiree. Most of those rehired were managers, there were many employees who were working in their department who could have easily taken that manager’s job. Some retirees were rehired illegally (rehired back into the same position, the statute stated it was not allowed to happen and it did happen). David Melton on FB has ideas on how to save the pension system and get it out of debt. It looks doable. if government does not like a certain individual will they be able to have influence over certain ppls 401K account (for example) and make sure a persons investments are deemed “worthless or not performing as well as expected” and that retiree loses a LOT in their 401K account (for example). Amendment: The pension system rules against a second pension on reemployment need to revert back to prior to August 1, 1998, NO pension benefit for duration of reemployment. This has become an excessive burden on the taxpayers. At one time, retroactive benefits were given “to some”. Since they ILLEGALLY allowed that to happen, they should RETROACTIVELY remove getting a pension as a rehire and let them pay back the funds stolen plus interest the KRS has lost. NOTE:The RETROACTIVE benefit, last time i looked, was removed from the statute. Amendment: If the road department is not added, they should be added a hazardous, (if they were not originally included). Working on the road, not in a management role, IS a very hazardous job. |
D G |
| Govt Regs | SB197 | A wildlife rehabilitation permit holder may house and maintain nonreleasable wildlife for displaying and exhibiting for wildlife conservation and rehabilitation purposes. | M. Deneen |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Animal must have rabies vaccination and been deemed unreleasable by a veterinarian. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB198 | Creates Nuclear Energy Development Authority. Purpose is to study best practices in nuclear energy production and produce a site suitability study to identify the best potential locations for KY nuclear facility sites. | D. Carroll |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Don’t normally like the creation of new boards but this is an issue that needs to be focused on. With the war against so called fossil fuels, we need to look at reliable alternatives to harden our power grid. | S |
| Transportation | SB199 | Streamlines the process for a non-resident of KY, and veterans, to obtain a CDL. Prohibits an individual from having more than one license. Apply year-round reg system for vehicles 10K lbs or less. Elim moped license. | J. Higdon |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Lots of technical corrections in this bill. Need a committee review to hash out all these changes but no real problems with any of it. |
S |
| Education | SB200 | AN ACT relating to school calendars. | D. Thayer |
| Education | SB201 | Allow Council on Postsecondary Ed to estab criteria for KY comprehensive universities to establish up to 5 Doctoral programs. | D. Givens |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | The good part of this is that it sets in place a more comprehensive approach and process for adding doctoral programs than just making specific additions (eg HB400/SB189; HB407). The bad: The current system, by which all doctoral programs (except the pre-existing JD program at KNU) are concentrated at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville, has a specific purpose: to raise the national prominence of these 2 (flagship) unis allowing them to compete for highly competitive Federal grants. The comprehensive universities are responsible for proving a good undergrad ed at reasonable cost, primarily to in-state students. Nobody fighting for these vet school, or med school, bills has actually addressed why the current statute is designed as it is, which is perfectly logical, when proposing that the statute be modified. Also, I don’t love at all that the Council is the one given power over setting these terms. Better to have them recommend criteria and the GA vote those criteria into law. If I trusted their vision for higher ed policy I would have voted for them (which I can’t currently do). I voted for my legislators. These are managers on a board appointed by the Gov, not policy makers, so quit ceding the GA’s power to them. |
L |
| SB202 | AN ACT relating to conditions of supervision. | G. Neal | |
| *Passed Senate | |||
| Education | SB203 | Estab 4 different funds (purportedly targeting $300M over 2 years; the existing $50M from the house is already too much) for subsidizing child care options. | D. Carroll |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | $300M in state subsidies for the child care industry? Rebranding of child care as Early Childhood Education, as if our current childhood education system (sucking up half of the budget for dismal student outcomes) has been a rousing success? This is what you get when “Republicans” don’t understand or respect the fundamental principles of either fiscal OR social conservatism. For instance: Principle: Gov’t handouts (and regulations) distort market forces. Principle: The people who most directly benefit from any program should ideally pay for it (in this case, the businesses who want workers cheap are getting the benefit of not providing this as a work incentive; instead taxpayers are taking a family member out of direct child care, farming that out to a child boarder). Principle: Central planning leads to dictatorship.- FA Hayek Gov’t should stay out of social engineering; the gov’t/legislature DOES NOT know best how to run people’s lives or society generally, nor even best how to allocate most resources (competitive “free market” forces operating through the decisions and actions of millions of localized citizens does that vastly better).We have all of these bad socialistic ideas in one bill, coming from a purportedly “conservative” Senate, apparently because an influential lobbyist group decided it’s best to have all taxpayers give a handout to these child care businesses, and give corporate businesses a handout via not having to provide child care costs for workers as an incentive to employment or as a compensation bonus. Who is lobbying for LESS gov’t spending in Frankfort if the liberal “policy arms” of traditional business interest lobbyists are now full-on crony capitalist? The only parts of the bill that aren’t thoroughly misguided are the KCTCS ECE associate’s degree program upgrades to include business management, which is just OK… and I have no issue with state paying for child care worker background checks. Amendment: Just loosen regulations like the number of children per attendant and ending zoning prohibitions on in-home child care businesses… Making child care more profitable via market forces should always by the first option. The least misguided of these funds is the Child Care Assistance Program, I can live with that one if need be (scrap the rest of these). |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB204 | Makes the Treeing Walker Coonhound the official state dog breed. | R. Webb |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Surely we have better things to do. This should have just been a resolution.
Are there no other breeds of dogs created in KY? |
L |
| Education | SB205 | Provides 20 days of maternity leave for school employees in addition to all other leave. | L. Tichenor |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | This is on top of the 30 days of accumulated sick leave they may take currently. Too much. L: Obviously, mothers should have time off for having a baby. However, teachers already have a generous sick leave program that has been massively exploited with people having 500+ days of accumulated leave to spike their retirement. Not only is this on top of the potentially 30 accumulated sick days that can be used, there are also provisions allowing other employees to donate (banked) sick days to other employees. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB206 | Adds add’l criteria a court may consider in determining the best interest of a child. Prohibits court from considering the socioeconomic status of the parent or caretaker. | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | High (Pass this session) | Very thorough list of the criteria the court is required to consider. L: I’m not sure that SES should be taken off the list of considerations… I’d just prefer that these be tiered and it placed on 2nd tier. Money does matter, it just shouldn’t be determinative. |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB207 | Reqs Commonwealth to bear the burden of proof by clear and convincing evidence in a temporary removal hearing. Removes admissibility of hearsay as evidence. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | An order for a temporary removal is permissive and not mandatory (ie you may remove the child, not must remove the child). Clear and convincing burden of proof should be required in all court cases; and hearsay should never be allowed. These are standard features of due process that get waved when children are involved. |
S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB208 | Separate the definition of “abused child” and “neglected child.” Amend definition of “physical injury” to include the requirement that it is likely to cause death, disfigurement or impairment of an organ. Require Cabinet interviews be recorded and retained for 5 years. Remove “neglect” as a basis for termination of parental rights. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirements for pushing back against the aggressive tactics of the cabinet. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB209 | AN ACT relating to the forensic processing of firearms. | K. Berg |
| Education | SB210 | Allows enrollment of a public school student on a part-time basis. Prohibits a district’s nonresident pupil policy from discriminating against any pupil. Prohibits charging tuition to any child. | S. West |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | NOTE: Many of these criticisms were incorporated into the Comm Sub. Should specify that a student may be allowed to attend part-time if they are meeting their core curriculum requirements there or also elsewhere. Do not like requiring that 10 percent of maximum class size to be reserved for enrollment of nonresident pupils. Resident pupils should have first priority and then nonresidents can be allowed if there is room. L: I agree with these criticisms. I’m not sure the use case here, who is wanting to attend part-time and that seems like an awfully high reserved for non-resident percentage. Most schools are near 100% resident currently. Committee hearing would be useful to hear about this one. It’s an interesting bill, with a lot of complicated issues: Balancing tuition charges with SEEK funding with local property tax rates… and where the money. This would benefit from more discussion over the interim. |
S / L |
| Health | SB211 | Reqs nurses and PAs whose primary focus is on patients 50+ complete continuing education on treating Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. | S. Meredith |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | This should be left for the physician / medical center they work for to dictate but not be mandated by the government. | S |
| Education | SB212 | Prohibits school district from entering agreements with providers of digital instruction that collect, share, or use data not directly related to the function of the service. Limits screen time per day for students. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Very good prohibition to keep these companies from mining data of the children. May be difficult for schools to track screen time for students throughout the day as they go from class to class but a great suggestion. This SHOULD get out in front of the Chromebook / Google social indoctrination. |
S |
| Education | SB213 | Reqs school districts to report civics test for graduation results to the KDE and KDE to publicly post those results. | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Great idea. Amendment: This bill should be more specific about what exactly they need to post publicly. It needs to be posted in aggregate and by County, School District, and School… and have crosstabs by sex, race/ethnicity, and free & reduced lunch (or not). |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB214 | AN ACT relating to tax incentives for support provided to victims of domestic violence. | D. Yates |
| Transportation | SB215 | Prohibits state from adopting or enforcing emission standards on new vehicles or requiring the sale of electric vehicles. | J. Carpenter |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Great bill considering the stance of the current federal administration and the EPA. L: Clearly there should be a balance here. I’m fine with not requiring electric vehicles, it should always remain a choice. Emission standards do change though, I’m afraid this could imperil Federal transportation dollars at some point. Still, overall I support this. |
S / L |
| Elections | SB216 | Begin processing absentee ballots at 8:00 am on election day. Prohibits sharing of results until 6:00 pm. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Great way to ensure that no one will know how many ballots are needed to be inserted to swing an election. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB217 | Prohibits atmospheric polluting and geoengineering by private entities, the federal gov’t or int’l bodies. | A. Southworth |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Same as HB506. See commentary there. | D G / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB218 | Automatic expungement for specific eligible misdemeanor and felony convictions. | B. Storm |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Very limited in the scope of expungements. Would like to see more added to the list. Same as HB569. | S |
| Health | SB219 | Incl medical labs in the def of provider. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | OK with this, but not a high priority. Same as HB677. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB220 | Incr size of combined electric and water board to seven, brings it into proportional relationship between those living inside and outside city limits. Apply anti-nepotism rules. Reqs audit in even numbered years. Prohibits political or institutional ads. | G. Williams |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Nothing bad in this. Need a committee hearing to hash it out. | S |
| Health | SB221 | Shell Bill. | S. Meredith |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | SB222 | Technical change “which” instead of “whom” to reference organizations. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No objection. | L |
| Health | SB223 | Shell Bill. | S. Meredith |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | SB224 | Technical change “which” instead of “whom” to reference organizations. | S. Meredith |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | No objection. | L |
| Transportation | SB225 | Shell Bill. | J. Higdon |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB226 | Shell Bill. | R. Girdler |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB227 | Shell Bill. | R. Girdler |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB228 | Shell Bill. | R. Girdler |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | SB229 | Gives KY League of Cities ability to designate a member of each of Blockchain Working Group and KY Infrastructure authority. Doubles unaudited expenditures by superintendent and permissible board salaries. | M. Wilson |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
I guess it’s fine for the KY League of Cities to get these designees.
Amendment: No reason for strong opposition here, other than it is doubling the expense of this board and the amount these superintendents can spend. Are these increases really necessary and are they consistent with other boards, or is this going to create a chain reaction? |
L |
| Business Regs | SB230 | Prohibit hiring or firing decisions from private companies and disciplinary punishment in public schools on the basis of historically racially associated hairstyles. | W. Westerfield |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Same as HB232… and SB63 last session. Amend KRS 344.010 to provide definitions of “protective hairstyle” and “race” that include traits historically associated with race… prohibit private businesses from firing, or not hiring, people based upon their hairstyle; amend KRS 158.148 to provide that school disciplinary codes shall prohibit discrimination on the basis of race (including not restricting hairstyles apparently). Unnecessary. A hairstyle is not a “trait”. In any situation we are talking about here (people aren’t being fired for well-kempt hairstyles, including braids, afros or even well-kept dreads), it is a fashion or (counter-)cultural statement. Private businesses have the right to restrict your statements, as do the public schools within a narrower window. They both also have rational reasons for requiring well-kempt hair. |
L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB231 | Bars the use of slave/unpaid labor by prisoners in prison. | W. Westerfield |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | We don’t need this amendment to the KY Constitution. The only think this would affect given the US Constitution, Amendment 13 is labor in prison. All of our prisons pay some small wage for prisoner labor anyway. Same as HB295. |
R |
| Education | SB232 | Local boards must submit construction plans to chief state school officer, but Dep of Ed is prohibited from req prior approval. Provides for the approval and appeal process for a district’s purchase or disposal of real property. Allow boards to make mortgages, loans or encumbrances without Dep of Ed approval. Strikes out the need for a school librarian. | W. Westerfield |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Schools absolutely need a librarian to keep up to date with changing technology. Boards must submit an approved district facility plan for approval but can move forward on construction without approval. Should have to wait for approval that it matches the approved plan. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB233 | Limits solar farms to less than one percent of a county’s acreage. Land can’t be acquired through eminent domain. | S. West |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Excellent start. We need to make sure our utilities are not focused on this sporadically reliable energy source that in the future will have to be dealt with as a hazardous waste. | S |
| Business Regs | SB234 | Sets up regulation requirements for short-term rental properties. | S. West |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Attempt to add more regulations on airbnbs. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB235 | Establishes requirements for reports of alleged child dependency, abuse or neglect. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Require the reporter to remain anonymous, report recorded and if the report is about a facility, the reporter’s relation to the facility. | S |
| Education | SB236 | Establishes licensure requirements and operational standards for child care centers. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Allows violations to be corrected while Inspector is present. Inspector shall minimize disruption while present. Disruption exempt from citation. Expungement of records if an appeal is won. | S |
| Business Regs | SB237 | AN ACT relating to mobile barber licensure. | R. Thomas |
| SB238 | AN ACT relating to children. | K. Berg | |
| Health | SB239 | Prevent reprisal for a medical professional refusing to provide a service because of a violation of their conscience. | D. Douglas |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Very good bill. I believe Illinois has had something like this for 30 years. | L |
| Education | SB240 | Clarifies that foster parents who work out of the home can receive financial assistance the same as if they worked outside the home. | C. Armstrong |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
No issue with this, I’m not sure that this isn’t already the law anyway. | L |
| Transportation | SB241 | Shell Bill. | J. Higdon |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | SB242 | Shell Bill. | D. Carroll |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | This bill got filed with a bill and got a committee hearing (committee sub not posted online ahead of committee meeting) in Senate Health Services where Carroll is Chair. | L – |
| Courts & Crimes | SB243 | Person is guilty of cruelty to animals in the first degree if they cause an animal to engage in a fight, organize operation of an animal fight, is present or allows a minor to attend. Requires forfeiture of animal to control officer. Falconry authorized. | G. Elkins |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Allowing an animal to fight or organizing a Class D felony. Attending or allowing a minor to attend a Class A misdemeanor. | S |
| Elections | SB244 | Order of appearance on the ballot for statewide candidates shall be assigned randomly for each congressional district. | R. Mills |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
The old system seems quite convoluted. Random assignment seems reasonable, no real issue with this.
It doesn’t seem to specify how counties that are in multiple congressional districts are handled… |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB245 | Prohibits a public agency from employing or contacting with a lobbyist. Prohibits a public servant from using influence in a matter under the purview of the GA. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Much needed. Our tax money should not be spent lobbying against the interests of the taxpayers. | S |
| Education | SB246 | If material is determined to be too graphic to be read or shown at a school board meeting then it must be removed from schools. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Same as HB191. Simple bill, clever concept. Amendment: Perhaps include also that if something can’t be shown on broadcast TV by the FCC, then it also doesn’t belong in a K-12 school. |
L |
| Health | SB247 | Estab diagnosis criteria for sepsis for the purpose of coding for Medicare and Medicaid. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good, seems mostly a technical improvement. Same as HB477. |
S |
| Transportation | SB248 | Shell Bill. | J. Higdon |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB249 | Reqs anyone convicted of a “criminal offense toward a minor” to use a their full legal name on any social media account; otherwise, class A MisD or Class D Felony.. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Interesting idea. This general section of the law refers to convicted (felony) sex offenders on the registry. My central concern is the limitation on liberty and what sorts of criminal offenses should limit those. The general rule is that Felony convictions lead to limitations on liberty (eg #2A). Also, there is always a question of how long denial of those liberties should last. Perhaps an argument could be made that a misdemeanor charge related to grooming, stalking, indecent exposure, or violating a protective order toward a minor makes one more of a risk for online bad behavior… This would be an interesting committee discussion. |
L |
| Education | SB250 | Shell Bill. | S. West |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Education | SB251 | Shell Bill. | S. West |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Education | SB252 | Shell Bill. | S. West |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Education | SB253 | Shell Bill. | S. West |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Education | SB254 | Shell Bill. | S. West |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| SB255 | This bill establishes the parameters for a social worker to service a client via commonly used equipment for telehealth work and includes privacy protections. | J. Adams | |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
This bill allows for a social worker to provide a service to a client via secure communications technology equipment. The social worker is required to disclose to the client the potential risks to privacy and confidentiality of information due to the use of technology. This bill requires that all HIPAA rules will be followed. The bill establishes procedures for the social worker to follow regarding the use of telehealth processes such as establishing an alternate means of contact in the event of telehealth technical interruption. The social worker is not to engage in fee-splitting with other telehealth providers or entities. The social worker is required to make a reasonable attempt to verify and document the physical location of the client at the time of service. The social worker is also required to provide to the client an alternate means of communicating to the social worker. | M |
| Education | SB256 | AN ACT relating to school meals at low-income schools. | C. Armstrong |
| SB257 | AN ACT proposing an amendment to Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to restoration of rights. | G. Neal | |
| Education | SB258 | AN ACT relating to student journalist freedom. | G. Neal |
| Govt Regs | SB259 | AN ACT relating to the board of the West End Opportunity Partnership. | D. Harper Angel |
| *Passed Senate | |||
| Govt Regs | SB260 | Shell Bill. | R. Mills |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | SB261 | No employer who ceases participation in state health insurance plan shall be eligible to participate in the future. Reqs minimal participation duration for all benefits administered by the Personnel Cabinet. Reqs coverage to pay over 60 percent of in network costs. Adds vision coverage. | M. Nemes |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Do not like the removal of the ability of a covered individual to have coverage in another county if their home county doesn’t offer select services. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB262 | AN ACT relating to gun safety for children. | G. Neal |
| Education | SB263 | AN ACT relating to education. | G. Neal |
| Govt Regs | SB264 | AN ACT relating to state holidays and declaring an emergency. | G. Neal |
| Education | SB265 | Elim req to pass the GRE before receiving a provisional 1 year (renewable up to 4 years) teaching certificate via “Option 7”. | M. Deneen |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
No problem with this. Speeds up the certification process allowing a person to be teaching while waiting to pass some certification exams. | L |
| Business Regs | SB266 | Protect people from engaging in commerce by an online ‘bot’ or artificial intelligence software. | B. Smith |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | It shall be unlawful for any person to use a bot to communicate or interact with another person in Kentucky online, with the intent to mislead the other person about its artificial identity for the purpose of knowingly deceiving the person about the content of the communication in order to incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction. If a transaction is completed and the ‘bot’ has told the consumer that they are communicating with a ‘bot’ then the transaction will not be considered a violation of this bill. A violation of this bill will allow the Attorney General to pursue action under the Consumer Protection Act. This bill shall not be construed to impose a duty on a service provider (ISP-internet service provider) or a web hosting facility. L: VERY interesting bill that I think it pretty cutting edge. It probably needs a thorough committee review to iron out any kinks and get people up to speed on the issue. |
M / L |
| Health | SB267 | Allows a person in KY to refuse to take meds that have only been approved for emergency use. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | A person can refuse to have administered to them any drug, device or biologic that has only been approved by the secretary of the US Food and Drug Admin. for emergency use. It also requires that the person be advised of the medical consequences for refusing and also be advised if there are alternatives available and the risks and benefits of the alternatives. It is a one page bill. This reminds me of the covid shot situation in which businesses would require an employee to take the covid shot to remain employed. | M |
| Health | SB268 | Shell Bill. | D. Carroll |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Education | SB269 | Require postsecondary institutions offering bachelor’s degrees include at least 3 credit hours related to the study of the U.S. government. | J. Schickel |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | This should be done in high school so that all high school graduates have that knowledge. | S |
| Health | SB270 | Defines health care provider. Defines qualifications for exemption of prior authorization. | J. Howell |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | A lot of changes/clarification in this bill. Need a good committee review. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB271 | Shell Bill. | D. Carroll |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Other | SB272 | Shell Bill. | R. Mills |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. Technical changes are minor enough to make this a possible shell bill. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB273 | Prevents the executive branch from hiring any lobbyist. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Very Short and simple bill. Any of the lobbyist control bills (eg SB120, SB379), including this one, would be an improvement. Amendment: Main issue with this is simply that it isn’t ambitious enough. |
L |
| SB274 | Allows members of the Teachers’ Retirement System to recover up to 10 unpaid days missed due to observe religious holiday. | L. Tichenor | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Same bill as SB279. They had sick days they could have used. Only have to work 185 days and already allowed 5 unpaid days. | S |
| Education | SB275 | Withdrawn | L. Tichenor |
| Withdrawn. | S | ||
| Courts & Crimes | SB276 | Allows for a civil action against a website that provides pornographic content without age verification. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Must verify person is 18 or older. Must not keep verification data. | S |
| Other | SB277 | Technical correction. | R. Mills |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Updating the name of an Interim Joint committee. No issue. | L |
| Elections | SB278 | Shell Bill. | R. Mills |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| SB279 | Allows members of the Teachers’ Retirement System to recover up to 10 unpaid days missed to observe religious holidays. | S. West | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Same bill as SB274. See review for it. | S |
| Health | SB280 | Allows Pikeville U to receive the same reimbursement rate (which rate?) as the other teaching hospitals in the state. | P. Wheeler |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Seems reasonable, Pikeville does have a med school, but there are a lot of different reimbursement rates, which is this referring to? I thought the Federal Gov’t is the one that reimburses hospitals for Medicare/Medicaid, what does state law have to do with it? Why does this not require a fiscal impact statement? Amendment: be specific about which reimbursement rates are being matched? |
L |
| Health | SB281 | Allows UK and UL to only receive a heightened reimbursement rates (from Federal CMS) within their home counties. | P. Wheeler |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Wouldn’t this result in UK, and hence taxpayers and patients in the state, getting less reimbursement from the federal gov’t and hence worse healthcare? How does THAT help the state? | L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB282 | Require that the appointment of a public advocate be approved by the Senate. | P. Wheeler |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Senate is not in session year-round so would create too many delays. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB283 | Provides that the Department of Corrections contract with the county to provide services to house state prisoners. Prohibits overpricing of housing charges. | J. Higdon |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Good requirements but not a high priority. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB284 | Bans hostile foreign gov’ts, and their affiliated biz and citizens from buying any more KY farmland. | M. Wise |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | Another iteration of a ban on foreign ownership of farm land (eg HB500 in RS23). I’m not entirely opposed, but the core questions are: Why is it a good idea to limit the acquisition of land by simple citizens (not gov’ts themselves) of even hostile foreign gov’t? What is particular about farmland, why would it be OK to purchase a house or business but not farmland? China’s purchases have made a lot of news recently, esp. near military installations. If the issue is national security, perhaps distance from a military base restriction might be more targeted to the purpose. Concerns: Assuming there is a good reason for this… It doesn’t seem that this applies to already existing ownership interests (Sec. 2(3)), why if there is a real risk here? Amendment: I worry that this is targeting citizens of other countries, when the real issue is with that country’s gov’t itself (or maybe closely aligned biz), and this might hurt overall investment. Just restrict this to the gov’t and affiliated businesses. A simple citizen of another country (even a dual citizen would seem to fall under this) should be able to invest like anyone else in America. |
L |
| SB285 | Shell Bill. | M. Wise | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| SB286 | Shell Bill. | M. Wise | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB287 | Specify that the Governor shall submit a separate recommendation for the Transportation Cabinet. | C. McDaniel |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Could be a shell bill. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | SB288 | Technical correction. | C. McDaniel |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | LRC shall assist the Judicial in preparation of not just their Budget request but also supporting documents. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB289 | Technical correction. | C. McDaniel |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Minor change referencing paragraphs under subsections in bills. | L |
| Govt Regs | SB290 | Various changes related to the classified service within the Personnel Cabinet. | C. McDaniel |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
No issue with this. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB291 | AN ACT relating to discriminatory practices against a person. | G. Neal |
| Elections | SB292 | AN ACT relating to elections. | G. Neal |
| Courts & Crimes | SB293 | AN ACT relating to hate crimes. | G. Neal |
| Transportation | SB294 | Removes possible suspension of an operators license for a delinquent taxpayer. Create a medical review board for considering physical and mental competency to drive. Establish who may report to the board. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good recommendations but not a high priority. | S |
| Health | SB295 | Prohibits the req of a COVID vax for student enrollment, employment, or medical treatment. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Is the bill prohibiting getting the COVID vax for: (1) student enrollment, student employment, or student medical treatment, or (2) employment, medical treatment, or student enrollment? I’m fine with either as these COVID mandats have been a complete debacle, but there’s some ambiguity in the English language there. |
L |
| Business Regs | SB296 | Referring to workers compensation: Provide that failure to submit a statement within 45 days may render a statement ineligible. Allow ” medical professionals ” to provide testimony through medical reports. Include unemployment benefits in wage calculation. Require parties to attempt a settlement. Add the University of Pikeville to schools that the commissioner shall contract with to evaluate workers. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Biggest change is to allow list of “medical professionals” to replace physician in being able to evaluate and testify. | S |
| Health | SB297 | Exempts PACE service providers from licensure requirements and CON. | B. Storm |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) *Passed Senate |
Good anytime we can remove CON and licensure requirements. CON exemption removed in committee. Needs to be put back in. | S |
| Transportation | SB298 | Establish that a transportation network company (ride hailing service) is not liable for harm to persons and property unless there is direct negligence. A TNC or a TNC driver is not a common carrier. | R. Girdler |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | Need to include a stipulations that the company is required to ensure its drivers have proper insurance coverage. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB299 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Elections | SB300 | Eliminates Vote Centers, leaving all elections to be precinct based with the allowance of a small precinct to use a nearby precinct. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | I much prefer precinct level voting to vote centers, as it tends to encourage rural voting in particular. I do think that allowing vote centers as an option for clerks (which is an elected position) allows flexibility and local control. We really need to fund our elections better to stop incentivizing the transition to Vote Centers; THAT’S the core issue here. |
L |
| Health | SB301 | Removes from any criminal liability any assisted reproduction provider following stand of care. | C. Armstrong |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Basically, this officially protects IVF providers. The legislation is unnecessary as no Kentucky law assigns such criminal liability, to my knowledge none are planned, and if such a law WERE to be planned it would just strike out this new statute. In my read on sentiment, there is little to no appetite for legislation on this topic one way or the other, inside or outside of the GA, right now. Why try to split the Republican Caucus for legislation that accomplishes nothing? |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB302 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Agriculture | SB303 | Shell bill. | J. Howell |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Shell bill. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB304 | AN ACT relating to codes of ethics for local governments. | D. Yates |
| Health | SB305 | Exempts various types of medical facilities from Certificate of Need restrictions. | G. Williams |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Removed exemptions apply to: psychiatric hospitals; physical rehabilitation hospitals; chemical dependency programs or centers; hospices; home health agencies; kidney disease treatment centers; freestanding hemodialysis units; alcohol abuse, drug abuse, rehabilitative, and mental health services; Behavioral health services; Chronic renal dialysis. Fine with all of these exemptions. I’m not sure what the resistance to certificate of need is anyway (the only things I have heard is worrying about rural hospitals closing, when the biggest opposition to CON is in urban/suburban NKY), so maybe the opposition isn’t to these things. |
L |
| Business Regs | SB306 | Requires any person, business or agency to accept cash as payment in face-to-face transactions. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This has been needed for awhile. L: This is a crucial safeguard against tracking of all purchases by gov’t or corporate entities, and esp. important with the emergence of CBDCs. The statement on US currency that this is for all debt, public or private actually has no functional meaning in federal law (though it should). |
S / L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB307 | Establishes procedures for investigating alleged violations of federal and state law by certified waiver providers. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Requires providers to accept a moratorium while investigating, removed when corrected or successfully appealed. | S |
| Taxes & Spending | SB308 | Raises the amount of tax revenues raised by school districts to be equalled by state funding from 15 percent to 17.5 percent. | S. West |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Already increasing state funding in the budget. More is not necessary. | S |
| Business Regs | SB309 | Increases the threshold for creation of escrow accounts for real estate improvement contracts from $500K to two million. | G. Elkins |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | $500K is a reasonable amount. | S |
| Agriculture | SB310 | Shell Bill. | J. Howell |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | SB311 | Shell bill. | J. Howell |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Shell bill. | S |
| Business Regs | SB312 | AN ACT relating to telecommunicators. | R. Webb |
| Taxes & Spending | SB313 | Estab the sustainable aviation fuel tax credit and the feedstock production tax credit each for 10 years. | S. Funke Frommeyer |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | $2.50 per gallon credit. This is a corporate give away for some “green” energy concept. | S |
| Other | SB314 | Prohibits any rule, regulation, tax, fee or mandate by the World Health Organization, United Nations, World Economic Forum or any other international organization from having jurisdiction in Kentucky. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Very simple and to the point. Great bill. L: I’m not necessarily opposed to this bill, but the Federal gov’t is responsible for all international treaties and those treaties have sovereignty. I just think there are some legal issues here that need to be sorted out in committee/interim. |
S / L |
| Education | SB315 | Reqs schools to protect Jewish student who face credible threats and to defund and remove any student organization that “materially supports” a US designated foreign terrorist organization. | L. Tichenor |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Very similar to HB826. This one is superior in small ways in most respects. There is the core of a really good bill here. The one thing this bill lacks that HB826 doesn’t is Section (2)(2)(b) in HB826, which prohibits any state funding for schools / universities that don’t protect their Jewish students from credible threats or which allow student orgs to “materially support” designated foreign terrorist organizations. Amendment: The core problem with this bill is, why is it singling out Jewish students? Why doesn’t ANY student deserve protection from credible threats, and doesn’t any designated terrorist organization deserve opposition? Why are we codifying special religious or ethnic group protections into law? JUST TAKE EVERY REFERENCE TO ANTI_SEMITISM OUT OF THE BILL, make it about ALL credible threats of violence against students and opposition to ALL foreign terrorist organizations. Amendment: I worry that “materially support” will be used to curtail 1st Amendment protected speech. |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB316 | Estab the Keep KY Free of Litter Fund financed by incr fines for littering. Set up a cash reward for the 20 peace officers with the highest littering convictions. | G. Boswell |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | With littering fines already at $500 in places, not sure this would work… but ok with the fines. Amendment: I’m not sure that giving policing volume rewards is a great way to go; it sets up a potentially perverse incentive. Prosecute the people you see, esp. murders, robberies and assaults, don’t go hunting littering crimes. Instead, just use the fund that this sets up to fund supplies (like dumpster service, trash bags, etc.) for volunteer litter removal activities and groups. People are willing to help clean up, but renting a dumpster is not cheap, help people who want to do good execute it. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB317 | Estab property rights for individual’s name, voice and likeness. | W. Westerfield |
| Support | High (Pass this session) *Passed Senate |
Much needed with the advent of new AI intelligence. | S |
| SB318 | Shell Bill. | W. Westerfield | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB319 | AN ACT relating to victims of crime. | D. Harper Angel |
| *Passed Senate | |||
| Health | SB320 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB321 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| SB322 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. Unnecessary technical change. |
L |
| Elections | SB323 | Constitutional amendment to only allow U.S. citizens to vote. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Very important with the influx of illegal aliens in the last several years. L: good bill but there is a bill sponsored by M Meredith and J Howell in the Senate that seem to have gotten the fast-track here. |
S |
| Health | SB324 | Prohibits a health service provider from requiring an employee to enter a covenant not to compete. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | An employee after leaving a provider should be able to go to any other provider for employment. This happens in healthcare, I’ve only heard of it in high tech and with executives? | S |
| Govt Regs | SB325 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | ALERT! 2 leadership members as cosponsors!! Be on the lookout. | L |
| Health | SB326 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| SB327 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| SB328 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Transportation | SB329 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| SB330 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| SB331 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB332 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. To what other department are we referring? |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB333 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB334 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. Technical change is unnecessary. |
L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB335 | Allocates funds from the Juul case settlement to the smoking cessation program. | J. Howell |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Same as HB813. What was changed here? Did they forget to bold and underline it? In any event, this seems like the obvious destination for these funds. |
L |
| Govt Regs | SB336 | Estab legal def of what a male is and what a female is. | L. Tichenor |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | SAME AS HB390. Establish that a male, man or boy is one that can normally produce sperm. It also establishes that a girl, female or woman is one who would normally produce ova. It states that there are two sexes, male and female. It also provides that under certain circumstances that it shall not be construed to prohibit separation of the sexes in the interest of maintaining safety, privacy, and fairness as specified in this section of the bill. In maintaining safety, privacy, and fairness, the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions and instrumentalities may provide single-sex environments for males and females where the sexes are not similarly situated, particularly with respect to biology. As illustrative, non-exhaustive examples, public entities in the Commonwealth may distinguish between the sexes with respect to prisons and other detention centers, athletics, living facilities, locker rooms, bathrooms, domestic violence shelters, and rape crisis centers without violating antidiscrimination mandates. I copied in some text from the actual bill as I couldn’t have said it any better. |
M |
| Health | SB337 | Estab Office of Medicinal Cannabis, adjust conditions a Cannabis card can be prescribed for, various related provisions. | S. West |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Very long bill, but mostly uncontroversial is you think medicinal cannabis should be legal. We should be clear, cannabis is still a Schedule 1 drug by the Federal Gov’t (FDA) classification, meaning: The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical treatment use in the U.S. The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse. It has a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. By allowing medicinal cannabis we are stating that we think the FDA is simply WRONG about cannabis.Conditions added here which should be relatively uncontroversial, if we accept that Cannabis actually helps them: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, sickle cell disease, cachexia or wasting syndrome, neuropathies, muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s disease, HIV, AIDS, glaucoma, and terminal illnesses. They are easy to prove that you have them. Amendment: I’m OK with medicinal cannabis if the GA wants it, but it should be for only clear disease or symptom remediation. These condition are much harder or even impossible to definitively diagnosis and including them opens this up for a free for all: Arthritis, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel disease. We also need to eliminate, “muscle spasms”. |
L |
| Education | SB338 | Limits electronic communications between school staff and students to a single “traceable communication system”. | L. Tichenor |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Low (Can wait) | What is an example of such a “Traceable communication system”? Maybe I’m drawing a blank, but I have no idea of what this is envisioning. | L |
| Education | SB339 | Shell Bill. | D. Thayer |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Govt Regs | SB340 | Makes some minor technical updates, incl committee names. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Possible shell bill, but updates some committee names. | L |
| Govt Regs | SB341 | Shell Bill. | P. Wheeler |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB342 | Shell Bill. | P. Wheeler |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | L |
| Courts & Crimes | SB343 | Reqs the Dep of Juvenile Justice to establish a local restorative justice committee in each county. | B. Storm |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | This is intended to discover why juvenile crimes happen and how to prevent. Not sure how much impact a committee can have. | S |
| Health | SB344 | Develop a registry of vaping products sold by retailers and distributors. Establish fees and penalties for enforcement. | B. Storm |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | This reeks of a Soviet style suppression of a legal product under the boot of an enforcement system targeting retailers. The only part I can support is pushing back against marketing to minors. | S |
| Business Regs | SB345 | Estab internet data protection for minors. | B. Storm |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | I would like to see this be expanded to include adults. | S |
| Business Regs | SB346 | Reqs the Sec of State to develop the KY One-stop Business Portal to facilitate interactions between business and government. | S. Funke Frommeyer |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | If this were set up properly, it could be a benefit to businesses to find out what codes, statutes and regulations affect their business. | S |
| Health | SB347 | Reqs an assessment of a homeless defendant for a behavioral health disorder, preference for participation in the behavioral health conditional dismissal program if eligible. Removes the req that the initial vocational screening be done in person. Remove a misdemeanor as a qualifying offense. | W. Westerfield |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Nothing too bad but not a high priority. | S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB348 | Reqs retired police officers to complete the firearms qualification once every 5 years to concealed carry. | B. Smith |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | They should have the right to carry for self defense no matter their marksmanship ability. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB349 | Creates an energy commission and dictates energy policy for the state. | R. Mills |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Why do we need an energy commission? Why should the legislature be dictating which plants should be kept open, etc? Shouldn’t this be left to the energy companies themselves to determine what makes the most sense for their customers? L: I agree that we don’t need any other commissions. This commission is proposed to provide a similar function to the already existing Public Service Commission; just broaden the responsibility of the PSC (if the idea ISN’T to determine the result). In any event, these commissions are just set up with cherry-picked members to give justification for a decisions that have really already been made (just codify the predetermined decision in the law). I AM sympathetic to retaining coal as part of the energy mix for the state (I thought SB4, I think, from RS23 already required coal-fire plants to not be shut down if we can’t provide reliable power without it), and having an all-of-the-above approach. The real issue here is that the Federal gov’t is making coal unaffordable. How can we (and can it even be done?) realistically fight the federal gov’t? |
R / L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB350 | Increases compensation of legislators. | D. Thayer |
| Only If Amended | Low (Can wait) | These salaries and compensations look extremely generous for a part-time legislature. L: Agreed, these are full-time salaries, for sure. Now, the majority leadership in each chamber probably are in Frankfort or otherwise seriously working 1/2 of the days, I get that. Scale these down 15-20% and maybe we are talking. |
R / L |
| Taxes & Spending | SB351 | Amends the KY Constitution to eliminate tax on the homestead of a disabled veteran and surviving spouse. | A. Southworth |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | This would apply no matter how large the homestead or how wealthy the person. This does not seem to be an appropriate way to compensate veterans. We also do not need a constitutional amendment on the ballot that a lot of people will vote “No” on, when we need them to vote “Yes” on the school choice amendment. | R |
| Courts & Crimes | SB352 | Removes a judge’s ability to proceed against a person for indictment by libel or slander relating to judicial conduct in court. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | They are our servants, not above criticism. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB353 | Allows constables alternative training to be certified to exercise police officer powers. Constable to bear cost of training and have yearly in-service training. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Good requirement. We elect them. May as well give them power to enforce our laws. | S |
| Courts & Crimes | SB354 | Reqs open hearings in all juvenile cases. Remove immunity of persons reporting child dependency, neglect and abuse and participation in a judicial hearing… | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Also removes req of malice for falsely reporting & sovereign immunity of the state.
Very good recommendations. People’s lives can be ruined with false accusations. |
S |
| Govt Regs | SB355 | AN ACT proposing an amendment to Section 32 of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to terms of members of the General Assembly. | D. Yates |
| SB356 | Direct the state portion of the property tax on commercial watercraft to the riverport financial assistance trust fund. | J. Howell | |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good allocation of resources to where they will benefit port infrastructure and the payer of the tax. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB357 | Reqs boat owners to have an insurance policy that includes wreckage removal. | G. Williams |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | This establishes a derelict vessel removal assistance fund to remove abandoned, derelict boats. It also requires boat owners to have an insurance policy that includes wreckage removal. | R |
| Education | SB358 | Allows GA to fund education outside of the common (public) schools. | G. Williams |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This language is somewhat close to HB208 Amendment 1 (without specific means testing language), and much better than the current language of HB2. (See detailed commentary on those bills.) I assume this is the compromise bill that leadership has decided to run with. I could quibble, I think means testing language is borderline necessary to pass on the ballot, but I could live with this and just hope Trump turnout and info campaigns push it toward pass. |
L |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB359 | AN ACT relating to peace officer training. | K. Berg |
| Education | SB360 | Direct secondary SBDM councils to adopt policies relating to advanced courses. Require the development of accelerated courses. Establish a pilot monetary program for students and teachers. | S. West |
| Only If Amended | Medium (Committee review+) | Don’t have a problem with giving producing teachers a monetary reward but not for the students. They will get rewarded with postsecondary scholarships. | S |
| SB361 | Reimburse a utility pole owner who replaces pole in order to connect to broadband. | G. Williams | |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Follows the plan to connect the whole state. | S |
| Health | SB362 | AN ACT proposing to create a new section of the Constitution of Kentucky relating to the possession of cannabis. | D. Yates |
| Taxes & Spending | SB363 | AN ACT relating to tax rebates for certain state-owned facilities. | D. Yates |
| Business Regs | SB364 | Reqs retail electric suppliers have a plan to provide adequate reliable electricity at the lowest possible cost. States that suppliers have a privilege, rather than a right, to provide service. | P. Wheeler |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | Really good requirements. Particularly like that if a supplier is notified that they have a problem supplying their customers and fail to correct, another supplier is allowed to provide service there. | S |
| SB365 | AN ACT relating to loss of consortium. | D. Yates | |
| Business Regs | SB366 | Reqs the State Police to provide training for forensic lab technicians. Contracted to stay with the Department for five years or repay the cost of the training. | J. Turner |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement. | S |
| Health | SB367 | Estab KY all-payer claims database. Reqs state regulated health payers to report to it. Estab penalties for noncompliance up to $1000 per day. State and federal agencies not subject to penalties. Creates a huge advisory board. | D. Douglas |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) | Another huge expenditure of tax money for a program that does not promise to have the result you may hope for. Data will accumulate, one person will say it means this, while another will say something completely different. L: |
S / L |
| Business Regs | SB368 | Reqs short term residential rentals to register with the Dep for Housing, Buildings and Construction, submit themselves to inspection. | G. Williams |
| Oppose | Oppose (bad bill) *Passed Senate |
It is not necessary for the government to oversee and control every aspect of society. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB369 | Estab the Division of Program Policy and Support within the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. Estab the Department for Disability Determination Services in the Education and Labor Cabinet. | M. Nemes |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
Not sure how much impact this will have. Not a high priority. | S |
| SB370 | Shell bill | J. Carpenter | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | S |
| SB371 | Shell bill | J. Carpenter | |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | Be on the lookout. | S |
| Transportation | SB372 | Allows for the disposal of involuntarily towed vehicles by a towing and storage company. | J. Carpenter |
| Oppose | Oppose (friendly) | This is already allowed by KRS 376.275. Could perhaps be a shell bill. | S |
| Health | SB373 | Limits the liability of facilities and providers that provide procedures relating to in vitro fertilization. | W. Westerfield |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | Good requirement. L: This needs an interim session to clarify, no need to rush into this. I am fine with the lack of criminal liability here, but lack of civil liability when this could eliminate the ability of people to have children? That seems like a stretch (even noting that it doesn’t apply to willful negligence etc.). |
S |
| Firearms, Military & 1st Resp | SB374 | AN ACT relating to employees of the Department of Kentucky State Police. | D. Yates |
| SB375 | AN ACT relating to property. | D. Yates | |
| Govt Regs | SB376 | Rename and restructure units within the Office of the Attorney General. | G. Elkins |
| Support | Low (Can wait) *Passed Senate |
I would assume this has been approved by our current Attorney General. If so, no problem with this, but not sure it needs emergency status. | S |
| Education | SB377 | Specify that a Board of Ed cannot appoint the superintendent as secretary of the board. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Need to have a separation there. | S |
| Education | SB378 | Reqs superintendents submit an annual charitable contribution report to Dep of Ed for publication. Prohibits selling or using information about individual donors. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Low (Can wait) | Would be good to know in some cases whether donations are affecting decisions of the school boards, particularly with construction plans. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB379 | Reqs lobbyists to file registration statement. Reqs Dep of Local Gov’t to publish list of lobbyists annually. Reqs lobbyists for school system to register with the Dep of Ed. Req school boards and local gov’ts to estab code of ethics relating to lobbying. | A. Southworth |
| Support w/ amendment suggestions | Medium (Committee review+) | 2 bills pushed together: Comprehensive bill on registration of lobbyists, then requirements for school system lobbyists. The idea here is good: We should know who is lobbying our government, who is paying them and what they are receiving for their efforts. L: What is wrong with the current definition of lobbyists (legislative agents), and why isn’t this modifying that section of the KRS Chapter 6? It feels like this is going to creating overlapping (probably conflicting) sets of regulations here. |
S / L |
| Transportation | SB380 | Estab who is allowed to use automated license plate readers, parameters for privacy protection. Allows State Police to establish an annual review process. | A. Southworth |
| Support | High (Pass this session) | This is the most comprehensive bill I have seen for protection of privacy rights for citizens wrt AI license-plate readers. | S |
| Govt Regs | SB381 | Reqs new state employee compensation not exceed or equal incumbent employee salary. Change state employee annual increment to 2% (currently 5%). Prohibit participation in management of any political party in campaigns for statewide office. | A. Southworth |
| Support | Medium (Committee review+) | Also, allows classified employees to participate as a member of a local political party committee or member of a partisan political club or to be a candidate for nomination or election to any paid partisan public office.
Most of these are reasonable adjustments. |
S |
| Health | SB382 | AN ACT relating to the regulation of cannabis and making an appropriation therefor. | D. Yates |