Legislation Detail
Download a Printable PDF of these Detailed Evaluations (with direct links to bills)
DISCLAIMER: These evaluations are preliminary (1st/2nd draft) with 1 or 2 people from the OCGOP Legislative Committee having read the legislation, with limited collaboration and discussion. More thorough evaluation will come. The 2022 Session will include both Legislative Redistricting and 2-Year Budget decisions.
| Category Type | Bill & Summary Support Level & Evaluation |
Reviewer & Priority | |
| Education & Schools | HB14 (BR60) |
Amend KRS 158.183 to require a local board of education or board of a public charter school to ensure that no public school or public charter school offers any classroom instruction or discussion that incorporates designated concepts related to race, sex, and religion; provide that a school district employee that violates the prohibition is subject to disciplinary action; authorize the Attorney General to enforce the prohibition; authorize a penalty of $5,000 for each day a violation persists after the Attorney General issues notification that a violation has occurred; require the commissioner of education to deduct the penalty from funds distributed to a school district; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to provide that no student enrolled at a public postsecondary education institution shall be required to engage in any form of mandatory gender or sexual diversity training or counseling; title the Act the “Education Non-Discrimination Act”; EMERGENCY. | Lisa |
| J. Fischer | Support | Lance: How does this compare to BR69? BR60 Has stronger specific enforcement mechanisms. Need the best (most expansive and strongest) parts of both. Our taxpayer dollars should not be funding left-wing ideological indoctrination (teacher do not, and should not, be allowed to teach whatever they, their unions, or left-wing academics want). |
High |
| Education & Schools | HB18 (BR69) |
Amend KRS 158.183 to require a local board of education or board of a public charter school to ensure that no public school or public charter school offers any classroom instruction or discussion that promotes designated concepts related to race, sex, and religion; provide that a school district employee that violates the prohibition is subject to disciplinary action; amend KRS 164.348 to prohibit classroom instruction or discussion that incorporates designated concepts related to race, sex, and religion at public postsecondary education institutions; EMERGENCY. | Lindsey |
| M. Lockett | Support | Bill reiterates a student’s rights to religious or political expression in schools, classwork, artwork, announcements etc, with protections from discrimination. Board of ed ensures nothing is taught or promoted that places one race, sex, religion above another, no discrimination or special treatment based on race, sex, religion. Nothing is taught or promoted that bears responsibility of past onto present person of certain race, religion, sex. School district employee can face punishment for violating these statutes. | High |
| Education & Schools | HB85 (BR274) |
Amend KRS 164.786 to increase the dual credit tuition rate ceiling amount; add eligibility for high school freshmen and sophomores; add career and technical education courses to the Dual Credit Scholarship; amend KRS 164.787 to delete the dual credit provisions from the Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship Program. | Ed Committee |
| J. Tipton | Uncertain/ Support | Lance: Do we really need college classes for sophomores and freshmen? This shouldn’t become a college subsidy program and there should be restriction to courses that are (a) NOT provided by student’s school and (b) preferably math, hard science and technical classes; not social sciences, arts & humanities | Low |
| Education & Schools | HB63 (BR440) |
Amend KRS 158.4414 to require the assignment of school resource officers to schools by August 1, 2022. | Lance |
| K. Bratcher | Support | Some Law (?), passed with the past 4 years, requires schools to provide SROs, if there are funds available. Despite COVID cash influx, JCPS, for one, refuses to fund them. Not only do they help in the event of a school shooter, they also allow possibility for interactions between students and law enforcement in a safe environment. |
Medium |
| Education & Schools | HB80 (BR360) |
Establish a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to require the Kentucky Department of Education to pay for any costs not reimbursed by federal funds for the operation of the federal school breakfast and lunch programs. | Ed Committee |
| A. Scott | Uncertain | School lunch programs are widely supported in terms of spending priorities (and geerally a good spending priority). However, this seems it could be a means to shift local cost overruns to the state. Need more info. | Low |
| Education & Schools | BR185 | Amend KRS 159.035 to require a local school district’s attendance policy to include provisions for a student’s mental or behavioral health status. | Ed Committee |
| B. McCool | Support / Uncertain | Generally it seems a good idea that school districts have this (we don’t want legitimately mentally disturbed kids in school). Perhaps this should just be a local policy issue though, esp. given the wide range of issues some psychologists might sign off on. | Low |
| Education & Schools | HB67 (BR427) |
Amend KRS 156.160 to require public middle and high school curriculum to include instruction on the history of racism. | Ed Committee |
| A. Scott | Oppose / Uncertain | Trojan Horse legislation. Nobody opposes accurate coverage of slavery (including its continuation to this day and existence outside of America; or the Barbary Wars)… but this will be used as a stalking horse / sanction to introduce CRT and “anti-racist” propaganda every grade for indefinite duration. | Low |
| Education & Schools | HB121 (BR947) |
Amend KRS 160.270 to require a public comment period at local board of education meetings. | Lance |
| R. Huff | Support | School board meetings are required to be viewable, but public comment period is not required. It should be. CAVEAT: Should be at least 3 minutes per speaker (or at least 2 minutes per speaker, if more than 15 public speakers), not 15 minutes total. Also, board must make viewpoint non-discriminative code of conduct policy for public speakers. | Medium |
| Education & Schools | HB126 (BR973) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to require completion of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form as a high school graduation requirement; provide waiver options for meeting the requirement; require local boards of education to develop policies and procedures to assist students in completing the requirement; require the Kentucky Department of Education to develop a process for local districts to report student data. | Lance |
| R. Huff | Oppose | While this is fine for students considering college, college is not right for all students. This creates yet ANOTHER gov’t agency monitoring citizen’s (esp. parental) finances, serves as a means for colleges to target more marginal academic students for debt, and creates yet another graduation req. | Low |
| Education & Schools | HB130 (BR1095) |
Amend KRS 164.348 to define “institution,” “public,” and “staff”; require an institution to adopt a policy to not restrict off-campus speech; extend free speech protections to staff and the public; provide that student religious and political organizations shall be afforded equal access to facilities; provide that authority vested with a student organization to distribute student organization funding shall be contingent on viewpoint-neutral distribution of those funds; provide that there shall be no buffer zones to outdoor areas used as traditional public forums; reduce institution’s authority to establish permit requirements; specify how an institution defines student-on-student harassment; waive immunity for claims brought under the Act; permit disciplinary action against a faculty member or administrator that knowingly and intentionally restricts the protected speech of another; suspend the distribution authority of a student organization that does not distribute student organization funding in accordance with the Act; prohibit retaliation against campus community members; require Council on Postsecondary Education to develop free speech instructional materials and model trainings for institutions; require institutions to present free speech instructional materials and trainings to designated individuals; require institutions to publish semiannual student organization funding reports; designate the required contents of the semiannual student organization funding report. | Lance |
| S. Maddox | Support | Great bill. It’s time that our PUBLIC higher education institutions begin respecting & PROMOTING the values the taxpayers of our (the taxpayers) community. Among those is broad respect for the 1st Amendment. | High |
| Education & Schools | HB257 / SB34 | Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to authorize participation in a public school interscholastic extracurricular activity by an at-home private school student; establish criteria for participation; require a parent, guardian, or teacher of an at-home private school student participating in a public school interscholastic activity to verify the student’s academic progress; declare a public school student who does not make academic progress at a public school and withdraws and enters an at-home private school program ineligible for participation in an interscholastic activity for the remainder of the school year; direct statute be cited as the Play Fair Kentucky Act. | Lance |
| R. Dotson | Support | Great Bill. Removes a major barrier/disincentive to home schooling by allowing homeschoolers to participate in the local public school’s interscholatic extracurricular activities (sports, academic teams, marching bands I assume?). Their parents pay tax money too. Why only INTERscholastic? Why not school plays/musicals, symphony, engineering/robotics club, for instance? |
High cc: SB 34 |
| Education & Schools | SB1 (BR426) |
Amend KRS 160.345 to require that the superintendent instead of the council determines curriculum after consulting with the principal and school council and after a stakeholder response period; require allocations to schools by local boards be determined by the principal after consultation with the council instead of being determined by the council; alter principal hiring process requiring principal to be selected by the superintendent after consultation with school council; require council members to sign a nondisclosure agreement prior to consultation; allow for a complaint process and removal of a council member for violation of the nondisclosure agreement; amend KRS 158.6453 to require the Kentucky Department of Education to provide guidelines for effective writing programs to all districts instead of all schools; remove the requirement for schools to submit policies determining the writing program to KDE. | Lance |
| High | |||
| Culture War-Specific Issues | HB11 (BR45) |
Amend KRS 344.010 to include definitions for “sexual orientation” and “gender identity”; amend KRS 344.020, relating to the purpose of the Kentucky’s civil rights chapter, to include a prohibition against discrimination because of sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.025, 344.040, 344.050, 344.060, 344.070, and 344.080, relating to prohibited discrimination in various labor and employment practices, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.100 and 344.110 to conform; amend KRS 344.120 and 342.140, relating to prohibited discrimination in places of public accommodation and advertisements therefor, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.170, 344.180, 344.190, 344.300, and 344.310, relating to the state and local human rights commissions, to include prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the scope of their powers and duties; amend KRS 344.360, 344.370, 344.380, and 344.680, relating to prohibited discrimination in certain housing, real estate, and other financial transactions, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.367, relating to prohibited discrimination in certain insurance sales, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; amend KRS 344.400, relating to prohibited discrimination in certain credit transactions, to include sexual orientation and gender identity; make various technical amendments; amend KRS 18A.095 to conform. | Pam |
| L. Willner | Oppose, pending futher discussion |
This legislation is likely unneccessary and really just designed to normalize the intersectionality of transgender lifestyle choices. Do we let this one pass? I know that you can pretty much discriminate by simply choosing another candiate if as a hiring manager or landlord. The HR speak here is “___ went to the best candiate.”…I’m not a huge fan of legislating morality one way or another. I’m up in the air and would welcome discussion. | Medium |
| Culture War-Specific Issues | HB31 (BR201) |
Amend KRS 344.010 to provide definitions of “protective hairstyle” and “race” that include traits historically associated with race; amend KRS 158.148 to provide that school disciplinary codes shall prohibit discrimination on the basis of race; establish the short title of “C.R.O.W.N. Act”. | Daniel |
| A. Scott | Oppose | Modifiable features (such as hairstyle, clothing, etc) should not be subjugated by state government. Local entities should be given the right to determine their own establishment codes for acceptable and non-acceptable features. Honestly, #201 is ridiculous. Why not include pony tails, ear rings, chain necklaces, jeans that are worn below a person’s butt, etc. This proposed amendment is a waste of tax payer time and money |
Low |
| Culture War-Specific Issues | HB12 (BR49) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 210 define sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts, mental health professional, and public funds; to prohibit mental health professionals from engaging in sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts with a person under 18 years of age or a person who is 18 years or older who is an adult as defined in KRS 209.020 or a ward as defined in KRS 387.510; require violations to be subject to board discipline; prohibit public funds from being used for sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts; create a new section of KRS Chapter 211 to require the Department for Public Health to develop, produce, and disseminate educational materials regarding sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts; permit the cabinet to contract for the educational materials; add the short title “Youth Mental Health Protection Act”; EMERGENCY. | Robert |
| HB12: L. Willner
HB253: S. Maddox
|
Support/ Uncertain | Worry that this will be used to make “conversion therapy” illegal (likely a bad result, as I believe the validity of these therapies it up for debate). Support if this is tailored narrowly to preventing permanent (rest of life) sex change drugs and surgery being used on (16 and under) minors. Lance: Similar to HB253 (BR1235) which is more targetted to prohibiting sex charges and promoting them to people under 18 (generally a better bill). Support that. |
Medium HB253 / SB84 |
| Culture War-Specific Issues | HB23 / SB83 | Amend KRS 156.070 to require KHSAA to promulgate administrative regulations or bylaws requiring schools to designate all interscholastic athletics based upon the biological sex of the students eligible to participate; prohibit male students from participating in girls’ athletics; establish how to designate biological sex; prohibit designated agencies from entertaining complaints or investigations of policies; create a cause of action against a school that violates these provisions; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to require a public postsecondary education institution or private postsecondary education institution that is a member of a national intercollegiate athletic association to designate all intercollegiate and intramural athletics authorized by the institution based on biological sex of students eligible to participate; require that institutions prohibit male students from participating in womens’ athletics; prohibit designated agencies from entertaining complaints or investigations of policies; create a cause of action against a postsecondary institution that violates these provisions; title the Act “Fairness in Womens’ Sports Act.” | Ed Committee |
| R. Dotson | Support | Biological males competing against females is anti-competitive and unfair to all girls & women. | Low |
| Culture War-Specific Issues | HB13 (BR119) |
Repeal and reenact KRS 158.1415 to require each school district to provide healthy relationship education instruction to all public school students; establish minimum requirements for the instruction; establish minimum requirements for the healthy relationship curricula and instructional materials; prohibit a school or school district from restricting the ability of an instructor to answer a question related to the instruction; require that a school make the healthy relationship curricula and instructional materials available upon the request of a parent or guardian and establish a procedure for a parent or guardian to opt a student out of the instruction; require the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations necessary to implement, administer, and enforce this section; require the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations requiring that each school district submit a report on healthy relationship instruction in the district biennially; require the Kentucky Department of Education to maintain a list of recommended healthy relationship curricula and instructional materials; permit a parent or guardian to file an enforcement action in Circuit Court. | Ed Committee |
| L. Willner | Oppose | Trojan Horse legislation. “Healthy Relationship” is code for the latest LGBTQ agenda-affirming psyco-babble they can push into a curriculum. | Low |
| Covid | HB21 (BR65) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 61 to prohibit a governmental body from requiring persons to provide vaccine passports to enter or obtain service from the governmental body; create a new section of KRS Chapter 160 to prohibit a school from requiring persons to provide vaccine passports to enter or obtain service from the school; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to prohibit a university board from requiring persons to provide vaccine passports to enter or obtain service from the university; create a new section of KRS Chapter 214 to prohibit a business entity from requiring persons to provide vaccine passports to enter or obtain service from the business entity; create a new section of KRS Chapter 214 to allow the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to impose of fine not to exceed $5,000 per violation of this Act. | Peggy |
| B. Reed | Support | Ban on vaccine passports. | High |
| Covid | HB28 (BR106) |
Create a new section in KRS Chapter 336 to prohibit public entity employers from requiring employees and applicants from disclosing his or her immunization status; create a new section in KRS Chapter 164 to prohibit postsecondary schools from requiring a student, staff, or faculty member to disclose his or her immunization status; amend KRS 344.120 to include the discrimination on the basis of “immunization status” as an unlawful practice; create a new section in KRS Chapter 365 to prohibit a business from requiring customers to disclose his or her immunization status as a condition for service or entry upon the premises; create a new KRS Chapter 214 to prohibit a public entity from creating standardized documentation with the purpose of certifying vaccination status; amend KRS 214.036 to allow objection to immunization on the basis of “conscientiously held beliefs”. | Peggy |
| S. Maddox | Support | PROHIBITS public entity employers from REQUIRING employees and applicants to disclose his or her immunization status. Establishes right to conscientious objection in medical decisions. Standardizes paperwork. Being forced to disclose medical information violates their right to medical privacy under the HIPPA law. If paperwork standardization is not included it would be confusing as it would place health care workers, etc in a difficult spot to possibly violate HIPPA laws and/or open them up to the possibility of discrimination. I believe BILL REQUEST 106 should be considered of the utmost importance and passed speedily as it will protect the citizens of Kentucky, and prevent public entity employers and private businesses from discrimination by clearly defining the law. Lance: Why not protect private business employees too? Should your livelihood be threatened because of conscientious objection? I think BR358 addresses that scenario. BR972 deals with childhood vax mandates. Why not combine them all? |
High |
| Covid | HB54 (BR353) |
Amend KRS 342.0011 to define “COVID-19”; create a new section of KRS Chapter 342 to establish workers’ compensation liability in instances where employers require vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition of employment and the employee develops an adverse reaction to the vaccine; create a rebuttable presumption that an adverse reaction was caused by the COVID-19 vaccine if it was not present prior to and arises within 14 days of receipt of the vaccine; retoactive to December 14, 2020; EMERGENCY. | Pam |
| F. Rabourn | Support | This legislation is the only help I’ve seen for individuals required to take the vaccine and end up with vaccine injury as a result of employer vaccine policy. Humana, my employer, indicated with their policy they will not provide financial support or aid to someone permanently injured. I believe we need to support this legislation as long as the Pharmaceutical companies are held harmless. | High |
| Covid | HB51 (BR359) |
Amend KRS 199.896 to provide that the license or certification of a child-care center shall not be refused or revoked for refusing to require facial coverings; amend KRS 199.898 to provide that parents and guardians of children enrolled in licensed, certified, or publicly funded child care facilities have a right to refuse facial coverings on behalf of their children without any retribution; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to prohibit requiring facial coverings on any public school premises, on school-sponsored transportation, or at a school-sponsored event; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to prohibit requiring facial coverings on property owned, leased, or operated by public postsecondary education institutions; provide exceptions for healthcare licensing board requirements imposed prior to January 1, 2020, and clinical research settings. | Peggy |
| L. Bechler | Support | Kids are at very limited COVID risk and not dangerous vectors of spread. Plus, kids don’t keep masks on, play with them, and get them filthy. Stop with the silly regulations. | High |
| Covid | HB43 (BR211) |
Amend KRS 39A.100 to exclude houses of worship from emergency condemnation authority; prohibit a governmental entity from prohibiting religious services during an emergency to a greater extent than imposed on other organizations or businesses that provide essential services; require a compelling governmental interest to place a burden on a religious organization; prohibit a governmental entity from taking any discriminatory action against a religious organization on the basis that the organization is religious; define “discriminatory action,” “governmental entity,” “religious organization,” and “religious services”; allow a religious organization to assert a violation of this section as a claim against a governmental entity or as a defense and waive sovereign, governmental, and qualified immunity to the extent of liability under the section; set out remedies available to a religious organization; require construciton in favor of protecting free exercise of religion; require a religious organization to bring an action no later than two years from the date the person should have known of the discriminatory action. | Daniel |
| S. Baker | Support | Lance: Should be considered a violation of 1st Amendment Free Exercise Clause. That it isn’t is a problem with the Supreme Court. Religion is ESSENTIAL (all constitutional rights for that matter). Frankly, the legislation should be: NO EMERGENCY SUSPENDS THE US CONSTITUTION (esp #1A). The intent is good. The C34 issue is that there is little to no check and balance on government overreach. Legal suits take years to resolve. Caveat: Need a caveat to establish tighter time limit on all “emergencies”, not to exceed (i.e. 2 wks, 30 days). Also need provisions that allow local communities to dispute or “override” goverment overreach (via court hearing, legislative intervention, or local hearing) if the emergency exceeds 30 days. Need to ensure rapid processing of the dispute process with a time limit not to exceed (i.e. 60 days), or any emergency action becomes null and void and like emergency orders must be approved before they can be implemented. |
High |
| Covid | HB57 (BR384) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to prohibit a public postsecondary educational institution from requiring a student to receive certain vaccinations unless the student is participating in an educational program that involves the delivery of health care services. | Peggy |
| M. Hart | Support | Shouldn’t even put in the health care services exemption. | Medium |
| Covid | HB52 (BR358) |
Amend KRS 344.010 to define “immunization”; amend KRS 344.040 to prohibit employers from discriminating against an individual who declines immunization or requiring immunization as a condition of employment or inquiring as to the employee’s immunization status; create a new section of KRS Chapter 338 to prohibit an employer from requiring an employee or applicant for employment to be immunized or inquiring regarding immunization status. | Pam |
| L. Bechler | Support | This is important and protects the personal health decisions of individuals. Using linguistics to force people to comply is unacceptable and this helps to close that gap. | High |
| Covid | HB84 (BR362) |
Amend KRS 39A.275 to eliminate certain liability protections if an owner requires employees to receive a vaccination against COVID-19 and an employee suffers a severe adverse reaction as a result. | Pam |
| J. Gooch Jr. | Support | As stated above, this is vital protection for the employee should they be forced to comply to keep their job. Lance: If a business is going to force employees to get the vaxx (which many feel should be prohibited), then they should face the liability if something goes wrong with it. | High |
| Covid | HB112 (BR972) |
Create new section of KRS Chapter 214 to define “child”; prohibit required or coerced COVID-19 vaccination of a child without the consent of all parents, custodians, and guardians; prohibit retaliation, additional requirements, limitation of activity, or reduction in health care benefit for a child not vaccinated for COVID-19; authorize legal action and civil penalties for violations; EMERGENCY. | Lance |
| S. Baker | Support | Prohibition on child vaccine mandates & coersion. COVID is of minimal risk to kids, nor are children efficient vectors of COVID spread. These decisions should be entirely up to parents, not school board or government bureaucrats. | High |
| Family & Medical | HB59 (BR377) |
Amend KRS 337.010 to define “family care leave,” “family member,” “health care provider”, “same employer,” and “serious health condition”; create a new section of KRS Chapter 337 to prohibit employers from preventing an employee to take family care leave; to entitle employee to family care leave for the birth of a child or to take care of a family member and establish parameters. | Pam |
| C. Stevenson | Uncertain | I need more information. I’m not sure I understand…is this linguistics? | Low |
| Family & Medical | HB66 (BR275) |
Amend KRS 158.060 to remove language that allows for half-day kindergarten programs; amend KRS 157.320, 157.360, and 158.030 to conform. | Tammy |
| J. Tipton | Support | Changes/updates to language for full day Kindergarten. Not sure I like removing language about the hours of instruction but maybe that is needed for clarification. Lance: I also don’t fully understand precisely what this accomplishes, do schools currently get compensated for a full day for kindergardeners even though a lot of kids are only attending half days? |
Low |
| Family & Medical | HB37 (BR254) |
Amend KRS 211.680 to expand the scope of the legislative intent and findings; create new sections of KRS Chapter 211 to define terms; require licensed health facilities under KRS Chapter 216B to provide each patient with written information regarding the patient’s rights and implement an evidence-based implicit bias program for all health providers involved in the perinatal care of patients within those facilities; require the Department for Public Health to track data on maternal death and severe morbidity. | Tammy |
| A. Scott | Oppose | Study and remove implicit bias in perinatal care. This bill has concepts of Critical Race theory. Since we don’t teach these principles we should not include them in our bills. The premise is racist. If KY has a high maternity morbity, mortality rate why focus only on black pregnancies/births. Work done to help pregnant women should benefit ALL Kentucky women and excluding other women of color or Caucasian women is racist. |
Medium |
| Family & Medical | BR147 | Create a new section of KRS Chapter 211 to require all hospitals or alternative birthing centers offering obstetric services or licensed health care providers, including nurse midwives or certified professional midwives, to provide each maternity patient with information on maternal depression and available resources; require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to post on its Web site information about providers who assist with maternal depression. | Tammy |
| R. Roberts | Support with caveats | Specific providers must provide information about postpartum depression and information of how to find a provider on cabinet website when a patient is discharged. As with most discharges from birthing centers or health care providers, discharge instructions are included. It would seem that ensuring that good clinical practice would cover the additional information required. It may be that this information is normally or already provided as it is good clinical care. CAVEATS: Define “relevant” family member. Is there provider liability if information is not provided to discharged patient or “relevant” family member? Does patient need to sign a notice that they received information from the provider? Do patient find doctors by using the cabinet’s website? |
Medium |
| Family & Medical | HB78 (BR228) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 337 to allow use of leave time for parents to grieve the loss of a child under the age of one year. | Tammy |
| S. Westrom | Oppose, unless shown that this is necessary. | For employers who offer employees medical leaves for illness and other health reasons, extend qualify reasons to include bereavement following a miscarriage or stillbirth or death of child < one year of age. This also allows other employees to “lend” up to 3 paid days. Another employer mandate to track and implement reporting to state. This type of absence is mostly currently available: Since miscarriage, still birth, behavioral health conditions, bereavement already qualify as medical reason for a medical leave what does this bill accomplish? Would need to know why this conditions would not already be included in an employers definition of a medical reason for a medical leave. Also, why “lend” 3 days? Lend implies that there is a repayment. NOTE: Should already be covered in law under reasons for medical leave (bereavement, stillbirth, etc. are medical conditions). |
Medium |
| Family & Medical | HB34 (BR238) |
Create a new section of KRS 205.565 to 205.647 to allow treatment for adults under age 65 in psychiatric residential facilities and hospitals to be claimed as a service; and require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services or the Department for Medicaid Services to request federal authorization for a waiver if necessary. | Lance |
| K. Banta | Support | Allows hospitals and Psychiatric facilities to receive Medicaid re-imbursement for people under 65 with mental illnesses. While Medicaid is somewhat controversial among Republicans, there should not be a financial incentive to rush mentally ill people out of the hospital (and likely back on the street as homeless people). CAVEAT: There should perhaps be a time-limit, then hospital is required to re-submit request for re-imbursement to avoid exploitation. |
Low |
| Family & Medical | HB39 (BR256) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 205 to require the Department for Medicaid Services and any managed care organization with whom the department contracts for the delivery of Medicaid services to provide coverage for doula services; establish training and education requirements for doulas; permit the department to promulgate administrative regulations; require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services or the Department for Medicaid Services to seek federal approval if they determine that such approval is necessary. | Tammy |
| A. Scott | Support, with caveats | Add Doula providers and care as benefits to Medicaid recipients. Not sure how much a need or request there is for Doula services from the Medicaid population. In another bill it was mentioned that KY has high morbity, mortality rates. Outside reading: Some studies have shown some improvements in those rates and link them to the use of a Doula. The state of MN has attributed some improvements in their Medicaid population to the use of Doulas. CAVEATS: Need to utilize international or national credentialing standards for these providers as we do with other providers that support Medicaid recipients. |
Medium |
| Family & Medical | BR180 | Create a new section of Subtitle 17A of KRS Chapter 304 to define terms; require certain health insurance policies to provide coverage for an annual mental health wellness examination of at least 45 minutes provided by a mental health professional; require the coverage to be no less extensive than coverage for medical and surgical benefits; require the coverage to comply with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008; provide that coverage shall not be subject to cost-sharing requirements; amend KRS 164.2871 to require self-insured employer group health plans provided by the governing board of a state postsecondary education institution to comply with the mental health wellness examination coverage requirement; amend KRS 205.522 to require the Medicaid benefits to comply with the mental health wellness examination coverage requirement; amend KRS 205.6485 to require the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program to comply with the mental health examination coverage requirement; amend KRS 18A.225 to require the state employee health plan to comply with the mental health coverage requirement; require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to seek federal approval if they determine that such approval is necessary; EFFECTIVE, in part, January 1, 2023. | Lance |
| R. Roberts | Oppose | Requires a slew of insurance policies to include coverage for an annual mental health wellness screening. Is a person demonstrates clear signs of mental illness or dangerous mental health issues, they certainly should seek treatment. Making an annual screening part of standard care for a huge swath of the citizenry is NOT what we should be doing. Not only have psychiatrists played a huge role in pushing mood-altering medications, they have also started pushing political agendas and endorsing radical social mores. | Low |
| Family & Medical | BR147 | Create a new section of KRS Chapter 211 to require all hospitals or alternative birthing centers offering obstetric services or licensed health care providers, including nurse midwives or certified professional midwives, to provide each maternity patient with information on maternal depression and available resources; require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to post on its Web site information about providers who assist with maternal depression. | Tammy |
| R. Roberts | Oppose/ but would consider some caveats | Specific providers must provide information about postpartum depression and information of how to find a provider on cabinet website when a patient is discharged. As with most discharges from birthing centers or health care providers, discharge instructions are included. It would seem that ensuring that good clinical practice would cover the additional information required. It may be that this information is normally or already provided as it is good clinical care. CAVEATS: Define “relevant” family member. Is there provider liability if information is not provided to discharged patient or “relevant” family member? Does patient need to sign a notice that they received information from the provider? Do patient find doctors by using the cabinet’s website? |
Medium |
| Family & Medical | BR191 | Create a new section of KRS Chapter 510 to create the crime of fraudulent assisted reproduction; define terms; authorize a civil action; establish penalty; amend KRS 311.597 to add fraudulent assisted reproduction to the list of violations that may cause a doctor to lose his or her medical license. | Lance |
| R. White | Support | Regulates the presumably rare, but grotesque, situation in which a health care provided misrepresents the fertility related medical procedures being performed. Several cases have occurred in which a provider fertilized a woman with his own sperm (or that of someone other than the intended biological father) without the knowledge of the parents. Also covers the situation in which the provider misrepresents the (often very expensive) procedures conducted. Penalty is forfeiture of medical license in KY, makes it a class D felony, and opens provider up for lawsuit/compensation. Rare, awful situation. | Medium |
| Taxes & Business | HB50 (BR367) |
Amend KRS 138.510 to impose a 1.5% surtax on historical horse races, on or after October 1, 2022; amend KRS 138.513 to impose a 2.5% surtax on advance deposit account wagers; amend KRS 138.530 and 230.750 to conform. | Bill |
| K. King | Oppose | This bill will hurt our horse racing industry. We generally shouldn’t support tax increases. | Low |
| Taxes & Business | HB36 (BR208) |
Amend KRS 139.010 to add definitions of “firearm” and “ammunition”; amend KRS 139.480 to exempt firearms and ammunition from sales and use tax and require reporting related to the exemption; amend KRS 131.190 to allow reporting by the Department of Revenue; EFFECTIVE August 1, 2022. | Robert |
| D. Fister | Uncertain/ Oppose | Perhaps a law banning any PUNITIVE tax, anything above the general State sales tax. Want to avoid the ability to attack unfavored industry that is constitutionally protected… not sure it needs protected status. We don’t need a Firearm industry hand-out, but they should be protected. |
Medium |
| Taxes & Business | HB96 (BR197) |
Amend KRS 141.019 to exclude all distributions from military pension plans received by retired members of the United States military and their surviving spouses or former spouse under a survivor benefit plan from income taxation for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2022, and before January 1, 2026; require reporting by the Department of Revenue; amend KRS 131.190 to conform. | Lance |
| W. Thomas | Uncertain | Obviously we support veterans, but why do we need this… all social security is taxed, after all. | Low |
| Taxes & Business | HB74 (BR287) |
Amend KRS 138.470 to exempt motor vehicles purchased by members of the Armed Forces on duty in Kentucky and motor vehicles titled and registered in Kentucky by members of the Amed Forces on duty in Kentucky from motor vehicle usage tax. | Lance |
| N. Tate | Oppose | Pension plans arguably shouldn’t be taxed (see above), but we have a volunteer military that is paid. They shouldn’t be exempt from ALL taxes everyone else has. | Low |
| Taxes & Business | HB86 (BR251) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 198A to establish the nonrefundable Kentucky affordable housing credit for taxable years or periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, for a period of five years; allow the credit to be applied to the income and insurance taxes, in an amount equal to the amount of federal low-income housing tax credit; provide that the aggregate amount of tax credit for any year shall not exceed $12.5 million; create a new section of KRS Chapter 141 to allow the credit to be applied to income and limited liability entity taxes; amend KRS 141.0205 to order the income tax credit; create new sections of KRS Chapter 136 to allow the credit to be applied to insurance tax; order the insurance tax credits; amend KRS 131.190 to conform. | Bill |
| R. Bridges | Oppose | There are federal housing programs to assist low income housing. I believe that insurance taxes should be lowered Pwd or eliminated across the board | Low |
| Taxes & Business | BR91 | Amend KRS 337.010 to increase the applicable threshold of employees of retail stores and service industries from $95,000 to $500,000 average annual gross volume of sales for the employer and to define” small employer” and “large employer”; amend KRS 337.275 to incrementally raise minimum wage for small and large employers to $12.00 an hour and $15.00 an hour respectively; include anti-preemption language permitting local governments to establish minimum wage ordinances in excess of the state minimum wage. | Bill |
| R. Thomas | Oppose | Raising minimum wage will hurt our businesses and kill jobs. This bill is also mixing issues. | Medium |
| Taxes & Business | BR153 | Create new sections of KRS Chapter 383 to limit applicant screening charges for charges made within a 60 day period; prohibit landlords from charging screening fees without notice to the applicant; require screening criteria from landlords; require landlords to return charges if the dwelling is filled before the screening; disallow landlords from considering applicant’s certain previous actions, arrests, or criminal charges; require landlords provide denied applicants with a written statement pursuant to specific criteria putting forth one or more reasons for the denial. | Bill |
| R. Thomas | Uncertain/ Support | This bill may have some merit if prospective tenants are not being treated fairly. Need more info on the extent of the problem here. | Medium |
| Taxes & Business | HB123 (BR967) |
Create a new section of KRS 45A.343 to 45A.460 to prohibit a governmental body or political subdivision of this state from entering into contracts valued at or above $100,000 with a company that has ten or more employees and discriminates against firearm entities or firearm trade associations; set forth what does and does not constitute discrimination; exempt sole proprietorships. | Lance |
| S. Maddox | Support | CAVEAT: why limit this to firearms? Why not coal, natural gas, oil? … Why not prohibit financial institutions from economic blacklisting disfavored industries or political viewpoints? THAT would elevate this to to HIGH priority. | Medium |
| Rights Violations | HB32 (BR172) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 369 to define terms; require private entities to develop and comply with a retention and destruction schedule for biometric identifiers and information; prohibit private entities’ collection, trade, and disclosure of biometric information with limited exceptions; create a standard of care for private entities collecting biometric information; create a civil cause of action for violations. | Garret |
| J. Bray | Support | This is a bill sponsored by 2 Republicans to create protections against misuse of biometric data. It creates a retention schedule and guidelines for destroying biometric data when the initial purpose has been satisfied or after a three-year period. It seems this provides greater privacy protection for the person providing these identifiers, which are retina/iris scans, fingerprint, voiceprint, or scan of hand and face geometry. | Low |
| Rights Violations | HB75 (BR832) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 311 to regulate the collection, use, and transfer of human DNA samples; create penalties for violations of the prohibitions; state the Act shall be known as the Protecting DNA Privacy Act. | Garret |
| D. Bentley | Support | This is a bill sponsored by 2 Republicans to create protections against misuse of DNA data. It gives the person providing the sample greater control with regard to collection, use, retention, maintenance, disclosure or destruction of the sample or analysis. . It seems this provides greater privacy protection for the person providing this type of a genetic test. Lance: These are good bills that it would be good to get ahead of from a civil liberties stand-point (though I agree they are not urgent). We also need to be looking into bans on AI-based surveillance & video analysis (presented as a “labor & cost saving” device for law enforcement) / social media scraping tech. |
Medium |
| Guns & Crime | HB29 (BR171) |
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 237 to prohibit identified entities from enforcing federal firearm bans; prohibit identified entities from adopting rules, regulations, or ordinances that require enforcement of federal firearm bans; and prohibit identified entities from allocating public resources or moneys in the enforcement of federal firearm bans; EMERGENCY. | Lance |
| J. Bray | Support | Second Amendment Sanctuary: Anti-commandeering bill. Some quibbling about whether 2019-2020 legislation should be supported, but fine. | High cc: HB158 |
| Guns & Crime | HB79 (BR215) |
Amend KRS 15.518 to include telecommunicators as eligible participants in the Law Enforcement Professional Development and Wellness Program; amend KRS 15.550 to require the telecommunicator basic course training to include instruction on and provide resources for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and work-induced stress, require the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council to incorporate PTSD mental health treatment into the telecommunicator training program and provide treatment resources to telecommunicators and their supervisors; amend KRS 15.560 and 15.565 to require each in-service training to include a mental health component on PTSD and work-induced stress; amend KRS 15.590 to require the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council to include training and resources for post-traumatic stress disorder and work-induced stress during each telecommunicator in-service training, provide guidelines and a resource list to all telecommunicators and their supervisors, and allow telecommunicators to access the Law Enforcement Professional Development and Wellness Program; this Act shall be known as the Lifeliner’s Act. | Garret |
| B. Wesley | Support with caveat, no taxpayer funding. | This is a bi-partisan bill to provide a program for seminar-based peer support and counseling services to law enforcement officers designed to reduce negative mental and behavioral health outcomes. Funding will be provided from the Kentucky Law Enforcement Foundation Program which is funded by grants, gifts, state appropriations and federal funds. The latter two funding mechanisms seem like taxpayer money can be funneled to this training. I don’t think taxpayers need to fund an additional program that may be able to be absorbed through another existing program within law enforcement. I think the voting history of the legislators sponsoring this bill should be investigated to get a better idea of the likelihood of more indiscriminate spending. Lance: Objection would be that telecommunicators (which I think means 911 operators, dispatchers, etc.) don’t suffer PTSD level trauma… but I don’t think that’s true. Lance: Does this mean only support if it doesn’t use taxpayer funds? I think this bill is worthy of simple support (can’t be THAT expensive), even if it means some state/federal funds. |
Low |
| Elections & Politics | HB17 (BR133) |
Propose to amend Section 32 of the Constitution of Kentucky to prevent Senators from serving more than four terms of office, not including partial terms of two years or less, and to prevent members of the House of Representatives from serving more than six terms of office, not including partial terms of two years or less, beginning with those elected in November 2024; provide ballot language; submit to voters for ratification or rejection. | Lance |
| K. Banta | Support with caveat | Term limits for state legislators. Modification would be to put limits of each house at 12 years (6 terms in House, 3 terms in Senate) and add a cumulative limit (eg 14 or 16 total years). Make retroactive with exception for 1 more election after adoption of amendment. May want/need to adjust the years until fully vested in pension fund (and/or perhaps scale down that pension compensation going forward if service is capped at 16 years) to match these upper limits. Daniel: Need to include a RECALL provision for all state offices. CAVEATS: Adjustment to 12 years in each house, add cumulative legislature service limit, retroactive. |
Medium |
| Elections & Politics | HB68 (BR306) |
Amend KRS 117.087 and 118.035 to extend the ending voting hours from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. | Lance / Daniel |
| B. Wheatley | Uncertain / Support | Extending the voter hours after typical work hours would likely increase worker participation. Probably a net positive for Republicans. Downside: It is interesting and good publicity to be the 1st state reporting in federal elections. Lance: I think we should be fine with some weekday early voting (use it as a bargaining chip)… Republicans work (give them multiple days to do it). It’s mail-in voting and inappropriate people getting photo IDs that open up fraud opportunities. |
Low |
| Elections & Politics | HB70 (BR307) |
Amend 118.025 to remove straight ticket voting as a ballot option in an election; amend KRS 63.200, 117.125, 118A.090, and 118A.100 to conform. | Lance / Daniel |
| B. Wheatley | Oppose | Democrats want to address this now that the party voting trends have shifted. This would be generally bad for Republicans / parties, now that most(?) people are voting straight ticket Republican. | Medium |
| Elections & Politics | SB62 | Amend KRS 117.125 to include additional requirements for voting systems; amend KRS 117.175 to include additional instructions for voter instruction cards; amend KRS 117.275 to include additional requirements for the counting and tabulation of ballots and for the certification of election results; amend KRS 117.383 to require the State Board of Elections to include a voter notification program to notify a voter of the effect of casting multiple ballots for a single office on a paper ballot; and amend KRS 117.155, 117.205, 117.295, and 117.066 to conform | Lance |
| A. Southworth | Support | Numerous fixes for lingering campaign issues. Detailed procedures and regulations standardizing the processing, verifying, tallying & reporting of paper ballots. | High |
| Elections & Politics | SB88 | Create a new section of KRS Chapter 6 to establish parameters for the General Assembly when called into session by Joint Proclamation; amend KRS 6.190 and 6.211 to adjust the compensation of members of the General Assembly during a veto recess period; EFFECTIVE only upon ratification of a proposed constitutional amendment. | Lance |
| D. Givens | Support | Constitutional Amendment to Allow General Assembly to reconvene itself for no more than 3 weeks without Governor’s approval. Allows legislature the power to respond to Governor actions, or address things like redistricting maps, during the 9 or 10 months they aren’t normally in session. | High |
| Bills that have passed the Senate, awaiting action in the house. | |||
| Education & Schools | SB1 | Amend KRS 160.345 to require that the superintendent instead of the council determines curriculum after consulting with the principal and school council and after a stakeholder response period; require allocations to schools by local boards be determined by the principal after consultation with the council instead of being determined by the council; alter principal hiring process requiring principal to be selected by the superintendent after consultation with school council; require council members to sign a nondisclosure agreement prior to consultation; allow for a complaint process and removal of a council member for violation of the nondisclosure agreement; amend KRS 158.6453 to require the Kentucky Department of Education to provide guidelines for effective writing programs to all districts instead of all schools; remove the requirement for schools to submit policies determining the writing program to KDE. | Lindsey/Lance |
| J. Schickel | Oppose | Terrible bill (but sponsored by much of Senate Leadership, perhaps as insulation against left wing infiltration of little noticed elected SBDM Councils in otherwise still conservative school districts?). The bill accomplishes little beside putting more ultimate power in the hands of principals & superintendents (treating them as if they are benevolent monarchs of their districts rather than career administrative professionals CHOSEN BY THE SCHOOL BOARD), with slightly less for the ELECTED school boards themselves, and almost removes all direct power from ELECTED site (local school) based councils. What’s wrong with this Bill? (a) It leaves the SBDMC composition unchanged, (b) It creates more insulation/distance from decision-maker(s) to voter accountability (USUALLY a bad thing) (ie superintendents aren’t directly elected by voters), (c) it requires NDAs (rather than confidentiality policy) for several functions of SBDM Councils (at least when it comes to policy discussion and hiring, we should be banning confidentiality in favor of transparency, not strengthening it), (d) THE SPONSORS DON’T SEEM to understand that the career administrative professionals (trained in university education departments awash in ideologies anti-thetical to our community values, then reinforced through YEARS of liberal teacher’s union professional development) are quite often precisely the problem.
The CORE problem that legislation should address: Site based councils are 4-to-2 education professionals-to-parents (3 teacher, 1 principal vs 2 parents) PLUS the professional majority has the institutional procedural knowledge to their advantage as well… this imbalance provides the WEAK ILLUSION of parental influence in decision-making, when it is really teachers and principals in charge. The simple fix (better than this bill) would be simply make SBDMs: 3 parents, 2 teachers, 1 principal, with any ties going to parental majority (or 3 parents, 2 teachers, with principal as tie-breacker). |
High |
| Family & Medical | SB8 | Amend KRS 15.900 to create the definition of “abused or neglected child” and “community resource organization”; change the definitions of “state board” and “prevention program”; amend KRS 15.905 to reference the new definition of “state board”; amend KRS 15.910 to establish new membership of the State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board; amend KRS 15.920 to require the state board to meet at least quarterly each year and make conforming changes to align with the new established definitions; amend KRS 15.925, 15.935, 15.940, 15.942, and 15.948 to make conforming changes to align with new established definitions; amend KRS 194A.010, relating to the implementation of child welfare programs by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services; amend KRS 199.011 to update the definition of “fictive kin”; amend KRS 199.505, relating to a five-business-day notification requirement if someone is registered on the putative father registry; amend KRS 199.540 to remove a condition when an adoption can be annulled; amend KRS 199.570 to reference digital files related to an adoption case; amend KRS 200.575 related to when family preservation services are provided; create a new section KRS Chapter 205, relating to Medicaid reimbursement for certain services at children’s advocacy centers; amend KRS 600.020 to change the definition of “abused or neglected child” and “fictive kin”; amend KRS 620.055 to require the annual report of the external child fatality and near fatality review panel to be delivered to State Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board and the Interim Joint Committee on Health, Welfare, and Family Services; amend KRS 620.140, relating to an eligible youth’s ability to commit and re-commit themselves to the custody of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services; amend KRS 620.363 to add new rights for foster children; require the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet to promulgate administrative regulations related to the Kentucky Employees Charitable Campaign; EMERGENCY. | Lisa |
| J. Adams | Support | Cleans up some language and regulation related to foster care, child abuse, adoption. NOTE: We do have concerns about the use of Fictive Kin, that it could be potentially used to dilute the traditional concepts of guardianship and guardianship rights. |
Medium |
| Education & Schools | SB9 | Amend KRS 158.791 to specify the Department of Education’s role in assisting local school districts with regard to reading instruction, supports, and interventions; require the department to collaborate with designated agencies on reading programming, materials, and activities; amend KRS 158.305 to define new terms; replace references to “response to intervention” systems with “multi-tiered system of supports”; require a local board of education to adopt and implement a reading universal screener and reading diagnostic assessment by January 1, 2023; permit a local school district to adopt a common comprehensive reading program for K-3; require all K-3 teachers to be trained in any reading diagnostic assessment and universal screener adopted by a local board; establish requirements for the administration of reading universal screeners by grade-level; define and establish the requirements for a reading improvement plan; establish service requirements for a student that needs accelerated intervention as demonstrated by the results of the approved reading diagnostic assessment or state annually required grade 3 assessment; require the department to establish reading teacher academies or coaching models by September 1, 2023, if funds are appropriated; remove the requirement for KDE to provide an annual report to IJCE on academic interventions; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to require postsecondary institutions offering early childhood or elementary teacher preparation programs to include designated instruction; require the EPSB to maintain a list of approved reading teacher preparation tests; require all new teachers seeking certification in Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education or Elementary School to take an approved reading teacher preparation test; amend KRS 158.840 to require CPE to submit an annual report to IJCE on the compliance of teacher preparation programs to this Act; require regular reports to an external evaluator; amend KRS 164.0207 to redefine existing terms; require the Board of Education to pass administrative regulations that prioritize schools with the most need and schools that have not received a grant in the previous cycle when awarding reading diagnostic and intervention grants; amend KRS 158.794 to reorganize the composition of the reading diagnostic and intervention grant steering committee; amend KRS 164.0207 to conform; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to establish and define the read to succeed fund; provide that moneys and interest in the fund shall not lapse; designate the Act as the Read to Succeed Act. | Lance |
| S. West | Support | Details evidence-based literacy program requirements. NOTE: Concern that it continues to empower KBOE admnistrative regulations that were exploited neferiously during the pandemic. Why not codify the regulations themselves in KRS, and stop empowering appointed boards any more than is necessary? |
High |
| Elections & Politics | SB46 | Create a new section of KRS Chapter 45A to prohibit a contract being awarded to a bidder if the bidder was awarded the same or similar contract through the use of an executive agency lobbyist who was convicted of a crime related to the contract for five years after the conviction of the lobbyist; amend KRS 45A.340 to prohibit any person associated with an agency from participating in the procurement of a contract for one year after termination; make Section 1 apply to contracts entered into since January 1, 2017; RETROACTIVE. | Lance |
| S. Meredith | Support | (a) Prohibits government from entering into contracts with any business that had a lobbyist convicted of a crime related to lobbying in the past 5 years. Fine, I’m not sure what sparked this, but it seems like a reasonable measure to discourage lobbying corruption. (b) There is also a prohibition section (8) of a person hired (incl. unpaid appointees) in government from working on procurement of any contract for a company that they previously worked for until 1 year has passed since termination. Amendments: Why isn’t prohibition (b) 2-way? If a person can’t work in gov’t on contracts for their old company for a year after leaving… make a rule that a person cannot fulfill the role of a lobbyist for any contract until 1 year after they have left any position affiliated with government. Note: It’s POSSIBLE the supreme court may determine this is a free speech violation, given Citizens United, but corporate lobbying can and should be regulated and this one one such reasonable regulation… I think this is legal, and should be tested even if it isn’t found to be. On (a), section (8.3) prohibits the voiding of existing contracts up to the effective date of this bill (May or June of this year, right?). Does this include contracts entered into during THIS session? If so, why? |
Medium |
| Education & Schools | SB59 | Amend KRS 158.6453 to delete the tenth grade college admissions examination; amend KRS 158.6455 to add postsecondary readiness indicators to the statewide accountability system. | Lance |
| M. Wilson | Support | Fine, I suppose. Simple bill. NOTE: WHY are we deleting the exam, cost-cutting? I believe these are used for national merit scholarship screenings among other things. |
Low |
| Education & Schools | SB60 | Amend KRS 157.3175 to remove the requirement that a preschool program proposal include a certification from a Head Start director that the Head Start program is fully utilized. | Lance |
| M. Wise | Support | Fine, I suppose. Simple bill. NOTE: Head Start here is focused on helping children at high risk of failure, as such it is hard to oppose. GOING FORWARD and as universal pre-K gets pushed as an unquestoioned good… we have to assess seriously whether the “Head Start” lasts even past 4th grade or whether we are detrimentally removing young children from the home into government care for no long-term good. |
Medium |
| Education & Schools | SB61 | Amend KRS 158.142 to delete end-of-course examination and ACT benchmark requirements from the early high school graduation program. | Lance |
| M. Wise | Uncertain | Why are we removing objective standards and deferring entirely to KBOE administrative regulations which we just saw to be easy to politically compromise? | Low |
| Elections & Politics | SB88 | Create a new section of KRS Chapter 6 to establish parameters for the General Assembly when called into session by Joint Proclamation; amend KRS 6.190 and 6.211 to adjust the compensation of members of the General Assembly during a veto recess period; EFFECTIVE only upon ratification of a proposed constitutional amendment. | Lance |
| D. Givens | Support | This is necessary if a constitutional amendment passes this fall, allowing the legislature to call itself back into session (hopefully it will). Sets basic regulation of the times and compensation for sessions specially called by General Assembly leadership. All of them seem reasonable: No more than 12 work days, and in no more than 3 calendar weeks. Get paid PER DIEM presumably (an very high $188 per day, should look at shaving THAT down), plus between 100 and 150 per day. I’m inclined to say, “cut this in half” for special sessions to discourage calling them, but legislators are part-time and hence aren’t really raking in cash here. Leadership gets paid more than rank and file (which seems a bit odd, but is apparently non-controversial). One issue is, why not scale legislator pay by % of available days they attend standing committee meetings or register votes, and NOT pay them if they don’t (pay them for doing their job, not just getting elected)? |
High |
| Family & Medical | SB55 | Amend KRS 216B.0425 to change “primary stroke center” to “certified stroke center”; add thrombectomy capable stroke centers to the required list of certified acute stroke ready hospitals; amend KRS 211.575 to change “primary stroke center” to “certified stroke center.” |
Peggy |
| D. Douglas | Support | Simple bill. Fine. | Low |
| Family & Medical | SB66 | Amend KRS 64.185 and 72.415 to require coroners and deputy coroners to attend eight hours of training concerning the grieving process and procedures for providing death notifications; create a new section of KRS Chapter 72 establishing procedures that coroners must follow in providing death notifications; EFFECTIVE, in part, January 1, 2023. | Peggy |
| R. Alvarado | Support | Fine. There should be a basic level of competence for providing highly emotionally sensitive services around death, if these are indeed required functions of the job. Are 8 hours needed? | Low |