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Post by Press Release on Feb 12, 2013 14:50:38 GMT -5
(From right) U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, Congressman John Yarmuth, D-KY, Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture James Comer, and Congressman Thomas Massie, R-KY, testify in favor of an industrial hemp bill up for consideration in the Kentucky Senate Agriculture Committee. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
Panel approves industrial hemp bill
A bill that would regulate industrial hemp crops in Kentucky if the crop is legalized by the federal government received unanimous support of the Senate Agriculture committee today. Senate Bill 50, sponsored by committee chair Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, would make the state Department of Agriculture responsible for monitoring industrial hemp. Farmers wishing to grow hemp in Kentucky would register with the department and submit to criminal background checks before receiving licenses. Licenses would be renewed yearly. Industrial hemp can be used in the production of ropes, fabrics, plastics, cosmetics and other merchandise. Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer told committee members industrial hemp would be a good alternative to tobacco and other crops and could boost the state’s economy if it is legalized. Currently, the growing of hemp is prohibited by federal law. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, and U.S. Reps. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, and Thomas Massie, R-Vanceburg, said they are working on legislation or an exemption for the Commonwealth that would lift that restriction. According to Comer, Senate Bill 50 would put a framework in place to responsibly track and monitor hemp production in the state if that happens. Under the bill, state and local law enforcement would receive notification of licenses with exact GPS coordinates of hemp crop locations. Crops not used for research purposes would be at least ten acres in size. The bill also requires documentation from a licensed hemp grower when transporting hemp from a field or other production site. According to Sen. Hornback, the measure would allow Kentuckians to get a jump on the market of legalized hemp production, including the jobs and revenue it would generate. “It’s not very often we get the opportunity to put our Commonwealth in a position to take advantage of an opportunity. If you sit around and wait… you’re going to miss out… I think we have to be first,” he said. Senate Bill 50 now goes to the full Senate for consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Feb 13, 2013 18:10:05 GMT -5
Rep. Tim Couch, R-Hyden, discusses legislation with Rep. Donna Mayfield, R-Winchester, in the Kentucky House of Representatives. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
Graduation bill clears House Education panel
A bill that would raise the school dropout age in Kentucky from 16 to 18 passed the House Education Committee this morning. House Bill 224, sponsored by House Banking and Insurance Chair Jeff Greer, D-Brandenburg, and Rep. Reginald Meeks, D-Louisville, would raise the dropout age gradually by increasing the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 17 on July 1, 2017 and from age 17 to 18 on July 1, 2018. Similar legislation has been filed in the Kentucky General Assembly for over a decade but has never become law. “We need to send a message to all parents in the state that education is important and graduation is important. I think it’s a change of culture that this bill will lead to,” said House Education Committee Chair Carl Rollins, D-Midway. Kentucky’s current dropout age of 16 was set in 1920 when “education wasn’t as highly regarded as it is today,” Greer said. He added that a high school diploma is required to join the U.S. military and to find work in most jobs. But some lawmakers on the committee, including Rep. Ben Waide, R-Madisonville, expressed concern with the bill, saying only five states that have raised their dropout age have had “any appreciable increase” in graduation rates, and that the bill will cost money. Kentucky Education Commissioner Dr. Terry Holliday said a drop in kindergarten enrollment in the next few years resulting from changes to the kindergarten starting age made by the 2012 General Assembly will protect guaranteed base funding, or SEEK funds, for high schoolers who stay in class until age 18. And while he agreed that raising the dropout age alone won’t increase graduation rates, he said it is part of a “comprehensive approach” that will impact those rates. HB 224 now goes to the House for further consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Feb 14, 2013 16:54:17 GMT -5
Rep. Fitz Steele, D-Hazard, (left) and Rep. Kevin Sinnette, D-Ashland, confer in the Kentucky House of Representatives. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
Coal county scholarship bill clears House Education panel
A bill approved today by the House Education Committee would create a scholarship and grant program to help college juniors and seniors from Kentucky’s coal counties attain four-year college degrees. House Bill 210, introduced and sponsored by Rep. Leslie Combs, D-Pikeville, would offer scholarships to students from the state’s 34 coal-producing counties in eastern and western Kentucky who attend school in those counties through the “Kentucky Coal County College Completion Program” to be established by the bill. The aid would be funded with coal severance tax dollars that Combs has said could begin in the 2014-2016 state budget cycle. Nine Eastern Kentucky coal counties currently offer scholarships to local students who attend college or university in those counties under an executive order signed last year by the governor. HB 210 would make that program statutory, while expanding it to the other 25 coal-producing counties in Kentucky. Maximum scholarship awards under HB 210 would be $6,600 per academic year per student at nonprofit, independent institutions, $2,200 per year per student at state university extension campuses or eligible regional centers, and $3,300 per year for students seeking a degree at a school outside the region, if the degree program is not offered in the region. Grants totaling up to $150,000 would also be created by HB 210. The grants would go to community and technical colleges located in the coal regions for outreach to two-year students who may be considering four-year degrees. HB 210 now returns to the full House for consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Feb 15, 2013 5:38:04 GMT -5
Industrial hemp bill heads to House LRC eNews Press Release
The Kentucky Senate approved by a 31-6 vote a bill that would regulate the growing of hemp in the state if the crop is legalized by the federal government. Senate Bill 50, sponsored by Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, would make the state Department of Agriculture responsible for monitoring industrial hemp. Farmers wishing to grow hemp in Kentucky would register yearly with the department and would be required to submit to criminal background checks before receiving a license to raise the crop. According to Sen. Hornback, hemp is a good alternative to tobacco and other crops and has been successfully grown in Kentucky in the past. If legalized, the crop could also boost the state’s economy by generating new jobs and revenue, he said. Industrial hemp can be used in the production of ropes, fabrics, plastics and a variety of other goods. Hornback told lawmakers the measure would give Kentucky a market edge if the crop is legalized federally. “You have to be first to seize opportunities. If you’re not first, you’re last,” Hornback said. Currently, the growing of hemp is prohibited by federal law. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, and U.S. Reps. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, and Thomas Massie, R-Vanceburg, told lawmakers earlier this week they are working on legislation or a waiver to lift that ban. Some expressed concerns that the regulation would put an undue burden on law enforcement and other agencies enforcing marijuana laws since hemp is similar to marijuana in appearance. Under the bill, state and local law enforcement would receive notification of licenses with exact GPS coordinates of hemp crop locations, and would be allowed to inspect fields. Crops not used for research purposes would be at least ten acres in size. The bill also requires documentation from a licensed hemp grower when transporting hemp from a field or other production site. Senate Bill 50 now goes to the full House for consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Feb 15, 2013 19:13:43 GMT -5
House Majority Caucus Chair Sannie Overly, D-Paris, explains a human trafficking bill in the Kentucky House of Representatives. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
Human trafficking bill passes House, goes to Senate
The House passed legislation by a vote of 95-0 today that would help victims of human trafficking in Kentucky receive treatment and protection from possible criminal prosecution. House Bill 3, sponsored by House Majority Caucus Chair Sannie Overly, D-Paris, and Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Burlington, includes several provisions to help human trafficking victims by including them in the state’s abuse and neglect statutes, offering them protective custody and protection from prosecution for forced crimes (such as prostitution) and by creating a victim assistance fund to help them. Overly said human trafficking is believed to be “the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the Commonwealth,” with children comprising around 53 percent of human trafficking victims in Kentucky, according to the group KY Rescue and Restore that worked on HB 3 with Overly and Wuchner. “What these advocates tell us is that these children are very resilient and, with therapy, they can (recover),” Overly said. HB 3 now goes to the Senate for its consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Feb 15, 2013 19:36:56 GMT -5
Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, explains a physician assistants bill in the Kentucky Senate as several university practitioners look on. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
This Week in Frankfort
Thirty-day legislative sessions have their special rhythm, which contrasts vividly with full-blown 60-day regular sessions. With no budget to write, no re-election filing deadline looming at month’s end to make incumbents wary of taking up controversial bills, and just half the time to get stuff done anyway, the short session’s major issues usually break from the gate quickly. We saw that dramatically last week – the first week back from the normally scheduled recess after January’s four organizational days -- when the Senate passed a complex and potentially landmark bill to revamp the state’s badly underfunded retirement systems for public employees. The Senate plan calls for full annual funding of the systems by 2015, creates a new hybrid pension plan for future hires reflecting the familiar 401K but with a guaranteed 4 percent return, and repeals automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments for retirees. The bill includes no specified funding stream, something Senate leaders say can best be discussed in next year’s budget session. But some House leaders disagree, and say funding assurances are needed now if the Legislature is to commit to full actuarial funding. This week, they were mulling options (including a cigarette tax increase) before they take up the bill. A major complication is, revenue measures in short sessions require a three-fifths majority to pass. That’s an awfully steep hill and a big rock to push. The House also moved quickly on its own top priority the first week back, a bill to get a handle on the proliferation of special taxing districts around the state (local entities that fund such services as libraries and fire and sewer districts). House Bill 1 would require central oversight, with public accountability and transparency, in the operations of some 1200 such districts statewide. The bill would create consistent rules for requiring districts to disclose and file financial information. It also would impose penalties, including the possible loss of state funds and audits, on those who don’t provide the required information. The bill passed the House last Friday with only one dissenting vote. The session’s quick start was goosed along by the fact, for the first session in years, there’s no revenue shortfall to deal with. That fact alone generated momentum. So did changes in public sentiment. Something that would have been an explosive issue not many years ago – a statewide ban on smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants – sailed through a House committee the first week, and is now poised for possible full chamber consideration. And once again this year, the House Education Committee has passed a bill raising the school dropout age from 16 to 17 and finally 18 by the year 2018. The bill passed the full House 87-10 in short order Thursday, and supporters expressed optimism that the idea – which has failed previous attempts in the Senate – might fare better in that chamber this year. In fact, the Senate Education Committee Thursday passed its own version of a dropout-age bill, this one allowing – but not requiring – individual districts to raise the age, at their discretion and on their own timetable. We saw the quick start continuing this second week when another Senate committee unanimously approved – and the full chamber voted 31-6 to pass – a bill legalizing industrial hemp production in Kentucky. Hemp is seen by advocates as a potential boon to Kentucky’s flagging farm economy. Tobacco farmers, especially, could make that transition easily, and need an alternate cash crop. Law enforcement officials, charged with eradicating marijuana (a much stronger strain of the industrial hemp plant, which has little of marijuana’s active ingredient THC) have opposed the bill. The governor has echoed their concerns. House leaders have expressed doubts about the true economic potential of hemp, and also noted the law-enforcement objection. There’s also a hang-up to the bill itself, should it pass and be signed into law: Kentucky would have to wait for Federal law to catch up. The Feds still consider industrial hemp cultivation illegal, something three members of Kentucky’s Congressional delegation testifying in favor of the Senate bill told lawmakers this week they’re working to change in Washington. Hemp is, clearly, a still-evolving issue. So here at week’s end, most of the session’s expected issues are on the table and moving. But then again, it’s not unusual– in either short or long sessions – for unexpected bills to explode onstage like a stray firecracker someone overlooked. We saw that last session when the radio was suddenly full of ads from an industry group opposed to restrictions on pseudoephedrine, a common cold and allergy decongestant (and precursor to cooking illegal meth). This year, a little-noticed piece of legislation (judging by mentions in pre-session news analyses, and general pre-session chatter) is also suddenly on the radio a lot, this time with ads actually urging support for a bill, Senate Bill 9. The bill seeks to discourage what its supporters and the nursing home industry call frivolous lawsuits that, they say, cost the facilities money that could better be directed toward resident care. After a spirited and sometimes emotional debate Wednesday, during which one opponent showed graphic photos of nursing-home patients in distress, the Senate approved the bill 23-12. SB 9 would create a medical review panel to assess lawsuits alleging abuse at nursing homes. It would consist of three doctors, mediated by an attorney, who would review evidence in lawsuits brought against long-term care facilities. That panel would then issue a finding on whether there was a legitimate claim of neglect or abuse. Nothing in the bill would actually prevent a lawsuit from going to court. But the panel’s ruling on the complaint’s legitimacy would be admissible evidence, presumably persuasive to the court. This, supporters say, would discourage casual or unjustified lawsuits that drain money from an already financially stressed industry. The bill was sent on to the House, where its fate is uncertain. Leaders there have characterized its journey through that chamber as likely to be ‘a little rockier,’ though they say it has ‘some support.’ Despite rapid progress on many fronts as the session nears its halfway point (after today, Friday, Feb 15, only 17 of its allotted 30 working days are left), the elephant in the room, tax reform, is still out there lurking, cloaked and unacted-upon. Even at this relatively late hour, no comprehensive tax-reform bill is yet under active committee discussion. Common wisdom has been all along that tax reform – something the governor has pushed for strongly, and not next year but this – might require him to call a later special session. In that setting, there’s no time limit and the three-fifths rule doesn’t apply. But that’s a story yet to be known or told. The only certainty is, time is running short this regular session for an agreement of such controversial complexity. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by In The News on Feb 18, 2013 17:42:46 GMT -5
Robert Stivers
weku.fm Legislative Leaders and Eastern Kentucky Issues By Stu Johnson
With a pair of eastern Kentuckians leading the general assembly, the mountain region has a powerful influence over the state’s legislative agenda. Besides House Speaker Greg Stumbo, who comes from Prestonsburg, there’s Senate President Robert Stivers, who makes his home in Clay County. The political power of eastern Kentucky was on display this winter when hundreds of residents gathered at the state capitol for “I Love the Mountain Day.” Organizing the event was Sue Tallichet, who chairs “Kentuckians For The Commonwealth”. Over the years, activists like Sue Tallichet and Kentuckians For The Commonwealth often locked horns with lawmakers over the coal industry. But, recently Tallichet has found them a bit more open to such discussions. In one small victory, she convinced several legislators that an issue concerning water quality deserved more discussion. While more open to environmental concerns, the eastern Kentuckians who run the general assembly remain influential defenders of the coal industry. Democratic State Senator Walter Blevins says that’s especially true for President Stivers. Stivers, who was officially named Senate President in January, makes it clear he has no major objection to mountaintop removal mining. As Stivers sees it, the state is cleaning up Appalachia’s drinking water, by helping with the creation of water utilities that increasingly supply communities throughout eastern Kentucky. Mountain author Silas House, who’s sees himself as a defender of Appalachia and its culture, says most of eastern Kentucky residents understand the economic benefits of coal mining. However, House says they also worry about environmental damage. But, among the eastern Kentuckians who run the General Assembly, House doesn’t see that same internal conflict. It’s for that reason, that House believes the future of mountaintop removal mining remains secure. He believes relief, if it comes, will have to be found in Washington D-C. So, despite eastern Kentuckians new-found influence in Frankfort, House is pessimistic. The author says the only real hope at the state level lies with getting new lawmakers, and leaders, into office who have a different perspective on eastern Kentucky’s environmental and economic problems. Read the entire article at: www.weku.fm/post/legislative-leaders-and-eastern-kentucky-issues
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Post by Press Release on Feb 21, 2013 21:50:52 GMT -5
Panel approves military voting bill
A bill that would simplify the absentee voting process for Kentuckians serving in the military overseas unanimously cleared the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection committee today. Called the Uniform Military and Overseas Voter Act, Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, would allow members of the armed forces, their spouses and others currently serving overseas to register to vote and request and receive an absentee ballot electronically. The bill would require overseas voters to choose to receive their ballots via fax, e-mail or another secure electronic transmission system. It would require officials to send ballots at least 45 days before an election. According to Stivers, the measure would bring the state’s absentee voting procedures more in line with the federal process and would help ensure individuals stationed overseas could cast their vote both timely and accurately. SB 1 “gives the Secretary of State and the local county clerks many tools for expediting the process,” he said. Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes told committee members the measure was needed to address issues such as lost or late ballots. When asked how many overseas absentee ballots were rejected in Kentucky’s 2012 general election, Grimes said ten percent, or approximately 300, of the ballots returned were not counted for various reasons. “The reality is that despite many progressions forward in both federal and state law and the best efforts by our local and military election officials… there are still significant obstacles in the way of our men and women in uniform to receive and return an executed absentee ballot,” she said. Under the bill, completed ballots would continue to be returned via traditional postal mail but a study of electronic voting security would be conducted in the 2013 interim. Senate Bill 1 now goes to the full Senate for consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Feb 22, 2013 22:00:33 GMT -5
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester (right), and Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes present a military absentee voting bill to the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
This Week in Frankfort
Thirteen days in a Legislature – the working days left in this one – can seem short but be a lifetime. Especially for issues that have been on the table for months, if not years. Such issues can break suddenly, be passed, and signed into law by the governor. Follow Frankfort-in-session long enough, you’ll learn to live with being surprised. That conceded, the two toughest challenges posed this session – pension reform and tax reform – are coming down to the final buzzer in March looking for a couple of long three-pointers. Deeply vetted by special task forces in the months before the session convened, both are pretty clearly defined. Their issues, problems and points of contention are known. Both are heavily pressed gubernatorial priorities. But uncertainty still surrounds them as the scorer’s clock ticks down ever louder on the 30-day Constitutional limit to this year’s regular session. Of the two, pension reform is a lot further along. While no bill on broad tax reform has even been discussed yet in committee, pension reform has passed one chamber and is under serious discussion by leaders in the other. A House committee took up the issue this week. The devil, though, is in the details as always. Most especially in this case, funding. Some background: There’s a claimed gap of as much as $30 billion between money available in the system and benefits promised to public employees in the state’s various plans, including plans for teachers, police and firefighters, county employees, and the separate Kentucky Employees Retirement System for other state workers. The plan for state workers alone – the Kentucky Employees Retirement System – is said to be $19 billion in the hole. These are estimates. But however you slice it, it’s a lot of money. The Senate early on this session passed a potentially landmark bill to revamp the scarily underfunded systems. It calls for the state to chip in its full annual funding contribution by 2015, an actuarial first shovel to start filling the hole we’re in, and creates what some are calling a ‘hybrid’ pension plan for future hires. This would be similar to the 401K plan that has replaced many if not most defined-benefit plans in the private sector nationwide, but with a safety net; it guarantees participants a 4-percent return on their contributions. The Senate bill also repeals automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments for retirees, though the Legislature could authorize COLAs on a year-by-year basis if finances stabilize or improve and the need is felt. But the bill includes no specified funding stream, something Senate leaders have said can best be dealt with in next year’s budget session after passing the new framework now and signaling clear intent to fund it when the next state spending plan is written. One practical consideration virtually everyone acknowledges is, short sessions like this one require a three-fifths supermajority to pass any revenue bill. That restriction doesn’t apply to even-year budget sessions or (perhaps portentously) to special sessions called by the governor to deal with only specified topics. The Senate proposal (SB 2) was brought before the House State Government Committee Thursday, though no vote was taken. While House leaders said they’d like to deal with this issue during the regular session – with a floor vote maybe next week --they want to complete a cost study of the bill and have their own draft proposal in good order before moving the measure along. Regardless of when or if that happens – now or in an increasingly mentioned special session later -- House leaders disagree with deferring the funding question. They say a mechanism must be in place before the Legislature can commit to full actuarial funding. Plus, the idea of a hybrid 401K-type plan to replace the current traditional plan has met some resistance in that chamber. This week, House leaders were said to be reviewing as many as 16 options for raising the money. The latest indications are the House is considering revenues from proposed Internet keno, Instant Racing and -- especially -- a 6-percent sales tax on lottery tickets, coupled with an expansion of games offered. All this, of course, is unfolding and fluid. Regardless, the pension-funding question ties in – at least in the ongoing discussion -- with the session’s other ‘big’ issue, tax reform. That’s a subject whose prospects for full consideration (the package of 54 recommendations issued by the recent Blue Ribbon Commission on Tax Reform) look increasingly dim in the baker’s dozen days left till adjournment. And Senate leaders reiterated this week that pension funding should be considered separately from restructuring the system itself, in part because they say entangling the two and failing to reach agreement on structural changes now will just complicate any comprehensive tax-reform debate later. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Feb 26, 2013 20:00:10 GMT -5
Rep. Tim Moore, R-Elizabethtown (left), confers with Rep. Jill York, R-Grayson, before the start of the day's legislative session in the Kentucky House of Representatives. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
House panel approves amended pension bill
Revisions to a Senate pension bill that would help Kentucky eventually reduce an estimated $30 billion in unfunded obligations to its public pension systems has cleared the House State Government Committee. The amended version of Senate Bill 2 represents an effort “to do as much as we can within this bill to ensure that the ARC (actuarial required contribution) is funded,” said House State Government Chair Brent Yonts, D-Greenville. State law requires the ARC be paid by the Kentucky General Assembly, which Yonts said has underfunded the contribution to the state retirement systems for 13 years by suspending the law. “The system we need to put in place needs to provide certainty, needs to be humane in its treatment of people, and it needs to be something that will be doable. We can’t do the impossible,” Yonts said. The proposed changes to SB 2 would: * Require the state pay the full ARC to the public pension systems (except the teachers retirement system, which is funded separately) at a cost of over $100 million to the state General Fund in the next budget cycle. Where the funding would come from is not addressed in the proposed changes, said Yonts, adding it will be addressed in a separate bill. * Instead of repealing cost of living raises—or COLAs— for retirees as proposed by the Senate, the bill would allow a 1.5 percent COLA if surplus funds are available and authorized by the General Assembly, or the General Assembly pre-funds the COLA. * Provide the defined benefit plan available to those now in the state’s public pension systems for new employees entering the system as of July 1, 2013 instead of switching to a hybrid cash balance plan as proposed by the Senate. * Allow the General Assembly to modify for new employees hired as of July 1, 2013 provisions that require the state to provide retirees and employees a pension based on the retirement benefit factor, contribution rates, and eligibility requirements set in current law. * Ensure that any change in the employee contribution rate to the public pension systems shall depend on the state, or the employer, paying the full ARC for the previous five years. This is “another guarantee that the full ARC will be paid,” Yonts said. * Require hazardous duty workers in the state pension systems who retire at 25 years to start drawing their pension at age 50, and change the period of time for calculation of final compensation (two changes that Kentucky Retirement System officials told the committee would save the state money.) Other changes made to SB 2 by the committee would address “spiking”—in which an employee receives a bonus or “career advancement” to boost their pension as they near retirement—by allowing the pension systems to determine whether increased cost is from a bona fide promotion or a career advancement, and set up an 11-member statutory oversight panel that Yonts said would give the General Assembly broad oversight on pension benefits, investments, funding, law, and other pension areas. SB 2 as amended by the committee now goes to the full House for its consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Feb 26, 2013 20:06:04 GMT -5
Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown (right), discusses legislation with Sen. Stan Humphries, R-Cadiz, during a recess period in the Kentucky Senate. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
Senate approves military voting bill
A bill aimed at making absentee voting easier for Kentuckians serving overseas in the military was approved by the Senate without opposition today. Senate Bill 1, known as the Uniform Military and Overseas Voter Act, would allow members of the armed forces, their spouses and others currently serving overseas to register to vote and request and receive absentee ballots electronically. Senate President Robert Stivers, the sponsor of SB 1, said the voting challenges that confront members of the military serving overseas were brought to people’s attention by Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes. “On her travels, she found out there were certain problems with voting procedures for our military people and overseas support personnel,” Stivers said. The current process of getting forms and ballots to members of the military serving overseas is “a very slow mechanism,” Stivers said. “With Senate Bill 1, we modernize the system to a great extent.” SB 1 would allow overseas voters to choose to receive their ballots via fax, e-mail or another secure electronic transmission system. It would require officials to send ballots at least 45 days before an election. According to Stivers, the measure would bring the state’s absentee voting procedures more in line with the federal process and would help ensure individuals stationed overseas could cast their vote both timely and accurately. Under the bill, completed ballots would continue to be returned via traditional postal mail or a delivery services company. Some senators said that while they support SB 1, they’d prefer that it also allow members of the military serving overseas to return completed ballots by email. Stivers noted that language that would have allowed ballots to be returned electronically was amended after county clerks and others raised concerns about protecting ballot integrity and voter anonymity. Under SB 1, a Military and Overseas Voting Assistance Task Force would study election laws and absentee ballot procedures relating to military and overseas voters and complete a report by the end of November. SB 1 now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Feb 28, 2013 18:21:26 GMT -5
Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, discusses a pension reform bill in the House State Government Committee. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
House approves pension bill and funding measure
The House today approved its version of public pension reform and a measure that would boost funding for the pension system. As amended by the House, the public pension bill, Senate Bill 2, would help ensure that the state or local government employer pay the actuarial required contribution (ARC) to the public pension systems administered by the KRS, beginning in fiscal year 2014, said House State Government Chair Brent Yonts, D-Greenville. Full funding of the ARC is estimated to cost around $100 million per year in state General Fund dollars, he said. The General Fund dollars would come from a revenue mechanism in HB 416, sponsored by House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and approved by the House today by a vote of 52-47. HB 416 is aimed at allowing the state to collect an estimated $73.5 million by 2019—and more in subsequent years— for a new state “pension sustainability trust fund” that would be created in fiscal year 2014 under the bill. The funding would potentially come from Club Keno and iLottery games that are expected to be offered by the Kentucky Lottery and a portion of the proceeds from instant or “historic” racing—or betting on previously-run horse races—now offered at Kentucky Downs and Ellis Park. “After these endeavors mature, in about six to eight years, it pretty well takes care of itself from there on out,” Stumbo said. Stumbo said HB 416 creates a potential “long-term dedicated funding source for our pension problems” while protecting state funding of the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES) program. The state lottery is the dedicated funding source for KEES under Kentucky law. Besides requiring full funding of the ARC, the House’s amended version of SB 2 would retain the current defined benefit plan in the KRS (as opposed to the hybrid shared-risk plan proposed by the Senate,) require pre-funding of cost of living raises for retirees by the General Assembly and allow the state to modify benefits and pension eligibility for future employees hired as of July 1, 2013. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Mar 1, 2013 17:51:21 GMT -5
Senate Majority Whip Brandon Smith, R-Hazard (left), discusses a bill with Senate Democratic Caucus Chair Johnny Ray Turner, D-Drift, during a recess period in the Kentucky Senate. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
Bill to require prosthetics limb coverage passes House, goes to Senate
The House today approved legislation that would require insurers to cover prosthetic limbs consider most appropriate for patients’ medical needs. House Bill 376, sponsored by Reps. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, and Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, would add Kentucky to a list of 20 other states with a “prosthetic parity” law that requires private insurers in those states to offer the same coverage for artificial arms and legs as federal Medicare Part B. Coverage would include repair and replacement, and would be subject to medical utilization review, according to the bill. The bill would take effect on Jan. 1, 2014, should it become law this session, said Rollins. HB 376 was pushed by former Frankfort resident Stephanie Decker, the mother of three who lost her right foot and ankle and left leg at the knee while protecting her children from a tornado that hit their Indiana home last March. Decker, who still lives in Indiana, was in the House chamber for the bill’s passage. “We heard her tell us (in committee) that, luckily, her accident happened in Indiana where—because of the insurance laws there—she had access to the best and newest technology,” said Rollins. He added that HB 376 would put Kentucky on par with prosthetics coverage under Indiana law. Private coverage under HB 376 would include coverage through health benefit plans, group or blanket insurance, nonprofit hospitals, medical-surgical, health service corporations, and health maintenance organizations, the bill states. HB 376 now goes to the Senate for its consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Mar 1, 2013 18:01:33 GMT -5
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, speaks on a state employee pension reform bill in the Kentucky Senate. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
This Week in Frankfort
So this week, the House weighed in on the weightiest of this session’s issues: Public-employee pension reform. And the increasingly shallow waters of a session nearing shore were roiled, with only eight working days to landfall, final adjournment near, and a governor in the wings who’s said he’s prepared to call a special session on the issue if need be. As passed in committee Tuesday and clearing the House narrowly 55-45 the next day, Senate Bill 2 – the comprehensive reform bill passed by that chamber in early February – takes a fundamentally different tack than the Senate original, in the committee substitute sent to the House floor. Most strikingly, it keeps a version of the pension systems’ current defined-benefits plan for new hires, albeit with increased flexibility for the Legislature to make future adjustments. The original Senate bill replaced the current plan with a hybrid ‘shared-risk’ approach for future employees, resembling a 401(K) but with a guaranteed 4 percent return. (This was also the recommendation of a task force that spent last year looking at fixes for Kentucky’s pension dilemma). Therein lies one rub. And herein lies another: A separate but companion bill (HB 416) provides a funding mechanism for the retirement systems – something the Senate did not do, saying that discussion should best be deferred until next year’s full budget session. House leaders have staked out a position that funding must be linked with structural reforms. Their bill passed with 52 votes. In a nutshell: As amended by the House, the public pension bill, Senate Bill 2, would help ensure that state or local government employers each year pay the actuarial required contribution (ARC) to the public pension systems administered by the KRS. That’s usually referred to as ‘full funding,’ and the Senate also called for it. Full funding is estimated to run around $100 million per year in General Fund dollars, House leaders say. Part of the reason the various public-pension funds are financially strapped is, full funding has not been forthcoming in recent years of severe General Fund budget distress. Coupled with a bad return on investments in recent recessionary years of a shaky stock market and low interest rates, the systems are said to face an overall unfunded liability of around $30 billion. The House version requires legislative pre-funding of any cost-of-living raises for retirees, and allows the state to modify benefits and pension eligibility for future employees hired on or after July 1, 2013 – something the current ‘inviolable contract’ for those already in the system forbids. The General Fund dollars to pay for full funding would come mostly from the revenue mechanism in HB 416, which envisions the state collecting an estimated $73.5 million by 2019 (and more in subsequent years) for a new state Pension Sustainability Trust Fund to be created in fiscal year 2014. The funding stream would flow from expanding the Kentucky Lottery to include Club Keno and iLottery games, and a portion of the proceeds from expanded Instant Racing -- betting on previously-run horse races—something now offered at Kentucky Downs and Ellis Park. House leaders concede these sources will require some time to ‘mature’ (six to eight years was a time frame mentioned) but should, they say, be self-sustaining after that. They say their plan protects state funding of the Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES) program, which is funded by lottery proceeds and one of the gravest concerns raised about hitching lottery money to pensions. Some skeptics also question the lottery’s Constitutional charter to expand into these new types of gaming. The chambers’ core divide on structural reform (a hybrid plan vs. a continued but more-flexible defined-benefits plan for future hires) creates roadblocks enough on its own. But even beyond that, the chambers disagree on whether there’s a compelling need to pass a funding mechanism this year. Senate leaders said after the funding bill’s passage they couldn’t receive it for consideration because it didn’t get the required 60-vote supermajority to pass a revenue bill in odd-year sessions. House leaders contend that restriction only applies to the final vote for final passage of an agreed-upon bill passed by both chambers, not the work-in-progress this bill, they say, still is. The Senate didn’t take the bill. It did take the revised SB 2, however, and on a voice vote Thursday refused to agree to (‘concur with’) the amended House version, and sent it back to that chamber asking it to ‘recede,’ meaning drop its changes to the bill. The House, in turn, declined to accept the bill back, on procedural grounds. The process, Friday, stalled. At this point, we only know one thing for sure: A structural pension-reform bill has passed both chambers and is ready for possible conference committee negotiations, if both chambers agree to appoint one. And with eight days left, there’s still time for this session to find agreement on that portion of the overall pension issue -- time, but not much. Especially with the chambers’ positions, for now at least, so far apart. Quick takes on four other issues of note: * The Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 7, a measure that would affect the Legislative Retirement Plan. The bill would make state lawmakers’ pension benefits from that system calculated only on salary earned through actual legislative service. Under current law, legislative pension benefits may also include salary earned in other government positions outside the legislature, creating the potential for individuals to inflate their benefit. The bill would apply to lawmakers entering the plan after July 1 of this year. But it includes a provision that would allow former and current legislators the option of having their legislative pension benefits calculated the same way. * Senate Bill 55 passed that chamber, proposing to amend the state’s Constitution to move the election of the governor and other state constitutional officers to even-numbered years, when elections for federal officials (and state legislators) are held. Currently those statewide-office elections take place in odd-numbered years, adding to ‘election clutter’ and cost. If the bill passes the House, the question will be posed to voters in the 2014 General Election for final ratification. * Several ‘unintended consequences’ of last session’s pill mill bill were also addressed this week, with House passage of HB 217 and quick Senate committee approval the next day. Approved unanimously in both the House and the Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill would relieve some regulatory burdens of the controlled-substance reporting requirements on providers and patients. Mandatory reporting to KASPER (the Kentucky All-Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting system) would be lifted for hospitals and long-term care facilities, which typically provide “unit” dosing at set times. Exemptions would also be made for post-surgery patients, end-of-life patients, and some specified other patients with a clear medical need for increased pain management. The bill now goes to the full Senate. * A House committee discussed but took no vote on SB 50, which would allow (pending federal approval) cultivation of industrial hemp as an alternative cash crop in Kentucky. It was unclear whether the committee would call the bill for a vote before session’s end, whether it would pass, or what its prospects would be in the full House if it did, though supporters hold out hope. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Mar 9, 2013 7:31:44 GMT -5
Sen. Joe Bowen, R-Owensboro (right), discusses a bill with Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, in the Kentucky Senate. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
This Week in Frankfort
In the long run-up to a legislative session, all things (more or less) seem possible. In its denouement – like the reworked calendar of four working days we enter now at a truncated week’s end -- the question becomes: What, now, is really possible? If politics is the art of answering that question, at no time does that become clearer than a session’s bone-weary mop-up. The gray winter’s-end landscape is littered with dead bills, crippled bills, and bills on life support. But representative government has worked its magic, too. Some bills are safely in the barn, others close or on their way. Surprises come as no surprise, in these end times. Resurrection, this Easter season tells us, can be accomplished in just three days. Through a change in schedule to skip Friday and push it into next week, we now have four. And it’s important to remember: Just as God answers all prayers, though sometimes the answer is no, the legislative process itself succeeds with all bills. Sometimes its answer is no. Sometimes, ‘not yet.’ But it’s important to remember that defeat or even failure to act is action. It tells you something politically about a bill, what’s possible, what the people want. One successful bill this session – a major priority from day one – refines a measure than had its first bumpy passage last session: the Pill Mill Bill. This session saw a successful and bipartisan push to correct some unintended consequences of what (by almost every account) has been fundamentally successful legislation. House Bill 217 makes what supporters call some common-sense tweaks to the law, clarifying protocols in dispensing pain meds for legitimate need without diluting the original bill’s intent: Stopping the rampant abuse of prescription drugs in Kentucky, fueled by ‘clinics’ that fed death to pain-pill addicts – more death each year than our highways see. Officials have cited great success in that effort. Several unlicensed pain-management clinics have shuttered and left Kentucky – ‘Good riddance to bad rubbish,’ as one legislative leader put it. Prescriptions for the most killingly addictive drugs have dropped every month since the bill’s implementation, more than 10 percent so far, all told. But some doctors and patients with legitimate needs found a few regulatory aspects of the law burdensome. And after multiple meetings with health providers, law enforcement and licensure boards and other involved agencies, lawmakers drew up several tweaks to make the law better reflect the realities of legitimate day-to-day medical practice. For example, background checks through the state’s electronic prescription drug monitoring system (KASPER) for controlled substances will no longer be required for pain medications dispensed to patients at hospitals, nursing homes, and hospice centers. The bill also lifts restrictions on access to pain meds for the terminally ill, and for patients recovering from surgery. Meanwhile, another top pre-session priority – legislation to get a handle on the proliferation of special taxing districts across the state – has passed both chambers. But the versions differ, and those differences must be reconciled before final passage and a trip downstairs to the governor’s office to be signed into law. Estimates are there are more than 1,200 special taxing districts across the state, in 117 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. They are locally imposed, and pay for services like libraries, water and sewer districts, and fire protection. House Bill 1 would require all ‘special purpose government entities’ in the state to electronically submit administrative and financial information to the Department of Local Government. That information would then be posted in an online registry and available for public inspection. Districts that don’t comply would be subject to state audit. The intent is transparency and accountability in situations where cumulatively vast sums of public tax dollars – well over $2 billion, by some estimates -- are collected and spent. But the Senate version of the bill goes further, and also gives fiscal courts the power to veto certain tax and fee increases proposed by special districts. That’s an expansion of the simpler oversight and transparency envisioned by the House. Still, with four session days left, there’s time to work out a compromise; the special-districts bill is still alive and kicking. Another widely watched bill – legalizing cultivation of industrial hemp in Kentucky, pending federal approval – is alive but hanging on by a frayed thread. After passing the Senate by a substantial margin earlier this session, it passed the House Agriculture Committee this week. But a House leader (who has expressed skepticism about the bill all along) says the likelihood of it reaching the House floor this year is slight. Opponents of the measure say they remain unconvinced about the potential market for hemp as an alternative cash crop, share law-enforcement concerns because the low-THC plant so closely resembles drug-grade marijuana, and add that the whole question is moot anyway as long as federal illegality remains in effect. Redistricting was another pre-session ‘big issues’ mention, and the House indeed passed its own self-reapportionment plan this week, over minority party objections and in the face of little indication the Senate was receptive to taking up the issue this session. As for the session’s two other big issues (the biggest, as defined by pre-session discussion), tax reform has never even risen to committee consideration; and public employee pension reform – though it has passed both chambers, albeit in dramatically different forms – remains in a procedural limbo. At week’s end, though, leaders were reported trying to find a pension-reform compromise both chambers could sign on to, with discussions ongoing. That is a developing situation, helped along by Thursday’s decision to change the session calendar to push Friday’s official working day ahead to Monday. As the schedule now stands, Monday and Tuesday are designated ‘concurrence days,’ during which the House and Senate deal with bills that passed both but got amended in one so their versions differ. After Tuesday– again, as the schedule now stands – lawmakers will go home for a 10-day ‘veto recess,’ the length of time a governor has to sign a bill, let it become law without his signature, or veto it. Taking that 10-day recess gives the Legislature the opportunity to override vetoes. The current schedule calls for lawmakers to come back to Frankfort March 25 and 26 for that purpose. One thing you should note: Legislators can still pass legislation on the session’s last day or days – or the last minute of the last midnight hour, for that matter. They simply give up the right to override vetoes. So a bill thought dead and buried this week could, if sentiment broke in favor of it during recess and a procedural path was clear, rise to live again and pass. As noted, with Legislatures, the only surprise is no surprise. More colloquially: Things ain’t over till sine die. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Mar 11, 2013 20:41:17 GMT -5
Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville (left), speaks with Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, before presenting a bill in the Kentucky Senate. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
Bill raising high school dropout age heading to governor
School districts in Kentucky will be allowed to raise the minimum dropout age for their students under legislation that cleared the Kentucky General Assembly today. Senate Bill 97, sponsored by Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, will allow local school districts across the state to increase the compulsory attendance age to 18 for their students beginning in the 2015 school year. Currently Kentucky students may drop out of high school at the age of 16. Prior to raising the dropout age, the bill will require schools to have programs and resources in place for students at-risk for not completing their high school education. School districts would also be required to apply to and receive approval from the Kentucky Department of Education. Sen. Givens commended the work of multiple lawmakers and public leaders, including the Governor and First Lady, for years of discussion of the compulsory attendance age to reach what he called meaningful compromise. “It’s apparent to me that [this] is going to be the best policy we can subscribe to as a state,” he said. The Senate agreed to a change to the bill made by the House of Representatives to require the increased compulsory attendance age to become mandatory statewide four years after 55 percent of Kentucky school districts have adopted the change. Supporters say this will allow local schools to make decisions based on their needs while also promoting uniformity in school districts across the state. “I do think this is a practical, commonsense approach to deal with an issue that is very important to our school systems and the educational attainment of our children,” Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville said. Senate Bill 97 was approved 33-5 by the Senate and now goes to the governor for his consideration. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Mar 15, 2013 17:25:09 GMT -5
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, fields reporters' questions during a recess period in the Kentucky Senate. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
This Week in Frankfort
A civics textbook on Kentucky government would tell you this: The Legislature then goes into veto recess, 10 days excluding Sundays, when lawmakers go home to await gubernatorial vetoes, before coming back to Frankfort for the session’s last working day or two to consider veto overrides. Real life 2013 translation: The Legislature is now in veto recess, 10 days plus Sundays during which rank-and-file lawmakers are home with phones ringing off the wall. Getting an earful, pro and con, from constituents. Getting buttonholed in the produce section of Pic-Pac on Saturday morning. Answering questions after church. All while trying to piece together their neglected ‘real’ lives and jobs while making speeches to Kiwanis Clubs and Chambers of Commerce about what the session has done so far, and may yet do. And 10 days during which leaders and other key players are talking informally among themselves about some live but unresolved bills, big ones and even some little ones, left on the board when the Legislature went home Tuesday night. Their hope: To reach consensus or at least compromise that can lead to quick, successful resolution when the Legislature returns for ‘veto days’ that are called that, but are almost always much more than that. (OK, expanded civics text: Under Kentucky’s Constitution, a governor has 10 days to sign a bill into law, veto it, or as a presumed statement of some disapproval but not too awfully much, let it become law without doing either. The Legislature builds into its schedule every year a recess to give that time period a chance to elapse, leaving a day or two to come back to override vetoes. In practice, those days are usually consumed with tidying up and trying to pass bills stalled or at impasse when ‘normal’ time ran out. Bills can still be passed during veto days; they just aren’t ‘veto proof.’) When the Legislature recessed this week, no bigger or more difficult bill was left in limbo than public-employee pension reform. Discussions were said to be ongoing, though their prospects for success are considered highly uncertain. It’s still a bill very much in play, though, even across a wide gap in structural approaches, and with funding a particular sticking point. To fund or not to fund, that is the question this session. The House insists on it. The Senate says it can and should wait till next year’s budget session. But there are other hanging issues too, notably Senate Bill 50, a bill to allow the farming of industrial hemp in Kentucky, with a couple of big ‘ifs’ attached. The current federal ban on growing hemp would have to be lifted or Kentucky would have to receive a federal waiver to grow it (some members of Kentucky’s Congressional delegation say they’re working toward both). Industrial hemp would, supporters say, be a boon and a natural transition for Kentucky farmers weaning themselves off tobacco as their primary cash crop. The hemp bill has had an up-and-down trip through the process. It passed the Senate handily early in the session, but appeared DOA in the House – not even getting out of committee till its second try -- until late last week. Friday, House leaders said they would allow consideration of a floor amendment that would presumably assuage some law-enforcement (and gubernatorial) concerns by putting both the UK Department of Agriculture and the Kentucky State Police commissioner in top positions on a Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission, and by switching licensing of participants in a five-year hemp growers and processors ‘demonstration project’ to the State Police. Another bill in legislative limbo would make it easier for Kentucky soldiers overseas to vote via electronic transmission. The actual process for doing so has yet to be agreed upon, and as it now stands, the bill is slated to be taken up in conference committee during the veto days. Still, major bills have passed both chambers and been sent to the governor too – 107 bills all told, some of greater or lesser scope than others -- but lawmakers on recess are likely telling those hometown Kiwanis Clubs about some of these: After years of struggle and failure, a bipartisan compromise was finally achieved Monday on a bill aimed at raising the high school dropout age in Kentucky from 16 to 18. Senate Bill 9 would allow – but not at this point require -- local school districts across the state to increase the compulsory attendance age to 18, if they choose. But districts who decide to do so must have programs and resources in place for students at-risk of not completing their requirements for graduation. While not a statewide requirement, the compromise does have a tipping point – it mandates that all Kentucky high schools implement the increased dropout age within four years after 55 percent of individual school districts have adopted the change. This allows individual school districts to make initial decisions based on local needs and concerns, but also promotes uniformity in schools across the state when a ‘critical mass’ consensus is achieved. House Bill 1 – a major House priority, as evidence by its honorific bill number -- was sent to the governor’s desk this week too. It brings what supporters call much-needed transparency and accountability to the more than 1,200 special taxing districts across the state, in at least 117 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. They fund public library boards, fire departments, water and sewer systems and other specific local services. A big pot of public money is involved: By some estimates, it approaches $3 billion, and yes, that’s with a ‘b’. And by some accounts, they collectively hold more than a billion more in reserve. Sponsors of the bill acknowledge that most special districts provide needed services to their communities and do the job well, but sometimes leave taxpayers in the dark on how, specifically, their money is being spent. The bill would put education and ethics rules in place for those special-purpose entities and create an online central registry to publicly disclose their annual budgets and other pertinent information. As settled in conference committee and passed in both chambers, the bill would also require that all special taxing districts submit a budget report to their local fiscal court. If a special district wanted to impose a new fee or increase the rate of an existing tax, it would have to hold a public hearing prior to the change in conjunction with a fiscal court meeting. While this doesn’t provide the direct local oversight and veto authority some lawmakers wanted, the bill is considered an important step forward in keeping taxpayers informed and the folks taxing them accountable. Other bills got final passage this week too. Among them, an anti-human trafficking measure – House Bill 3, which could more graphically and pointedly be called an anti-sexual-slavery bill – that `would increase penalties for anyone convicted of the crime, while protecting victims (primarily young girls) from prosecution for crimes they were forced to commit, like prostitution, and offering them state social services. Another measure related to crimes against children, House Bill 290 would create a 20-person review panel for cases of child abuse- and neglect-related fatalities and near-fatalities. The panel would be given access to complete records of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, as well as information from law enforcement and other agencies involved in the case. The Legislature reconvenes March 25-26 to wrap up its 2013 session. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Kentucky News on Mar 23, 2013 8:28:33 GMT -5
Kentucky Commission on Human Rights supports Governor Steve Beshear’s attack on Religious Freedom Commonwealth News Center press release
The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights has learned that Governor Steve Beshear announced he vetoed House Bill 279. John Johnson, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, said: “The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights strongly supports Governor Beshear’s veto of House Bill 279. The commission now strongly urges the General Assembly not to override the Governor’s wise veto.
“House Bill 279, referred to as ‘the Religious Freedom bill,’ as written, will not serve the cause of protecting religious freedom. Rather, it will threaten the religious freedom of all, by giving special protections to those few who may claim that their otherwise unlawful discriminatory actions are justified by a ‘sincerely held religious belief.’ In effect, House Bill 279 makes individual persons a law unto themselves, providing a convenient justification for infringing on the civil rights of others in violation of the Kentucky Civil Rights Act. This is not the intention of religious freedom.”
The commission urges the public to leave a message for the General Assembly asking members not to override the governor’s veto on House Bill 279. The legislature meets on Monday and Tuesday, which will be the last two days of the legislative session. People may leave this message for the entire assembly with one phone call to the state Legislative Message Line at (800) 372-7181. The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights is the Commonwealth of Kentucky authority that enforces the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in the areas of public accommodations, employment, housing and financial transactions.
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Post by Press Release on Mar 26, 2013 22:05:09 GMT -5
Senate Democratic Floor Leader R.J. Palmer, D-Winchester (center), and Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown (left), answer questions from reporters about a compromise reached on a taxation bill during a conference committee meeting. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
Pension reform, funding bills on way to becoming law
Intent on reducing over $30 billion in unfunded obligations in the state’s public employee pension system, the Kentucky General Assembly voted tonight to change benefits offered for future employees served by the Kentucky Retirement Systems and pay down the pension system’s debt to the tune around $100 million a year. The pension system changes were approved with final passage of Senate Bill 2, which cleared the Senate on a 32-6 vote and the House on a 70-28 vote. SB 2, sponsored by Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, will place future state and local government employees (except public school teachers, who are covered under a separate retirement system) as well as judges and state legislators in a hybrid “cash balance” plan as of Jan. 1, 2014, That plan is similar to a 401K, but with a guaranteed minimum 4 percent return. The bill also requires prefunding of any and all cost of living raises. Most notably, the bill will require the state to pay its full contribution, or “ARC” (actuarially required contribution), to the pension system beginning in Feb. 2015. The ARC totals around $100 million per year which will be paid with revenue generated by House Bill 440, sponsored by House Speaker Pro Tempore Larry Clark, D-Okolona. HB 440, which was given final approval by a vote of 82-17 in the House and a vote of 35-3 in the Senate, will generate $95.7 million in fiscal year 2015 and $99 million in 2016. That funding will come from a $10 reduction in the personal income tax credit, a trade-in credit for new cars, a cap on vendor compensation for sales tax collection, and enhanced revenue collection by the state Department of Revenue. Thayer said during pension negotiations earlier in the day that SB 2 will save Kentucky taxpayers $10 billion over the next 20 years while spreading investment risk between employer and employee. “It will avert a fiscal crisis that looms only four years ahead,” Thayer said. Benefits for current employees and retirees served by the Kentucky Retirement Systems will not be affected by SB 2 because of an “inviolable contract” the state has with current employees that protects existing benefits, according to House Speaker Greg Stumbo. “Unlike the folks in Washington, we can actually come to together and forge a comprehensive and responsible piece of legislation to a huge public policy problem” while protecting workers and retirees, Stumbo said. Both SB 2 and HB 440 now go to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Mar 27, 2013 5:44:43 GMT -5
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, adjourns the 2013 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
General Assembly’s 2013 session ends
The Kentucky General Assembly’s 2013 regular session came to a close Tuesday night as lawmakers adjourned at the conclusion of the 30th and final session day allowed by the state constitution. Among the highlights on the final day of legislative activity was the passage of a long-sought bipartisan agreement to ease the state’s public pension debt, along with a funding measure to assist in that effort. Since the session’s start in early January, lawmakers have also approved measures to allow school districts to raise the high school dropout age, provide better oversight of special taxing districts and make the absentee voting process easier for Kentuckians serving overseas in the military. Most new laws – all that don’t come from legislation with emergency clauses or different specified effective dates – will go into effect in 90 days. Bills approved this year by the General Assembly include measures on the following topics: * Child protection. House Bill 290 will establish by statute an independent review panel to investigate cases of child deaths and near-fatal injuries. The panel will be given access to complete records of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, as well as information from law enforcement and other agencies involved in the cases. * Crime. Senate Bill 15, named the Bryan Durman Act in honor of a Lexington police officer who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2010, will ensure that a person convicted of criminal homicide in the killing of a police or fighter on duty doesn’t become eligible for probation or parole until 85 percent of a sentence is served. * DNA testing. HB 41 will allow some felony offenders in prison or under state supervision to request testing and analysis of their DNA as case evidence. * Hemp. SB 50 creates an administrative framework for the growing of hemp in Kentucky if the crop is legalized by the federal government. * Human trafficking. HB 3 will strengthen human trafficking laws while protecting victims from prosecution for crimes they were forced to commit. The legislation will offer assistance to agencies responsible for helping human trafficking victims by creating a “human trafficking victims fund” supported by service fees paid by convicted human traffickers, proceeds from seized and forfeited assets of traffickers, and any grants, contributions, or other funds that may become available. * Military voting. SB 1 will make the absentee voting process easier for Kentuckians serving overseas in the military. The legislation will allow members of the armed forces, their spouses and others serving overseas to register to vote and request and receive absentee ballots electronically. * Newborn health screenings. SB 125 will include critical congenital heart disease testing as part of the newborn screening program. * Pill mills. HB 217 will make adjustments to the “pill mill” law approved last year by easing some reporting requirements when pain medications are dispensed for legitimate needs while upholding the original bill’s intention of stopping prescription drug abuse. Mandatory reporting to KASPER (the Kentucky All-Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting system) will be lifted for hospitals and long-term care facilities. Exemptions would also be made for post-surgery patients, end-of-life patients, and some specified other patients with a clear medical need for increased pain management. * Proof of insurance. HB 164 will allow people to use electronic insurance cards on their smart phones or other electronic devices as proof of motor vehicle insurance. Drivers will still be required to keep paper insurance cards in their vehicles. * Public pensions. SB 2 will offer a plan to ease the state’s public pension debt and HB 440 offers a financing component to the plan. SB 2 will require the state to contribute the full amount recommended by actuaries to the pension system each year beginning in fiscal year 2015. Rather than a defined-benefit plan, the legislation offers future public workers a hybrid cash balance plan with a guaranteed four percent return on contributions. On the funding side of the issue, HB 440 will generate almost $100 million a year from tax changes that include a $10 reduction in the personal income tax credit, a trade-in credit for new cars, a cap on vendor compensation for sales tax collection, and enhanced collection efforts by the state Department of Revenue. * Religious freedom. HB 279 specifies that government shall not burden a person's freedom of religion. The legislation states that an action motivated by a sincerely held religious belief can not be infringed upon without a compelling governmental interest. (HB 279 was vetoed by the governor; the veto was overridden by the House and Senate.) * Scholarships. SB 64 will ensure that students earning Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarships aren’t penalized in the amount of scholarship money they receive if they graduate from high school in three years rather than four. * School dropouts. SB 97 will allow school districts to increase the compulsory attendance age to 18 beginning in the 2015 school year. Districts that do so must have programs and resources in place for students at-risk of not graduating. The increased compulsory attendance age will become mandatory statewide four years after 55 percent of Kentucky school districts adopt it. * Special taxing districts. HB 1 will boost transparency and accountability for the more than 1,200 special taxing districts across the state. The bill will put education and ethics rules in place for those special-purpose entities and create an online central registry to publicly disclose their annual budgets and other pertinent information. The bill will require the taxing districts to submit budget reports to fiscal courts. If a special district wants to impose a new fee or increase the rate of an existing tax, it will need to hold a public hearing in conjunction with a fiscal court meeting. * Student health. HB 172 will encourage schools to possess at least two epinephrine auto-injectors in case one is needed for a student having a life-threatening allergic or anaphylactic reaction. * Suicide prevention. SB 72 will require attendance at suicide prevention training programs at least once every six years for social workers, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, fee-based pastoral counselors, alcohol and drug counselors, psychologists, and occupational therapists. * Synthetic Drugs. HB 8 will continue the state’s efforts to update laws regarding synthetic drugs to ensure that newly developed, harmful synthetic drugs are listed as controlled substances. * Teacher evaluations. HB 180 will require the Kentucky Board of Education to establish a statewide evaluation system for all certified personnel. The Department of Education, in consultation with teacher and principal steering committees, will develop the system prior to the 2014-2015 school year. * Tuition waivers. SB 95 will extend the five-year tuition waiver eligibility period for adopted children who serve in the military. * University projects. HB 7 will authorize six state universities to issue agency bonds for 11 specific building construction projects at a collective cost of approximately $363 million. The projects will be funded by the universities’ own revenue streams, not state dollars. * Victim protection. HB 222 will establish a crime victim protection program in the Secretary of State’s office to allow domestic violence victims to have personal information, such as addresses, redacted from public voter registration roles. The legislation will also allow victims in the program to vote by mail-in absentee ballot. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Mar 29, 2013 5:47:07 GMT -5
House Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook (left), confers with Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown (center) and Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Latonia, on the final day of the 2013 legislative session. (Photo courtesy of Mike Sunseri, Photography Director, Legislative Research Commission)
This Week in Frankfort
So how to assess a session’s success? A couple of approaches suggest themselves. Did it pass at least one historic bill, especially against long odds (not always possible, not always even necessary since those issues come along rarely)? Or did it pass several substantial bills of broad positive impact, not necessarily transformative but meeting the clear needs of the moment and which, taken as a whole, gave an honest day’s work (with overtime) to the people of the Commonwealth? Whatever metric you choose, the 2013 session was -- in the spirit of March Madness -- a slam-dunk. It did both. And in just 30 days. Rare is the short session that can make such a boast. Both limited time and Constitutional constraints argue against passing transformative bills, which almost always require money. Any off-year revenue measure requires, by design, a 60-percent supermajority to pass. But this year had a different feel. Freed for the first time in years from the heavy yoke of dealing mostly with budget shortfalls and cuts, lawmakers could focus solely on issues at hand. And one in particular was a doozy: Reforming the pension system for public employees, a system looking down the barrel of one big scary gun, some $30 billion in unfunded liabilities, one of the nation’s worst, one that has shot holes in Kentucky’s credit rating. Moody’s downgraded Kentucky’s bond rating a year ago and Standard and Poor’s has moved the state’s outlook from stable to negative, mostly on pension concerns. Dire were the predictions if something wasn’t done. Both legislative leaders and the governor made pension reform a top priority. Urgency was palpable on both the first and third floors of the Capitol. The governor said if the Legislature failed to pass a pension bill this session, he’d call an extraordinary one. Legislative leaders were equally determined to get a reform in place now. Everyone agreed a fix was needed. No one wanted a special session. The question was: Which reform? And then: How to pay for it? And then: Should funding be settled now or deferred to next year? Both chambers had their ideas, and they differed. But there was a strong bipartisan Zeitgeist surrounding the issue and this year’s session generally, a hopeful sign resolution might be found. What it boiled down to was, the Senate wanted to put future state hires into a sort of hybrid 401(k)-type plan, although with a guaranteed return, a 4 percent ‘floor.’ The House wanted to keep a version of the current defined-benefits plan. The Senate said funding can best wait till next year’s full budget session. The House said no time like the present. Various funding proposals were floated. None found real traction. Talks involving legislative leaders and the governor continued through the veto recess, and consumed most of the final two in-session days this week. As Tuesday wore on, with sine die looming at midnight, reports increasingly circulated that an agreement might be near. It was. A structural reform bill was passed, along with a companion funding measure, with large bipartisan majorities in both chambers. The compromise in SB 2 closely reflects the proposals of a legislative task force on pensions last interim. It does create a new ‘cash-balance’ hybrid plan for future hires, with that guaranteed 4 percent return plus possible additional benefits based on investment performance. It doesn’t eliminate cost-of-living adjustments, but requires they be pre-funded. The Legislature pledges full actuarial funding in the future. And once again -- it’s important to note -- current retirees and employees are not affected by the switchover to the new-style plan. The companion funding bill, House Bill 440, would generate about $100 million in additional yearly revenue for the pension fund, the approximate amount said needed to keep it afloat. It relies on minor changes to the state tax code, stepped up tax-compliance enforcement, and expected additional money from ‘fiscal cliff’ changes in the federal tax code, to generate about $95.7 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2014, and $99.9 million the next fiscal year. Historical context: When voters approved annual sessions in 2000, it was conceived, presented and passed as a mechanism to take needed action in the long period between full budget sessions. That meant cleaning up unintended consequence of previously passed bills – precisely as this session did, correcting some problems that emerged with the 2012 Pill Mill Bill. It also meant dealing with other emerging matters needing attention, maybe finally passing bills that been discussed before but weren’t yet ‘ripe,’ and generally making sure matters of public interest didn’t languish unattended-to because the Legislature only met every two years. It was hoped to reduce the need for special sessions. Beyond the startling achievement of passing a major reform bill this year (something considered unlikely when odd-year sessions were designed, because the ‘supermajority’ stipulation almost puts a political lock on the two-year budget) this Legislature met its original short-session mandate strikingly. Since convening in early January, lawmakers have also approved measures to allow school districts to raise the high school dropout age, provide better oversight of special taxing districts and make the absentee voting process easier for Kentuckians serving in the military overseas. Hemp farming as an alternative crop now has a clear field, pending necessary federal action. Kids young and older have new protections. Just as a quick (and by no means comprehensive) wrap-up, bills approved this year include: * Child protection. House Bill 290 will establish an independent review panel to investigate cases of child deaths and near-fatal injuries. The panel will be given access to complete records of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, as well as information from law enforcement and other agencies involved in those cases. * Hemp. SB 50 creates an administrative framework for farming industrial hemp in Kentucky if the crop is legalized by the federal government (or the feds give Kentucky an exemption). Members of the state’s Congressional delegation are working on both. The bill was on life support till close to the witching hour Tuesday, but survived in amended form. * Human trafficking. HB 3 will strengthen human trafficking laws while protecting victims from prosecution for crimes they were forced to commit. (Human trafficking is another word for sexual slavery, and usually involves young girls being held against their will and forced into prostitution). The legislation will offer assistance to victims by creating a ‘human trafficking victims fund’ supported by service fees paid by convicted traffickers, proceeds from their seized and forfeited assets, and any grants, contributions, or other funds that may become available. * Military voting. Passed late on the last day, SB 1 will make the absentee voting process easier for Kentuckians serving overseas in the military. The legislation will allow members of the armed forces, their spouses and others out-of-country to register to vote and request and receive absentee ballots electronically, reflecting the new Internet reality. * Pill mills. As mentioned, HB 217 will make adjustments to last year’s Pill Mill Bill by easing some reporting requirements when pain medications are dispensed for clear and legitimate need, while upholding the original bill’s intent of stopping the deadly scourge of prescription drug abuse that kills more Kentuckians than car wrecks. Mandatory reporting to KASPER (the Kentucky All-Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting system) will be lifted for hospitals and long-term care facilities. Exemptions would also be made for post-surgery patients, end-of-life situations, and some specified other patients with undeniable medical need for increased pain management. * Religious freedom. HB 279 specifies that government not burden a person's freedom of religion. The legislation states that an action motivated by a sincerely held religious belief cannot be infringed upon without a compelling governmental interest. This was a bill vetoed by the governor; that veto was overridden by the House and Senate. * School dropouts. A finally ‘ripened’ bill. After many attempts, SB 97 will allow school districts to increase the compulsory attendance age to 18 beginning in the 2015 school year. Districts that do so must have programs and resources in place for students at-risk of not graduating. The increased compulsory attendance age will become mandatory statewide four years after 55 percent of Kentucky school districts adopt it, indicating consensus on the issue has reached a tipping point. * Special taxing districts. HB 1 will boost transparency and accountability for the more than 1,200 special taxing districts across the state. The bill will put education and ethics rules in place for those special-purpose entities, which pay for local water, sewer, and library service, among other things. It also creates an online central registry to publicly disclose their annual budgets and other pertinent information. The bill will require taxing districts to submit budget reports to fiscal courts. If a special district wants to impose a new fee or increase the rate of an existing tax, it will need to hold a public hearing in conjunction with a fiscal court meeting. Most new laws – those that don’t come from legislation with emergency clauses or different specified effective dates – will go into effect in 90 days. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on May 1, 2013 20:24:59 GMT -5
Food banks, grain facility to receive state ag funds, panel told
Farmers, food banks, and grain producers are among those that will benefit from $2.212 million in agricultural development funds approved by the state Agricultural Development Board in April, a state legislative committee learned today. While the money will fund 12 different projects, the bulk of the funds—$2 million—goes to Meade County Riverport Authority as a one-percent interest loan to help set up a regional port facility for grain producers, Kentucky Agricultural Finance Corporation official Bill McCloskey told the General Assembly’s Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee. To secure the state loan, McCloskey said the facility will be leased to Consolidated Grain and Barge and a usage fee will be paid for cargo entering or leaving the port. The total cost of the project is $5.6 million, with Consolidated providing $3.6 million of the construction and installation cost. The remainder will be covered by the $2 million loan, which will be repaid over 20 years. Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy (GOAP) Executive Director Roger Thomas said the loan agreement “guarantees that this money will be repaid,” although the committee’s co-chair, Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, said he had concerns with the facility being overseen by one company. Consolidated Grain and Barge will have authority over operations since it holds the lease, the committee was told by McCloskey. “I do have a little concern about … how much competition that really brings into the marketplace,” Hornback said. Also approved was a total of $1,750 in multi-county funds to study the feasibility of building a regional meat processing facility for Henry, Oldham, Shelby, and Trimble counties, and up to $75,000 in state funds for the Kentucky Association of Food Banks’ (KAFB) surplus farm produce program—provided that up to $75,000 in county funds are also committed to the project. Called Farms to Food Banks, the program buys edible surplus produce and so-called “seconds” (food that is edible but not suitable for retail sale) from farmers and distributes it through the state’s food bank and food pantry network. The program was initiated in 2009 as a pilot project by God’s Pantry Food Bank and was expanded statewide in 2011 with $163,000 in state agricultural development funds, said GOAP Chief of Staff Joel Neaveill. Farms to Food Banks distributed almost one million pounds of surplus produce across Kentucky in 2012, Neaveill said. A total 217 farmers participated, with each farmer netting around $973. “This just provides some level of payment to producers for (food) that would otherwise lie fallow in the fields,” Neaveill told the committee. Committee co-chair Rep. Wilson Stone, D-Scottsville, said Farms to Food Banks is a good “self help” program that benefits both the grower and the consumer. “It’s also a market …. for something that’s basically unmarketable without this kind of (program),” he said. Kentucky farmers who donate their surplus food products to nonprofit food banks and food pantries can receive a nonrefundable 10-percent state income tax credit as a result of language added to this year’s Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester. The provisions are similar to those found in 2013 House Bill 141, sponsored by House Agriculture and Small Business Committee Chairman Tom McKee, D-Cynthiana, and Rep. Mike Denham, D-Maysville. “I think that we will see some farmers take advantage of it,” McKee said of the legislation. McKee said he has talked to officials with the Kentucky Association of Food Banks about the possibility of acquiring county matching funds for the program, and believes the matching funds will be provided. “It looks like they’ll get the matching money, so they’ll have $150,000, and this program will move forward and continue to feed people who are hungry in Kentucky—and it’ll also benefit farmers,” McKee said. The first meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Agriculture will be held at God’s Pantry Food Bank in Lexington, said McKee, who co-chairs the committee. That meeting is scheduled for June 13 at 10 a.m. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Jun 5, 2013 9:48:31 GMT -5
Lawmakers updated on automated vehicle licensing system
The launch of a new statewide automated system for vehicle and boat licensing has been postponed until mid-2014, members of the Interim Joint Committee on Transportation heard yesterday. According to Transportation Cabinet officials, the new comprehensive system is needed to replace legacy systems that have been used for decades. The Automated Vehicle Information System (AVIS) and Boat Titling and Registration System (BTS) are becoming obsolete due to advances in technology and changes to state policies and statutes, officials said. The state Transportation Cabinet contracted with 3M in 2009 to develop custom software to meet the state’s vehicle licensing and registration needs. The original launch date for the system, Kentucky Automated Vehicle Information System (KAVIS), was set for earlier this year. The main reason for the delay is several required changes to the software identified by county clerks and others during a late testing phase of the project, said Terry Barnes, KAVIS project manager. “We have 120 counties looking at this and saying this is how we want it to work. We have to make it work in a standard way across the state,” Barnes said. Once completed, KAVIS will allow county clerks to streamline the processes required for vehicle licensing, registration and taxation, including providing proof of insurance and personal information validation. It will also provide citizens with expanded online options for renewing the registration on their vehicle or boat. The system will interact with the state’s accounting program so that revenues generated through vehicle licensing and regulation will be updated immediately. Many of KAVIS’s features are very unique to Kentucky and have been created from scratch, Barnes said. Several lawmakers expressed concern about the potential for further delays in the project. Representatives from 3M said additional staff and resources have been added to the project and that the revised schedule includes additional time for testing, as well as milestones to help mark progress. When asked if KAVIS might be outdated when it is launched next year, Barnes told lawmakers the system is using the latest technology and will be versatile and flexible enough to accommodate future changes to state vehicle law and regulations. “Our highest priority remains system quality,” Barnes said. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Jun 6, 2013 7:05:51 GMT -5
Over 34 percent of Kentucky covered by smoke-free laws, lawmakers told
A little over 34 percent of Kentuckians are covered by local smoke-free laws that ban smoking in workplaces and enclosed public places or buildings open to the public, state tobacco prevention and cessation officials told state lawmakers today. Those Kentuckians live or work in 23 municipalities with comprehensive smoke-free ordinances that ban smoking in all workplaces and public areas or facilities, Kentucky Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program official Angela Criswell told the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee. The municipalities are among 37 local governments statewide, including Louisville Metro and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County government, covered by either a comprehensive smoke-free ordinance or some degree of smoke-free regulation, according to the Kentucky Tobacco Policy Research Program. The City of Williamsburg passed the most recent comprehensive ordinance in February, Criswell said. Smoke-free ordinances limit exposure to secondhand smoke, which Criswell said can trigger asthma attacks, cause lung disease, and decrease the heart’s ability to pump blood leading to heart disease or heart attack. “There is no safe amount of secondhand smoke,” she said. Criswell’s 13-year-old program is funded in part with Kentucky’s share of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, a multi-billion-dollar settlement reached between 46 states, including Kentucky, and the nation’s cigarette companies. The program received $2.12 million in tobacco settlement dollars in fiscal year 2013 and is budgeted to receive $2.09 million in tobacco settlement funds in fiscal year 2014 which begins July 1, Criswell said. About 80 percent of the program’s tobacco settlement funding is allocated to local health departments for tobacco cessation and prevention programming and to cover tobacco coordinator costs, she said. In response to a question from Rep. Jonathan Shell, R-Lancaster, state Health Programs Branch manager and former Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program manager Irene Centers said the state’s smoking rate dropped from 32 to 25 percent between 2000 (when the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program was established) and 2010. Some of the credit for the decrease is owed to Kentucky’s “quit line”—1-800-QUIT-NOW—which smokers can call to receive counseling on how to kick the habit, although Criswell said additional funding for NRT (nicotine replacement therapy) for smokers could improve the state’s “quit success rate” significantly. With additional NRT funding, Criswell indicated that Kentucky’s current quit success rate of 26 percent—which she said is above the national average—could reach 40 percent. NRT is now being offered through the program for a limited time with funding assistance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), she said. “We see that (additional funding) as a very real need,” she said. Committee co-chair Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, praised the program’s work. “You are to be commended for the recognition you’re getting because of how well your programs are doing,” he said. The committee also received a report on projects considered for state Agricultural Development Board funding last month from the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Jun 7, 2013 18:15:09 GMT -5
Planned boating restrictions along Cumberland put on hold, lawmakers told
A two-year moratorium on boating restrictions planned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers both above and below dams on the Cumberland River took effect Monday, protecting boater access to popular fisheries on Lake Cumberland and Lake Barkley, state Fish and Wildlife Resources officials said today. The moratorium is part of the Freedom to Fish Act which was signed into law by President Obama on Monday, KDFWR Deputy Commissioner Benjy Kinman told the Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Environment. The ban took effect immediately, preventing planned “full-time” restrictions while a permanent solution to the Corps of Engineers’ concerns is worked out, he explained. “They are good partners with us,” Kinman said of the Corps of Engineers. “We just kind of agreed to disagree on this issue, and try to work it out.” The planned restrictions were scheduled to take effect this spring above and below the Corps of Engineers dams at four Kentucky lakes—Lake Barkley, Lake Cumberland/Wolf Creek Dam, Martins Fork Lake, and Laurel River Lake—although the greatest impact would have been below the dams at Lake Barkley and Lake Cumberland, Kinman explained. Fishing and boating below the dam at Lake Barkley alone contributes about $3 million to the economy, he said. Lake Barkley is a popular spot for fishing of striped bass, sauger, catfish, paddlefish, and other fish, while the area below Wolf Creek Dam on Lake Cumberland is popular with those fishing brown, rainbow, and brook trout, said Kinman. The proposed restrictions were opposed last winter by the Kentucky Senate with its passage of Senate Resolution 112, sponsored by Sens. Chris Girdler, R-Somerset, and Stan Humphries, R-Cadiz. They were also opposed by members of Kentucky’s congressional delegation, and local official whose economies would be negatively affected by the restrictions. Committee co-chair Sen. Jared Carpenter, R-Berea, said he appreciates the many efforts to protect boating access. “We appreciate the federal delegation, and Sen. Girdler, and so many people’s efforts to make sure we protect that.” The restrictions were planned by the Corps of Engineers after it faced litigation concerning boater safety in Tennessee, said Kinman. “I think we’ve educated them now on the importance of the fisheries, and I think they’re going to work with us,” he said. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Jun 11, 2013 11:16:55 GMT -5
Lawmakers updated on end-of-course exams
Legislators were briefed on technical glitches that occurred during end-of- course exams in Kentucky high schools during a meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Education yesterday. According to Associate Commissioner Ken Draut, approximately 2,000 students in 30 schools across the Commonwealth were interrupted during online testing sessions. The problems occurred when ACT QualityCore’s online system became overwhelmed by a large number of students from multiple states accessing the tests at once. The system closed for several days in early May for repairs before reopening to allow further testing, he said. The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) contracts with ACT to develop and grade multiple choice exams in English, Algebra, Biology and U.S. History. Some schools revised testing schedules or moved to paper test administration to ensure all students successfully completed their end-of-course exams, Draut said. Officials with KDE and ACT are meeting to evaluate the potential impact of the testing problems on students’ and schools’ scores. They will also discuss resolutions to the technical problems experienced this year to ensure the online system will have an increased capacity in future rounds of end-of-course exams, he said. “We must have trust in their system as we move forward,” Draut said. Draut also told lawmakers of a change to the exams that moves control of written or constructed response portions of testing to local school districts. Previously those questions were also graded by ACT with scores being returned after the school year had ended. The change was made to increase the security of the questions, as well as to provide more immediate feedback and student accountability, he said. “To have the students looking at [those scores] as well I think is a marvelous thing,” Rep. Regina Bunch, R-Williamsburg, said. The change saves the Department of Education approximately $2 million annually which will be invested in developing end-of-course test exams in other subjects, Draut said. The committee also heard testimony from several groups and individuals regarding the Common Core Standards adopted by KDE after the passage of Senate Bill 1 in 2009 which directed the department to revise academic standards for the state. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Jun 13, 2013 11:04:42 GMT -5
Food banks seek state General Fund dollars
Kentucky’s food banks want state General Fund support for their operations, a state legislative committee was told. Thirty eight states provide General Fund support for food banks, according to Tamara Sandberg with the Kentucky Association of Food Banks, but Kentucky is not one of them. She told the Interim Joint Committee on Agriculture that Kentucky’s food banks need around $300,000 a year in General Fund support to meet their clients’ needs. “Kentucky is at the bottom of too many lists,” she told the committee, adding that food banks would appreciate consideration during the 2014 Kentucky General Assembly. The next regular session, beginning in January, is a budget session. The KAFB’s seven member food banks—nonprofit food distribution centers that supply food to people throughout their regions—are now funded mostly by grants or other available sources, such as state tobacco settlement funds which the KAFB or member food banks have received off and on since 2002. The 2013 Kentucky General Assembly took action to support food banks, food pantries and shelters when it passed Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester. Now law, the legislation will allow producers to receive a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of edible agricultural products they donate to nonprofit food programs. The tax credit provisions in SB 1 were originally found in House Bill 141, sponsored by committee co-chair Rep. Tom McKee, D-Cynthiana, and Rep. Mike Denham, D-Maysville. The provisions were attached to SB 1 for final passage late in the session. McKee praised the food banks and their Farms to Food Banks program. The program was created in 2009 by legislation (HB 344) sponsored by McKee. “One of the interesting things is when you expose people to fresh vegetables they’ve never been exposed to (before),” he told the committee. Food banks and pantries will also benefit from a state income tax check-off that was created with the passage of House Bill 419, sponsored by former State Rep. Fred Nesler, D-Mayfield, and Rep. Tommy Turner, R-Somerset, in 2012. Kentucky taxpayers can begin using the check-off on their 2013 tax forms, Sandberg said. Approximately 17 percent, or 750,000 individuals including one in four children, are considered hungry or “food insecure” in Kentucky today, Sandberg said. The national average food insecurity rate is 16.4 percent, according to data from the national hunger-relief charity Feeding America. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Press Release on Jun 17, 2013 21:39:25 GMT -5
New Kentucky laws go into effect next week
New laws approved during the Kentucky General Assembly's 2013 regular session go into effect on June 25. That means laws against human trafficking will soon be strengthened. More DNA testing will be allowed as evidence in post-conviction felony cases. And school districts can start deciding whether they want to raise their compulsory attendance age to 18, though the 2015-16 school year would be the first year any changes could actually impact students. The state constitution specifies that new laws take effect 90 days after the adjournment of the legislature, except for general appropriation measures and those containing emergency or delayed effective date provisions. This year’s regular session adjourned on March 26, making June 25 the day that most laws will take effect. The laws taking effect that day include measures the following topics:
Child protection. House Bill 290 will establish by statute an independent review panel to investigate cases of child deaths and near-fatal injuries. The panel will be given access to complete records of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, as well as information from law enforcement and other agencies involved in the cases.
Crime. Senate Bill 15, named the Bryan Durman Act in honor of a Lexington police officer who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in 2010, will ensure that a person convicted of criminal homicide in the killing of a police or firefighter on duty doesn’t become eligible for probation or parole until 85 percent of a sentence is served.
DNA testing. HB 41 will allow some felony offenders in prison or under state supervision to request testing and analysis of their DNA as case evidence.
Hemp. SB 50 creates an administrative framework for the growing of hemp in Kentucky if the crop is legalized by the federal government.
Human trafficking. HB 3 will strengthen human trafficking laws while protecting victims from prosecution for crimes they were forced to commit. The legislation will offer assistance to agencies responsible for helping human trafficking victims by creating a “human trafficking victims fund” supported by service fees paid by convicted human traffickers, proceeds from seized and forfeited assets of traffickers, and any grants, contributions, or other funds that may become available.
Proof of insurance. HB 164 will allow people to use electronic insurance cards on their smart phones or other electronic devices as proof of motor vehicle insurance. Drivers will still be required to keep paper insurance cards in their vehicles.
Religious freedom. HB 279 specifies that government shall not burden a person's freedom of religion. The legislation states that an action motivated by a sincerely held religious belief can not be infringed upon without a compelling governmental interest. (HB 279 was vetoed by the governor; the veto was overridden by the House and Senate.)
Scholarships. SB 64 will ensure that students earning Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarships aren’t penalized in the amount of scholarship money they receive if they graduate from high school in three years rather than four.
School dropouts. SB 97 will allow school districts to increase the compulsory attendance age to 18 beginning in the 2015-16 school year. Districts that do so must have programs and resources in place for students at-risk of not graduating. The increased compulsory attendance age will become mandatory statewide four years after 55 percent of Kentucky school districts adopt it.
Student health. HB 172 will encourage schools to possess at least two epinephrine auto-injectors in case one is needed for a student having a life-threatening allergic or anaphylactic reaction.
Suicide prevention. SB 72 will require attendance at suicide prevention training programs at least once every six years for social workers, marriage and family therapists, professional counselors, fee-based pastoral counselors, alcohol and drug counselors, psychologists, and occupational therapists.
Teacher evaluations. HB 180 will require the Kentucky Board of Education to establish a statewide evaluation system for all certified personnel. The Department of Education, in consultation with teacher and principal steering committees, will develop the system prior to the 2014-2015 school year.
Tuition waivers. SB 95 will extend the five-year tuition waiver eligibility period for adopted children who serve in the military.
Victim protection. HB 222 will establish a crime victim protection program in the Secretary of State’s office to allow domestic violence victims to have personal information, such as addresses, redacted from public voter registration roles. The legislation will also allow victims in the program to vote by mail-in absentee ballot. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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Post by Kentucky News on Jun 21, 2013 17:41:28 GMT -5
Governor Beshear Issues Call for Special Session on Redistricting Commonwealth News Center press release
“I have today issued a proclamation calling the Kentucky General Assembly into special session on Aug. 19, 2013, to address legislative and judicial redistricting. Leaders in both chambers have indicated to me a willingness to utilize the same census numbers for legislative and judicial redistricting as were used for Congressional redistricting in 2012. This will make all redistricting plans consistent and avoid having to address Congressional redistricting again. I have therefore not included Congressional redistricting on the agenda for the upcoming special session. I am confident that both the House and Senate will have their plans drawn and any remaining issues resolved by Aug. 19 so the special session will last only five days and therefore minimize the expense to taxpayers.”
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Post by Press Release on Jun 26, 2013 9:53:54 GMT -5
Lawmakers briefed on insurance coverage for autism treatments
Members of the Interim Joint Committee on Banking and Insurance were updated today on implementation of legislation to expand health insurance coverage for autism treatments. House Bill 159, passed during the 2010 Regular Session, increased claim amounts and expanded treatment options covered by insurance for patients with autism. “The passage of House Bill 159 gave hope to many families who struggle with autism. The idea that these services would be reimbursed became a lifeline for families who have sacrificed so much for their children,” said Dr. Shelli Deskins, program director at the Highlands Center for Autism. Deskins utilizes an intensive, scientifically-based autism treatment called applied behavioral analysis (ABA) therapy that was included in HB 159. She told lawmakers that families have faced some challenges in taking advantage of the expanded benefits. “Any time a new benefit is implemented in a state, there are going to be some difficulties as the coverage is rolled out throughout the insurance market,” said Lori Unumb, Vice President for State Government Affairs for Autism Speaks. According to Unumb, claims for ABA treatment have been denied for many reasons, including billing code issues and misunderstandings about the treatment. Because there are no specific billing codes for ABA treatment, patients and providers can be confused about which codes to use for each insurance company, she said. Some insurance companies did not recognize ABA as medically-necessary treatment prior to HB 159 and have required education about the therapy, Unumb said. Those types of issues should be resolved now, she said. Melodie Shrader, executive director of Kentucky Association of Health Plans, told lawmakers that health insurance companies in the state continue to be committed to resolving the challenges of expanded autism treatment coverage. Insurance companies are implementing appropriate training and identifying needed resources and networks, she said. “We will improve this. …I want to get fixed whatever is not working correctly,” said committee co-chair Rep. Jeff Greer, D-Brandenburg. The preceding was a press release from LRC eNews. For more information on items before the Kentucky Legislature contact your local senator Robert Stivers (left) and/or representative Tim Couch (right).
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