Legislative News Releases

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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.

FRANKFORT -- The Kentucky General Assembly’s 2013 regular session came to a close tonight as lawmakers adjourned at the conclusion of the 30^th 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 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.

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 Kentucky General Assembly approved a bill today that will create an administrative framework for the growing of industrial hemp in Kentucky if the crop is legalized by the federal government.

Senate Bill 50, sponsored by Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, would allow the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission to vet and license farmers wishing to grow industrial hemp. The commission would be overseen by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

As amended by the House, the commission would elect its chair and the Agriculture Commissioner would serve as vice chair.

Supporters of the measure say the crop would give Kentucky a market edge if the hemp production is legalized federally.

Industrial hemp can be used in the production of ropes, fabrics, plastics and a variety of other goods.

Currently, the growing of hemp is prohibited by federal law. Members of Kentucky’s congressional delegation told lawmakers earlier this year they are working on efforts to lift that ban.

Senate Bill 50 was approved in the Senate by a 35-1 vote shortly after being approved by the House 88-4. The bill now goes to the governor’s desk.

Legislation that would allow military voters overseas to receive absentee ballots and voter registration materials electronically is on its way to becoming law.

Senate Bill 1, sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, was passed unanimously in the Senate after clearing the House on a 91-0 vote shortly before tonight’s adjournment of the 2013 Regular Session. The legislation would require completed military-overseas absentee ballots be returned to county clerks by mail, not electronically, and that those ballots be received no later than the close of polls on Election Day.

The bill as passed also creates a Military and Overseas Voting Assistance Task Force and defines its membership and responsibilities.

Rep. Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green and supporter of SB 1, said the task force will help complete work on the absentee ballot issue.

Also included in SB 1, as passed, are provisions originally included in House Bill 141, sponsored by Rep. Tom McKee, D-Cynthiana, and Rep. Mike Denham, D-Maysville. The measure will offer a tax credit to those who donate agricultural products to food banks and pantries.

HB 1 also includes provisions in HB 203, sponsored by Rep. Darryl Owens, D-Louisville. The measure will prevent the disclosure of information in an application for an absentee ballot until after Election Day, with exceptions for disclosure to the Secretary of State or State Board of Election.

FRANKFORT -- 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.

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.

Editor’s Note: We remind you the Legislature welcomes and encourages your participation, comments and questions. All proceedings are open to the public. If a committee is taking up a bill you’re interested in, come to Frankfort. Citizens are always welcome.

The Kentucky Legislature Home Page, www.lrc.ky.gov, provides information on each of the Commonwealth’s senators and representatives, including phone numbers, addressees, and committee assignments. The site also provides bill texts, a bill-tracking service, and committee meeting schedules.

By going to The LRC Public Information eNews page, www.lrc.ky.gov/pubinfo/listserv.htm, you can subscribe to frequent e-mail updates on what’s happening at the Capitol. In addition, the office has its own blog, Capitol Notes, www.lrc.ky.gov/pubinfo/capitol_notes.htm, that will allow you to receive legislative updates at your leisure.

Legislation that would increase transparency of the state’s more than 1,200 special taxing districts cleared the Kentucky General Assembly today without opposition.

Based in part on recommendations by the State Auditor, House Bill 1, sponsored by House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, would create an online public registry that would include taxing district’s annual budgets and other information. The website would be maintained by the Department for Local Government.

Supporters of the measure say it would add accountability to special taxing districts and would help taxpayers know how public money is being spent.

Special taxing districts include public library boards, fire departments and water and sewer districts. They are found in 117 of Kentucky’s 120 counties and spend more than $2.7 billion annually, by some estimates.

The bill would establish ethics and education standards for special taxing districts and stiffen penalties if they do not comply with auditing and reporting standards.

As agreed upon in a free conference committee, the bill would also require all special taxing districts to submit a budget report to their local fiscal court. If a special district adopted a new fee or increased the rate of an existing tax, it would be required to hold a public meeting prior to the change.

Kentuckians serving in the military overseas would be allowed to transmit their ballots back home electronically under changes the House made today to a Senate bill.

Senate Bill 1, as passed by the Senate, would allow Kentucky residents serving in the military overseas to register to vote and receive election ballots electronically, but would require that their ballots be returned to their county clerks by postal mail. The bill as approved by the House would allow the ballots to be both received and transmitted electronically.

SB 1, known as the Uniform Military and Overseas Voter Act and sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers, cleared the House by a 57-42 vote. It will now be returned to the Senate for its consideration.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo said 300 ballots submitted in the 2012 general election by Kentuckians who serve in the military overseas were not counted because they arrived by postal mail at their county clerks’ offices after the voting deadline or other reasons. All 300 voters had requested ballots, Stumbo said.

“Those 300 men and women have a right to have those votes counted, and I don’t think anyone in this chamber would disagree with that,” said Stumbo.

Some House members who voted against the changes to SB 1 expressed concerns that allowing overseas military ballots to be submitted electronically could violate a state constitutional requirement for voting by secret ballot. Rep David Floyd, R-Bardstown, called the provision for electronic voting by the military overseas “yet another assault on a constitutional right, and this time the assault is primed and pointed right at those who serve their country in the United States military.”

Other provisions added to SB 1 by the House would require the Kentucky Secretary of State to develop a system for electronic return of military overseas ballots, specify that a ballot received by a member of the military overseas must be returned to that voter’s county clerk electronically, and set a timetable by which ballots can be requested and should be received by or submitted to the voter’s county clerk.

Any ballot submitted by a member of the military voting overseas must be counted if received at the end of business on the day before the total number of votes is certified, according to SB 1 as amended by the House.

FRANKFORT -- School districts in the Commonwealth 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's desk.

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.

· A taped Calendar Line containing information on the next day’s legislative committee meetings is updated daily at 1-800-633-9650.

· To check the status of a bill, you may call the Bill Status Line at 1-866-840-2835.

· To leave a message for any legislator, call the General Assembly’s Message Line at 1-800-372-7181. People with hearing difficulties may leave messages for lawmakers by calling the TTY Message Line at 1-800-896-0305.

· You may write any legislator by sending a letter with the lawmaker’s name to: Capitol Annex, 702 Capitol Avenue, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601.

FRANKFORT -- State lawmakers will not convene in session tomorrow as a result of a change in the 2013 Regular Session Calendar agreed to by legislative leaders.

Under the newly revised calendar, the General Assembly’s chambers will convene two days next week – March 11 and 12. (The convening time for the Senate and House is 10 a.m. on March 11.)

The veto recess – the period of time when lawmakers return to their home districts to wait for potential gubernatorial vetoes – will be held from March 13-23. Lawmakers are scheduled to return to the Capitol on March 25 and 26 for the final two days of the 2013 legislative session.

FRANKFORT -- A bill aimed at increasing transparency and accountability of the state’s special taxing districts was approved by the Kentucky Senate today.

House Bill 1, sponsored by House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, would require “special purpose government entities” in the state to submit administrative and financial information to the Department of Local Government. That information would then be posted in an online registry and available to the public.

According to Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, the bill would apply to more than 1,300 special taxing districts in the state that raise and spend approximately $4 billion in public money annually. These entities include public library boards and fire and water districts, among others. They are found in more than 117 Kentucky counties.

As amended by the Senate, the bill would also give fiscal courts the power to veto certain tax increases proposed by special districts. It would also make the results of audits of districts covered under the legislation available for public review on the online registry, Thayer said.

The Senate changes to House Bill 1 “add much-needed oversight to special districts across the Commonwealth,” he said.

The measure was passed on a 23-10 vote. Opponents of the bill cited concerns about allowing fiscal courts veto power over the taxing districts.

House Bill 1 now goes back to the House of Representatives for consideration of the Senate changes.

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).

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.

· A taped Calendar Line containing information on the next day’s legislative committee meetings is updated daily at 1-800-633-9650.

· To check the status of a bill, you may call the Bill Status Line at 1-866-840-2835.

· You may write any legislator by sending a letter with the lawmaker’s name to: Capitol Annex, 702 Capitol Avenue, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601.

FRANKFORT— 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.

FRANKFORT -- The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a measure today that would make changes to legislation known as the “pill mill bill” that was approved during the 2012 special legislative session.

The 2012 legislation regulated pain management clinics and mandated use by physicians and pharmacists of the state’s prescription drug monitoring system, KASPER, among other things.

According to House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, who testified before the committee, that measure has proven effective in addressing the state’s prescription drug abuse problem but could be improved by some minor adjustments.

House Bill 217, sponsored by Stumbo and Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, would exempt hospitals, long-term care facilities and end-of-life care programs from some of HB 1’s restrictions on prescribing and dispensing narcotics.

The measure would also allow doctors to administer blood or urine tests at their discretion to help monitor patients’ use of drugs being prescribed without mandating such tests in every case, Stumbo said.

“These are logical steps… to make sure we are not burdening these groups,” said Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester.

FRANKFORT—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.

FRANKFORT – 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 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.

FRANKFORT—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.

n 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.

n 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.

n 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.

n 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.

n 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.

n 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.

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.

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.

· A taped Calendar Line containing information on the next day’s legislative committee meetings is updated daily at 1-800-633-9650.

· To check the status of a bill, you may call the Bill Status Line at 1-866-840-2835.

· You may write any legislator by sending a letter with the lawmaker’s name to: Capitol Annex, 702 Capitol Avenue, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601.

FRANKFORT – 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.

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.

FRANKFORT—A bill that would require those accused of sex crimes to undergo HIV testing at the victim’s request within 48 hours of the request passed the House today by a vote of 96-0.

House Bill 107, sponsored by Rep. Joni Jenkins, D-Shively, now goes to the Senate for its consideration.

“In the aftermath of a sex crime, victims have a lot to worry about, and HIV is at the top of their list,” said Jenkins, who worked for 10 years as a rape crisis advocate in the Louisville area.

HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, is the cause of acquired immune deficiency syndrome—or AIDS—which causes severe damage to the body’s immune system.

Jenkins’ bill would allow a sexual assault victim or his or her parent or guardian, if the victim is under age 18, to request HIV testing any time after a finding of probable cause following the defendant’s preliminary hearing or indictment, according to the bill. Testing would be ordered by the court for any person convicted of a sexual offense who has not yet been tested, whether or not the victim requests it.

HB 107 will ensure sexual assault victims have “critical information” that could save their lives, said Jenkins, adding that treatment for HIV within 72 hours of infection can stem the virus’ progression into AIDS.

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 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.

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.

· A taped Calendar Line containing information on the next day’s legislative committee meetings is updated daily at 1-800-633-9650.

· To check the status of a bill, you may call the Bill Status Line at 1-866-840-2835.

· You may write any legislator by sending a letter with the lawmaker’s name to: Capitol Annex, 702 Capitol Avenue, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601.

FRANKFORT—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.

FRANKFORT -- The Senate unanimously passed a measure yesterday that would put a limit on the amount of debt the state can incur.

Senate Bill 10, jointly sponsored by Sen. Joe Bowen, R-Owensboro, and Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, would cap the Commonwealth’s bonded indebtedness at six percent of General Fund revenues. That is the generally accepted level used by bond rating agencies.

“The fact of the matter is the most important responsibility we have as elected officials is to be good stewards of the taxpayers’ dollars. This bill obviously helps us do that,” Sen. Bowen said.

Under the bill, the legislature would not be allowed to exceed that amount except by a majority vote in the event of a state of emergency declared by the Governor.

The measure excludes debt for universities, the Kentucky Housing Authority, and all other agencies not using the General Fund, including the stand-alone Road Fund.

FRANKFORT – The Kentucky Senate approved by a 31-6 vote today 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.

FRANKFORT—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.

FRANKFORT -- Kentucky school districts would be required to maintain emergency management plans under a bill unanimously passed by the Senate today.

Based on recommendations from the Kentucky Center on School Safety, Senate Bill 8, sponsored by Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, would require school administrators to meet with local first responders to create multi-faceted emergency management response plans and update the plans annually. School staff would be briefed on the plans annually as well.

“School safety and security involves so much more than just locking the school down. It involves preparation,” Sen. Wilson said.

The bill would require severe weather, fire, lockdown and other safety drills to be completed in the first 30 days of the school year and again in January. It includes recommendations for securing school buildings.

Under the measure, a school’s emergency management plan would not be made public and would not be subject to open records laws.

A 0.5 percent tax would be assessed on advance deposit account wagers made by Kentucky residents on horse races under a bill that cleared the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee today.

Most advance deposit account wagering takes place on internet gambling sites, according to the revenue note attached to HB 189.

House Bill 189, sponsored by House Speaker Pro Tempore Larry Clark, D-Okolona, and Rep. David Osborne, R-Prospect, now goes to the full House for consideration. The legislation is expected to generate as much as $600,000 in tax revenue which would be divided between the state General Fund (15 percent) and the race track or association that held or hosted the race (85 percent).

“The fiscal note shows it’s about $300,000 to $400,000,” Clark said of a revenue estimate attached to the bill that indicates possible revenue that the bill would generate from advance deposit wagering companies. “We think the revenue may be closer to $600,000, with some of the preliminary reports we got.”

Most advance deposit account wagering takes place on internet gambling sites, according to the revenue note attached to HB 189.

FRANKFORT—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.

FRANKFORT—A bill that passed the Kentucky House by a 78-19 vote today would allow a court to expunge the criminal record of certain low-level felons who have served their time.

House Bill 47, sponsored by House Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Darryl Owens, D-Louisville, would only apply to persons convicted of Class D felonies in Kentucky who have no prior felony conviction, no charges pending, and no criminal record other than traffic violations in the past five years. Sex offenders and those convicted of child or elder abuse could not have their records expunged.

If the bill becomes law it would also allow Class D felons whose records are expunged to carry a firearm legally.

“A lot of people have made mistakes,” Owens said when presenting his bill on the House floor.

Among those voting in favor of the bill were Rep. Tim Moore, R-Elizabethtown, a co-sponsor of HB 47 who said he asked to be a cosponsor of the legislation “because I believe in redemption and a second chance.” Allowing eligible Class D felons to petition the court to have their record removed from public view will help them find work post-incarceration, he said.

Expungement is already allowed under Kentucky law for certain misdemeanor convictions arising from a single incident.

FRANKFORT – 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.

FRANKFORT -- O. Leonard Press, who conceived and struggled for years against long odds to get funding for Kentucky Educational Television and was its founding director, will be in Frankfort Wednesday to formally receive the Legislature's highest honor. Press had earlier been named recipient of the 2012 Vic Hellard Jr. Award for Excellence in Public Service, named for the longtime LRC director who died in 1997.

The 92-year-old Press and his wife Lillian will visit each chamber for the formal presentation of the award, given annually since Hellard's death to a distinguished Kentuckian who embodies the special qualities Hellard himself brought to public service.

FRANKFORT -- ‘Ambitious’ has been a mild descriptor of the common wisdom about what’s in store for this year’s short-session agenda.

Tax reform: Here, everywhere and throughout the history of representative government, raising revenue—or even just changing parts of the tax structure and calling it revenue neutral -- faces stiff political headwinds. A Blue Ribbon Commission on Tax Reform met last year and recommended ways to bring Kentucky’s tax structure in line with what it identified as current state revenue needs and 21^st Century economic realities. Many such panels have met in the past; there’s been little or no notable success in getting their recommendations enacted. Roll a boulder up a hill, watch it roll back down.

Beyond that, though, sheer practical considerations compound the fact that tax reform designed to raise additional revenue – as the Commission’s proposal does, to the tune of $659 million per year -- faces uphill prospects this winter.

Not only is this an awfully short session to undertake such a Herculean task (the Commission recommended 54 changes to the state tax code, including both tax hikes and cuts), the rules governing an odd-year sessions require a supermajority of 60 percent in each chamber to pass any tax measure. Even-year sessions and – importantly – special sessions have no such requirement, something the governor has indicated he may resort to. He has said clearly he wants tax reform (and pension reform) acted on this year. Whether that happens or not is, of course, the Legislature’s final prerogative. Only the governor can call a special session. But only the Legislature can pass bills.

Pension reform: A Gordian knot of a problem involving a claimed gap of as much as $30 billion (some say less, around $18 billion) between money available in the system and benefits promised to public employees in the state’s various plans. The Senate this week – on a strong bipartisan vote of 33-5 -- passed a pension-reform bill based on the recommendations of yet another task force, The plan would, among other things, move new state hires into a hybrid pension plan, similar to the 401K plans common virtually everywhere nowadays, replacing the current defined-benefits plan but with a guaranteed return of 4 percent yearly. Automatic cost-of-living increases for all retirees would be repealed. (The COLA is currently suspended anyway, and could be restored in the future if finances improve).

Funding for the Senate reforms remains a question, though, which (again) might wait till a special session the governor may call, or next year’s full budget session. And remember, the House still gets its turn to consider the issue. Then the two chambers have to work out differences in their bills. And time is short.

While the regular session will certainly end on schedule after its Constitutionally allotted 30 working days, the governor implied strongly in his State of the Commonwealth speech and other comments this week and earlier that he wants pension reform, along with tax reform, resolved this year.

Either of those, if passed, would be considered landmark, capstone achievements for even a full 60-day session. In this compressed off year, the challenge of dealing with them both is formidable. Only 22 working days remain this winter. It’s fair to say one or both issues might spill over in whole or part into future consideration, though both will certainly get serious discussion as time ticks down – especially pension reform, which a sense of great urgency surrounds, and is already in a bill that has passed one chamber successfully and is loose in the process.

Aside from those extraordinary issues, mind-boggling in their complexity and long-term implications, what might be considered ‘normal’ issues are either likely or possible for action over the next few weeks.

Legislative redistricting, struck down by the courts last year, remains unresolved but also deferrable since there are no legislative elections this year. Leaders differ whether to attempt it this session.

Getting a handle on the proliferation of special taxing districts statewide has emerged as a major priority, with a strong push toward requiring accountability and public transparency in their finances and spending.

Also considered likely as is some tweaking of last session’s ‘pill mill bill,’ – designed to get a handle on Kentucky’s prescription-drug abuse epidemic -- which a number of legitimate doctors and patients have found unduly onerous in some of its particulars.

The House Health and Welfare Committee this week approved a bill that would ban smoking statewide in all indoor workplaces and public places, including restaurants and bars. There’s a long and winding road between committee approval of a bill and the governor signing it into law. But if that happens, Kentucky will join 29 other states with statewide smoking bans in enclosed public places.

Of course, there’s more. The governor continues to push raising the school dropout rate to 18, and a growing chorus of officials and others are calling for legalization of industrial hemp in Kentucky, saying it would be a potential boon for the state’s economy and bring relief to hard-pressed post-tobacco program farmers.

In all, this session – and maybe this year – holds its uncertainties and possible surprises close to the vest, as February and the winter’s short, hard work begin. This will, even more than usual, be a session worth close attention.

Toward that end, we remind you the Legislature welcomes and encourages your participation, comments and questions. All proceedings are open to the public. If a committee is taking up a bill you’re interested in, come to Frankfort. Citizens are always welcome.

The Kentucky Legislature Home Page, www.lrc.ky.gov, provides information on each of the Commonwealth’s senators and representatives, including phone numbers, addressees, and committee assignments. The site also provides bill texts, a bill-tracking service, and committee meeting schedules.

By going to The LRC Public Information eNews page, www.lrc.ky.gov/pubinfo/listserv.htm, you can subscribe to frequent e-mail updates on what’s happening at the Capitol. In addition, the office has its own blog, Capitol Notes, www.lrc.ky.gov/pubinfo/capitol_notes.htm, that will allow you to receive legislative updates at your leisure.

· A taped Calendar Line containing information on the next day’s legislative committee meetings is updated daily at 1-800-633-9650.

· To check the status of a bill, you may call the Bill Status Line at 1-866-840-2835.

· You may write any legislator by sending a letter with the lawmaker’s name to: Capitol Annex, 702 Capitol Avenue, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601.

FRANKFORT—The Kentucky House voted 96-1 today to require special taxing districts and similar entities to provide their administrative and financial information to the state to be posted online.

House Bill 1, sponsored by Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, would require the state’s more than 1,200 special districts to submit the information to the Department for Local Government (DLG) to be placed in an online registry to make the districts more transparent and accountable to taxpayers. State Auditor Adam Edelen estimates that the special districts spend around $2.7 billion in public money per year.

“This is not a bill that’s in response to bad conduct,” Stumbo said. “House Bill 1 sets up and clarifies the reporting requirements and the auditing standards. It adds teeth to compliance. It establishes education and ethics provisions. … It’s a step in the right direction to bringing some sanity to how statutes interact.”

HB 1 would define special districts and similar entities as “special purpose government entities” for reporting and auditing purposes. The entities would be required to report who they are, what they do, and their finances to DLG, which would put that data online in a centralized registry. Entities that do not submit the required data would be subject to an audit at their own expense, Edelen has said.

Special districts and similar entities would have to register with DLG by the end of this year under HB 1, said Edelen. The centralized registry would go online in the fall of 2014, he said.

FRANKFORT -- Two measures that would change the informed consent process for the abortion procedure in Kentucky were approved by the Kentucky Senate today.

Senate Bill 4, sponsored by Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, and President Pro Tempore Katie Stine, R-Southgate, would require a woman seeking an abortion to provide informed consent during an in-person meeting with a physician, nurse or social worker.

According to Higdon, the informed consent process required under current law is sometimes conducted through a pre-recorded phone message. SB 4 would better allow a woman the opportunity to have any questions she may have about the procedure answered, he said.

Senate Bill 5, sponsored by Sen. Paul Hornback, R-Shelbyville, would add an ultrasound to the informed consent process required for an abortion. According to Hornback, ultrasounds are a common part of many abortion procedures already.

Under provisions of SB 5, the woman could choose not to look at the ultrasound images, but the physician would be required to verbally describe them.

Opponents of the bills were concerned about the added financial expense to women of the additional medical visit required by the bills, and questioned the necessity of a face-to-face meeting rather than communicating through phones or other technology.

Both bills were approved by 31-4 votes and now go to the House for consideration.

FRANKFORT – A bill aimed at easing the state’s public pension debt was approved in the Senate yesterday by a 33-5 vote.

The state’s pension systems administer benefits to more than 325,000 current and former public employees. Some estimates say the systems are facing a combined $30 billion unfunded liability.

“This issue affects every Kentuckian…It continues to eat away at our ability to deliver the services and policies that all Kentuckians expect from us,” Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said.

In an effort to pay down that debt, Senate Bill 2, sponsored by Thayer, would require the Commonwealth to contribute the full amount recommended by actuaries to the pension system each year beginning in fiscal year 2015. Currently, the state is scheduled to pay three-fifths of the actuarially required contribution (ARC) that year.

To provide immediate relief to government budgets, the measure would extend the pay-back period for the debt from 26 to 30 years.

Other provisions in the bill would prohibit public employees from being re-employed with the state for up to two years after retirement and would repeal annual cost-of-living adjustments provided to retirees. Thayer said the increase had been suspended during previous budgets and could still be reinstated in future budgets.

While the bill would not affect the Kentucky Teachers Retirement System and would not change benefits received by current and former state employees, it does propose a new hybrid cash balance plan for future public workers.

Different from the state’s current defined-benefit plan and a traditional 401(k), the shared-risk plan would guarantee new employees a four percent return on contributions. A quarter of returns over four percent would go to the state’s fund.

Senate Bill 2 mirrors the plan adopted by the Task Force on Kentucky Public Pensions in November. The 14-member task force, co-chaired by Thayer and comprised of members of both chambers, met with state and national pension funding experts during the interim.

FRANKFORT—The House Health and Welfare Committee today approved a bill that would ban smoking statewide in all indoor workplaces and public places, including restaurants and bars.

House Bill 190, sponsored by Rep. Susan Westrom, D-Lexington, and Rep. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, now goes to the full House for its consideration. If it becomes law, Kentucky will join the list of 29 other states with statewide smoking bans in enclosed public places.

Workers and the public need more protection from smoking, which costs Kentucky employers $3.8 billion a year in lost productivity due to illness and smoking related problems, Westrom said.

Adams said workers currently exposed to cigarette smoke shouldn’t “have to choose between their paycheck and their health.”

The state’s Medicaid program alone spends nearly $500 million a year on smoking-related illnesses, Westrom added.

HB 190 includes an exception from the ban for smoking rooms in airport or other large public facilities, although the smoking would only be allowed in designated freestanding areas with separate ventilation.

A portion of HB 190 would be designated the “Smokefree Kentucky Act” if the bill becomes law.

FRANKFORT—Kentucky’s special taxing districts would be required to submit data about who they are and how the money they raise is spent under legislation approved by the House Local Government Committee today.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, the sponsor of House Bill 1, told the panel that his legislation is designed to bring transparency to how taxpayers’ money is being spent while ensuring continuity of services to Kentuckians. He has worked on the legislation and presented the bill with State Auditor Adam Edelen, who has reported that Kentucky has over 1,200 special districts that spend $2.7 billion of public money per year.

“If you look at the magnitude of these special districts… it is remarkable that we’ve had so few problems with them. That’s a testament to the fine Kentuckians who serve all across the Commonwealth on the library boards, the water boards, and all the special district boards,” Stumbo said.

“This is not something that is a reaction to bad conduct,” Stumbo said, adding that a special district may not be completely aware of what is expected of them by the state. “This is an attempt to clarify (by law) to make sure that they have a clear path as to what reporting requirements they need to make…and just a way to simplify this very complicated and convoluted series of laws that have developed in our statutes dealing with special districts over the past number of years.”

Public libraries, EMS boards, water districts and fire districts are all examples of special districts, which are found in 117 counties statewide. Edelen said taxpayers in those counties pay more to special districts than they do in local property tax. He also said special districts in Kentucky hold twice the amount of cash reserves as the state’s 174 public school districts, or approximately $1.4 billion.

HB 1 would define special districts and similar entities as “special purpose government entities” for reporting and auditing purposes. The entities would be required to report who they are, what they do, and their finances to the state Department for Local Government, which would put that data online in a centralized registry for public viewing. Entities that do not submit the required data would be subject to an audit at their own expense, Edelen said.

The legislation would also establish education and ethics rules to ensure that the newly-defined special purpose government entities are putting taxpayer money to good use, and make it easier for defunct or inactive entities or entities that “choose to go outside the process,” as Edelen said, to be dissolved by law.

Special districts and similar entities would have to register with the Department for Local Government by the end of this year under HB 1, Edelen said. The centralized registry would go online in the fall of 2014.

FRANKFORT – The Senate State and Local Government Committee unanimously approved a proposal today aimed at paying down public pension debt and creating a new retirement plan for future employees of the state.

Senate Bill 2, sponsored by Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, mirrors the eight-point proposal adopted by the Task Force on Kentucky Public Pensions in November. The task force, co-chaired by Sen. Thayer, met during the interim to discuss ways to address the estimated $30 billion unfunded liability faced by Kentucky Retirement Systems.

The bill would require the Commonwealth to pay the full actuarially required contribution (ARC) to the pension system by fiscal year 2015. Currently, the state is scheduled to pay 61% of the ARC that year.

According to Sen. Thayer, that higher level of funding is needed to sustain the pension system long-term.

“For us, the math quite simply doesn’t add up. If we don’t do something our pension system is going to be insolvent in as little as four years,” Thayer said.

Other provisions included in the bill would repeal the current cost-of-living adjustments provided to retirees. Lawmakers pointed out that the adjustment had been suspended during previous budgets and could still be reinstated in future budgets.

To help provide short-term relief, the proposal would reset the amortization period for payment of the unfunded liability from 26 years to 30 years.

Under SB 2, pension benefits for new hires would be calculated in a hybrid shared-risk plan. New employees would be guaranteed a four percent annual return on contributions, while a quarter of returns over four percent would go to the state’s funds.

Supporters of the hybrid cash balance plan say the option is more predictable and sustainable than the defined benefit plan currently provided to public employees and retirees.

FRANKFORT—A bill to authorize six of Kentucky’s state universities to issue agency bonds, and assume the debt, for 11 specific building construction projects at a collective cost of approximately $363 million has cleared the House budget committee.

House Bill 7, sponsored jointly by House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and House Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chairman Rep. Rick Rand, D-Bedford, was approved by Rand’s committee this morning. The bill now goes to the full House for consideration.

The projects would be funded by the universities’ own revenue streams, not state dollars, according to the bill.

The bill would authorize agency bonding for three projects at the University of Kentucky, three at Murray State, two at Northern Kentucky University, and one each and Morehead State, the University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University, according to UK President Eli Capilouto who reiterated that the projects must be self-financed with the universities’ own revenues. The projects must also fill an urgent need to meet the universities’ goals of student success and retention, begin in the next calendar year, and not rely on state funding in future budget cycles, Capilouto said.

n Renovation of Hester Hall, renovation of housing and dining facilities and upgrade of the sprinkler system at College Courts at Murray State University;

n Renovation and expansion of Albright Health Center and acquisition and renovation of a new residence hall at Northern Kentucky University;

n Renovation and expansion of Commonwealth Stadium and Nutter Training Center, construction of an academic science building, and expansion of Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky;

Rand said the current state budget has the lowest level of bonding in recent memory, with no agency bonds authorized for state universities. “I think since that time the university presidents, in conjunction with the governor and House and Senate leadership, worked on a very narrow list of projects they think are critical to their institutions and the students who attend there,” he said.

FRANKFORT—Criminal justice reforms approved by Kentucky lawmakers in 2011 have saved the state as much as $35 million or more since the legislation took effect in 2011, a joint legislative committee was told yesterday.

Around $10 million in savings came from mandatory supervised release on parole of certain non-violent inmates with six months or less on their sentence, while around $25 million in savings--mostly to county governments—came from an increased pretrial release of low to moderate risk criminal defendants, the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary heard. Both provisions were part of the 2011 Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act (HB 463) enacted by the 2011 Kentucky General Assembly.

Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary J. Michael Brown said savings from mandatory supervised release of inmates has helped to reduce the state’s inmate population to around 22,100—although state officials say savings are offset by costs to implement the legislation. The population would be well over 23,000 “and scaling up” without the mandatory supervised release provision, Brown said.

“That one aspect alone has not only saved the Commonwealth, but has also accomplished the purpose of public safety by reducing the recidivism rate for that group of inmates,” Brown told the panel.

Kentucky Public Advocate Ed Monahan, who oversees the state’s Public Defender Program that provides legal counsel for indigent defendants statewide, said HB 463 has created substantial savings for Kentucky, including around $25 million in savings due to pretrial release of low to moderate risk defendants. He added, however, that savings under HB 463 have fallen short and that “prudent opportunities” can be taken to improve public safety and save money.

All provisions found in HB 463 are projected by the Office of the State Budget Director to save the state $422 million over 10 years. Other savings are projected to come from reduced recidivism, use of citations rather than arrests for low-level misdemeanor offenders, and increased use of substance abuse treatment paid for by reinvestment of savings from reduced incarceration costs, among other things, according to reports on the legislation.

A portion of the savings remaining after reinvestment in substance abuse and other recidivism reduction efforts are required by HB 463 to go into a fund to assist local jail with their costs. Brown said the Cabinet has budgeted and provided some funding for the local jail fund to date.

Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, questioned why the savings reported by Brown are below the State Budget office projections, which he said averages to about $42 million annually. Brown said the savings will not be realized immediately.

Other speakers on HB 463 including the Kentucky Parole Board, Commonwealth’s Attorneys Association, Administrative Office of the Courts, Kentucky Association of Counties, and Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, among others.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves ...”

Every legislative session has its moods, it expectations, its hopes, fears, certainties and – always – surprises. But the 2013 session, unlike any of the last six and most of the last ten, convened this week without any need to write or say the phrase ‘budget shortfall,’ a coupling so common we just expect to hear it each January like corks popping at New Year’s, with all its associated ‘shallows and miseries’

Normally, that’s followed with grisly warnings of budgetary clear-cutting and ominous words like Draconian.

And while Kentucky hardly rides a full sea this year financially, it’s not scraping the shallows either. We’re fiscally stable for the moment. Revenues so far this biennium have held to projections, as the weak economic recovery seemingly continues (something December’s just-released revenue figures confirmed). A major mid-course budgetary correction in the off-year session doesn’t seem likely this time around.

That’s not to say we’re flush. Worries persist about a possible double-dip recession. Programs, agencies, universities and others still feel the sting of earlier cuts (the Administration says it’s cut about $1.6 billion out of spending over the last 4 ½ years). And it’s fair to say uncertainties lurk as elements of Obamacare and new national tax and economic policies kick in.

But the lack of an immediate state budget crises – combined with a year of no elections -- gives this session breathing room to ‘take the current’ Shakespeare’s Brutus cites in the quote above. It gives lawmakers space to at least part the curtains on longer-term money issues, deep and scary and in need of hard fixes: The public-employee pension system, which by some estimates carries a $30-billion unfunded liability, and Kentucky’s tax code, what critics call a cobbled-together relic of the 1950s that isn’t much tethered to 21st Century economic reality.

Both issues were studied in depth by task forces during the recent interim; both groups submitted recommendations to the Legislature. Both issues will almost certainly get heavy discussion in the Capitol this winter. But whether they either can or will be acted upon during this year’s abbreviated 30-day session is – just as a practical process matter -- problematic. While lawmakers have a clear field for a change, it’s also a shortened one with tougher rules.

Not only are pensions and taxes hugely complex issues in their own right, tax matters in an off-year session require a voting supermajority. That’s 60 in the House, 23 in the Senate. Serious mention has been made of a special session or sessions later this year, isolated on one or both those questions. A sense of urgency – especially about pensions – is palpable in Frankfort, though.

Once again this year, a governor who ran on and was elected twice calling for expanded gaming in Kentucky only to meet with no success may again push for a constitutional amendment allowing casinos in the state. But again, a 30-day session is a mighty short time frame for such a controversial proposal, especially competing for attention with separate discussions of tax and pension reform.

Legislative redistricting, struck down by the courts last year, remains live and unresolved and challenging as ever, but also deferrable since there are no legislative elections this year. Legislative leaders are split on tackling it this winter, and the governor has asked that it not be.

Other more traditional issues, though, could get a thorough airing and action this year.

Getting a handle on the proliferation of special taxing districts statewide, raising the school dropout age to 18, ironing out complaints about last session’s ‘pill mill bill,’ fixing problems with Medicaid managed care, and possible legalization of industrial hemp are all on the table.

As at the beginning of any odd-year session, organizational matters were handled first.

Leadership was selected and committee chairs and members and chairs named. Trainings were held.

In the Senate, Sen. Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, and Sen. Katie Kratz Stine, R-Southgate, were elected by the full chamber to serve as Senate President and President Pro Tempore, respectively.

In the House, Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, D-Louisville, retained that chamber’s top jobs

Senate Republicans chose Sen. Damon Thayer of Georgetown as their Majority Floor Leader, Sen. Dan Seum of Fairdale as Caucus Chair, and Sen. Brandon Smith of Hazard as Whip.

Senate Democrats re-elected Sen. R.J. Palmer of Winchester as their Minority Floor Leader, Sen. Johnny Ray Turner of Prestonsburg as Caucus Chair, and Sen. Jerry Rhoads of Madisonville as Whip.

House Democrats re-elected Rep. Rocky Adkins of Sandy Hook their Majority Floor Leader, chose Rep. Sannie Overly of Paris (the first woman elected to House leadership) as Caucus Chair, and retained Rep.Tommy Thompson of Owensboro as Whip.

House Republican re-elected Rep. Jeff Hoover of Jamestown as their Minority Floor Leader, Rep. Bob DeWeese of Louisville as Caucus Chair, and chose Rep. John ‘Bam’ Carney of Campbellsville as Whip.

After its customary short-year break after four days of organizing this week, the Legislature returns to Frankfort Feb. 5 for the duration, 26 working days ending in late March.

NOTE: The Legislature welcomes and encourages your comments and questions. There are several easy ways you can stay in touch with your General Assembly.

· A taped Calendar Line containing information on the next day’s legislative committee meetings is updated daily at 1-800-633-9650.

· To check the status of a bill, you may call the Bill Status Line at 1-866-840-2835.

· You may write any legislator by sending a letter with the lawmaker’s name to: Capitol Annex, 702 Capitol Avenue, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601.

FRANKFORT – With the convening of the General Assembly’s 2013 session, citizens once again are welcome to observe their government in action from the legislative chamber galleries. But those unable to make the trip to Frankfort have many ways to stay in close touch with the legislative process.

The Kentucky Legislature Web Page (www.lrc.ky.gov) is updated daily to give citizens the latest legislative updates. Web surfers also can see for themselves the issues before lawmakers by browsing through bill summaries, amendments, and resolutions. The website is regularly updated to indicate each bill’s status in the legislative process, as well as the next day’s committee meeting schedule and agendas.

The website also provides information on each of Kentucky’s senators and representatives, including their phone numbers, e-mail contact information, addresses, and legislative committee assignments.

The Kentucky General Assembly also maintains toll-free phone lines to help citizens follow legislative action and offer their input.

People who want to give lawmakers feedback on issues under consideration can do so by calling the Legislative Message Line at (800) 372-7181. People who prefer to offer their feedback in Spanish can call the General Assembly's Spanish Line at (866) 840-6574. Anyone with a hearing impairment can use the TTY Message Line at (800) 896-0305.

A taped message containing information on the daily schedule for legislative committee meetings is available by calling the Legislative Calendar Line at (800) 633-9650.

Information on the status of each bill lawmakers are considering will be available on the Bill Status Line, (866) 840-2835.

Citizens can write to any legislator by sending a letter with a lawmaker's name on it to: Legislative Offices, 702 Capitol Ave., Frankfort, KY 40601.

KET pioneer O. Leonard Press named 2012 Hellard Award recipient

FRANKFORT -- O. Leonard Press, Founding Director of Kentucky Educational Television and nationally acclaimed pioneer in bringing classroom and civic education to Kentuckians through the nascent medium of public TV, has been named recipient of the 2012 Vic Hellard Jr. Award for excellence in public service.

The Hellard Award, the highest honor the Legislature can bestow, has been given annually since 1997. Press was chosen for this year's honor by the 16-member legislative leadership that comprises the Legislative Research Commission.

The award's namesake, Vic Hellard Jr., was executive director of the LRC staff for 19 years. The honor goes each year to someone who embodies the professional vision and unique personal qualities that Hellard brought to his own long and distinguished career.

In announcing Press’ selection, legislative leaders noted that Len – as everyone knows him -- has throughout his working and personal life met those lofty criteria perfectly.

‘Len is an ideal candidate for the Hellard Award,’ said House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. ‘He is, as Vic was, someone who truly respects history and how its lessons can help us make a better future. He has never been satisfied with the status quo, and has always looked for ways we could make the world better. Kentucky is in a much better place because of him.’

Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, agreed. ‘Like Vic, Len Press has always championed the dignity and potential of all. Like Vic too, he has devoted his considerable energies to direct engagement and two-way dialogue between the people and their government – especially the Legislature, the Peoples’ Branch -- all in a spirit of commitment, caring, generosity and humor.’

Press’ long life and career (he just turned 91) are historically remarkable. A Lowell, Massachusetts native, what he often calls his life’s ‘geography of opportunity’ led him from a Depression-era upbringing through service in World War II to various jobs in radio broadcasting in the Northeast, and the emerging and revolutionary medium of television. Eventually, the ‘branching paths’ of his career’s ‘geography’ led him to Kentucky. ‘I was intrigued by seeing another part of the country,” he recalls. He originally came to teach at UK for just one year. But a visit to a poor underserved mountain school gave birth to a vision.

"Across Kentucky, I saw the heroic struggle to provide equal education thwarted by the barrier of unequal resources,’ he said once. ‘It was essential that we harness the power of television to assure the education and enrichment of our people so they would have every possible opportunity. We could not afford to accept less"

That driving vision kept him here. After 10 years of hard, personal lobbying for what some in Frankfort called a pipe dream, Kentucky Educational Television went on the air in 1968, statewide in reach, boundless (it proved) in potential.

Under Press, KET quickly outgrew being simply ‘educational TV’ bringing classes to poor rural schools. It evolved dramatically to become a unifying force in Kentucky life, drawing the far-flung Commonwealth together through one statewide public-affairs network. KET defined, from the mountains of the East to the lake country of the West, what it meant to be ‘a Kentuckian.’ In fact, for several years ‘Bringing Kentucky Together’ was the network’s tagline.

Press’ innovative 1978 decision to bring coverage of General Assembly sessions to every hill, holler, flatland farm and town and city of the state played a key role in fostering the era’s fledgling Legislative Independence Movement. KET’s nightly coverage brought the Legislature into folks’ living rooms, enhanced its institutional stature and professionalism, and helped cement its status as a co-equal branch of government. Legislative independence was Hellard’s passion, and Press was a key ally in that fight.

Current LRC Director Robert S. Sherman said his old mentor Hellard would surely be pleased with this year’s selection, citing the ‘historic connection’ the two men shared.

‘Len Press, through his groundbreaking KET coverage, lent a welcome hand to Vic and the Legislature in the early days of legislative independence, a time when the outcome of that struggle was far from certain,’ Sherman said. ‘He is a welcome and absolutely appropriate addition to the honor roll of Hellard Award recipients.’

Press, no stranger to awards and accolades, said he was ‘especially moved’ by this latest recognition.

'I'm honored, I'm touched, and I can only accept this award humbly,' Press said. 'Vic Hellard was a special man, and this is a special honor, even more so since it at least in part recognizes my heartfelt commitment, which Vic shared, to connect Kentuckians more closely with their government through the simple, obvious, but hard-won act of just showing it to them.'

O. Leonard Press is the 16th recipient of the Vic Hellard Jr. award. Hellard himself died in 1996, a year after his retirement from the LRC. The award in his name has been given annually since.

FRANKFORT – The 2013 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly is scheduled to begin on Jan. 8 and will last 30 legislative days.

As usual during an odd-numbered year, in which sessions are half as long as in even-numbered years, the session will have two parts. The first four days of the session – Jan. 8 to Jan. 11 – will focus on organizational work, such as electing legislative leaders, adopting rules of procedure and organizing committees. The introduction and consideration of legislation can also begin during this time.

The second part of the session begins on Feb. 5, with final adjournment scheduled for March 26.

Legislators will not meet in session on Feb. 18 in observance of Presidents’ Day.

The veto recess – the period of time when lawmakers commonly return to their home districts to see which bills, if any, the governor vetoes – begins on March 12. Lawmakers will return to the Capitol on March 25 and 26 for the final two days of the session.

FRANKFORT -- New laws approved during the Kentucky General Assembly's 2012 regular session go into effect on July 12.

The new laws mean copper thieves won’t be able to sell stolen materials for quick cash at recycling centers. Passengers in large vans will no longer be exempt from the state’s seat belt law. And meth producers will have a harder time getting large amounts of a key ingredient needed to make their illegal drugs.

The Kentucky Constitution states that legislation approved by the General Assembly goes into effect as state law 90 days after a legislative session ends, unless a bill specifies a different effective date or contains an emergency clause that makes it effective as soon as it is signed by the governor.

Blue Alert. Senate Bill 32 will establish a statewide emergency alert system to catch those suspected of injuring a police officer. The “Blue Alert” system, which is modeled after the Amber Alert system, will use law enforcement communication systems, electronic highway signs and media to spread information to catch perpetrators after an officer has been reported wounded or missing.

Coal mine safety. House Bill 385 will enforce new rules for miners who fail drug or alcohol tests. Offenders will be ineligible to hold mining licenses or certificates for three years. Penalties are more severe for repeat offenders.

Coal truck drivers. HB 411 will designate the Monday of the fourth week in August as Coal Truck Driver Appreciation Day.

Concealed deadly weapons. HB 484 will allow Kentuckians to carry concealed weapons without a license on their property or place of business.

Copper theft. HB 390 will help curb theft of copper and other valuable metals by ensuring thieves don’t get immediate cash for the stolen goods at recycling centers. Instead, after showing proof of ownership, a check will be mailed to those selling certain metals to recycling centers. The legislation will also ensure that recycling centers receive reports on recently stolen metal items in the area so they can be on the lookout. The bill does not affect individuals recycling aluminum cans.

Confederate pensions. HB 85 will remove from the law books outdated language regarding pensions for Confederate soldiers.

Consumer protection. HB 421 will protect homeowners from being defrauded by providing a five-day grace period to cancel a signed roofing contract if the homeowner’s insurance policy does not cover the repair work.

Diplomas. SB 43 will provide diplomas to students with disabilities who finish modified high school curriculums. The diploma will replace the certificate of completion the students currently receive.

Emergency room safety. SB 58 will allow officers to make arrests for misdemeanor assault with probable cause if the crime occurs in a hospital emergency room. Under current law, emergency rooms aren’t exempt from the requirement that an officer must witness a misdemeanor assault in order to make an arrest.

Ethics. HB 402 will allow the Executive Branch Ethics Commission to share evidence with the state Personnel Board or the Auditor of Public Accounts if the information is needed for the agencies’ investigations.

For-profit postsecondary schools. HB 308 will establish a new panel to regulate private for-profit colleges and universities in Kentucky. The legislation will replace the Kentucky Board for Proprietary Education with the Kentucky Commission on Proprietary Education and will limit the schools’ membership to four seats. The legislation also calls for the creation of a compensation fund (paid for by the industry) for grievances of eligible Kentucky students and a revised student complaint review process.

Meth labs. SB 3 will boost efforts to stop production of methamphetamines by tightening rules on the purchase of certain cold and allergy medicines that contain an ingredient needed to make meth. The legislation will decrease the current monthly over-the-counter purchase limit of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine in pill or tablet forms from 9 grams to 7.2 grams and impose a 24 gram yearly limit. The measure will also replace the paper-tracking system currently in place for the purchase of medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine with a mandatory electronic system that will allow more real-time tracking.

National Guard Assistance Program. HB 224 will make Kentucky National Guard members eligible for financial assistance to help pay child adoption costs.

Personal-care homes. SB 115 will require a medical examination that includes a medical history, physical examination and diagnosis prior to admission to a personal-care home.

POW/MIA flags. HB 121 will require Prisoner of War and Missing in Action flags purchased or displayed by public institutions to be made in the United States.

School facilities. SB 110 will make it easier for school districts to allow community access to school facilities for recreational use during non-school hours by protecting the schools from liability in cases where an injury occurs.

Seat belts. SB 89 will expand Kentucky’s seat belt law to include 15-person passenger vans. The bill was filed in response to a 2010 crash on I-65 near Munfordville that killed 11 people, most of whom weren’t wearing seat belts. Current state law only requires seat belt use in vehicles designed to carry ten or fewer passengers.

Speed limits. HB 439 will allow the Transportation Cabinet to increase the speed limit on I-69 in Western Kentucky to 70 miles per hour.

Veterans’ licenses. HB 221 will allow veterans to have their service designated on driver’s licenses and state identification cards. The designations will make it easier for veterans to show proof of service needed for various discounts and special services available to them.

War memorial. HB 256 will establish a committee responsible for oversight of construction and upkeep of an Iraq/Afghanistan War Memorial.

Wild hogs. HB 344 will impose stiffer penalties on those who release feral hogs into the wild. The state’s growing feral pig population is a threat to farmland, natural habitats and human health, experts say.