Legislative Research Commission Gives Finial Report

General Assembly's 2008 session adjourns

FRANKFORT -- State lawmakers have adjourned "sine die," bringing the Kentucky General Assembly's 2008 session to a close.

Over the course of this year's 60-day legislative session, lawmakers considered more than 1,000 bills. More than 150 of those bills were approved and sent to the governor, including the budget bill that will guide state spending over the next two years.

A sampling of some of the legislation approved during this year's session follows:

Adventure Tourism. Senate Bill 196 will boost the state's adventure tourism industry by allowing the state to enter into agreements with private property owners for the use of their land for recreational activities. The agreements would allow property owners to permit public use of the land without facing the liability issues they otherwise would.

Agriculture. SB 242 will establish a training fund to improve, promote, protect and support Kentucky's beekeeping industry. Supporters of the bill note that bee colonies play a key role in the state's agricultural industry by helping to pollinate crops.

Alcohol vaporizers. House Bill 202 will ban the sale, purchase or use of alcohol vaporizing devices, which can be used to inhale intoxicating fumes of alcohol.

Alternative teacher certification. SB 64 will create incentives to help train those with math and science degrees who want to become certified to teach, as well as help teachers in other fields become re-certified in math and science.

Amusement park safety. SB 203 will require more frequent inspections of amusement park rides and prevent anyone under 18 from operating the rides.

Animal cruelty. SB 58 will increase penalties for those who torture dogs or cats. Causing physical injury to a dog or cat as a result of torture would be a Class A misdemeanor that carries up to a year in jail, while causing serious physical injury or death would be a Class D felony punishable by 1-5 years in prison. Currently, all torture cases involving a dog or cat are Class A misdemeanors for a first offense.

Blood donations. HB 139 will allow 16-year-olds who weigh at least 110 pounds to donate blood with written parental or legal guardian consent. The bill was crafted to help address blood shortages.

Booster Seats. SB 120 will require young children who are too big for infant car seats to be placed in booster seats when riding in vehicles. The bill states that children under 7 years old and between 40-50 inches tall must use the boosters.

Bullying. HB 91 will require the state Department of Education to craft discipline guidelines. The bill will also require local school authorities to alert law enforcement when school harassment involves a potential felony. Yearly reports on school harassment will be made to the Department of Education and the Legislature.

Cancer. SB 98 will provide Medicaid coverage for breast and cervical cancer treatments for uninsured women. SB 96 will require insurers to cover colorectal cancer screenings, in accordance with guidelines of the American Cancer Society.

Clean waterways. HB 717 will create watershed authorities to restore and improve streams around the Commonwealth. The authorities will select cleanup projects and will help leverage more money for these efforts through various grants and programs.

Criminal justice. HB 683 allows the state Parole Board to review the cases of Class C felons without a hearing, allows for GPS tracking technology for home incarceration cases, and mandates DNA collection from all felons as well as violent juvenile offenders.

Early voting. HB 479 will give citizens greater access to the voting process by allowing them to request absentee ballot applications via email. The bill also allows members of the military to return unused absentee ballots and still be allowed to vote on Election Day.

Elections. HB 370 will erase the requirement that runoff elections be held in gubernatorial primary races if no candidate receives at least 40 percent of the vote.

Energy consumption. HB 2 creates incentives for homeowners to use solar and wind energy, and to use other energy-efficient lights, windows, and insulation. The bill also requires state government and local schools to build and lease energy-efficient buildings, and establishes a low-interest loan program to help businesses and public agencies become more energy efficient.

Gas theft. SB 136 will give gas station operators a way to collect payments from people who drive off without paying for fuel. The bill outlines specific civil liability and related procedures for financial recovery after fuel theft without immediately going to court.
Holocaust education. House Joint Resolution 6 will require the Department of Education to develop a curriculum guide for schools that may be used to teach about the Holocaust as example of genocide.
Kentucky products. HB 484 will promote use of locally-grown produce and other food products by public postsecondary institutions. If colleges and universities use a vendor or food service, the legislation encourages them to use food produced in Kentucky.

Math and science incentives. SB 2 will offer incentives to increase the number of students taking advanced math and science courses in Kentucky. Incentives would be provided from a science and mathematics advancement fund aimed at improving students' math and science knowledge from elementary school through college.

Merit scholarships. SB 75 will allow students with 2.5 GPAs who are on track to graduate from college to keep their full KEES scholarship money each semester. Currently, students with GPAs above 2.5 but below 3.0 only receive half their award.

Military. HB 168 will allow active duty military serving outside the state up to 90 days to renew their driver's licenses after returning to Kentucky. They could not be cited for driving without a license during that period.

Penal code. Senate Joint Resolution 80 calls for a legislative subcommittee to undertake a review of the state penal code. The legislation would require the Legislature's Judiciary Committee to appoint a Penal Code Study Subcommittee, upon approval of General Assembly leadership. The subcommittee would be responsible for thoroughly reviewing the state's penal code and finding ways to redraft and modernize it.

Sex offenders. HB 211 will broaden Kentucky's child sex abuse laws while increasing penalties for abusers and those who fail to report abuse. The bill will include older children under state laws that protect minors from first-degree sexual abuse by raising the age of children covered by the law from 12 to 16, or 16 to 18, if the perpetrator is in a position of trust or authority.

Trauma care. HB 371 seeks to create a statewide trauma care program in the Department of public health. The bill also establishes an advisory commission and registry of trauma incidents.

Water and sewer projects. HB 608 contains line-item water and sewer projects for coal and non-coal counties in Kentucky. Funding for projects in non-coal counties will come from $150 million in bonds derived from the state's master tobacco settlement dollars, while funding for coal county projects will come from $75 million in bonds paid with coal severance revenue.

TeenPact Week At The Capitol

TeenPact Kentucky is made up from home school students in Kentucky. TeenPact is a national organization for home school students that helps train young people in the area of government. Since Monday April 7Th TeenPact Kentucky students have been in Frankfort at the state capitol learning about our state government. On the left are some pictures of some of the students.

Our Guest Director for the week is Ned Williams. He is an attorney from Nashville, TN. This is a picture taken during the evening service on Tuesday night the 8Th of April.

Brother Joe Adams is the State Coordinator for TeenPact week. He is pictured here in his famous "We Came, We Saw, We Ate" Tee Shirt.

Every Camp must have some stability. Sitting here together are two of our camp Ladies. On the left is our camp Mom, Peggy Adams (no relation to Bro. Joe) and next to her is Sherry Smith, she is helping Mrs. Adams this week in the girl's dorm.

Saundra and I try to keep busy for the Lord. So since the legislature is out for Veto days we are hosting TeenPact Week and staying at the camp at night with the students. We may be a little old for camp life but it is exciting to serve the Lord. Pray for us this weekend (April 12-13). We will be in Ashland, Kentucky. We return on Monday, the 14Th, and if our daughter-in-law has not delivered our grandson, the doctor is going to induce labor. This will be our 8Th grandchild. What a JOY!!

This week in Frankfort - April 3, 2008

Thank You for your prayers during the 2008 Legislative Session. We still have the last two Veto days, which will be April 14th and 15th. Next week I will the hosting the TeenPact week in Frankfort. We will have a group of between 50 and 60 young home school high school students plus staff from around the country that will come in to help educate these home school students on how government works. It will be a great week of studying, training and fellowship.

Below you will find an overview of what has happened this week in Frankfort. The legislative research Commission provide a great service of keeping us up to date.

FRANKFORT -- Short on days but long on hours and drama, this legislative week saw final passage late Wednesday of a two-year state budget that ameliorated some of the deepest cuts proposed by Gov. Steve Beshear, but did so without the Legislature passing either a tobacco-tax increase or approving a constitutional referendum on casino gambling in Kentucky -- two revenue-generating proposals floated this session to deal with shortfalls estimated at $900 million.

HB 406, which passed the House Wednesday night at 11:15 as the clock ticked toward a midnight deadline, is the budget for the biennium beginning this July 1 and running through June 30, 2010. It had passed the Senate some hours earlier. It was the product of a marathon conference committee of House and Senate members, who worked into an eighth day -- including one last 21-hour, all-night push -- to arrive at a compromise version of the budget agreeable to both chambers.

The two chambers came to those discussions with different revenue assumptions built into their proposals. The Senate in the version it passed last week turned down a House plan to raise the state cigarette tax from 30 cents to 55 cents a pack and to apply the state’s 6 percent sales tax to a few selected services, such as chartered air flights, security services and armored cars. That no-tax view prevailed in the conference committee.

Conferees were under the gun to get the bill passed ahead of the Legislature's 10-day veto recess, which is designed to give lawmakers a chance to override gubernatorial vetoes. The governor has 10 days, excluding Sundays, in which to veto a bill sent to him. That includes individual line-items in the budget bill. By passing the budget Wednesday -- before recessing until the final days of the session on April 14-15 -- lawmakers preserved their ability to override any vetoes the governor imposes.

At this writing Beshear has said he does not intend to veto the entire document, but was reviewing individual line-items as possible targets for his veto pen.

In conjunction with the budget bill, the House and Senate also approved Wednesday a separate but companion measure to provide $150 million for water and sewer projects, and small community projects in coal counties paid for with coal severance-tax receipts. As part of that agreement, some $230 million in state transportation money was freed up for road projects.

The budget bill itself -- which covers some $19 billion in Executive Branch spending for the coming biennium -- passed the Senate 35-3, and the House 74-21.

The budget lawmakers passed restores all or portions of many of the most controversial cuts Beshear had proposed, especially in education. Instead of the 12-percent cuts in higher education he envisioned, this budget imposed only a 3-percent reduction. Base funding for public schools -- including 1-percent raises for teachers and school employees in each of the next two years -- is $43.5 million more in 2008-09 and $85.6 million more in 2009-10 than the administration proposed.

State employees would also get 1-percent annual raises.

The budget also appropriates $60 million in bond funds for the Bucks for Brains program aimed at luring top researchers to state universities, and fully funds the Kentucky Education Excellence Scholarships program (KEEP) for the biennium.

It provides money for new infrastructure at Fort Knox, which is expecting an influx of new troops in the next few years, and for two worldwide events scheduled for Kentucky — the 2008 Ryder Cup golf tournament in Louisville and the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington. There is a mechanism in the budget agreement for the Louisville bridges project to proceed. Overall, most state government programs receive more funding in the final budget than in the spending proposal Beshear submitted the Legislature in January.

Although taxes aren't raised, the budget finds additional money by replacing fewer state employees when they retire, by refinancing some state debt, by requiring the Kentucky Lottery to contribute more of its profits to the state, and through other efficiency measures.

With passage of the budget, most of the work of this year's session is concluded, although several bills remain in conference committee and could yet be voted on during the two veto days in April. Among those is the state-employees pension-rescue bill, which has yet to be agreed upon in final form by conferees, and would need to be voted on by both chambers. Also still in conference committee is the executive branch ethics-reform bill.