Assembly Resumes This Week
Tomorrow (Feb. 2nd), the Kentucky General Assembly begins “Part II” of the legislative session. You can find the full calendar for the remainder of the session here: https://legislature.ky.gov/Documents/21RS_Calendar.pdf
There is now only a short window to file new bills, but we expect a healthy wave of filings when lawmakers resume on Tuesday. That means there is never a better time to make calls and send emails on the bills already posted (see three bills below) and stay alert to the KCC website for new bills.
Don’t know what to say? Here’s a video sample “bill position pitch” for HB51. You can find more video examples on KCC’s Vimeo channel, and tips on KCC’s Citizen Advocacy page.
Three Bills to Oppose This Week:
Legislative Message Line: 1-800-372-7181. Operators accept a message that you dictate, no questions asked, from 7 am to 11 pm ET Monday to Thursday, and 7 am to 6 pm ET Friday, during sessions.
Email your legislators at firstname.lastname@lrc.ky.gov. Don’t know who your legislator is? You can find them here.
HB272 Water Districts (Oppose) (Bray). Allows water districts and water associations to charge a late payment charge of 10% of the amount billed and prohibits the Public Service Commission from modifying, rejecting, or suspending late payment charges established by tariff. This bill may move quickly once the session resumes, so please see suggested talking points about this bill at this link. Our thanks to our friends at ACLC who have raised important points about this legislation. Please contact members of the House and express your opposition to this bill.
HB164 Protest penalties bill (Strong Oppose) (Huff). Increases penalties, fines, and jail times for offenses related to protesting, including assaults on officers and emergency responders, "rioting," obstruction of highways, camping on public property, and disruption of government meetings. We do not see the rationale for raising these penalties and are concerned with unintended consequences for legitimate citizen protest on environmental issues. Please contact members of the House and tell them that the increased penalties in this bill are excessive and could impact legitimate peaceful protests.
See article “States Rush to Pass Anti-Protestor Laws”
SB75 An Act relating to off-highway vehicles (Oppose) (Wheeler)
We have started to receive calls on this bill, which would allow a local government located within the boundary of a regional authority to pass an ordinance allowing for the operation of off-highway vehicles (OHVs) on roadways under local government jurisdiction and state roadways approved by the Transportation Cabinet. This is part of an ongoing effort to help build the support for a cross-county system of off-highway trails similar to West Virginia’s “Hatfield- McCoy” trail system. While we support economic development for distressed areas, we have received calls from citizens who live near existing OHV parks who have raised concerns about the impact of these vehicles, including the financial impact from any damages that would have to be paid by the small, financially-strapped counties where they generally reside, and question the economic benefits that are being claimed from such developments. We ask that you contact the Senate Transportation Committee Chair Senator Higdon, immediately and express your concerns. (And while you are there, we appreciate if you would thank him for participating in KCC’s Legislative Summit two weeks ago).
KCC Legislative Summit Concludes
We so appreciated hearing from all of you who attended KCC’s 3-part virtual Legislative Summit over the past three weeks. This past Friday we had the pleasure of hearing from Representative Mark Hart and Senator Reggie Thomas, who joined us in an informative session on considerations for large-scale solar and land use. We ask that you thank Representative Hart and Senator Thomas, as well as all of the other legislative participants from the previous weeks.
If you missed any conference sessions, you can find all of the materials and videos from our three conference sessions at this link. You will also find helpful resources on how to make a “pitch” to your lawmakers on bills, background material on issues that were covered.