GA2021 Concludes
The 2021 General Assembly concluded at midnight this past Tuesday, with nearly 850 bills and nearly 350 resolutions filed this session. Of those, KCC followed 104 bills and resolutions in the House, and 54 bills and resolutions in the Senate during this short session.
Some bills remain on the Governor’s desk, where he has up to 10 days to veto or sign from the time received.
Remaining Bills for Action: One of KCC’s “oppose” bills went though legislative gymnastics before finally passing in the legislature. The legislation would allow Off-Highway vehicles to traverse on certain designated state highways under local control. The intent of this bill was to allow Off-Highway riders to better access trailheads and cross trail connectors from state highways. However there was intense opposition from some local communities to this initiative, and SB75 stalled. KCC also has concerns about the initiative with regard to the policing of additional access points and controls for mitigating impacts to nearby natural lands. Senator Wheeler, the bill sponsor, attempted to insert the OHV bill language into three separate additional bills as amendments, before finally passing as part of SB215.
ACT: SB215 is presently on the Governor’s desk. We ask that you contact the Governor and ask him to veto the Off-Highway program language to SB215 until a clear management plan for OHVs is in place.
We also ask you to thank Senator Higdon for adding more safety language and requirements, and language for public meetings before re-designation of specific roads in the OHV provisions.
Other bills presently on the Governor’s desk from KCC’s list include SB5, which provides liability protection to companies that have to deal with COVID emergencies. While the bill was improved with several amendments, we have concerns with such legislation superseding the public’s right to have their concerns addressed in the courts.
ACT: We ask that you contact the Governor and ask him to veto this bill.
Good news: We were please to see the passage of HB574, an omnibus elections bill, The bill calls for in-person voting for an additional three days on top of Election Day, including a Saturday. It allows for people to cast their votes at voting centers, which do not have to be located within their precinct among its many positive provisions. While the bill also has some negatives such as restricting absentee ballots to pre-pandemic rules, it is overall a positive bill. That bill is also presently on the Governor’s desk for veto, or line-item veto consideration.
Budget/Taxes/Revenue: Lawmakers passed many budget initiatives within the final days of the session, including appropriating $1.4 billion in funds that Kentucky is expected to receive from the federal American Rescue Plan. Among the provisions were a significant allocation of funds for much needed water and sewer infrastructure. And HB382 was amended by the Appropriations and Revenue committee to restore $800k to Kentucky’s nature preserves caused by a change in restrictive funding authority from language in the previous year’s budget bill. HB193 (Transportation Budget) is still on Governor’s Desk. With regard to transportation issues, were glad to see that some of the proposals to add fees to electric cars, proposed in other bills, did not take place this year in any revenue bill, but we do appreciate that lawmakers are continuing to explore road tax models for addressing the growing electric vehicle market. We believe all road users should pay their fair share for use of our roadways, but those proposals need to be equitable between internal combustion engines and electric vehicles, and also be timed so as not to depress the adoption of this emerging technology. Another bill still on the Governor’s desk is the tax incentive bill HB372 which includes tax breaks for energy-intensive data centers.
ACT: While this was not a bill on KCC’s list, we have raised concerns on the energy-intensive nature of these facilities in other legislation this session. We hope that if such facilities begin to grow in Kentucky that they are to be powered with only clean energy. The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KyPolicy) is advocating for the Governor to veto this bill. Contact the Governor.
Moving forward over the interim:
If you are a current member of KCC in good standing, you will soon be receiving our full legislative review by mail, which will include resources for continuing and emerging issues we will be working on over the interim, such as: Healthy Soils legislation, information on Advanced Recycling facilities, Clean Energy/Clean Transportation initiatives, and leveraging Solar projects to support biodiversity. Our Review will include action plans and resources on all of these topics and more. So if you have not yet renewed or joined KCC, you may do so at this link.
Thank you all for your support this legislative session! We look forward to seeing you soon at our upcoming events and trainings!