Taxes, Advocacy and Actions
GA Part 2 Begins:
The General Assembly resumed for “Part 2” of the session this past Tuesday (February 4th), after meeting for four days this past week, concluding the 8th day of the 30-day session. The last day for new bills in the Senate is February 18th. The last day for new bills in the House is February 19th. The session will conclude on March 28th.
The highlight of the week for Republican lawmakers was to complete their top legislative priority: the latest reduction of the state’s individual income tax rate via House Bill 1, which was delivered to the Governor on Wednesday and the Governor signed the bill on Thursday, despite an analysis by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy that shows the greatest savings from the income tax cut will overwhelmingly flow to more affluent Kentuckians — “people who need them the least.” The bill affirms a half-point cut in the tax rate to 3.5%.
(Left) Senate Democrats hold a news conference on their agenda while Sierra Club activists in Kentucky listen in (right). KCC provided support for their first Advocacy Day of the session.
As for environmental issues, It was a busy week for KCC’s lobbyists, where we assisted the Kentucky Sierra Club for their first organized advocacy day, along with guests from their national legislative team. KCC provides lobbying support and bill analysis for the Sierra Club’s local team and engages regularly with their national legislative team. If you are a nonprofit that would benefit from partnering with KCC to address your legislative or policy needs, please contact us and we will be glad to help.
Other developments this week included a press conference from the House Democratic Caucus, where they presented their platform for the session, including bills supported by KCC. Entitled the “Kentucky Forward” platform, their press announcement included a five-point legislative agenda including stronger public schools; household economics & housing; public safety and justice; healthier communities; and protecting worker’s rights. Some of the specific bills in this platform were still to be filed, but we know that their platform on housing includes a bill that KCC has been heavily involved in shepherding House Bill 326 (Willner), along with our allies in the Kentuckians for Energy Democracy coalition (K4ED.org), where KCC is one of many partner groups. We are also helping the K4ED coalition with an Energy Justice Lobby Day, which is scheduled for February 13th. You may register for that event here. More on the disconnections bill below.
New Bills of Note:
Your can find our full analysis of House and Senate bills on KCC’s website, where you can also find important information and helpful tools to get you through the session. Here are just a few highlights of bills filed this week and you can find the entire list above.
HB326 (Willner, Strong Support) Utility Disconnections Bill. Provides for better citizen protections on utility disconnections.
HB327 (Willner, Strong Support) Requires retail electric suppliers to file monthly disconnection reports with the Public Service Commission and to make those reports available to the public on the Public Service Commission's website.
HB388 (T. Roberts, Strong Oppose) Anti-Diversity, Equity and Inclusion bill.
HB346 (D. Lewis, Oppose) Impacting air quality programs, defining “emergency stationary internal combustion engine” units and set standards.
SB108 (S. West, Oppose) Among its provisions, prohibits any utility from constructing a solar facility or the Public Service Commission from issuing a certificate of public convenience and necessity for a solar facility if constructing the facility would result in more than one percent of the total land area of any county where the proposed construction is to be located being occupied by solar facilities.
See full descriptions of these bills and more on our KCC House and Senate lists.
Bills on the Move or In the News:
Geoengineering: Senator Steve Rawlings and Rep. John Hodgson filed identical bills, Senate Bill 62 and House Bill 22 respectively to address this theoretical concept to address climate change. The Senate bill currently has three sponsors and is now in Senate Appropriations & Revenue. The House bill has nine sponsors and is now in the House Judiciary Committee. What is most disturbing, however, is the spread of misinformation about what it is, and how it is being used, as described in Louisville Public Media’s recent story on Kentucky and Tennessee’s efforts to ban this theoretical practice. More on geoengineering from E&E news.
Actions: We suggest calling your respective lawmakers in the House and Senate and remind them that in a short session, they should avoid focusing on obscure and distracting concepts such as this and instead focus on the real impacts of climate change by building more resilient communities, transition away from fossil fuels, and support sustainability initiatives.