Day 11: Better tools for families facing Alzheimer's (HB 393)

Day 11: Better tools for families facing Alzheimer’s (HB 393)

Alzheimer’s and dementia touch nearly every family in Kentucky eventually, whether it’s a parent, a grandparent, or a spouse. HB 393 doesn’t create a new program, it strengthens one we already have.

The bill adds a seat on the state’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Advisory Council specifically for an unpaid family caregiver, so the people actually caring for a loved one at home have a voice in shaping state policy, not just medical professionals and administrators. It also requires the Office of Dementia Services to report annually on what’s working and what isn’t, and directs the council to build a real, practical toolkit for healthcare providers on early detection and diagnosis, the first of what will now be a required year-long initiative each year tackling a piece of the state’s Alzheimer’s plan.

Early detection matters. The sooner a family knows what they’re dealing with, the more options they have for treatment, planning, and support. This bill is a small, steady step toward getting there.

Sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Raymer, HB 393 passed the House 95-0 and the Senate 38-0.

Day 10: SECOND CHANCES THROUGH SKILLED TRADES (HB 5)

Day 10: SECOND CHANCES THROUGH SKILLED TRADES (HB 5)

Almost everyone in a Kentucky prison right now is coming home eventually. That’s just the truth, whether we like it or not. So the real question isn’t whether that person walks back into your community someday, it’s whether they walk back in with a skill and a shot at a real job, or with nothing but a record and a high chance of ending up right back where they started.

Most Kentuckians, whatever their politics, want that first outcome. HB 5 is built around getting there. The bill creates the KCTCS Prison Education Program, a partnership between the Department of Corrections and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System to build a real vocational training facility at Northpoint Training Center in Boyle County.

Inmates who qualify (certain serious offenses disqualify someone from participating) can train for a skilled trade while they’re incarcerated, and when they complete the program, they earn a certificate of employability. That certificate counts as evidence of rehabilitation when they apply for a job or an occupational license after release, so a conviction alone can’t be used to automatically shut the door on them.

This is one of those rare bills where everybody comes out ahead. The person coming out of prison gets a genuine path to supporting themselves instead of walking out the gate with nothing. The community gets a neighbor who’s far less likely to reoffend, because a person with a job and a purpose has a real reason not to. And the taxpayer gets someone contributing to the workforce and paying into the system, instead of cycling back through it at everyone else’s expense. Michigan ran a similar program and saw real results. This bill is modeled on that success.

Sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker, with dozens of House co-sponsors (including me), HB 5 passed the House 99-0 and the Senate 38-0. And a special thanks to Ryan Quarles for pushing hard to make this happen as well.

Day 9: Your tax dollars shouldn't campaign against you (SB 59)

Day 9: Your tax dollars shouldn’t campaign against you (SB 59)

Kentucky law already barred using tax dollars to advocate for or against a ballot question. SB 59 closes the gaps that let that rule be worked around.

The new law extends the prohibition beyond just money, no public resources of any kind, staff time, equipment, office space, can be used to campaign for or against a ballot question either. A public employee can still speak their own mind about a ballot question, on their own time, using their own resources, that right isn’t touched. What changes is a government entity itself spending your tax dollars to put a thumb on the scale of an election you’re supposed to decide.

Sponsored by Sen. Steve Rawlings. The Governor vetoed the bill, and the General Assembly overrode that veto, passing it 80-19 in the House and 31-7 in the Senate.

You fund your government. Your government shouldn’t turn around and use that funding to tell you how to vote.

Day 8: Reforming Jefferson County's school board and other education policies (SB 4)

Day 8: Reforming Jefferson County’s school board and other education policies (SB 4)

Kentucky’s largest school district, JCPS, has been dealing with real problems under its current board, including severe financial mismanagement and chronic academic underperformance in the district. SB 4 makes a structural change because the status quo wasn’t working.

The bill restructures how JCPS’s board is elected, moving from 7 to 5 elected members and establishing new election divisions for the district.. This isn’t a panacea, as no single bill fixes a district this large and badly run on its own, but with the current board being overhauled it gives our community a real chance to improve the district going forward. Recently, as many know, State Auditor Allison Ball’s office released a 500-page audit of JCPS, and the findings back up why change was needed: over the past 20 years, JCPS’s per-student revenue rose 62 percent while average teacher salaries rose only 12 percent, the district routinely overspent by millions, it lacked a cohesive strategic plan, and it had a workplace culture marked by fear of retaliation.

That alone would have been perhaps the most important bill of the session. The bill, however, does more. It also creates a statewide principal leadership development practicum, a structured, multi-year training program aimed at better preparing and supporting our school principals, who carry an enormous amount of responsibility for how well a school actually runs. The Department of Education will administer it starting with the 2027-2028 school year.

And in a piece that reaches into higher education, SB 4 establishes a new Center of American Civics at the University of Kentucky and tasks it, along with the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center, with developing curriculum materials for courses in American government and history.

Sponsored by Sen. Steve West, chair of the Senate Education Committee. The Governor vetoed the bill, and the General Assembly overrode that veto, passing it 78-19 in the House and 30-8 in the Senate.

Day 7: Protecting kids in domestic violence custody cases (HB 418 and rolled into SB 122)

Day 7: Protecting kids in domestic violence custody cases (HB 418 and rolled into SB 122)

This is a hard area of the law, hard for the parents living it, hard for the judges deciding it, and hard for those of us writing the rules they have to follow. There’s no perfect answer here, but HB 418 takes a cautious, responsible step forward on both sides of the problem.

Right now, under Kentucky law, a parent who has been found to have committed domestic violence or abuse against the other parent can still walk into court and obtain joint custody or equal parenting time, with no counseling, no treatment, and no real check on that history beyond it being one factor among many a judge considers. HB 418 requires a parent with a documented history of repeated domestic violence or abuse to get help, real counseling or treatment, before that parent can be awarded custody of the child again. And to keep this fair in both directions, the bill also requires courts to weigh it seriously when a parent knowingly makes a false allegation of child abuse to gain an advantage in a custody fight, so the protections meant for real victims can’t be turned into a weapon themselves.

Here’s more of what the bill does. If a court has found that a parent committed domestic violence or abuse, that finding has to be considered and put in writing before the court weighs anything else in a custody decision. Courts can no longer remove a child from a protective parent, or cut back their parenting time, solely to “improve the relationship” with the abusive parent. Where a parent has committed two or more acts of domestic violence or abuse, the law now presumes joint custody and equal parenting time are not in the child’s best interest. Paid visitation supervisors and parenting coordinators now have to receive specialized training in these cases, and victim advocates can attend evidentiary hearings for protective orders involving minors.

HB 418 passed the House 96-1. It didn’t get a final vote in the Senate as a standalone bill, but every one of its provisions were rolled into SB 122, unchanged, where the final bill passed the Senate 37-0 in concurrence.

Kids shouldn’t be sent back into danger in the name of “co-parenting.”

Day 6: Doctors treating patients instead of fighting paperwork (HB 176)

Day 6: Doctors treating patients instead of fighting paperwork (HB 176)

Doctors should spend their time treating patients, not fighting insurance company paperwork. Not every bill we pass makes headlines, but some of the ones that don’t are the ones that matter most in people’s actual lives. HB 176 is one of them.

For years, insurers have been able to slow-walk or deny care through prior authorization requirements, even for doctors who have proven, time and again, that their requests get approved. HB 176 fixes that. It creates a “gold card” style exemption: a doctor with a strong track record of approvals for a given service no longer has to get prior authorization for it. The insurance company can’t hold that doctor, or that patient’s care, hostage to a delay they’ve already earned their way out of.

This isn’t just about doctors getting relief from paperwork. It’s about you getting your care faster. Every day a prior authorization request sits on someone’s desk is a day a patient waits for treatment they and their doctor already agreed they need, a scan, a medication, a procedure. Cutting out that delay for trusted doctors means Kentuckians get treated sooner, with less red tape standing between them and the care they need.

Sponsored by Rep. Kim Moser, HB 176 passed the House 89-1 and the Senate 38-0, about as close to unanimous as it gets at the Capitol.

This is the kind of work the legislature does that doesn’t always get attention, but it changes real people’s lives. If your doctor’s judgment has proven reliable, they should be free to act on it, and you should get your care faster because of it.

One note: this one isn’t in effect yet. The exemption program requirements phase in starting January 1, 2027, and apply fully to contracts starting January 1, 2028, so you won’t see the change immediately, but it’s on its way.

Day 5: Keeping families together where it's safe to do so (SB 122)

Day 5: Keeping families together where it’s safe to do so (SB 122)

The family is the core building block of civilization. Everything else, our schools, our churches, our communities, works better when families stay intact. So when the law can protect that bond without compromising safety, it should.

SB 122 has judges consider whether a defendant is the primary caretaker of a dependent child at sentencing. It doesn’t excuse the crime or guarantee leniency. It gives the court a real option: an alternative sentence that keeps a parent connected to their child, with required programs and services, and the judge can revoke that arrangement and send the defendant to prison if they don’t hold up their end.

Some will rightly ask: what if the parent isn’t a good influence on the child to begin with? That’s exactly why this isn’t automatic. The judge reviews each case individually, weighing the nature of the crime, the family circumstances, and whether keeping that parent-child relationship intact actually serves the child’s wellbeing. A judge who believes a parent is dangerous or destructive to a child’s welfare still has full discretion to reject the alternative sentence and impose prison time. This bill doesn’t tie a judge’s hands, it gives them another tool for cases where family preservation truly is in the child’s best interest.

Sponsored by Louisville’s Senator Julie Raque Adams. Passed the House 83-7 and the Senate, in final concurrence, 37-0.

(Note: There are two additional policy changes that were rolled into SB 122–one related to protecting children in domestic violence situations and one related to mental health laws—,and they will each be focused on later with a post of their own.)

Kentucky's Winning Streak: Seventh Straight Budget Surplus

Kentucky just posted its seventh straight budget surplus, and this one is big.

This week, the General Fund receipts for the fiscal year that just ended came in roughly $320 million more than what was originally forecasted and budgeted. Seven years running, Kentucky has taken in more than it planned to spend.

That’s not luck. That’s a trend. And at a time when our federal government is broken and there is debt as far as the eye can see, this shows our state legislature is working and that conservative, responsible budgeting matters.

What’s especially encouraging is where the growth came from. Sales tax collections rose 6.4%, and individual income tax receipts grew 4.6%, even after this year’s income tax rate cut took effect. Kentuckians are working, spending, and earning, and the Commonwealth’s finances are healthier for it.

This comes on the heels of a few other milestones. First, Kentucky just posted its best first quarter for economic investment in state history, with more than $7 billion in new projects announced, part of a run that has now topped $50 billion and 70,000 new jobs in recent years. Average wages on these projects have climbed to $31.50 an hour. Second, every county in Kentucky lowered its unemployment rate last year—all 120 of them. Third, there are now more than 2 million Kentuckians in the workforce for the first time ever.

Strong revenue, a growing economy, and record investment . . . all while reducing income taxes: That’s a good combination for Kentucky families, and it’s a trend worth celebrating.

The sun shines bright on our old Kentucky home.

Kicking Off a New Series: 30 Laws in 30 Days

Starting tomorrow, July 15, most new laws passed this session take effect across Kentucky. Over the next 30 days, I’m going to highlight one of them each day (I’ll try, anyway) so you know what your legislature actually did this year and why.

First up: House Bill 4, the “Grooming a Minor” law

HB 4, sponsored by Rep. Marianne Proctor, makes it a crime to groom a child for sexual abuse, even before any assault occurs.

Under the old law, prosecutors couldn’t act until a predator had already solicited or assaulted a child. HB 4 changes that. It criminalizes the manipulative buildup, the trust-building, the grooming behavior, that predators use to prepare a child for abuse. Depending on the age of the child and whether the offender holds a position of trust (like a coach or teacher), penalties range from a misdemeanor up to a Class C felony.

The bill includes clear exceptions for legitimate conversations, like a parent, doctor, or teacher discussing age-appropriate health topics with a child, so it targets predatory conduct, not ordinary parenting or education.

This bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support because protecting kids shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Proud to have voted for it, and proud it becomes law tomorrow.

One more I want to mention: the House also passed my HB 320 this session, which would make promoting human trafficking, meaning recruiting, advertising, or arranging victims, carry the same penalty as trafficking itself. A group of students in my district brought me the idea, and their reasoning was simple and right: the trafficker is the one who makes the crime possible and turns it into a business. The House passed it unanimously, but the Senate didn’t take it up before the session ended. I hope they will next year.

Day 2: House Bill 134, Faster Access to Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners

For a lot of Kentucky sexual assault survivors, getting a proper medical exam has meant a long drive or a long wait. HB 134 aims to fix that.

Sponsored by Rep. Rebecca Raymer, HB 134 creates a statewide coordinator position at the Kentucky Board of Nursing dedicated to recruiting and training Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs), the specially trained nurses who conduct forensic exams after an assault and collect the evidence that can support a prosecution.

The bill also directs the Board of Nursing to build a statewide strategic plan, using a regional model, so that every Kentucky hospital has a real path to SANE coverage instead of leaving rural hospitals to figure it out on their own. And it creates a public registry of credentialed SANEs so hospitals know exactly who to call.

This bill passed both chambers without a single no vote. When a survivor walks into an emergency room, the last thing they should have to worry about is whether that hospital has anyone trained to help them. HB 134 makes sure more of them will.