As part of our weekday General Assembly update email (which you can get if you are a paying member), we go through everything that happened in Frankfort the day before, sifting out what we should include in the update.
We don’t normally go through all the bills that are introduced, as many of them will die in committee and never see the floor. But today, we decided to see what gems of legislative legerdemain had hit the clerk’s office the day before. Here are some of the good, the bad, and the funky bills that were “Introduced” yesterday.
Some good bills
- HB 353 – Prevent property taxes on motor vehicles from rising due to increase in value of vehicle
- HB 355 – Require the KY Dept of Ed to create a professional development training schedule; require school districts to implement it; add additional day for professional development if needed; add funding for additional day if needed
- HB 356 – Include psychological injuries to first responders as eligible for worker’s comp
- HB 357 – Raise minimum wage
- HB 359 – Establish the rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities
- HB 366 – Provide a remedy for employees misclassified as independent contractors
- HB 367 – Prevent an employer from requiring a low-wage employee to enter into a covenant not to compete
- HB 368 – Make the termination of employment without cause unlawful
- HB 369 – Prohibit employers from preventing an employee to take family care leave
A bad bill
- HB 361 – Make water fluoridation programs optional
Two funky bills
These are actually the bills that prompted this article. As I looked at them, I thought “why is someone filing this?”
The first is HB 360, filed by Rep. Mark Hart. It wants to “restrict the use of the Kentucky National Guard outside of state active duty unless Congress officially declares war or has taken official action pursuant to the United States Constitution.” If I understand the bill correctly, it says that the KY National Guard cannot be used as part of a foreign conflict. This seems (to me) to fly in the face of established law that says the President can federalize the National Guard.
And, I’m not sure why Rep. Hart feels that this bill is needed. As far as I know, there is little to no chance that the state’s forces will be sent to Ukraine, for instance. But perhaps Rep. Hart has some sort of inside information.
The other bill is HB 365, filed by Rep. Savannah Maddox. Titled “An act relating to statewide mobile food units,” it seems fairly innocuous – until you dig into the details.
Basically, Maddox wants to remove most regulations from food trucks. Here are some of the lowlights:
- Can't require a food truck to operate a specific distance from an existing restaurant.
- Can't require a food truck to obtain licenses or permits for its employees.
- Can't require a food truck to obtain a permit from a local government.
- Can't require a statewide mobile food unit to submit to inspections in addition to health inspections conducted by the cabinet or by a local government collaborating with the cabinet, unless the cabinet is investigating a reported foodborne illness.
- Food trucks can operate on any public property, including parking spaces or the public right-of-way.
- Food trucks can also operate on private property, if the property is in a zoning district where food service establishments are permitted, and the unit has permission of the property owner or his or her designee.
- A food truck may operate in a residential zoning or traditional neighborhood zoning district if the unit has been invited by a resident, property owner, lessor, or homeowner’s association in that district.
There’s more interesting clauses in the bill, which you can read here.
Like some other bills filed by Libertarians, there are some parts of the bill that seem relatively helpful (or at least sane). There are other parts that make you wonder “what triggered this?”
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For all of these bills, it will be interesting to see which ones move forward, and which ones (good, bad, or funky) never get past “Introduced.”
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