Wednesday at the General Assembly in Frankfort went about as everyone expected: the legislature spent the day rushing through overrides of all of the governor’s vetoes. As a result, a slew of bad bills became law: the anti-abortion bill, the “blow a hole in the budget” bill, the charter school funding bill, and many more. (We’ve got a list below.)
But there were a few surprises, albeit small. For one thing, the lawmakers let stand six of the gov’s twenty line-item vetoes in the budget. These were technical issues that the governor’s staff had caught, and the leges agreed with.
Then there was SB 167, the attack on library boards. It came up for a vote to override, just like the others, but fell short in the House, getting only 48 votes to override when it needed 50.
And finally, there was one of the more stupid bills of the session, HB 690, which started out as a simple bill about membership on the Judicial Council, but wound up with an amendment allowing attorneys to carry concealed weapons in courtrooms. This bill was vetoed, and was never even brought up for an override vote. Apparently, it went too far even for the gun-crazy Repubs.
The list of bills that passed over the governor’s vetoes
SB 1 – De-power SBDM councils
SB 65 – No reg on utilization review
SB 83 – Trans athlete ban
SB 119 – Honorary naming of infrastructure
SB 207 – Establish collaborative to implement workforce policies
SB 216 – Voting security
SB 217 – F&WL procurement
HB 3 – Omnibus anti-abortion bill
HB 7 – Attack on safety net
HB 8 – Start eliminating income tax
HB 9 – Charter school funding
HB 241 – Transportation cabinet budget
HB 243 – Legislative branch budget
HB 248 – Can’t use state funds to challenge legislation
HB 271 – Ag reorgs
HB 297 – KPPA updates
HB 314 – More cities in Jefferson Co; mayor limited to two terms
HB 315 – ARPA funds for broadband
HB 334 – Ethics grab bag
HB 335 – Rework various appts
HB 388 – Can’t use state funds to challenge govt contract review
HB 390 – Ky econ dev partnership changes
HB 594 – Req analysis of economic impact of admin regulations
HB 740 – Various changes to election finance
HB 773 – Prosecutors Advisory Council
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