Pursuing Social Justice
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Protecting Human Life
Promoting
Family Life Practicing Global
Solidarity
"Our faith reflects God's special concern for the poor and vulnerable and
calls us to make their needs our first priority in public life."
Faithful Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility
The Catholic Conference works to pass legislation that responds to the needs
of poor persons. The list below includes bills related to economic justice, just
employment, housing, health care, immigration, criminal justice and other
categories that promote the common good, especially taking into account the
Gospel call to provide for poor persons.
To leave messages for Committee Chairpersons and
other legislators call 1-800-372-7181; EN
ESPAŅOL 1-877-739-5556.
If a bill is in committee and your State
Representative or State Senator sits on the committee hearing the bill, it is
especially important that you contact him/her.
Click here for list of committee members.
|
Bill # |
Description |
Committee |
CCK Position |
Action |
|
HB 380 |
AN ACT
relating to appropriations and revenue measures providing financing and
conditions for the operations, maintenance, support, and functioning of the
government of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its various officers,
cabinets, departments, boards, commissions, institutions, subdivisions,
agencies, and other state-supported activities. |
Appropriations
and Revenue |
Support |
CCK will work to provide adequate funding for Medicaid, legal
services for the poor in both the civil and criminal areas of law, funding
for education, and St. Joseph Mobile Clinic. The
budget is a moral document and CCK applies Catholic Social Doctrine to
determine positions in this area. See: Economic
Justice in 21st Century Kentucky: Holding Ourselves Accountable, a
pastoral letter on the economy by the Bishops of Kentucky. |
| HB
187 |
AN
ACT relating to the rental and occupancy of lots in manufactured home
communities. Create new sections of KRS Chapter 383 to establish
requirements and procedures for good cause eviction of residents of
manufactured home communities; establish definitions; prohibit community
operators from retaliating against manufactured home residents in certain
circumstances; establish requirements for the promulgation of mobile home
community rules; establish requirements for community operators that
provide utility service to mobile home community residents; require the
application of the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act to
residents and community operators of manufactured home communities that
lie within a jurisdiction that has adopted the Uniform Residential
Landlord and Tenant Act; prohibit certain provisions in rental agreements. |
Local
Government |
Support |
Urge
Chairman Riggs to give HB
187 a hearing in committee as soon as possible. |
| HB
337 |
AN ACT relating to the provision of
telecommunications service. Create new sections of KRS Chapter 278 to define
terms, including "basic local exchange service" and "nonbasic service";
limit Public Service Commission jurisdiction over telephone service beyond
some consumer service areas and FCC-delegated oversight of wholesale
transactions; allow telephone utilities to elect alternative regulation
plans which reduce PSC oversight; eliminate most regulation of nonbasic
services provided by telephone utilities. |
Tourism Development and Energy |
Monitor |
CCK has opposed similar legislation in the past and is
analyzing this to determine what position to take. We are concerned about
the impact on those on fixed income and otherwise low-income. |
|
HB 338 |
AN ACT
relating to affordable housing and making an appropriation therefor. Amend
KRS 142.010 to add to the taxes imposed a fee of $20 on each first mortgage
and a fee of $20 on each conveyance of real property; specify that those
fees shall be reported and paid by the Department of Revenue to the state
affordable housing trust fund established in KRS 198A.710 within 10 days
following the receipt of the funds from the county clerk; amend KRS 142.015
to conform; amend KRS 198A.710 to specify that the affordable housing trust
fund shall consist of funds collected from the new fees imposed; create new
sections of KRS Chapter 198A to permit the fiscal court or legislative body
of a county to establish a local affordable housing trusting fund (AHTF)
through the adoption of an ordinance. |
Local Government |
Support |
Contact members of the Local Government Committee and urge
them to support
HB 338.
Catholic
Social Doctrine consistently recognizes the right to housing. This
legislation helps low income persons have access to affordable housing. |
|
HB 362 |
AN ACT relating to staffing requirements for
long-term care facilities. Create new sections of KRS Chapter 216B to define
terms; require staff-to-resident ratios in long-term care facilities as a
condition of licensure or re-licensure; establish minimum staffing
requirements; require long-term care facilities to post staffing and the
number of residents in a conspicuous place; require nursing staff to sign in
and out on a document that is kept on file at the facility; prohibit
long-term care facilities from admitting new residents if the facility fails
to comply with the minimum staffing requirements, beginning on the second
day of noncompliance and continuing until six days after the required
staffing is achieved; require additional staffing based on the needs of the
residents; exempt intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded,
institutions for the treatment of mental illnesses, personal care homes, and
family care homes from the minimum staffing requirements; create a 19 member
board to review staffing requirements on an annual basis; establish a civil
fine of no more than $1,000 for each day that the staffing requirements is
not maintained. |
Health and Welfare |
Oppose |
Contact Chairman Tom Burch and urge him not to give
HB 362
a hearing in committee. If your State Representative
is on this committee contact him/her and urge him/her to oppose
HB 362 by asking
Chairman Burch not to hear
HB 362.
"Current laws already provide for extensive requirements
regarding staffing, while allowing the flexibility necessary for
administrators to make decisions in the best interests of the residents of
each facility. Staffing needs change in relationship to those needing care.
Catholic health care providers do not want to lose the flexibility to
determine the staffing pattern that best serves their residents."
From a February 10, 2005 letter from Executive Director Ed Monahan to
Chairman Tom Burch in response to a similar bill in 2005.
|
|
HB 378 |
AN ACT relating to the minimum wage. Amend KRS
337.275 to increase the state minimum wage to $6.00 an hour on the effective
date of this Act, and to $6.50 an hour effective July 1, 2007; and increase
to federal minimum wage rate if such rate exceeds the state minimum wage
rate. |
Labor and Industry |
Support |
The committee passed
HB 378
and has sent it to the House floor. Action: contact your legislator and urge
him/her to vote YES on
HB 378.
CCK testified in committee.
Click here to read that testimony. |
|
HB 480
|
AN ACT
proposing an amendment to Section 145 of the Constitution of Kentucky
relating to persons entitled to vote. Propose to amend Section 145 of the
Constitution or Kentucky to exclude a convicted felon from the right to vote
until expiration of probation or final discharge from parole or maximum
expiration of sentence; submit to the voters for ratification or rejection. |
Elections, Const. Amendments & Intergovernmental Affairs
|
Support |
Action: Call 1.800.372-7181 by Wednesday, February 8th, and
leave a message for the members of the House Elections, Constitutional
Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee: vote YES for
HB 480
and send it to the House floor.
"8) Provide for timely restoration of voting rights to
offenders. Ex-offenders should be welcomed back into society as full
participating members, to the extent feasible, and have their right to vote
automatically restored." See:
A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice: A Kentucky Call to
Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration.
|
502-875-2841 Fax