2022 Session in Review

The 2022 Regular Session of the General Assembly adjourned last week and the bills sent to the governor’s desk in the closing days have mostly been signed or vetoed.

Last year, following the 2021 session, we were celebrating a lot of victories, from the passage of Educational Opportunity Accounts to several reforms related to criminal justice. This year the results are more mixed, but it is clear that your calls and emails made a big difference on several bills.

Here are some highlights from the session.

HB 269 - I want to mention this bill first because CCK and so many partners have worked for many years to get it done. This Act will prevent criminal defendants with certain diagnosed mental illnesses from being subjected to the death penalty. It passed with a strong bipartisan vote in both chambers and has been signed by Gov. Beshear. We are grateful to many legislators for their tireless work on this bill, especially the sponsor, Rep. Chad McCoy, who will not be returning to the General Assembly for another term.

HB 499 - This bill creates a pilot program to assist employers in offering child care to their employees. Combined with efforts that are underway to support better family and medical leave policies, we are hopeful this represents the beginnings of a strong pro-family agenda.

HB 3 - Passed over the governor’s veto, HB 3 is a broad set of regulations of abortion and requirements dealing with the disposition of fetal remains. Perhaps most significantly, HB 3 establishes new regulations on pharmaceuticals that induce abortion, such as prohibiting their distribution through the mail. Pharmaceutical abortions have become increasingly common and were previously subject to much less regulation than surgical abortions.

Education Opportunity Accounts - CCK supported HB 305 and SB 50 during this session.  These bills would have expanded the recently passed Education Opportunity Account Act (“EOAs”) statewide, increased income eligibility and the overall size of the program.  The bills did not pass, but we did make progress towards a future expansion of the program.  Twenty-five legislators sponsored HB 305. We gained three new sponsors who did not sponsor the 2021 EOA legislation, including one who voted against a statewide program in 2021.  Looking ahead, we can build on this progress and hopefully expand the program during the 2023 legislative session. 

As indicated previously, the EOA program is on hold due to litigation. The Kentucky Supreme Court recently took up the challenge to the program and we are optimistic that the Court will issue a favorable decision in the near future so that families can begin enrolling in the program.

Bus Subsidy - One notable victory this session was the increase in the bus subsidy for private school students from $3.5 million to $5 million per year.  This program reimburses counties that pay for the cost of transporting private school students to school.  The increase provides enough funding to fully fund the projected needs of participating counties and allows for an expansion of the program to more students/schools and non-participating counties.

Two bills that CCK highlighted in our action alerts during the session that did not pass were HB 197 and HB 31. HB 197 would have provided for easier access to state-issued IDs to homeless Kentuckians, particularly teenagers. The bill did make it through the House late in session and received some attention in the Senate, but ultimately time ran out before it got a final vote. We hope this sets the stage for prompt action next session. Similarly, HB 31, known as the C.R.O.W.N. Act, which would have prohibited discrimination based on hairstyles and similar traits historically associated with race, also received some attention but came up short.

Unfortunately, there were also some actions taken by the General Assembly that cause us serious concern. A trio of bills were passed that could have significant negative impact on financially vulnerable Kentuckians.

HB 4 severely limits access to unemployment benefits. It reduces the number of weeks a person is eligible and provides for the discontinuance of benefits based on factors that are much more onerous than has been the case. It allows benefits to be extended based on the statewide unemployment rate, but makes no allowance for regional rates that might be much higher.

HB 7 includes a set of changes to public benefits programs, such as SNAP and Medicaid. As originally introduced, HB 7 was especially harsh and would have resulted in the loss of benefits for many Kentuckians who truly rely on these programs. Advocacy efforts, including your phone calls and emails, led to many changes that lessen this potential impact. Nevertheless, the bill remains highly problematic, placing significant new paperwork burdens on individuals least able to comply with such requirements. We will be closely monitoring any impact from these changes and expect this to be revisited in future sessions.

Finally, HB 8 was the General Assembly’s latest effort at tax reform. Legislators continue to move Kentucky away from a progressive system toward a consumption- based system of taxation. Philosophically, we object to this approach (our longstanding principles of taxation can be found here). This is another bill, however, where advocacy efforts clearly made a difference. The bill was amended heavily through the process and some of the more troublesome short-term effects (such as an immediate $900 million annual loss of revenue) were made less severe.

We are grateful to all of our Faithful Citizen Advocates who respond to our email requests to reach out to legislators. Your public witness truly does make a difference. If you are not on our list and would like to receive our alerts, please sign up here.