As Kentuckians focused on coronavirus, legislature sent these bills to governor
While most Kentuckians focused over the last week on the rapidly spreading novel coronavirus and a sudden end to normalcy, in the locked-down state Capitol, the General Assembly continued to send bills to Gov. Andy Beshear for his signature.
Unlike Senate Bill 2, a controversial voter ID bill passed Thursday despite criticism by civil rights groups, most of the final legislation so far has been more low-profile — with a couple of exceptions involving mandatory arming of school resource officers and dropping public legal notices from newspapers.
Among the bills Beshear had signed into law by Wednesday:
- Senate Bill 8, requiring all Kentucky school districts to arm their school resource officers with a gun. This was opposed by many people in Jefferson County, where the school board — already debating whether resource officers should carry guns — said the decision should be made locally.
- Senate Bill 45, establishing minimum standards for Kentucky child care centers for nutrition, sugary drinks, exercise and screen time. Praising the bill, Kentucky Youth Advocates said: “While many child care programs currently meet the health standards, this measure ensures consistent implementation so that every child in these early care and education programs have the building blocks for a healthier life.”
- Senate Bill 132, creating more racially and economically diverse jury pools in Kentucky by adding holders of state-issued personal identification cards to the list of potential jurors, rather than just driver’s licenses. Racial minorities, poor people and younger people are less likely to have a driver’s license, studies indicate.
- House Bill 129, an attempt to more fairly distribute state funding to Kentucky’s 61 local health departments, many of which are financially struggling with the fast-rising cost of pension contributions. By the end of the 2020 fiscal year, health departments across 41 counties are projected to become financially insolvent.
Among the bills passed by the House and Senate and delivered to Beshear by Wednesday:
- House Bill 99, approving a $35 million state loan to help the University of Louisville buy Jewish Hospital and other Louisville-based health care facilities.
- House Bill 195, allowing local governments in Kentucky counties with more than 80,000 people to publish their legal notices on their own websites instead of in a local newspaper.
- Senate Bill 50, letting Kentucky’s Medicaid prescription drug program bypass the corporate middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers.
- Senate Bill 122, strengthening Tim’s Law, a mental health law passed in 2017, by letting judges order outpatient treatment for people involuntarily hospitalized at least twice in the past 24 months.
This story was originally published March 20, 2020 at 2:03 PM.
