Unfinished business: Six big bills Kentucky lawmakers left hanging
Kentucky lawmakers adjourned late Tuesday night with several major bills hanging, including measures to curb no-knock police search warrants, making it a crime to insult a police office and shielding businesses from lawsuits related to COVID-19.
They can address these and others when they wind up the 2021 General Assembly on March 29 and 30. No bill is ever officially dead for the session until lawmakers vote to adjourn “sine die,” a Latin phrase meaning “without day” or there’s no more time to act.
But by delaying action on some bills, the Republican-led legislature has lost its ability to override any vetoes Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear may issue on bills passed in the last two days of the session.
No-knock warrants
The House never got around to voting on a bill that curbs no-knock police warrants, a heavily-publicized measure stemming from the fatal shooting by Louisville police of Breonna Taylor last March in her apartment during a botched drug investigation.
The Senate sent Senate Bill 4, sponsored by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, to the House on Feb. 25 after approving it 33-0. It got out of the House Judiciary Committee March 11 and then action on it stopped.
The bill says no-knock warrants would only be issued if there was “clear and convincing evidence” that the “crime alleged is a crime that would qualify a person, if convicted, as a violent offender.” They could only be executed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Police officers also would have to take more steps to obtain warrants and judges granting them would have to sign them legibly.
State Rep. Attica Scott, D-Louisville, sponsored House Bill 21, which would ban completely no-knock warrants. It was filed Jan. 5 but never was voted on in the House Judiciary Committee.
There are some former state police officers in the House of Representatives, including Rep. John Blanton, R-Salyersville, and Rep. Chris Fugate, R-Chavies, who have both filed floor amendments that would weaken the language of the bill.
No taunting or insulting police
Maybe the most controversial bill of the session got out of the Senate March 11 on a 22-11 vote but has seen no action in the House.
Senate Bill 211 would make anyone who “accosts, insults, taunts, or challenges a law enforcement officer with offensive or derisive words, or by gestures or other physical contact, that would have a direct tendency to provoke a violent response” guilty of a misdemeanor and face up to 90 days in jail and fines.
The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Paducah, said it would protect police during riots. Critics of the measure says it violates freedom of speech and is an overreach and could unfairly target peaceful protesters.
The bill also says persons charged with rioting would have to be held for a minimum of 48 hours
COVID-19 liability shield for businesses
Around 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee held a special meeting to pass Senate Bill 5, a bill sponsored by Senate President Stivers, that would provide COVID-19 related liability protections for businesses. The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce is a strong supporter of the measure.
Just as the meeting was scheduled to start, the Republicans, many of whom were wearing red for their picture day, walked out of the room to “get on the same page.”
It appeared they couldn’t find that page.
After Stivers explained the changes to his bill, which is meant to provide protections to businesses who operate under safety guidelines and companies that changed course during the pandemic to manufacture pandemic-related goods (like the distilleries making hand sanitizer), there seemed to be little support for it among House Republicans.
Several voted to pass on voting on the bill, while others who voted yes said they were doing so just to keep the conversation going. That conversation had a three hour expiration date.
“I understand what they’re doing, in that they want to know this,” Stivers said walking back to the Capitol from the committee meeting Tuesday night. “We’ve given it our best shot, we’ve had it out there, it’s not that different than the original Senate Bill 5. In fact, if they were supportive of Senate Bill 5, they would be supportive of this, or should.”
The bill never got called on the floor, as Democrats launched a coordinated effort to run out the clock until midnight, when the Republicans lost their ability to override any gubernatorial vetoes.
It’s unclear whether Beshear would sign a bill offering liability protections to businesses, but at the national level Democrats have opposed U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s efforts to get liability protections for businesses.
“If we walk out of here, I think there’s going to be an opportunity for a lot of litigation,” Stivers said.
Election changes
An election reform bill, which will allow Kentuckians to vote in-person three days before the election and will make the online portal for requesting mail-in ballots permanent, passed the Senate on Tuesday.
When it came time for the House to agree to some of the Senate’s changes, House Bill 574 faltered.
The House agreed to the changes the Senate made in committee, which limited how long the online portal for requesting mail-in ballots can stay open and added language to prevent school boards from using tax-payer money to pass a tax increase. But when lawmakers asked Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, what was in a Senate floor amendment, she didn’t know.
The bill was then put aside so the House of Representatives could take up other bills and wasn’t brought up again for a vote.
While Democrats, like Beshear, have said they want the bill to go further in expanding access to voting — like adding more in-person early voting days and loosening restrictions on who can request an absentee ballot — the bill has had bipartisan support in the House and Senate and may still make it into law.
Transportation budget
It doesn’t get much attention by the public but legislators are keenly aware of the state Transportation Cabinet’s budget of about $2.5 billion.
From it they get various road projects for their districts — from road widenings to blacktopping.
The House and Senate this year approved their own versions of House Bill 193, the transportation budget, and a committee was formed with members from both chambers to try to iron out their differences.
The committee accomplished that, and the Senate approved the committee report Tuesday night. The House did not get around to it.
The bill will be taken up the last two days of the session but lawmakers could do nothing if Beshear vetoes parts of it.
The governor can veto any part of an appropriations bill, says section 88 of the Kentucky Constitution.
Open records
The Senate unanimously approved Senate Bill 48, sponsored by Sen. Carroll, a retired police officer, that would exempt from the Open Records Act information that would reveal the address of police officers.
When the bill got to the House, several members filed amendments. One would apply the exemption to federal judges and their families. Another would extend the exemption to state judges, prosecutors and their families.
The House has not acted on the bill.
The legislature did approve and send to the governor for his consideration House Bill 312, which would restrict public access to records. It would also allow lawmakers to deny requests for legislative records with no appeal to a court. Appeals would be heard by a panel of legislative leaders.
The bill also gives agencies five days instead of three to turn over public records that have been requested. It says people seeking records must be Kentucky residents but it allows people who own property or work in the state to try to get them. News media would be exempt from the residency requirement.
Opponents of the bill, including several media groups, are urging Beshear to veto it
