KY legislature passes COVID-19 liability protections, no-knock warrant limits & more
Kentucky lawmakers scrambled to pass some of their remaining priority bills in the waning hours of the 2021 legislative session Tuesday, advancing bills that give protections to businesses against coronavirus-related lawsuits and a tax break to some people working from home.
After debating for months a proposal that would provide liability protections to businesses that stayed open to the public through the COVID-19 pandemic, the House passed Senate Bill 5.
The House’s amendment was a pared-down version of the bill originally proposed by Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester. It attempts to protect businesses from lawsuits that claim someone contracted COVID-19 while at their place of business, so long as the business tried to follow COVID-19 guidelines. It also protects manufacturers that pivoted to make products related to the pandemic, such as bourbon distilleries that produced hand sanitizer.
“I do believe it is important to give our business community some confidence in getting through this,” said Rep. Patrick Flannery, R-Olive Hill.
The protections in the bill would only apply to the time period when an executive order declaring a state of emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic is in effect. In Kentucky, that executive order was made in March 2020 and remains in effect.
Some lawmakers, however, cautioned against the bill, saying the court system already has all the tools it needs to handle any lawsuits related to COVID-19. Rep. Mackenzie Cantrell, D-Louisville, said there weren’t a lot of lawsuits stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is not a huge problem,” Cantrell said. “Our court system is the best place to handle and administer lawsuits.”
Rep. Chad McCoy, R-Bardstown, voted for the bill saying he wanted the small businesses asking for help to know the legislature “had their back.”
He then called it a “really bad bill” because it expands immunity for “employees, agents or representatives of the state or any of its political subdivisions” when responding to an emergency.
“The second part of this bill is absolutely unconstitutional,” McCoy said.
The bill cleared the House on a 70-27 vote and got final approval from the Senate. Because it is the last day of the session, the legislature will not be able to override any potential veto by Gov. Andy Beshear.
No knock warrants
The General Assembly gave final approval to Senate Bill 4, the legislature’s response to protests that broke out last summer after 26-year-old Breonna Taylor was killed by Louisville police while they executed a warrant on her apartment in the middle of the night.
Rather than ban no-knock warrants, as many activists have urged, the bill sets stricter standards for when a no-knock warrant can be issued. The House amended the bill to make sure an EMT is in the vicinity when a no-knock warrant is executed and loosened restrictions on who can execute a no-knock warrant in counties smaller than 90,000 residents. The bill originally said only special response teams could execute no-knock warrants, but the amendment allows for exceptions in smaller counties where no special response team is available.
The amendment, sponsored by Rep. John Blanton, R-Salyersville, who is a former state police officer, was not immediately available to the public.
Rep. Patti Minter, D-Bowling Green, urged lawmakers to back the amendment, saying that if EMS had been on the scene when Taylor was shot, she might still be alive today.
“It is not perfect,” Minter said. “But we got good things that will make people safer.”
Rep. Reginald Meeks, D-Louisville, argued there is no punishment outlined in the bill for police officers who don’t use their body cameras or audio recording equipment. He urged the legislature to ban no-knock warrants outright.
“We walk away feeling like we’ve done something, when in fact we haven’t,” Meeks said.
The legislature sidelined a bill sponsored by Rep. Attica Scott, D-Louisville, who proposed a bill to ban no-knock warrants. In a message read on the House floor, Scott said she reluctantly voted for the bill but called it performative politics.
“SB 4 is a weaker version of what we sought,” Scott said. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us.”
The bill passed the House 92-5. Two of Lexington’s Democratic representatives — Rep. George Brown and Rep. Kelly Flood — voted against it. Flood said that “justice is still not served, justice is still knocking.”
The bill was not named Breonna’s Law, in honor of Taylor.
More business tax breaks
On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate passed House Bill 372, which would give tax breaks to data centers and an income tax credit to “remote workers” who move to Kentucky and work for out-of-state companies. The House gave final approval to the bill after 9 p.m.
The progressive-leaning Kentucky Center for Economic Policy called the bill a tax break for the wealthy.
The tax credit would be retroactive, staring January 1 of this year. It would start at $5,000 and decrease by $1,000 each year until it expires after six years. The bill does not have a fiscal note for the remote worker tax credit, so it is unclear how much it would cost the state.
Monday night bills
Late Monday night, the House gave final passage to some of the bills they were unable to get to in the final days before the veto break. One of the largest bills they passed to was House Bill 574, an election reform bill.
Kentucky already has some of the most restrictive voting laws in the country, so while states like Georgia were reducing voter access, the Kentucky bill adopts some of the expanded voting options put in place during the pandemic.
It will make the online portal to request an absentee ballot permanent (with restrictions on who is eligible to vote absentee) while expanding in-person early voting to three days before the election. It also will allow counties to have voting “super-centers” where they combine multiple precincts in one location.
The House gave final passage to House Bill 178, which reformed the makeup of the Kentucky Board of Education to reflect equal gender, political and racial representation. The Senate previously backed down from an amendment that would have removed a current teacher and student as non-voting members of the board.
The House also gave final passage to the $2.7 billion Transportation Cabinet budget.
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 2:31 PM.
