Gambling, marijuana, tax incentives: What’s still on the table as KY lawmakers return?
Officially, the General Assembly will dedicate Wednesday and Thursday — the last two days of its 2022 session — to veto override votes, salvaging bills it’s already passed.
But as long as lawmakers are gathered together at the Capitol, there’s still time for them to pass bills that are near the finish line. They just won’t be able to save anything from Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto pen if they pass it this week, because after Thursday night, they’re adjourned for the year.
Here are six subjects to watch over the final 48 hours.
▪ Tax incentives: Most bills that would add to Kentucky’s existing billions of dollars in tax incentives appear to have gotten stuck in the legislative process, unless lawmakers stitch a number of them together into an omnibus package to be slid through the chambers in the session’s final hours.
That would not be unprecedented. Just last year, lawmakers took House Bill 249, a five-page measure on sales tax reporting, and quietly crammed in 133 more pages of text late in the session, with $175 million in annual tax breaks for the film industry and historic preservation projects, among various other lucky beneficiaries.
Among the measures that haven’t left the House this year are House Bill 379, a sales tax break for data centers owned by tech companies; House Bill 447, a property tax exemption for personal aircraft; House Bill 333, a tax break for banks loaning money to community development financial institutions; and House Bill 744, an incentive for business headhunters that lure remote workers to Kentucky.
Only House Bill 308, a so-called rural jobs incentives program worth tens of millions of dollars for investment companies, has gone further. It was approved by the House and awaits action in the Senate budget committee. With one of the three requisite floor readings already accomplished, there is time for the Senate to pass it into law this week.
Advantage Capital, a New Orleans-based business lender, has lobbied the Kentucky legislature for several years to create the tax break contained in HB 308. Earlier versions of the bill stalled after they were criticized, in Kentucky and elsewhere, for potentially giving away millions of tax dollars without guaranteeing the creation of new jobs.
▪ Medical marijuana: House Bill 136, legalizing certain forms of medical marijuana in Kentucky, has passed the House. It awaits action in the Senate, where it’s assigned to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
Senate Republican leaders continue to express skepticism about the effectiveness of medical marijuana.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, last week told reporters he favors House Bill 604, which would establish the Kentucky Center for Cannabis Research at the University of Kentucky, to further study the issue. That bill is ready for a final vote in the Senate.
▪ Sports betting: House Bill 606, legalizing and taxing sports betting in Kentucky, has passed the House and is sitting in the Senate.
Although HB 606 has not gotten a hearing yet in the Senate Committee on Licensing and Occupations, where it’s assigned, Senate GOP leaders agreed to give it two floor readings before the veto break, setting it up for a speedy passage this week if supporters can line up enough senators behind it.
The primary sponsor, Rep. Adam Koenig, R-Erlanger, is telling people he understands the odds against him — some conservative lawmakers do not favor any expansion of gambling — but he’ll lobby for his bill until the session ends Thursday night.
▪ “Gray” slot machines: House Bill 608 would ban thousands of unregulated and untaxed slot machines that are proliferating around the state, found in gas stations, restaurants and bars, sometimes with financial ties to Fraternal Order of Police chapters.
Whatever their shaky legal status, the machines have some support in Frankfort among allies of law enforcement and small business.
The House passed HB 608, as did the Senate Committee on Licensing and Occupations. It was posted to the Senate floor’s orders of the day March 30, waiting for a final vote that never came. Will it get a vote this week? Only if there is enough support in the Senate Republican caucus, GOP leaders say.
▪ Local option sales tax: House Bills 475 and 476 would give local governments in Kentucky something they’ve long desired, the authority to levy a sales tax on top of the state sales tax. This would give local governments a third revenue option beside property taxes and occupational license fees — essentially, income taxes.
HB 475 is a proposed constitutional amendment providing for local sales taxes, to be decided by voters. If the ballot initiative passes this fall, HB 476 would hit the pause button until the legislature establishes new laws for how local governments can enact their sales taxes.
The bills passed the House and await a hearing in the Senate budget committee. They each have received two readings on the Senate floor already, so they could win final passage this week.
▪ Open records: Senate Bill 63 would block the release of some information held in public records about a broad category of current and retired public officials, including judges, prosecutors, police officers, corrections officers and social workers, as well as their immediate families.
Supporters say the change to Kentucky’s Open Records Act is necessary to protect the safety of people who hold particularly sensitive jobs. Critics say the act already has privacy exemptions to shield personal information, but SB 63 would go too far by hiding information like campaign donations, tax records and courthouse assignments.
The Senate and the House Judiciary Committee have passed SB 63. It has been posted for passage in the House’s orders of the day since March 25.
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 10:35 AM.
