Despite legislative leadership saying it would be a slow session, Kentucky’s legislators filed a significant number of bills ahead of the Feb. 21 Senate deadline and the Feb. 22 House deadline.
The 2023 legislative session is a 30-day, non-budget session. The Republican supermajority passed its signature piece of legislation — the income tax — early this month when part two of the session reconvened.
Here are some bills filed by NKY legislators so far, moving through the legislature or receiving notoriety.
Certificate of need
Freshman legislator Marianne Proctor is the primary sponsor of House Bill 312. This would allow any healthcare provider to operate in the three northernmost counties — Boone, Campbell, and Kenton — without first requiring a certificate of need.
A certificate of need is required under Kentucky law for healthcare providers to open up a new facility, acquire major medical equipment, make substantial changes to a facility or project, or “alter a geographical area or alter a specific location which has been designated on a certificate of need or license.”
“What I’m looking to do is reduce the amount of services that are regulated by the certificate of need,” said Rep. Marianne Proctor (R-Union), the bill’s primary sponsor. “In Kentucky, we have 23 regulations that require permission from the state to open such as ambulatory care services, dialysis centers, substance abuse, mental health services.”
In Northern Kentucky, the sole holder of the region’s certificate of need is St. Elizabeth Healthcare, which merged with St. Luke in the early 2000s.
It has caused some in NKY to say that St. Elizabeth has a healthcare monopoly.
Reps. Steve Rawlings (R-Burlington), Steve Doan (R-Erlanger), Mark Hart (R-Falmouth), and Savannah Maddox (R-Dry RIdge) co-sponsored the bill.
Gun legislation
Rep. Savannah Maddox (R-Dry Ridge) filed two bills this session to strengthen 2nd Amendments rights — one will lower the concealed carry age from 21 to 18 (House Bill 118) and another that will get rid of gun-free zones (House Bill 138).
Maddox filed these bills last year, but neither received a House committee hearing.
Mental health
Banta is the primary sponsor of House Bill 52, which provides mental health treatment for post-traumatic stress in firefighters.
The bill is an add-on to last year’s House Bill 373 — a bill that introduced sweeping changes to mental health services in Kentucky, including adding the 988 hotline — and passed the House Local Government Committee.
“Last year, we passed the ball to help firefighters with mental health issues,” Banta said. “They may see horrific things, and many of them experience PTSD and all kinds of issues.”
Healthcare — biomarker screening
Moser (R-Taylor Mill) sponsored House Bill 180, which would cover biomarker testing for patients diagnosed with cancer and other diseases.
Biomarker and pharmacogenetic testing allows healthcare providers to screen patients for genes, proteins, and other substances that give them information about an individual’s condition and how the patient will react to certain medications based on their genetic makeup.
Marijuana
On the first day of the 2023 Legislative Session, Northern Kentucky Rep. Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) filed a near duplicate of the bill she filed in 2022, which seeks to fully legalize recreational cannabis in Kentucky.
“We have patients in the state of Kentucky right now that we’re making criminals out of who are having to access the only medicine to help them or help their children,” Roberts said in January.
Roberts’s legislation is called L.E.T.T.’s Grow. The acronym stands for legalize sales, expunge low-level possession crimes, treat those who deserve to benefit from medicinal properties, and tax sales from those who want to buy it.
Licensing
Rep. Steve Doan (R-Erlanger) filed House Bill 343, a bill that seeks to change Kentucky’s occupation licensing system by allowing new residents who hold occupational licenses to get their license in the state quickly.
“We should be encouraging talented, hard-working individuals to move to the Commonwealth as opposed to creating roadblocks such as licensing burdens,” Doan said.
Education
Senate Bill 24 passed the Senate and currently sits in the House. Sponsored by Sen. John Schickel (R-Union), the bill would allow homeschool students to access Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship money.
The bill would allow homeschooled students to test to earn scholarship money.
“We’re talking about parents who have taken it upon themselves the responsibility to educate their own children,” he said. “As testified during the interim (period) by university administration officers from Thomas More University, as a group, these are some of the most prepared students for college that we have in the commonwealth.”