The 2024 Kentucky General Assembly reached the halfway mark of its second week of session on Wednesday with filings and committee votes on bills sponsored by Northern Kentucky lawmakers. Among the bills: a proposed constitutional change in Kentucky gubernatorial election years, relaxed certificate of need for freestanding birthing centers, and legislation outlawing so-called “child sex dolls.”
Senate Bill 10 is the proposed constitutional amendment. It would move gubernatorial and all statewide constitutional elections (attorney general, secretary of state, commissioner of agriculture, state auditor, treasurer) to even-numbered presidential election years starting in 2032 if approved by voters in 2024. The last odd-year election for those statewide offices would be in November 2027. To accommodate the change, all terms for those officers would be extended one year.
The State Senate and Local Government committee advanced SB 10 to the full Senate Wednesday afternoon. It would have to be approved by three-fifths of both the Senate and House to make the 2024 ballot.
Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Ryland Heights) is the sponsor of the bill. He said in a Wednesday press release that the proposed change would increase voter turnout, save local governments money, and relieve what he calls “voter fatigue” with the current election cycle.
“Talk to the average voter in Kentucky, who, mind you, is not a voter first, but instead are fathers and mothers,” McDaniel said. “They have professions like manufacturing and teaching, and generally, those who quite frankly don’t love constantly hearing about politicians.”
Freestanding birthing centers
Alexandria Republican Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer hopes to give Kentuckians access to freestanding birthing centers in legislation she filed Wednesday in the Senate. That bill is SB 103 – a bill referred to in a Wednesday press release from Funke Frommeyer as “a new and improved version” of similar legislation she filed in 2023.
SB 103 could potentially allow access to the birthing centers – holistic non-hospital maternal care and infant delivery health centers now non-existent in the commonwealth – by exempting centers with four or fewer beds from the state certificate of need process and other tweaks. State regulations are already on the books for licensing of freestanding birthing centers despite the absence of such facilities.
“Freestanding birth center opponents have relied on the lengthy and arduous certificate of need process that has allowed hospitals to essentially block their development, regardless of the benefits to women in Kentucky looking for another birthing alternative,” Funke Frommeyer said in the prepared release Wednesday.
“We have pregnant women in Kentucky who want a holistic approach to a physiologically natural birthing experience,” Funke Frommeyer said. “I ask you to join me in a wellness revolution that will begin at birth for our young people”
Child sex dolls and child protection
Child protection from sexual offenders through criminalization of child sex dolls is the goal of House Bill 207 sponsored by Rep. Stephanie Dietz (R-Edgewood), also filed this week.
Should it become law, HB 207 would make child sex dolls illegal in Kentucky and link the dolls to probable cause for search of suspected child sex offenders.
Dietz, a family law attorney in NKY, said in a Wednesday press release that probable cause provisions in HB 207 will “help law enforcement and prosecutors and I’m hopeful we can get it through this session.”
Dietz’ bill defines a child sex doll as “a doll, mannequin, or robot that is intended for sexual stimulation or gratification and that has the features (or resembles) a minor.” The dolls are fairly new to the sex toy business “and not covered under current statute” per the news release.
“The individuals who sell these dolls are doing no more than contributing to the sexual assault of children,” said Dietz. “It is time we recognize that in statute and provide another tool for prosecuting child sexual predators.”
The bill is supported by Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders and Attorney General Russell Coleman. In a statement released Wednesday by the House majority caucus, Coleman called HB 207 “a major step to target-harden our commonwealth and protect our families.’
NKY senator’s bill first to pass Senate this session
More NKY news out of Frankfort this week came Tuesday when a private lands bill passed the Senate 36-0. That bill is SB 5 sponsored by Sen. Gex Williams (R-Verona) and Senate Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown).
Should it become law, SB 5 would exempt all Kentucky resident farmland owners, their immediate family, and tenants who live on those lands from most open-season state hunting and fishing licensing requirements regardless of farm size. Current law only provides an exemption for farms five acres or larger.
SB 5 now goes to the state House for its consideration.
Jan. 10 is day seven of the 2024 legislative session of the 2024 General Assembly in Frankfort. The 60-day session will end no later than April 15 and require passage of a two-year state budget estimated to reach roughly a total $130 billion.