Now that over half of the legislative session has passed and the General Assembly has accomplished one of its’ major chores in an election year, by providing more pigeon roosts and pandering to the religious right, can we move on?
I would like to see this session of the General Assembly at least accomplish the one duty it actually has in a timely manner, that of passing a budget.
In passing a budget it would be nice to see a little intestinal fortitude from out legislators in dealing with Medicaid and Employee Retirement Funding issues. However, the biggest discussion will probably be whether or not the horse industry gets total control of casino gambling in Kentucky.
While I agree with bills like:
HB 486/LM (BR 1542) - L. Napier, K. Bratcher, Dw. Butler, J. Carr, D. Ford, M. Harmon, C. Hoffman, S. Lee, T. McKee, R. Meeks, R. Mobley, F. Nesler, C. Siler, K. Stein
AN ACT relating to pension systems of urban-county governments. Amend KRS 67A.430 to increase minimum monthly annuity to $1200; award cost-of-living increases and interest to those retirees or surviving spouses who were not receiving a $1200 monthly annuity; make technical changes; make provisions retroactive; amend KRS 67A.345 to allow surviving spouse of a retiree to be eligible for group health insurance, upon the death of the retiree, at no additional cost.
(I’m really surprised when I see a bill sponsored by both Lexington legislators Stan Lee and Kathy Stein, that doesn’t happen a lot.)
I’d be a lot more pleased to see them dealing with the underlying issues of the structure of the system and funding and not the band-aid approach of increasing monthly benefits for a select group.
Of course passing band-aid legislation, assuming it ever gets out of the Local Government Committee, is better than the attempts to limit civil rights like legislation below.
HB 226/LM (BR 947) - M. Harmon, J. Fischer, S. Baugh, J. Carr, H. Cornett, T. Couch, W. Hall, M. Harper, S. Lee, G. Lynn, R. Mobley, B. Montell, T. Shelton
AN ACT proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Kentucky relating to civil rights. Propose to create a new section of the Constitution of Kentucky to prohibit the state or any regulated government or agency of the state to enact any statute, ordinance, administrative regulation, rule, or policy to create a legal basis for a person to claim minority or protected status other than on the basis of race, color, religion, disability, familial status or national origin, birth sex, or age; submit to voters, provide ballot language.
