FRANKFORT – The fifth week of the 2016 General Assembly was a time to reflect on the giants that have served before us in the Kentucky Senate while keeping a focus on the task at hand – being fiscal stewards of tax dollars while navigating the state through an ever-changing world.
The contemplation was prompted by the death of former State Senator Georgia Davis Powers who was memorialized in the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday. What she was able to accomplish in her 92 years of life is a reminder that no matter how slow and deliberate the legislative process can seem, great ideas can – and will – triumph.
The Senate chamber adopted Senate Resolution 100 to adjourn the body in her memory and place a bronze plaque on her former chamber desk in recognition of her achievements. Powers was a civil rights leader who became the first African-American to serve in the Senate when she was elected in 1967 to represent the 33rd Senate District in Louisville. During her 21 years in the Senate, Powers sponsored bills prohibiting employment discrimination, prohibiting sex and age discrimination, and mandating statewide fair housing.
The week also saw the Senate go into a short recess so several Senate colleagues and I could walk the first bill to clear both chambers this session to the Governor’s office for his signature. Senate Bill 4, also known as the “informed consent” bill, which I cosponsored, requires an in-person or real-time video conference between a woman seeking an abortion and a health care provider at least 24 hours before the procedure.
The Senate passed a second abortion-related bill this week. Senate Bill 7, which I also cosponsored, curbs the flow of non-Medicaid, state-administered tax dollars to Planned Parenthood clinics in Kentucky. SB 7 establishes a three-tiered system for the state to fund family planning services. The first funding priority will be public health departments. The second funding priority will be nonpublic clinics that provide comprehensive primary and preventive health services. The third funding priority – if any money remains – will be to Planned Parenthood.
Other bills advancing to the House of Representatives after passing the Senate include:
- SB 96 – Dubbed the “Jailers with no Jails Act,” bill requires fiscal courts in counties with no jails to annually pass ordinances which outline the responsibility of their county jailer. The bill also requires jailers to submit to the same fiscal courts a summary of all official duties performed. This is a bill I filed in response to media reports of a few county jailers in counties with no jails drawing salaries “not commensurate” to their duties.
- SB 2 – Pension reorganization legislation was the result of two years’ worth of work by the Public Pension Oversight Board. SB 2 makes state retirement systems’ transactions more transparent, holds the systems accountable when contracting out services, and require that pension trustees have actual investment experience. The sponsor said SB 2 is another attempt to provide senators insight into the systems so they can provide appropriate oversight.
- SB 15 – Filed In response to the prohibition of scripture readings in a public school’s stage adaptation of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Senate Bill 15 is meant to strengthen the expression of religious or political viewpoints in public schools and public postsecondary institutions. SB 15 sets forth in statute what some protected activities for students are by enumerating the rights of students to express religious and political viewpoints in public. That includes homework, artwork, speeches and religious messages on items of clothing. SB 15 also enumerates the rights of religious student groups to access school facilities after hours for meetings and to use school-produced media to announce such meetings.
- SB 103 – Requires someone’s prepaid and preplanned funeral arrangements to be followed after their death. Under current law, there is nothing to prevent the next of kin from changing those arrangements.
- SB 107 – With labor statistics reporting there will be over 1 million job openings for computer programmers by 2020, SB 107 counts computer science as both a science and a mathematics credit toward graduation. It also encourages education funding to flow to computer science programs. Kentucky currently has 3,285 programming jobs open.
- SB 17 and SB 19 – SB 17 prevents the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure from requiring any maintenance of certification and related continuing education requirements to obtain or maintain a license to practice medicine in Kentucky. SB 19 changes the way members of the licensure board are selected. It requires that the doctors the Governor appoints to the board be selected from a list of names submitted from the Kentucky Medical Association. It also removes the requirement that different specialties be represented by those physicians.
If you have any questions or comments about these issues or any other public policy issue, please call me toll-free at 1-800-372-7181 or email me at danny.carroll@lrc.ky.gov. You can also review the Legislature’s work online at www.lrc.ky.gov.
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Note: Senator Danny Carroll (R-Paducah) represents the 2nd District encompassing Ballard, Carlisle, Marshall and McCracken counties. Senator Carroll serves on the Senate Appropriations & Revenue; Education; Health & Welfare; and Judiciary Committees. He also serves as Chair of the Budget Review Subcommittee on General Government, Finance & Public Protection and as a member of the Budget Review Subcommittee on Education. For a high-resolution .jpeg of Senator Carroll, please visit http://www.lrc.ky.gov/pubinfo/portraits/senate02.jpg.
