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Lawmakers finish business on last day of ‘successful session’

General Assembly is recessed until January

                                       senate president

FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – It was a long and busy day during the 60th and final day of the Kentucky General Assembly on Thursday as lawmakers rushed to approve legislation before the midnight witching hour, by which time they had to adjourn.

Since they took care of most of the major bills on Wednesday, lesser priority legislation took up most of the time.

While they voted to override 24 of the 25 vetoes issued by Gov. Andy Beshear on Wednesday, the House did reconsider the one veto override effort that failed, which was on Senate Bill 167, that gives local governments more control over library districts.  The Wednesday vote was 48-39, three votes shy of the number needed.  But on Thursday, the House tried again and voted 52-39 to override, enacting the measure into law.

The Senate confirmed 63 appointments by Gov. Beshear to various boards and commissions, including eight members to the Kentucky State University Board of Trustees.  Under SB 265, the Governor was given the authority to replace the eight board members, due to the financial issues faced by the Frankfort school.  Lawmakers earlier in the session voted to loan $23 million to KSU, so it could pay its bills through June 30, the ends of the current fiscal year.  The added another $15 million more for the next fiscal year. 

“It has been a very successful session for the people of Kentucky,” said Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown. “We passed Senate Bill 1, combined with Senate Bill 138, which does long-needed site-based council reform, as well as teaching American principles. The Read to Achieve Act will help tens of thousands of Kentucky kids get to reading at grade level by the third grade.”  

Thayer also pointed to charter school legislation, the Name, Image and Likeness bill, and the Save Women’s Sports Act, which requires athletes to compete on teams based on their biological gender as it appears on their birth certificate, as other examples.

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect agreed with Thayer’s assessment of being a successful session. “When you look at what we accomplished top to bottom, it was a great session that really will have some lasting long-term impacts on the citizens of Kentucky. I really believe that.”

He said one disappointment was they couldn’t resolve the “Gray Machine” issue, with legislation that would ban the gambling devices that have begun cropping up at convenience stores around the state.  “It became a very difficult issue to manage, just from there being so many different perspectives on it.  We’d move one piece to get some people on board, and they’d fall off the other side.”

But Senate Minority Leader Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, said there were a lot of missed opportunities this session. “We’re getting out of here without passing sports gaming. We’re getting out of here without passing medical marijuana.  We couldn’t take full advantage of the surplus, so we could have things like universal pre-k.”

He continued, “This was a once-in-a-generation opportunity with a $2 billion surplus this year and another $2 billion projected surplus next year. $5 billion in federal infrastructure money, $1.3 billion in American Rescue Plan money.  We could have used that to invest in our future.”  

Lawmakers finished their work around 9 p.m., instead of 11:55 p.m., as they have often done in the past. They will return to Frankfort in January, unless the governor calls them in for a special session.

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