Bills in Frankfort Today - March 18, 2010
Legislative Day 49
House
Energy Price Hike Mandates
Likely KEY VOTE: HB 3 is on the agenda in the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment again this week. The Kentucky House must think President Obama and Nancy Pelosi are doing things right. Yesterday, they created a debt-based stimulus program for Kentucky. Today, they're creating energy portfolio mandates and their own sort of Cap and Trade program. This is a convoluted bill, full of new energy bureaucracy that will increase energy prices for all Kentuckians.
Trails Bureaucracy
The House Committee on Tourism and Energy will consider HB 173, a bill to grant the Kentucky Trails Authority the actual authority to create trails on public lands. It also authorizes the Trails Authority the authority to charge access fees and sets up a fund to receive the fees to be used for trails maintenance and development.
Senate
Outdated Medical Guides Are Better
Likely KEY VOTE: In what has become an annual occurrence, Senate Judiciary will consider HB 38, this year's bill to mandate that the AMA 5th edition, not the current 6th edition, should be used in disability determinations for workers' claims. The Senate seems to have finally given up on protecting modern medicine this year.
Driving While Texting
Also on the agenda for Senate Judiciary is SB 23, the ban on texting while driving. The bill would fine an individual $100 for the first offense, $300 for subsequent offenses, and $200-$600 if the incident caused an accident.
Obviously, More State Corrections Employees Are Needed
In what appears to be a needless but costly rearrangement of deck chairs, the Senate Committee on Education will hear HB 164, transferring all KCTCS employees who are engaged in providing educational services and support to inmates to the Department of Corrections. Here they will join the state retirement system and the state health plan. Not only will it cost more to hire people into the Department of Corrections than KCTCS, just because of the association, but the benefits will be more expensive too. What a great plan.
