With 10 working days remaining in the legislative session, lawmakers were busy this week passing priorities out of their respective chamber. Only two weeks remain before the veto recess begins on March 15.
Bills on the move this week
HB 16, sponsored by Rep. Mark Hart (R-Pendleton), passed the House floor 68-29 on Wednesday. The bill would make water fluoridation programs optional and would allow the governing body of a water system to choose to remain or end participation in the program.
HB 152, sponsored by Rep. Michael Meredith (R-Edmonson), passed the House floor with a unanimous vote this week. The bill creates a new Medicaid supplemental payment program for public ground ambulance providers that would go into effect Jan. 1, 2026. Ground ambulance providers owned or operated by counties, cities and special districts would be eligible to participate. The program is voluntary and would allow these providers to receive additional federal funding for Medicaid transports if they pay the state Medicaid match for the supplemental program and an administrative fee retained by the Department of Medicaid Services.
HB 160, sponsored by Rep. Susan Witten (R-Jefferson), passed the House floor on Tuesday 90-5 with a floor amendment filed by Local Government Committee Chair Rep. Patrick Flannery (R-Carter). The bill prohibits counties and cities from adopting zoning laws that exclude “qualified manufactured homes” from being in any residential zone where single-family residences are permitted.
The floor amendment provided improvements to the bill, including reinstating language on the protection of property values, limiting the definition of “qualified manufactured homes” to houses manufactured less than five years prior to the date of installation, and ensuring local governments can still regulate square footage, setback restrictions, lot dimensions and orientation of the home as compatibility standards.
HB 368, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker (R-Shelby), passed the House floor 62-30 with a floor amendment filed by Rep. Michael Meredith (R-Edmonson). The bill removes the current 80,000-population threshold and allows all counties the option to utilize the alternative publications procedure which allows counties to post the full legal notices online, in conjunction with a newspaper advertisement providing notice and the website URL where the public may view the full advertisement online. Counties using the alternative publications procedure would still be required to provide the full advertisement to the newspaper to give them the option to publish the full advertisement but at no cost to the county.
HB 546, sponsored by House Appropriations and Revenue Committee Chair Jason Petrie (R-Todd), also passed out of the House Thursday and would establish the Local Access Road Program (LARP). Chairman Petrie testified that the intention of the bill is to replace the County Priority Projects Program (CPPP) with LARP going forward. The application process would remain the same as the CPPP process, but this program would require a 10 to 20 percent local match based on the same population rankings established for the Kentucky Product Development Initiative.
The bill also requires the Transportation Cabinet develop a scoring system to rank projects 1 to 10, with 10’s representing the highest need, based on these factors: preservation of assets (physical condition), safety, cost, traffic volume and priority ranking within the highway district.
HB 605, sponsored by Rep. Josh Bray (R-Rockcastle), passed the House floor unanimously this week. It amends the eligible projects category for the Government Resources Accelerating Needed Transformation (GRANT) program to include Delta Regional Authority grants that include language explicitly stating that a local match will make an application more competitive. The GRANT program was established in 2023 to assist local governments with matching funds to leverage federal funding.
HB 684, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Decker (R-Shelby), passed out of House Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee this week and is the annual election improvement bill.
HJR 46, sponsored by House Appropriations and Revenue Chair Jason Petrie (R-Todd), passed out of the House Thursday and includes the County Priority Projects Program (CPPP) list of projects to be funded for FY2026. The House version includes $22.6 million for 139 projects. Once the resolution passes out of the House, it will go to the Senate for their tweaks. Counties and cities submitted $137.5 million and 1,063 total projects as eligible requests for the program in October 2024.
SB 50, sponsored by Senate Majority Caucus Chair Robby Mills (R-Henderson), passed out of Senate Economic Development, Tourism, and Labor Committee this week and aims to help address the state’s housing crisis. The bill allows local governments to partner with developers to establish residential infrastructure development districts. Districts would be required to be at least five acres, need at least $5 million in capital improvements and more than half the space be dedicated to residential housing. The local government would be able to assess a special assessment on properties in the district to pay for debt service associated with the development’s infrastructure costs.
SB 121, sponsored by Sen. Phillip Wheeler (R-Pike), passed out of Senate State and Local Committee this week. The bill would allow county judge/executives, with fiscal court approval, to contract with a person or organization that provides animal sheltering services for statutory duties relating to stray equines.
Email your questions or comments to shellie.hampton@kaco.org or kayla.smith@kaco.org.
Important legislative dates
Mar. 15-26 – Veto recess
Mar. 27-28 – Final two days of 2025 session
