This week marked the filing deadline in the House and Senate. Hundreds of bills were filed this week with many being "mule" bills to which language may be added to later. Although Friday marks day 42 of the legislative session, there is still much more work to be done including passing the state’s biennial budget bills and each chamber’s priorities.
Annexation bill clears the House
HB 596, an annexation bill sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Dixon, passed 93-1 Friday morning on the House floor.
Dixon described the bill as "a collective effort of both cities and counties working together to reach a solution."
HB 596 would mostly apply to counties with a population of 30,000 or more that are currently required to credit the city occupational tax rate against the county’s rate. With some exceptions, counties subject to the crediting requirement currently lose their occupational tax revenue when a city annexes property. The House Local Government Committee adopted a committee substitute, which changed some of the language of the original bill. Click here to see the updated language.
The measure now heads to the Senate for consideration.
Budget Bills
After this week, the General Assembly has 18 working days left to pass the biennial budget bills. Many of the budget bills have passed the House and are awaiting committee hearings in the Senate. HB 6, the state operational budget, and HB 1, the one-time funding bill, are both awaiting Senate hearings. HB 264, the Judicial Branch budget, is also awaiting a Senate hearing. HB 265, the Transportation Cabinet budget, was introduced in the House last week and awaits a committee hearing and passage in the House before it can move to the Senate. For a summary of the Transportation Cabinet budget, click here.
HB 723, sponsored by Rep. Richard Heath, is a cleanup bill of HB 9 from the 2023 legislative session. HB 9 created the GRANT program which established an innovative grant matching fund in Kentucky, enabling better access to federal resources for nonprofit projects in the 41 federally identified counties. The cleanup bill from this year extends the list of counties to 54 counties that have been identified by the federal Interagency Working Group. Additionally, HB 723 mandates that 90% of the funds be allocated to counties and cities, and the remaining 10% is eligible for non-profits to apply.
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