Tagged: Bills

A proposal for a Kentucky statewide smoking ban has cleared its first hurdle. The House Health and Welfare committee passed the bill today.

The bill was expected to pass easily, but a few Republicans did vote against the measure because of concern for individual property rights.

Lexington doctor Sylvia Cerel-Suhl supports the ban. She says it's her right to go out in public and not be subjected to second-hand smoke.

A compromise to help employers avoid high federal unemployment insurance taxes has easily cleared a House committee.

The proposal would allow Kentucky to borrow money from a bank or other organization to repay federal loans. Kentucky borrowed nearly one billion dollars from the federal government to pay for unemployment insurance during the recession.

Up until now, the state had no plan on how to keep up with interest payments on that loan. If the state is late on payments, the federal government can put a higher tax on employers to recoup the funds.

One of the leaders of the Senate is hoping to change how Kentucky's Attorney General is elected. Republican State Senator Katie Stine's bill would make the office of Attorney General nonpartisan.

Stine says because the Attorney General is the top law enforcement officer, the change should be a no-brainer.

A move to amend the provisions of Kentucky's constitution that deal with redistricting has been introduced in the state Senate.

State Senator Robert Stivers's bill would change the laws around redistricting, and give more direction for how medium-sized counties could be split.

Right now, the constitution says that any county that can be made one whole district cannot be split. But Stivers's language would allow some counties that can't be split under that rule to now be open to divisions.

Rumble strips in the driving lanes of some rural Kentucky highways aren't intentional.  They've been etched into asphalt by old-fashioned metal wheels some Amish farmers have been putting on modern tractors.  State Senator Joey Pendleton of Hopkinsville wants the damage stopped.