The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce spent more to lobby the members of the Kentucky General Assembly than any other group in the 2025 legislative session that concluded at the end of March.
More than 800 businesses and organizations reported spending roughly $8.7 million during the session, according to their filings with the Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission. Close to 90% of that spending was directed to their registered lobbyists, who attempt to sway lawmakers.
This is the lowest total of lobbying spending on a session in Frankfort since 2021. Sessions in odd-numbered years are shorter, lasting 30 legislative days and three months, compared to even-numbered years, which last 60 legislative days and conclude in mid-April.
The chamber spent more than $150,000 in the first three months of this year to lobby on bills in Frankfort, with most of that going to its 14 registered lobbyists. Only one other group — the Kentucky League of Cities, which advocates for local governments — spent at least half of what the chamber expended.
The business advocacy group is a perennial leader in this area, placing first in lobbying spending in eight of the past 10 years.
Several of the chamber’s top priority bills related to taxation and deregulation were passed into law.
House Bill 1, which will lower Kentucky’s individual income tax rate to 3.5% in 2026, was the first legislation of the session to pass. The chamber also lobbied for House Bill 775, which was amended late in the session to make it easier for the state to hit budget triggers for annual tax cuts of less than half a percentage point.
The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce also pushed for House Bill 398, which rolls back enforcement of any state worker safety regulations that are more stringent than federal minimums.
The chamber said HB 398 would improve the state’s competitiveness when it comes to attracting businesses, but critics said it would come at the expense of state autonomy and worker safety. Such critics included labor unions and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear, whose veto of the bill was overridden by the GOP’s legislative supermajority.
Another conservative group new to top spenders
A newcomer to the list of top Frankfort spenders this session is the Kentucky chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group that has been a major player in national politics for decades.
Americans for Prosperity placed fourth in lobbying spending with $65,558, while reporting spending more on advertising to influence lawmakers than any other group.
The conservative group spent $21,500 on digital ads supporting two bills in February. Three quarters of that went in support of House Bill 6, dubbed the REINS Act, which would prevent the governor from adopting regulations deemed to have a “major economic impact” unless first approved by the legislature. The GOP supermajority voted to override the veto of Beshear, who then filed a lawsuit to block its implementation.
Americans for Prosperity also spent $5,000 on ads in support of House Bill 786 to allow international physicians to receive provisional medical licenses, though the bill did not advance.
Much like the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Prosperity was heavily involved in Republican primary races for the state legislature in 2024 — though the two conservative groups were on opposing sides in several of those races. The chamber endorsed and financially backed PACs who were supportive of candidates from the more establishment faction of the GOP in Frankfort, while Americans for Prosperity spent in support of candidates from the small government “liberty” wing of the party that often challenges GOP leadership from its right flank.
The amount spent by all groups on advertisements intended to lobby on legislation in the 2025 session was just $73,000 — many times less than the last short session in 2023. In that previous session, two groups alone spent more than $800,000 on statewide TV ads for and against a bill that was passed to ban so-called “gray machines,” the cash payout games resembling casino slots that proliferated in gas stations across the state.
The ad spending on gray machines is likely the main reason why total lobbying spending decreased in the 2025 session, as this reached $9.3 million in 2023, a record for a short 30-day session in Frankfort.
Spending on abortion and transgender care bills
Placing second among all groups from lobbying spending on advertising during the 2025 session was Students for Life Action.
The anti-abortion group reported spending nearly $20,000 on mailers, robocalls and texts in opposition to House Bill 203, a Republican-sponsored bill to allow certain exceptions to Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban. The bill would have allowed exceptions for lethal fetal anomalies, rape, and incest up to six weeks after conception — a point when many women do not know they are pregnant — but it gained little support within the GOP supermajority caucus and did not even receive a committee hearing.
The Family Foundation is another socially conservative organization that spent more than $11,000 on ads relating to legislation, ranking third among all groups. They placed online and newspaper ads in support of a wide range of bills, with several passing into law related to the public posting of the Ten Commandments, allowing “conversion therapy” on LGBTQ+ youth and banning hormone therapy for transgender Kentucky adults who are incarcerated or covered by Medicaid.
Pro-LGBTQ+ rights group the Fairness Campaign reported spending nearly $25,000 on direct action campaigns in opposition to the anti-trans and conversion therapy bills, as well as the commissioning of public polling that found most Kentuckians believe banning Medicaid coverage for transgender health care should not be a high priority for the legislature.
Groundwater and air pollution bills
Many lawmakers said during the session that the bill they got the most calls and emails about was Senate Bill 89, which now exempts many bodies of water from anti-pollution state regulations.
Environmental advocacy group the Sierra Club reported spending $32,000 on a phone banking campaign in March to get people to voice their opposition of SB 89 to legislators, which was also conducted at a cost of $4,500 by the Kentucky Waterways Alliance.
Opponents to SB 89 said it would lead to the pollution of groundwater sources that many rural Kentuckians rely on for drinking water, but the Kentucky Coal Association and other business groups said it would protect business and farmers from overregulation. Republicans ultimately voted to override Beshear’s veto.
Environmental groups also unsuccessfully lobbied against House Bill 137, which will limit the air monitoring data sources that Louisville and state regulators can use to enforce restrictions on airborne pollutants.
Some of the largest lobbying spenders of the session were in favor of HB 137, including the statewide and Louisville chambers of commerce, utility providers Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities and the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, and various chemical and manufacturing associations.
Here is a list of the top 10 lobbying spenders from the 2025 legislation session, spanning from January through March, according to the ethics commission filings.
- Kentucky Chamber of Commerce — $150,114
- Kentucky League of Cities, Inc. — $86,792
- Kentucky Hospital Association — $74,298
- Americans for Prosperity — $65,558
- Kentucky Retail Federation, Inc. — $65,456
- LG&E and KU Energy LLC — $57,932
- Elevance Health (Anthem) — $57,088
- Greater Louisville, Inc. (chamber of commerce) — $50,900
- Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, Inc. — $46,249
- KY Bankers Association — $45,702
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
