Priorities, persistence, pettiness
+ a Morticia update.
Heading into Kentucky’s 2026 legislative session, The Gallery Pass named more than a dozen topics deemed at some point in time, by someone with some level of power, to be a #KYGA26 “priority.”
We’re now officially in the second half of the session, and about one week out from the bill filing deadlines. So, let’s check on how those “priorities” are doing and try and gauge which priorities will be prioritized.
A few reminders: Bills can still be filed, and bills can still change after they’re filed. In a budget session, basically everything else is secondary — especially this year. And we still have like 28? days left of #KYGA26. Anything can happen.
The budget
OK, so the budget is literally the one thing lawmakers must get done by the end of session. And it is not going super well, y’all.
House Bill 500 is ~the~ budget bill to watch, and it has been filed … and that’s about it. It is barebones right now, it is expected to change significantly, it is already causing a ton of yelling from both sides.
Compared to 2024’s budget process, we’re running roughly a month behind schedule on this.
The GOP has argued that it is taking so long because Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration refused to cooperate with them during the interim, so now they have to do everything now.
The Dems have really latched onto the current form of the bill, angry about education funding and state employees’ health insurance. The House Dems filed a series of floor amendments to HB 500 already, which is really just for show because they’re filing the amendments to the current form of the bill, and not the one the House will likely vote on, making them null and void.
But it is a priority!
(Another thing to note is that several of the bills mentioned in this newsletter have been assigned to the A&R committee — how much can one committee truly and thoughtfully handle?)
I also mentioned reducing the state income tax — this is kinda tied up in the budget.
Medicaid
One of the House’s top priority bills — House Bill 2 — is a whole thing about Medicaid. With bills this large, I try to avoid diving too deep into them until I at least see a committee substitute version of the bill because there are almost always a slew of changes.
A ton of other bills touch on Medicaid, but HB 2 is the one to watch. It gets its first committee vote Tuesday at noon, but it doesn’t have any readings on the House floor yet, so a full House vote is still a few days away.
Data centers and AI
I’m not gonna lie: This topic feels a lil squishy as a priority. We’ve seen a few assorted bills touching on AI get through a vote or two, but nothing really feels like a must-do priority.
The big data center bill is Rep. Josh Bray’s House Bill 593, which was supposed to get a committee vote last week but got pulled so it can be worked on some more.
IDK, I feel like this one might be too much of an issue to get properly handled this session — especially with the budget running so far behind.
Housing
Ah, yes, housing: Always “a priority,” never actually a priority.
But this year it does actually look like a serious priority! We’ve had a ton of bills aimed at alleviating some element of the soul-crushing experience that is accessing and keeping affordable housing in the state, maybe most notably Sen. Robby Mills’ Senate Bill 9. SB 9 passed out of the Senate 35-2 last week (No votes came from Republicans) and it is awaiting its fate in the House.
It does, however, feel like a lot of the housing legislation this year focuses more on cutting red tape and reducing regulation-related burdens on developers. As a 30-year-old girlie pop, I don’t really need more mold-prone, quick-build, “luxury”-yet-wildly-priced apartments and characterless, all-gray flipped “starter” homes that are actually half-a-million-dollar contraptions of drywall.
How is any of this going to help someone like me be able to afford an actual house?
Culture wars topics
Um, yeah, I asked last week if the culture wars had been called off for this session, and incredibly, this seems like the culture wars may actually not be a priority this session.
We’ve had a few bills filed around culture wars-ish topics, but very few have moved at all.
There’s at least one LGBTQ-focused bill a lawmaker promised to file and hasn’t yet, so I’ll be watching for that. I’ll also be watching for new bill filings and/or viral video clips stemming from the annual pro-LGBTQ+ Fairness Rally at the Capitol this week, because the culture warriors have seemingly learned they can go viral online/drum up momentum for their ideologies if they do things like corner transgender women outside of bathrooms, etc. (But that virality doesn’t seem to translate to actual legislative support quite yet.)
Prison reform
As per usual, we got a lot percolating in and around this topic in Frankfort. I included this on the initial list over how counties often get left on the hook for jails and whatnot. It looks like the go-to bill on that front is Rep. Michael Meredith’s House Bill 557, which is waiting on its first committee hearing.
We do also have some stuff filed around juvenile justice (although none from Rep. Jared Bauman, like I had initially heard). This has been a big issue in the past, but it feels like it has cooled off a bit.
I’d put this on the same level of priority as data centers and AI: “squishy.”
Immigration
Turns out, Kentucky lawmakers can’t do much around immigration, and the only immigration-adjacent bill that’s made noticeable progress in Sen. Matt Nunn’s Senate Bill 104. And that’s not even really immigration; it just makes it a crime to “harass” a first responder — including ICE agents — and it passed out of the Senate.
Preschool and child care
Another “squishy” one, I fear. Please note how all of the “squishy” priorities are, like, these massive sweeping issues that deserve time and care.
Yeah, universal preschool is DOA. Sorry. But we do have some priority child care legislation, featuring Rep. Samara Heavrin’s House Bill 6. It passed out of the House last week on a 84-11 vote, with the naysayers being Dem Rep. Lindsey Burke and a bunch of folks from the liberty wing of the GOP.
Senate Bill 181
Yes, Senate Bill 181 was supposed to be corrected by Senate Bill 181. It moved fast in the Senate before stalling in the House. It hasn’t moved in nearly a month.
Now, one thing I didn’t predict as a priority is this year’s emphasis on teacher misconduct and grooming. We’ve had a ton of bills around that, particularly House Bill 4 which makes grooming its own crime. And House Bill 67 seems to do many of the same things as SB 181.
It wouldn’t surprise me if some of these bills get lumped together in the final weeks of session, but it also kinda would surprise me because the legislature has been so hesitant to do any meaningful work around closing some of the loopholes allowing problematic educators to stay in schools in the past.
Legislation re: Grossberg
Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong’s bill to make sexual misconduct a legislative ethics violation has not moved since she filed it.
School accountability (but mainly for JCPS/FCPS)
Please don’t make me explain Senate Bill 1 (JCPS superintendent gets all the power) or Senate Bill 114 (Lou/Lex can’t pick their own school boards) again.
But school/district accountability has been a huge priority thus far, ranging from financial transparency, to keeping admin’s salaries in check, to making SBDMs advisory only/putting more trust in school principals.
There were also some tax-related things tied to whatever FCPS did wrong, but FCPS did so much wrong, that I — award-winning former JCPS reporter — simply lost track.
But these have largely stalled in the House. SB 114 hasn’t even gotten a committee assignment in the Senate.
Yeah, and Rep. Jared Bauman’s bill to find a way to split up JCPS? House Bill 11, first-day-filing-level priority? No one has touched it since. Gee, I wonder why.
Honestly, a hot take? I might rank this as less than a top priority — perhaps something “squishy” level but slightly more stale? Because it isn’t squishy, it isn’t classified as “omnibus,” it is pretty clear cut. But its energy has been tried before and now its just … there.
Me trying to explain my legislative priority ranking and labeling system to literally anyone other than me.
School choice
I’d like to give January Olivia major props for managing to end her legislative preview list with the federal scholarship tax credit program because you’ll never believe what everyone is fighting about right now!
That’s right, baby: House Bill 1 is that federal scholarship tax credit, and after a rather sleepy session, they are hustling this one through. It got filed Thursday afternoon, hours after the state supreme court unanimously struck down Kentucky’s charter school funding mechanism, basically killing school choice’s final chances in the state. It is scheduled for a noon committee vote Tuesday and has enough readings to pass out of the House Tuesday afternoon.
OK, I am actively realizing we haven’t had a newsletter since that court ruling dropped. The entire court ruled that allowing public dollars to go to charter schools would violate the state constitution.
And so the House GOP was like you know what? We will once again be pushing for school choice this session. (Even though every county in Kentucky voted against changing the state constitution to allow tax dollars to go to private schools in 2024.)
And we will be doing so, like, right now.
Is it persistence? Is it pettiness? You could ask the same question about Senate Bill 1 being the same thing that just got rejected by the courts, but just with pages of extra reasons why the legislature should be allowed to do what the court just said no to.
HB 1, though, to be clear, is not a workaround to charter school rejection, it is not a state scholarship tax credit. It is a federal tax credit program. Federal!
But I’ve been around here long enough to know that when it comes to school choice, the concept of nuance is not one that many firmly grasp.
Counting down
0 days until the House A&R Committee meeting on HB 1 and 2 — the federal school choice tax credit bill and omnibus Medicaid bill (Feb. 24)
6 days until the last day to file bills in the Senate (March 2)
8 days until the last day to file bills in the House (March 4)
36 days until the last day before the veto period (April 1)
50 days until the last day of #KYGA26. (April 15)
84 days until Kentucky’s 2026 primary elections. (May 19)
158 days until Fancy Farm 2026. (Aug. 1)
252 days until Election Day 2026. (Nov. 3)
A Morticia update
Thank you, all, for your robust prayers for my dearly beloved Morticia the Mitsubishi Outlander.
I regret to inform the collective that Morticia’s doctors cannot save her. Well, technically, they can, but just for the low price of four times her value.
I will be driving to Radcliff Tuesday to put her down.
My heart is shattered, but my grieving process has been expedited knowing my new car — Karen the Kia — lets you push a button to start the car, charge your phone while playing music, and has a working transmission.
I look forward to introducing Karen to Frankfort in the coming days. (If she can’t handle the spiral ramps in the Capitol parking garage, I will be giving up on political reporting entirely.)
But for now, let us celebrate Morticia’s life and the 229K miles she delivered.
While she dutifully transported her mother to and from Frankfort on countless occasions, her favorite trips were those to Bernheim Forest.
She had a lifelong feud with the aux cord, but when she allowed it to work, her favorite songs included “Back in Black” by AC/DC, “Von Dutch” by Charli XCX and “Blame It On The Boogie” but only the version from Pitch Perfect.
She is preceded in death by the Louisville Mitsubishi dealership. Left to cherish her memory are her doting mother Olivia, and the aux cord, which now has no purpose.
In lieu of flowers, you may make small donations in Morticia’s honor to Olivia’s Venmo.