The General Assembly finished up the majority of their business prior to adjourning the 28th legislative day on Friday.
The Governor now has 10 days to issue any vetoes before the legislature reconvenes for the last two days of the 30-day 2009 session on March 26 and 27. The major issues of the session were related to transportation, education, and economic incentives.
Here is a summary of how things stand:
- HB 330, HB 374, & HB 536 – These three bills consist of the two-year highway construction plan, created a new floor for the gas tax to capture the four pennies, and budget language appropriating over $1 billion of transportation funding. At the end of the day all three ended up on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature.
- SB 1 – The General Assembly sought out this session to make significant changes to how Kentucky students are assessed. This issue dominated much of the end of the session politics. SB 1 is now headed to the Governor for his signature.
- HB 229 – This is the Governor’s Economic Development Incentives legislation that would revamp and create new economic development incentives. This is one of Governor Beshear’s top priorities for this session. The Senate ultimately passed this legislation with Senate amendments, but the House did not take it up prior to adjourning on Friday. HB 229 is a high-profile item that will remain as unfinished business when the legislature comes back in session for their last two days.
Some other issues that were relatively high profile in the session politics were:
-HB 102 – Creates an authority to fund large scale infrastructure projects in Kentucky, particularly bridge projects in Louisville and West Kentucky. The bill was a top priority in this session from the House, Senate and the Governor and eventually passed both the House and Senate, but the two Chambers still have to rectify changes between the House and Senate versions. This bill is headed to a conference committee and will be an issue that will remain as unfinished business for the last two days of the session.
- SB 34 – Originally, SB 34 was a clean up bill for the Alcohol Beverage Control agency, but after amendments it ended up carrying a couple of important alcohol industry issues including adding interlocks for DUI offenders and creating a license for the sampling of distilled spirits. These issues were approved by both chambers and await the Governor’s signature.
We will be providing more client-specific reports in the days to come. 
