Weekly Update – February 5, 2024

Greetings KRTA Family:

KRTA staff, lobbyists, and legislative volunteers continue to work diligently in Frankfort during the Kentucky General Assembly to ensure that all of our legislative priorities are met. Two of our biggest priorities — full funding of the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) and the TRS Medical Insurance Fund — appear to be heading in the right direction. The House passed HB6, which included full actuarial funding of the TRS and the TRS Medical Insurance Fund. Additionally, the House passed HB1, allocating an additional $500 million to reduce the long-term liability of the TRS.

Our legislative team is anxiously awaiting the release of the Senate’s version of the budget.  We remain very optimistic that all of our funding priorities will be included in the Senate’s version of the budget.   Once the Senate’s version of the budget is reviewed and passed, the General Assembly will hold a conference committee consisting of members from both the House and the Senate to reconcile the differences and present a budget for approval by the Governor.

As mentioned in previous updates, more than 400 bills have been filed this session and we expect quite a bit more.  We continue to watch the following bills:

 

• HB50 (Rep. Rawlings) – Allows for the transfer of deeds for both real estate and vehicles upon death to beneficiaries without the need for probate.  This bill will allow the home or vehicle owner to name the the beneficiary of the property within the deed itself so it can transfer without probate upon death.   

 

• SB4 (Sen. Higdon) – Deals with sick leave payments made to certified school employees.

 

• SB23 (Sen. Nemes, Girdler, Meredith, Tichenor) Propose to amend Section 170 of the Constitution of Kentucky to include in the homestead exemption for owners who are 65 years of age or older any increase in the valuation of the real property that is assessed after the later of the year the owner turned 65 or the year the owner purchased the property; apply the exemption to increases in valuation that occur after the date the amendment is ratified by the voters; provide ballot language; submit to voters for ratification or rejection.

 

• HB190 Amend KRS 304.17A-164 to prohibit insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, and other pharmacy benefit administrators from requiring or incentivizing the use of a mail-order pharmaceutical distributor; amend KRS 304.17C-125, KRS 304.38A-115, 18A.225, and 164.2871 to apply provisions of amended KRS 304.17A-164 to limited health service benefit plans, including limited health service contracts, limited health service organizations, the state employee health plan, and postsecondary educational institution self-insured group health plans; repeal 304.38A-120, relating to assignment of certain benefits under limited health service organization plans, to consolidate like provisions; make technical corrections; EFFECTIVE January 1, 2025

 

• HB 134 Amend KRS 141.019 to increase the retirement distribution exclusion from $31,110 to $41,110 for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2025.

 

• HB 138 Amend KRS 161.500 to allow members of the Teachers’ Retirement System to recover up to 10 unpaid days that were missed to observe religious holidays; include the recovered days in count of days worked for service credit; EMERGENCY. Several bills have been filed related to education and are detailed in a report shared by the Kentucky Association of School Administrators.