Weekly Update – January 29, 2024

Greetings KRTA Family:

As the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly continues to progress, KRTA staff, lobbyists, and legislative volunteers remain committed to making sure all of our legislative priorities are met.  We continue to follow closely three bills which contains two of our five legislative priorities – fully funding of our pension system and medical insurance trust fund.

• HB114 (Rep. Graham) is Governor Beshear’s Budget Bill that he referenced in the State of the State Address.  It contains full pension and medical insurance funding.
• HB6 (Rep. Petrie, Bowling, Bentley, Bray, Rudy) fully funds our pension and medical insurance fund over the next budget cycle.
• HB1 allocates an additional $500 million from Kentucky’s Rainy Day Fund towards the unfunded liability of the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS).

More than 400 bills have already been filed this session and we expect hundreds more to be filed before the deadline in February.  Some bills that have peaked our interest but not necessarily a priority include:

• SB4 (Sen. Higdon) Amend KRS 161.155 to specify that sick leave payments made to certified school employees who began participating in the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) prior to January 1, 2022, and who retire from TRS on or after July 1, 2024, shall be limited to the sick leave accrued by the employee as of June 30, 2024, plus no more than 10 additional sick leave days accrued each fiscal year thereafter; provide that the 10 additional days eligible for payment shall not include personal leave, emergency leave, or other forms of non-sick leave balances; require each school district to annually report sick leave balances to TRS beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024 and specify contents of the report; amend KRS 161.152 and 161.154 to further clarify that emergency leave and personal leave shall not be converted to sick leave under KRS 161.155; amend KRS 161.400 to require TRS to annually report in the annual actuarial valuation the total liabilities and costs of the sick leave program created by KRS 161.155; amend KRS 161.623 to allow school districts to convert excess sick leave accrued annually in excess of 10 days specified by the bill to service credit in TRS the school district pays the cost of conversion; amend KRS 161.643 to include new sick leave reporting requirements in the annual statutory reporting requirements for TRS employers; provide that the Auditor of Public Accounts shall perform a special audit of the sick leave program to ensure sick leave balances are being reported correctly to TRS and specify that TRS shall pay the costs of the audit; EMERGENCY.

 

•  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.

As always, please keep stay updated and active during this legislative session.  You’re advocacy makes a big difference in protecting the interests of Kentucky’s Retired Teachers.

All the best,

Tim Abrams

Executive Director