LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kentucky lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday that would make Louisville's Metro Council and mayoral races nonpartisan and create new payments for suburban Jefferson County fire departments for handling EMS runs outside their boundaries.

Those are among the proposed changes in House Bill 388, which includes recommendations from last year's sweeping review of Louisville Metro government and services provided countywide since the 2003 city-county merger.

The measure, sponsored by seven Louisville Republicans, cleared the House local government committee on a 16-2 vote and now moves to the full House floor. Two Democrats — Reps. George Brown Jr., D-Lexington, and Pamela Stevenson, D-Louisville — cast the no votes. Two other Democrats abstained.

The committee debate centered on elections changes and EMS reimbursement. But the bill, among other things, also adjusts how cities could be formed or added to in Jefferson County; sets political and geographic requirements for Louisville boards and commissions; and creates a commission to review local property assessments.

Under HB 388, Louisville Metro government would pay suburban fire departments for EMS responses in the Urban Services District — the old City of Louisville boundary that roughly takes in the area inside the Watterson Expressway. Those departments would get $300 every time they respond to an EMS call there that involves transporting a patient, and $150 when no patient is taken.

Under a policy agreed to by all emergency responders in Jefferson County, dispatchers send the closest unit available, officials with the St. Matthews and Fern Creek departments told legislators.   

But Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville and the bill's chief sponsor, said suburban cities' departments are responding elsewhere — and frequently, in some cases — and not getting paid for those calls. He cited the example of the St. Matthews Fire Department, where 60 percent of its runs are being made "outside of its tax base" that includes St. Matthews and Lyndon.

Nemes, a co-chair of the Louisville Metro Comprehensive Review Commission that met in 2022 and 2023, claimed a major issue is a lack of Louisville EMS responses to areas outside the Urban Services District.

"So the taxpayers in Lyndon and St. Matthews are paying all Louisville EMS (taxes), not getting those services, paying St. Matthews-Lyndon (taxes), getting those services, but then over half of the runs that are made by the EMS provider that only they pay for are made outside of their district," he said.

The reimbursements would cost Metro government about $6.6 million per year, according to an analysis of the bill based on 2021-22 data.

The legislation doesn't have the review commission's recommendations adding Louisville Metro EMS to the other services paid for by taxpayers in the Urban Services District that include fire, trash collection and lighting.

Nemes said Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, a Democrat, told him that that move would cost taxpayers inside the Urban Services District $21 million.

Greenberg's office didn't immediately answer questions about whether it agreed with the EMS figures presented Wednesday. The mayor's administration is "analyzing" the revised bill and its potential impacts, spokesman Kevin Trager said in a prepared statement.

"Conversations are ongoing and we hope to find a balanced compromise that serves all Louisville residents," he said. 

The Metro review commission recommended nonpartisan elections, a move Nemes said would bring Louisville in line with other cities in the U.S. and across Kentucky, where just six of 414 cities have partisan races.

But Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, pushed back against that part of the bill, saying it won't give voters enough core information about candidates.

"To me, an election is a transparency issue," he said. "An election is someone running for office that says, 'Here's who I am. These are my philosophical beliefs.'"

Nemes noted the Louisville commission's 11-2 vote in favor of nonpartisan elections and told Lockett: "I know you want judges and school board members to be partisan as well. I just philosophically disagree with it."

Stevenson, the Louisville Democrat who voted against the bill, served on the Metro review commission. She said feedback from residents inside the Urban Services District was "adamant" about keeping those elections partisan. 

She also claimed the commission didn't get many of the answers it wanted, particularly about EMS runs. 

"Most of this was very contentious and not backed by fact," she said. "And a lot of times we would ask questions: 'How many times do they run? How much money does it cost?' And there were no answers. And we were on a strict deadline to get this report out."

Other parts of HB 388 address how independent cities in Jefferson County can annex land — or be formed in the first place. 

Legislators previously approved letting residents in unincorporated areas in the county create new cities of at least 6,000 people after July 15, 2024, if 66% of "qualified voters" living in the proposed city limits petition the Metro Council. 

The sponsors of this year's bill want to change that threshold to "registered and qualified voters" equal to at least 60% of all votes cast in the last presidential election. Nemes said the change is a result of people who no longer live in the area remaining on voter rolls. 

The same threshold would be applied to people in unincorporated areas who want to be annexed by a neighboring city. 

The bill also bans small cities from annexing manufacturing areas — like a Ford or UPS facility — just for gain its occupational tax revenue.  

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