FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) -- The 2022 session of the General Assembly gavels in at noon on Tuesday, and it promises to be a demanding session.
Kentucky House Speaker David Osborne said Monday that the top priorities will be legislative redistricting and passing a new two-year budget.
Osborne said redistricting will be the first issue out of the gate. The House released its proposed map last week, and the Senate is scheduled to unveil its version, including congressional districts on Tuesday.
Redistricting bills will be introduced on the first day of the session, along with a bill that pushes back the election filing deadline from Jan. 7 to Jan. 25 to allow candidates time to know what district they will be in.
Osborne said lawmakers plan to work into the weekend.
“We will spend Friday and Saturday taking up those bills,” he said.
As for the budget, lawmakers will actually have money to spend because of the infusion of federal cash from the American Rescue Plan and the infrastructure law.
“This is an unusual opportunity for us to truly make some dramatic changes for the benefit of the commonwealth as a whole,” said Osborne. “But it doesn't give us license to go on a spending spree.”
Osborne said any spending of federal dollars must have what he termed “a lasting impact,” and not create recurring expenses.
He said one early priority will be helping communities hard hit by the recent tornadoes. Osborne said House and Senate leaders have been meeting with Gov. Andy Beshear about a possible relief package.
“There are some things we will do early on in the session, probably as soon as this week, to get some additional resources down there, particularly for schools that have been damaged,” said Osborne.
Democrats, who released their own legislative agenda on Monday, agreed with Osborne on the priority of helping with storm recovery.
“We are here. It is our responsibility to address those things,” said House Minority Floor Leader Joni Jenkins.
Both sides also agree that education and pay raises for state workers are also a priority.
But Democrats, including Gov. Beshear, are also pushing for so-called “hero bonuses” for some essential workers who remained on the job during the height of the pandemic.
House Democrats held hearings on the issue in December.
“It is my hope that if a decision is made that we are going to reward people monetarily, that it could be done early in the session so that people don't have to wait on that,” said Jenkins.
But Osborne said the bonuses might not happen at all.
“When you try to pick winners and losers, you end up not doing a very good job at it. So, I think that you will probably see us resist those efforts,” he said.
Osborne said there will also be a push for what he called “public assistance reform” – an effort to help Kentuckians return to the workforce by providing assistance with health insurance and child care.
“We know that the No. 1 reason that people who want to go into the workforce that don’t is fear of losing health care coverage for families. The second is availability of child care,” Osborne said. “Those are things that we have the federal resources available to help.”
Also on the legislative "to-do list" are hot-button issues of medical marijuana and sports betting.
Osborne supports sports wagering but is not sure it has the votes to pass the House.
“It’s still a very contentious issue in Kentucky. Not so much a partisan issue as a regional issue by and large,” he said. “It will certainly be discussed. I think there is a lot of interest in passing it.”
Jenkins said Democrats are solidly behind sports betting.
“Kentucky is losing millions of dollars to neighboring states,” she said.
Democrats said they will also push to restore some of the governor's emergency powers that Republicans stripped away last year.
Republicans hold super-majorities in both chambers and control the agenda. Jenkins and Senate Minority Floor Leader Morgan McGarvey said they plan to hold Republicans “accountable.”
Beshear will deliver his State of the Commonwealth address on Wednesday and his budget address the following week.
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