HB 682 Kentucky House · 2026 Regular Session

AN ACT relating to residency requirements for fire protection entities and declaring an emergency.

Summary
Amend KRS 75.031 to require all trustees of a fire district to personally reside in the fire district and declare a vacancy if a trustee moves outside the district during his or her term; amend KRS 273.207 to require all board members of a fire department organized under KRS Chapter 273 to be residents of the area served by the corporation and declare a vacancy if the member moves outside the geographic area during his or her term; declare a vacancy to exist for board members who do not reside in the district or area in the effective date of the Act; provide a method to fill the vacancy; EMERGENCY.
Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2026
Committee Review
Mar 2026
House Passage
Mar 2026
Senate Passage
Governor
Introduced Feb 19, 2026 Last action Mar 16, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Current/Final · 3 edits
MINOR
The bill was renumbered from a Bill Reference (BR) to a House Bill (HB) and updated its page count. Substantively, the qualifications for elected board trustees were expanded to include full-time paid employees of the district, not just volunteer firefighters. Additionally, the rules for appointing trustees in counties with consolidated local governments were clarified to ensure appointed members reside within the specific consolidated government boundaries rather than just the county.
Scope change
The bill now explicitly applies to volunteer fire prevention districts within counties that have established consolidated local governments, clarifying residency requirements for appointed officials in these specific jurisdictions.
ELIGIBILITY

Elected board trustees can now be full-time paid employees of the district, whereas previously they were restricted to active firefighters.

REQUIREMENT

Residency requirements for trustees appointed by the mayor in consolidated local governments were clarified to require residence within the consolidated government boundaries.

TECHNICAL

The document header was updated to reflect the official House Bill number (HB 682) and adjusted the total page count from 5 to 6.

Floor votes · House Mar 13, 2026

How they voted

960
Passed · 9 other
Total votes 105
Mar 13, 2026
D Democratic21
20 Yea 1
95% Yea
R Republican84
76 Yea 8
90% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea All Nay Mixed No data
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
11
Key actions
2
Committee
4
Amendments
2
Mar 16, 2026
Committee
to Committee on Committees (S)
upper
Mar 13, 2026
Lower · Passed
3rd reading, passed 91-0 with Floor Amendment (2)
lower
Mar 12, 2026
Introduced
floor amendment (2) filed
lower
Mar 11, 2026
Introduced
floor amendment (1) filed
lower
Mar 10, 2026
Lower · Passed
reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
lower
Feb 26, 2026
Committee
to Local Government (H)
lower
Feb 19, 2026
Committee
to Committee on Committees (H)
lower
Feb 19, 2026
Introduced
introduced in House
lower
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.