Amend KRS 91A.040 to change the population thresholds for exceptions to annual municipal audits to a single exception for municipalities with less than 3,000 people; change the revenue exception from $150,000 to $500,000; allow the Department for Local Government to consider any evidence in assessing whether to allow an extension from the deadline for annual audits; permit the department to grant extensions up to 18 months; amend KRS 91A.040, 65.003, and 65.920 to indicate that the withholding of state funds from a municipality due to noncompliance with the statutes should not be construed to cause the withholding of nondiscretionary payments to a city for the provision of services by the city to the state or any agency of the state; amend KRS 154.40-060 to allow a city government that appoints members to the board of the corporation that runs the Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center to elect to have the corporation included in its audit and to have its required annual audit be performed by an independent auditor; require any independent audit be forwarded to the Auditor of Public Accounts; amend KRS 42.460 and 424.220 to conform.
HJR 5 designates a section of U.S. Route 127 in Russell County as the "Deputy Sheriff Joshua Phipps Memorial Highway" to honor a local deputy who died in the line of duty on September 16, 2024. The resolution requires Kentucky's Transportation Cabinet to install appropriate signage within 30 days of the resolution's effective date. This is a commemorative measure, directly affecting the highway designation in Russell County, with no substantive policy changes beyond renaming. The bill passed unanimously and was signed into law on April 1, 2025.
Amend KRS 281.630 to establish a towing and storage facility certificate and require applicants for a towing and storage facility certificate to file a rate sheet with the application and renewal for the certificate; amend KRS 281.631 to set a fee of $10 for motor carrier plates for tow trucks; amend KRS 281.928 to require an entity requesting a vehicle in a storage facility to be held pending a civil or criminal investigation to notify the owner, lienholder, and insurer of a vehicle with 24 hours of a hold being initiated or released; amend KRS 281.930 to set limits on charges for storage on vehicles held for civil or criminal investigation; amend KRS 281.926 to require towing companies and storage facilities to have one rate sheet that is applicable to all customers and to establish that statements that misrepresent the scope of damages associated with a property, casualty, or property and casualty insurance claim are fraudulent insurance acts; make technical amendments; amend KRS 281.010 to define "towing and storage facility certificate"; amend KRS 281.990 to set penalties for violations of KRS 281.920 to 281.936.
Amend KRS 161.605, relating to the Teachers' Retirement System, to remove language requiring superintendents to make every reasonable effort to hire qualified applicants for teaching and nonteaching positions, increase the percentage of retired members that an employer can employ full-time from three percent to 10 percent, increase the number of retired members that a local school district may employ under the critical shortage provision from one percent of total active members employed by the school district or two members to 10 percent or four members, remove Kentucky Virtual High School the list of schools the Department of Education operates, remove the pension waiver program, and make technical changes; amend KRS 156.106 to remove language requiring superintendents to make every reasonable effort to hire qualified applicants for critical shortage areas; direct that current participants in the pension waiver program may continue to participate.
Amend KRS 156.557 to increase the time period between mandatory summative evaluations for tenured certified school staff from once every three years to once every five years; provide that additional summative evaluations may be performed at the discretion of the individual's immediate supervisor but shall not be imposed as a uniform requirement across the system; amend KRS 158.060 to provide teachers access to their employment contract upon request; amend KRS 156.095 to require the Department of Education to create and local school districts to implement a four year recurring professional development training schedule that includes all required professional development trainings; provide that all certified school employees shall complete designated trainings within 12 months of initial hire and at least once every four years thereafter; consolidate state-required certified school personnel trainings; create new sections of KRS Chapter 158 to relocate language currently contained in KRS 158.060 related to the display of designated hotline information and the publication of and school lessons on evidence-based suicide prevention awareness information; amend KRS 158.070 to remove language regarding professional development trainings consolidated elsewhere; amend KRS 160.346 to prohibit the Department of Education from requiring comprehensive school improvement plans and comprehensive district improvement plans not expressly required by federal law; amend KRS 156.492, 157.360, and 158.4416 to conform; amend KRS 161.031 to remove the mandate for an induction program for new teachers; require a report identifying school districts that do not implement an induction program for new teachers; require the Department of Education to conduct a review of the reporting requirements imposed upon public schools and public school districts; eliminate all reporting requirements not expressly required by state statute or federal law; submit a report on the remaining reporting requirements; provide that the Act may be cited as the Red Tape Reduction Act.
Amend KRS 164.0401 to add physician assistant license, dietitian license, and nutritionist certificate to the definition of "eligible healthcare credential"; amend KRS 164.0403 to limit healthcare training scholarship awards to applicants enrolled in a state registered nursing aide training and competency evaluation program; prohibit employment restrictions in healthcare training scholarships awarded to applicants enrolled in a state registered nursing aide training and competency evaluation program.
Amend KRS 189.540 to authorize the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations to require regular instruction of pupils in school bus safety; allow a school district to obtain an exemption from any school bus safety instruction requirement if the district transports 48 or fewer pupils in the district's gross average daily attendance of transported pupils; require exempted districts to develop and implement a school bus safety instruction policy.
Create a new section of KRS 304.17C-130 to 304.17C-138 to establish requirements for insurers of dental benefit plans relating to assignment of benefits; require providers to comply with assignment provisions; amend KRS 304.14-250, 304.17-130, and 304.18-090 to conform; direct that provisions apply to policies, plans, and contracts issued or renewed on or after the effective date of the Act.
Create a new section of KRS Chapter 61 to define terms; prohibit the disclosure of personally identifiable information of judicial officers or their immediate family members by a government agency if a written request not to disclose the information has been made; require a government agency to remove personally identifiable information of a judicial officer or immediate family member within 72 hours of receiving a written request for its removal; establish a civil cause of action for injunctive or declaratory relief for unauthorized disclosure.
Amend KRS 100.348 to prohibit a local government from adopting or enforcing zoning regulations that treat manufactured homes differently from single-family homes; allow only regulation of certain architectural features of manufactured homes and require that those same standards be applied to single family homes; permit placement of manufactured home with smaller dimensions if a larger manufactured home could not be situated on the lot; remove language regarding legislative purpose of statute; add noncodified statement of the intent of the General Assembly.
HJR 32 authorizes the release of state funds from the School Facility Assistance Fund to 13 specific Kentucky school districts for facility construction, repair, or renovation projects. The bill directs the Office of State Budget Director to release 50% of the cost difference (after accounting for local resources) for eligible schools meeting strict criteria, including being ranked Priority 1 or 2 in district plans and having a dedicated capital tax. It explicitly excludes athletic facilities and specifies that six districts were ineligible due to failing criteria or having sufficient local funding. The approved districts include Adair County Schools ($3.8M) and Harrison County Schools ($31.8M), among others, for fiscal year 2025-2026.
Amend KRS 56.065, 56.070, 56.095, 56.100, 56.110, 56.120, 56.140, 56.150, 56.160, and 56.180 to rename the state fire and tornado insurance fund to the Commonwealth's property and casualty insurance fund and make technical corrections; to extend the reinsurance requirements for the Commonwealth's property and casualty insurance fund; amend KRS 42.0651 and 164A.577 to conform; EMERGENCY.