Rep. Steve Riley

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 383 to allow a property owner or his or her authorized agent to request a law enforcement officer to immediately remove a person unlawfully occupying a residential dwelling or other structure under certain circumstances; provide criminal and civil immunity to law enforcement officers and property owners acting in good faith; create a civil cause of action for wrongful removal; create a new section of KRS Chapter 523 to establish the offense of making a false statement to detain real property.

Maddy summaryHB 1 reduces Kentucky's individual income tax rate from 4% to 3.5% for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026. This change directly affects all Kentucky residents who file individual income tax returns. The bill permanently lowers the rate for the specified tax years, with the reduction taking effect after a review process that confirmed fiscal conditions were met. Governor Andy Beshear signed the bill into law on February 6, 2025 (Acts Ch. 1), making it effective for 2026 tax filings.

Amend KRS 141.019 to exclude all distributions from military pension plans received by retired members of the United States military and National Guard and their surviving spouse or former spouse under a survivor benefit plan from income taxation for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, but before January 1, 2030; require reporting by the Department of Revenue; amend KRS 131.190 to conform.

Maddy summaryHB 118 permits Western Kentucky University (WKU) to offer up to five research doctoral degree programs, including Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs, in fields directly tied to Kentucky's workforce and economic needs. This amendment to Kentucky law (KRS 164.295) specifically overrides a previous restriction that barred comprehensive universities like WKU from granting PhDs, except for limited exceptions. The bill requires WKU to demonstrate alignment with workforce demands and ensure new programs do not reduce funding for existing academic programs at other public universities. The change directly affects WKU's academic offerings and its ability to expand graduate education in targeted disciplines.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 141 to define terms; establish a tax deduction for contributions made to an eligible savings account by a first-time home buyer and allow an exclusion from income for any interest earned from an eligible savings account of a first-time home buyer effective for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, but before January 1, 2036; require the Department of Revenue to report to the Legislative Research Commission and the Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue; amend KRS 141.019 and 131.190 to conform.

Amend KRS 139.495 to exempt purchases and sales of tangible personal property, digital property, or services made by qualifying resident nonprofit educational, charitable, or religious institutions from state sales and use taxes.

Amend KRS 217.015 to expand the definition of "home-based processor" to include roasted coffee beans in the list of foods a home-based processor may produce.

Amend KRS 160.180 to provide additional types of evidence permitted to document a board of education candidate's completion of twelfth grade; remove specifications for the topics of required trainings for board of education members.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 532 to define "violent felony" and enhance sentencing for a person convicted of a third violent felony; prohibit probation, parole, or other form of release for a person who commits a crime using a weapon that is stolen, defaced, loaded with restricted ammunition, or otherwise violates state law; amend KRS 610.070 to require a parent, legal guardian, or custodian to be present at court proceedings involving a child in the juvenile justice system; create a new section of KRS Chapter 610 to establish penalty; amend KRS 507.020 to expand offense of murder; amend KRS 507.030 to expand offense of manslaughter in the first degree; amend KRS 507.040 to expand offense of manslaughter in the second degree; amend KRS 218A.1412 to provide increased penalties for certain trafficking offenses; create a new section of KRS Chapter 515 to create a new offense of carjacking; amend KRS 512.020 and 512.030 to lower the threshold for criminal mischief in the first degree to $500; amend KRS 149.410, 506.160, and 525.220 to conform; amend KRS 520.050 to enhance promoting contraband to a Class B felony if the dangerous contraband is fentanyl, carfentanil, or a fentanyl derivative; amend KRS 16.220 to allow purchase of a confiscated firearm by a person who bids under the condition that they not take possession of the firearm, but instead leave it with the Department of Kentucky State Police for destruction; prohibit government agencies from purchasing the firearm; make technical corrections; create new sections of KRS Chapters 511, 198A, and 65 to establish the offense of criminal street camping and provide exceptions; amend KRS 503.080 to conform; amend KRS 202C.050 to reduce requirements to find a person subject to involuntary commitment pursuant to KRS Chapter 202C; amend KRS 186.417 to include felony offenders released from county jails and local correctional facilities among those who may be issued personal identification cards or operator's licenses under certain conditions; amend KRS 431.510 to define terms; prohibit any charitable bail organization from posting bail in excess of $5,000; prohibit any charitable bail organization from posting bail for any offense of domestic violence and abuse or dating violence and abuse, and for any offense under a civil court order or warrant under KRS 222.430 to 222.437; establish that any bond ordered forfeited following a new criminal offense shall be distributed to the victim of the new offense; require publication of records and annual reporting to the General Assembly; create new section of KRS Chapter 507 to create the offense of murder of a first responder and establish penalties; amend KRS 506.010 to conform; amend KRS 532.025 to include the murder of first responders as an aggravating circumstance for the death penalty; amend KRS 532.036 to allow restitution following a conviction for Murder of a first responder; amend KRS 439.320 to provide that members of the Parole Board shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor, that panels of the board shall consist of not less than three and not more than six members, and that all members of the panel must agree on a decision or the matter shall be referred to the full board; amend KRS 439.330 to require that parole be granted upon a two-thirds vote of the full board; amend KRS 433.236 to limit liability for shopkeepers; amend KRS 439.3401 to add a person who has been convicted of or entered a plea of guilty to a Class B felony violation of KRS 520.050 to the definition of "violent offender" and to include carjacking and attempted murder in the list of violent offenses; amend KRS 508.075 and 508.078, relating to terroristic threatening, to include any workplace or any gathering of 3 or more persons; amend KRS 524.040 to include harassing communications as conduct constituting intimidation of a participant in the legal process; amend KRS 439.340 to allow the Parole Board to order participation in a specific violence reduction program as a condition of parole; amend KRS 533.030 to allow a court to require participationin a specific violence reduction program as a condition of probation or conditional discharge; amend KRS 403.763 and 456.180 to enhance a second or subsequent violation of an order of protection within a five-year period to a Class D felony; amend KRS 500.080 to include family members, members of an unmarried couple, and persons in a dating relationship, in application of a particular definition of serious physical injury; amend KRS 514.020 to reduce the time required to establish prima facie evidence of theft by deception of rented or leased property that is not returned to the owner from 10 days to four days; amend KRS 196.031 to require the annual report to also include the percentage of offenders who commit new offenses within two years; amend KRS 520.095 to enhance fleeing or evading police in the first degree to a Class C felony; provide that the defendant shall not be released on probation, shock probation, conditional discharge, or parole until he or she has served at least 50 percent of the sentence imposed; amend KRS 520.100 to enhance fleeing or evading police in the second degree to a Class D felony; amend KRS 532.110 to provide sentences for two or more felony sex crimes shall run consecutively; provide that the defendant shall not be released on probation, shock probation, conditional discharge, or parole until he or she has served at least 50 percent of the sentence imposed; amend KRS 158.155 to require school employees to report certain enumerated crimes to law enforcement; repeal KRS 512.040, which establishes the crime of criminal mischief in the third degree and KRS 158.154, which deals with discipline in schools; EFFECTIVE, in part, August 1, 2025.

Amend KRS 159.140 to require a director of pupil personnel to file with the county attorney a complaint against a parent or guardian who has allowed a child in kindergarten to grade five to be absent without excuse for 15 or more days; allow the director of pupil personnel, after consultation with the court designated worker, to refer the case to the family, accountability, intervention, and response team; amend KRS 610.030 to require that a diversion agreement for a child against whom a complaint alleging truancy has been filed shall require that if the child is absent without excuse two or more times during the diversion, the child will be considered to have failed diversion and the matter shall be immediately referred to the county attorney.