Assembly Inches Forward
A number of bills begin to move out of committee onto chamber floors
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, March/April, 2000

Like all sessions of the General Assembly, the 2000 session is taking on a “personality” of its own. Significant bills have already been heard and are moving forward, but the major pushes by the governor have yet to be introduced in bill form. This scenario will lead to what is common with all sessions of the General Assembly – a swirl of hectic, push-and-shove jousting in March, the last month of the session.

Bills that are moving

Bills that are moving include Rep. Tom Kerr’s, D-Taylor Mill, HB 70, which protects religious liberty by excluding religious organizations from the definition of “public accommodation.” If passed, religious camps would not have to host groups having radically different values. For example, can you imagine a Christian campground having to cater a convention of witches, a homosexual men’s retreat, or a strategy-planning weekend of the Ku Klux Klan? HB 70 has passed the House committee and the House floor vote and has been moved into a Senate committee.

Rep. Gary Tapp’s, R-Shelbyville, HB 59, the Public Decency Act, passed the House Judiciary Committee on Feb. 10 and will probably come to the House floor in the next 10 days. This bill, directed at strip bars, bans total nudity and sex acts in public places. An identical bill was filed in the 1998 session by Rep. Larry Brandstetter and passed through the House with a vote of 89-0, only to die in the Senate because of the objections of one powerful senator. Supporters of the bill believe that it will help small communities engage the rich strip bar industry, because this bill moves the debate from “free speech” to the areas that can be constitutionally regulated, such as zoning, alcohol, health and safety, and hours of operation.

Rep. Bob Damron’s, D-Nicholasville, HB 157 mandates that the public schools include character education throughout their current curriculum. This bill would reverse the 30-year-old trend toward “values neutral” education, which has permeated the education system. Because the bill was drafted using language that has been hammered out in discussions spanning several years and several states, there is real optimism for its passage. At the time of writing, the bill had successfully passed the House committee en route to the House floor vote.

Another bill that has moved, raising serious concerns among pro-life groups, is Rep. Mary Lou Marzian’s, D-Louisville, HB 450, which mandates that insurance companies include “contraceptive coverage” in their plans. Given the fact that the Food and Drug Administration, at President Clinton’s directive, is scheduled to approve the abortive drug RU 486 in March. This strategy has pro-life citizens worried. Kentucky citizens are increasingly disgruntled with what takes place at abortion clinics, so the ability to mandate coverage for “chemical abortions” is their best alternative. HB 450 has passed the House committee.

HB 130, sponsored by Rep. John Vincent, R-Ashland, has also passed its House committee favorably. The bill would prohibit any public agency from distributing or selling individual or corporate information collected by the state to any third party.

The posting of the Ten Commandments isan issue that has several legislative proposals and at least one moving.Rep. Bo Ausmus, R-Middlesboro, initiated the debate with his HB 111, which provides for a vote in each locale.Rep. Sheldon Baugh, R-Russellville, proposed HB 45, which allows each school council to determine whether and where to post.But it was Sen. Albert Robinson’s, R-London, Senate Joint Resolution (SJR 57) which was the first out of committee and on its way to the Senate floor.

Bills not moving

Bills that have not moved but are expected to create serious debate include Rep. Kathy Stein’s, D-Lexington, HB 7, and Rep. Joe Fischer’s, R-Ft. Thomas, HB 485. HB 7 basically takes the gay ordinances that were passed last summer in Lexington, Louisville and Henderson and mandates them statewide. HB 485, practically, does just the opposite. It takes away the practice of local cities passing special civil-rights laws and allows only the General Assembly to determine civil rights so they would remain consistent throughout the state. If passed, this bill would “undo” the existing city ordinances and preclude further passages in other areas. Both bills are in Rep. Gross Lindsay’s, D-Henderson, House Judiciary Committee. As chairman, he has said he will hear neither. Both sides of this issue are frantically lobbying him to choose their bill.

Rep. Damron has teamed with Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, to introduce an abstinence education bill in both chambers, HB 440 and SB 126.This bill would mandate that if a school teaches sex education, the clear goal would be abstinence until marriage as opposed to “sex when you’re ready.”Neither chamber has moved its bill out of committee.

Reps. Joe Fischer and Tom Kerr have joined to sponsor HB 378 and 379 (respectively), which together write into Kentucky law a definition of personhood that would include all human beings from fertilization to death and then allow for the prosecution of wrongful death in cases where an unborn child is killed. The bill does not address abortion, exempting physicians and the abortion-minded pregnant woman. It focuses only on the loss of unborn life and the non-abortion-minded mother. These bills are expected to be heard in committee on March 2.

House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, has introduced HB 442 dealing with tuition tax credits for non-public schools. This bill has raised some eyebrows, because it would significantly boost education choice by providing a $500 tax credit for each dependent child to families earning less than $75,000 per year. Elementary or secondary non-public schools, private and parochial would be included.

Issues not yet drafted

Issues that have not been drafted into legislation but are anticipated in bill form soon include taxation, homeschooling regulation, early childhood development, and gambling. Gov. Patton has proposed verbally a massive tax increase concept, which is likely to include many pet projects in order to secure individual legislators’ favorable votes. Critics view this approach as a form of “legal bribery” in that if personal monies were given to the legislators in exchange for their votes, serious legal issue would be raised. But as long as public monies are used, it is “legitimate.”

Homeschoolers are expecting another barrage of regulations from Rep. Barbara Colter, R-Manchester. Last session her bill was handily defeated by homeschoolers from around the state, but even at that time she vowed a second attempt. Homeschoolers maintain that the problem that needs to be addressed is in the public school system, which allows its poorer students to drop out on the basis that they want to be homeschooled. Given the present accountability system in the public schools, some say they are simply allowing their score-lowering students to leave the system.

The governor’s Task Force on Early Childhood Development is expected to promote a huge government program designed to “help families.” Though some initial ideas, like lowering taxes, are promising, most agree that the concept simply creates a huge governmental bureaucracy that will not help families at all in the long run.

The gambling issue may already have been won by the anti-gambling forces that coalesced in the new organization called Citizens Against Gambling Expansion. However, rumors persist that House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo might introduce some piece of legislation that would expand gambling through the use of video terminals.

All in all, the session could be productive on behalf of families, or it could take a bad turn in the other direction. The Family Foundation encourages all citizens to consider the issues and get involved by expressing their own opinions. As stated by Edmond Burke, “All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” In the same sense, all that it takes for the General Assembly to make poor decisions is for the citizens of Kentucky to be either ignorant or apathetic.
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst