General Assembly 2000 positive for the family
From, The Kentucky Citizen Digest, January/February, 2001.

The General Assembly of 2000 may go down in history for any number of reasons, but without doubt each of those reasons will have been somehow tied to the fact that the two chambers were held by two different parties for the first time in 207 years.

Was it “successful”? That, of course, is a matter of perspective. But from a pro-family, conservative viewpoint, there are certainly a number of reasons for which to be thankful.

The Commandments

The single issue that claimed the most notoriety and, perhaps, has the greatest potential for spurring ongoing cultural change, was the question of posting the Ten Commandments in public schools. For two full decades, since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Stone vs. Graham decision in 1980, the courts have ruled figuratively that “God” is a four-letter word and cannot be repeated in the halls of academia.

The 1980 ruling, in reality, only overturned the state mandate that required the Ten Commandments to be posted. Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 57 skirted that issue by simply granting the option for schools to post the Ten Commandments as well as other historical documents — for educational purposes.

The passage of this measure and the court rulings expected to follow may be the Waterloo of the anti-religion/anti-Christianity movement in America. If the legislation stands, then religious verbiage and religious histocal documents will have the same protection of free speech as all other areas, which is contrary to the reigning politically correct mentality.

The movement that facilitated the passage of SJR 57 was a spontaneous grassroots effort that claimed no statewide or, for that matter, national leader. Freshman representative J.C. “Bo” Ausmus, R-Middlesboro, campaigned in the fall of 1998 on a pro-Ten Commandments platform and proposed his legislation in the summer of 1999. The Family Foundation’s policy analyst Joe Bray testified in favor of Ausmus’ legislation at the special task force meeting in October and the Joint Interim Committee meeting in November.

Simultaneously, pastors in various areas of Kentucky were holding rallies and educating people regarding the issue. By the time the session began in January, there was a powerful “engine” among the citizens of the state, and there was very little question of whether or not a bill would pass. The question of which bill would pass, however, did arise. Without doubt, the one granting the most liberty found its way through both chambers and onto the desk of the governor.

Homosexual Issues

The second issue that has tremendous culture-changing potential resulted in a kind of stalemate — special rights for homosexuals.

Given the turmoil last summer, when four city or county ordinances were passed granting homosexuals special rights, many questioned whether gay rights would be passed on a statewide basis , as  Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, suggested, or not. The bill she filed last summer became House Bill (HB) 7 and was placed in juxtaposition to a bill, HB 485, filed in January by Rep. Joseph Fischer, R-Ft. Thomas. Fischer’s bill placed all civil-rights laws into the realm of the legislature, advocating one code for the entire state and thereby undoing the recently passed city and county gay ordinances.

Neither HB 7 or HB 485 was ever heard in committee. But a third bill, HB 70, which protected religious organizations from having to come under “sexual orientation laws,” passed both chambers. The bill was viewed as a setback by gay activists, because its design would prevent the state from being able to co-op organizations under its civil-rights umbrella, as New Jersey did the Boy Scouts in 1999.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts were a “public accomodation” and, therefore, had to be open to the hiring of gay scout leaders. That court case will be before the U.S. Supreme Court in April or May 2000 for a final decision.

HB 70, though it clearly had legislators’ and citizens’ support at the time of its passage, was vetoed by Gov. Paul Patton. The veto had been encouraged by the Kentucky Council of Churches and the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, as well as the gay activists across the state. But, once the regular session was complete on March 29, phone calls from citizens overwhelmingly challenged the legislators to a veto override on HB 70. It took place on April 14 with a 26-8 margin in the Senate and a 82-16 margin in the House. The margins in both chambers were larger than those in the original passage.

Taxation

Another major issue that impacts the family that was determined decisively in the session was the question about raising taxes. Patton had proposed a number of tax increases, totalling as much as $500 million dollars. The Republicans in the Senate were resolved to a “No new taxes” policy. A compromise was reached in which taxes were increased in one area and decreased in another, providing for a “revenue neutral” budget.

The interpretation of the tax plan will undoubtedly become a part of the political rhetoric of the year 2000: the Republicans boasting that taxes overall were not raised, and the Democrats saying “You voted for our tax increase.”

Other Victories

Other successful pieces of legislation embraced by family advocates include HB 366, which intensified penalties for drunk driving and lowered the legal blood-alcohol level to .08.

HB 4 created the crime of theft of identity and trafficking stolen identities. HB 517 created a high-risk pool for difficult-to-insure citizens and, thereby, opened the door for insurance companies to return to Kentucky after the radical and ill-fated health-care reform attempt in 1994.

Two other pro-family victories were led by Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville. His HB 157 mandates that character education be included in the curriculum of public schools. This reverses the so-called “values neutral” philosophy that has been dominant over the last three decades. The bill passed handily in both chambers, 97-0 in the House and 37-0 in the Senate.

Damron’s HB 220, the Kentucky version of Megan’s Law, actually died in committee during the last days of the session, but was resurrected as an amendment onto another piece of legislation and passed virtually intact. This bill requires that a community be notified when a sex offender has been released from prison and will be living in that neighborhood.

Damron and Sen. Jack Westwood, D-Erlanger, teamed up to support abstinence education in public schools by introducing similar bills in both chambers, HB 440 and SB 126. Though neither of the bills passed out of their two respective chambers, the funding language was added to the overall budget language to the end that 95 percent of the federal Title V abstinence education money will now be directed toward local communities.   In the past, only 20 percent reached the communities, with 80 percent being used for an advertising campaign. This is perceived as a major step forward by organizations that work with teens and do teen counseling.
Defensive “Kills”

Victories cannot only be measured by what bills one’s own forces have passed. Often, they are measured by what legislation has been stopped. And by that standard, the 2000 session had numerous victories.

HB 847 and HB 960 focused on regulating home schooling were killed.

Also stopped was HB 450, which would have mandated “contraceptive coverage” for insurance policies.  With the anticipated legalization of RU 486 by the FDA, HB 450 would have mandated “abortifacient coverage” paid for by insurance companies.

HB 855, pushed heavily by marijuana users and legalization advocates, would have legalized the growing of industrial hemp in Kentucky. Like HB 450, it died in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Gambling

But perhaps the most profound defensive “kill” deals with the expansion of gambling. Last spring, Patton raised the question of whether Kentucky should establish 12 to 14 gambling casinos. By the end of the 2000 Session on March 29, not one bill promoting the expansion of gambling had even been heard in committee.

Overall, the 2000 General Assembly can be assessed as “friendly to the family,” even though it can’t be rated “pro-family.” But in these decades where Americans have watched the decline of the traditional family, it’s nice to have a government activity that can be described as “friendly.”
 
 
 

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