News

The 2022 General Assembly has entered the home stretch, there are 14 legislative days left in this regular session. This week the Senate passed their version of the Executive Branch biennial budget, the House passed a tax reform bill and Governor Beshear signed Senate Bill 6 into law. Below is an overview of some of the legislation we are closely following.

House Bill 1:

House Bill 1 (HB1) is the Executive Branch biennial budget. The Senate passed their version of the budget on Wednesday, it is now in the House of Representatives awaiting concurrence. The Senate version of the budget looks great for higher education. They left our base funding the same and included an additional $80 million to the performance funding pool. They included one-time funds of $2.8 million from the American Rescue Plan Act State Fiscal Recovery Fund to create an endowment for participants of LifeWorks at WKU. Also, included in the Senate budget is state funding for a new Gordon Ford College of Business and funding for asset preservation. The difference in the Senate budget is a 25% match requirement for asset preservation funds. The House will vote to concur or not concur with the Senate budget on Monday. It is expected that the House will not concur with the Senate which will lead to a conference committee where they will negotiate on the differences in their budgets.

View HB1 Senate Committee Substitute here.

House Bill 8:

The House passed House Bill 8 (HB8), a tax reform bill this week. HB8 proposes to gradually lower the personal income tax from 5% to 0% if the state hits certain economic growth goals. HB8 also proposes new sales and use tax on 39 new classes. HB8 passed the House with 60 yes votes and 24 no votes. The bill is now in the Senate awaiting further action.

View HB8 House Committee Substitute here.

Senate Bill 6:

Senate Bill 6 (SB6) is known as the name, image and likeness bill. SB6 sets a framework for student athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness. This bill codifies the language that Governor Beshear used in an Executive Order last summer. Governor Beshear held a ceremonial bill signing in the Capitol Rotunda this week with coaches and leaders from universities across the Commonwealth.

View SB6 Senate Committee Substitute here.

Senate Joint Resolution 150:

Senate Joint Resolution 150 (SJR150) terminates the Covid-19 emergency declaration. SJR150 passed the Senate and House and has been delivered to Governor Beshear for his signature.

View SJR150 here.

With 14 days left in the session, there is still plenty of time for legislation to pass. As always, please visit the legislative tracking page for current updates.