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With Tuesday marking day 49 of the 60-day 2024 regular session of the Kentucky General Assembly, the House was busy passing legislation, acting on 10 bills.

They include:

House Bill 661, exempting from the pension spiking provisions any increases in rates of pay authorized or funded by the legislative or administrative body of an employer or mandated in a collective bargaining agreement approved by the legislative body of the employer that are provided to members of the Kentucky Employees Retirement System, the County Employees Retirement System, or the State Police Retirement System.

HB 727 would allow school districts to issue general obligation bonds and obtain bank loans, require the approval of the Department of Education prior to a school district obtaining a bank loan or issuing general obligation bonds, require general obligation bonds to be entered into through advertising or competitive bidding.

HB 583 requires that the chief executive officers of all forms of local government and mayors receive notification of a declaration of an environmental emergency within their jurisdiction.

HB 657 would have an owner of land comprising a subdivision, in a county which has not adopted regulations relating to planning and zoning for the subdivision of land within its boundaries, to record a plat of the subdivision in the office of the county clerk; establish penalties for violations.

HB 190 prohibits insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, and other pharmacy benefit administrators from requiring or incentivizing the use of a mail-order pharmaceutical distributor and making prescriptions more expensive at local pharmacies.

HB 565 would allow a director on a waste management district board to serve until his or her successor is appointed, not to exceed 60 days after the expiration of his or her term; require that the board director’s position be vacated after the 60-day period; provide that the requirements of the Act apply to current directors on waste management district boards.

HB 509 would require a public agency to furnish an officer, employee, board member, or commission member an agency email account which would be subject to the Open Records Act; that an employee or member of a board, commission, or public agency who uses an email account other than an agency-furnished or agency-designated email account is subject to discipline or removal; a public agency that complies with this act shall only be required to provide or search for electronic information or documents that are stored or contained in a device that is the property of the public agency or from an agency-furnished or agency-designated email account.

HB 645 deals with Kentucky’s MOST, Medical Orders for  Scope of Treatment. An adult with decisional capacity, an adult’s legal surrogate, or a responsible party may voluntarily complete a medical order for scope of treatment directing medical interventions.

HB 829 fine tunes the medical cannabis bill approved last year, and which does not take effect until January 2025. It allows local governments to ban its sale at their pharmacies and allows schools to restrict its use by students at school.

All 10 measures now head to the Senate.