The Kentucky state legislature convened on January 2, 2024, to begin the 2024 regular session which will last until April 15, 2024, which will be a sine die day, or the date of adjournment. They have set aside 10 days from March 29, 2024, to April 9, 2024, as days to deal with any vetoes which Governor Andy Beshear might sign. However, sadly, very sadly, the Right Wing Radical Repugnican party has a veto proof majority in both houses and any vetoes which the governor will sign are likely to be only on bills which are so abhorrent to both the governor and common sense that he feels that it is necessary to take a public position against them. At two links below, I will post the individual links to both the legislature's schedule and the link to the link to the page labeled 2024 Regular Session Record. That page is operated by the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission and is updated every day if necessary. It will contain every bill being considered by the legislature, every bill passed into law, and a great deal of other information. The schedule page will tell you every day the legislature is in session and, for those of you who are willing to travel to Frankfort, it will let you plan to be there on a day when you have a possible opportunity to publicly express your opinions to the legislature by either seeking to contact a legislator, leave a message face to face with a legislative employee, or engage in public protest by exercising your right to free speech. I urge all of my readers who live in Kentucky or have a vested interest in what happens in the state to spend time on both links to learn what is being considered by the legislature and to familiarize yourself with the legislative process. This is going to be a very destructive legislative session and will do a great deal to destroy individual constitutional rights in the state; destroy a multitude of programs intended to provide health care, education, free speech, environmental protections, and virtually any program intended to assist the lower echelons of society.
At this time, it is too complicated a process to attempt to address every legislative bill in the session. But I will speak out here for the first time about a bill which I just learned about yesterday, February 9, 2024, which is intended to take away the right of Kentucky teachers to keep unused sick days throughout their careers and add them to their time for retirement purposes which has been a standing perk for all full time state employees for many years. This bill is labeled as Senate Bill 4. This bill will pass the state legislature, will go to the governor's desk, and, I suspect, will be vetoed as a public moral, ethical, and political statement by the governor who is deeply committed to education in the state but, incredibly sadly, unable to prevent this attempt to further incentivize every good educator to consider either never applying for a job in Kentucky or leaving the state early in their careers to seek better jobs in states with a genuine commitment to high quality education. I repeat, the Right Wing Radical Repugnican majority in the legislature has a veto proof majority in both houses of the legislature and all Andy Beshear, the best governor can do is speak out and take a rational public position by refusing to sign such damaging laws into the state code. We must support the governor and lieutenant governor, who is a former educator, in their effort to save public education in Kentucky.
As I have time to read, research, and understand other bills being proposed in this legislative session, I will post other blog posts to this blog, may modify this particular post, and will do my best to keep my regular readers in Kentucky informed about the most dangerous bills being proposed by the legislature as they continue their effort to become the worst state legislature in the nation.
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