GA Leaders Elected

GA Leaders Elected

The 2015 General Assembly Session is underway and as in all odd-numbered year sessions, the legislature takes these first four days to swear in new members and get organized. The first order of business is leadership elections.

House

After a bruising election cycle that ended in November, both Democrats and Republicans had contested leadership elections that were decided this evening.

Democrats

The 2015-16 Majority Leaders are:

Speaker Greg Stumbo

Speaker Pro-Tem Jody Richards - This position was vacated by Rep. Larry Clark

Majority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins

Majority Whip Johnny Bell

Majority Caucus Chair Sannie Overly

Republicans

The 2015-16 Minority Leadership Team is:

Minority Leader Jeff Hoover

Minority Whip Stan Lee - This position was vacated by Rep. Bam Carney

Minority Caucus Chairman Jim Decesare - This position was vacated by Rep. Bob Deweese

Senate

In the Senate today they formally recognized the leadership elections they made over the last month in previously held caucus meetings.

Republicans

The Senate Republican Leadership team is:

President Robert Stivers

President Pro-Tem David Givens

Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer

Majority Whip Jimmy Higdon

Majority Caucus Chair Dan Seum

Democrats

The new 2015-16 Senate Minority leaders are:

Minority Floor Leader Ray Jones

Minority Whip Gerald Neal

Minority Caucus Chair Julian Carroll

All of the House results are unofficial and we will have further analysis and information on the leadership elections, committee chairs, and committee assignments as the week continues.  

Update - Session Set to Begin

Legislature Set to Convene

The 2015 General Assembly Session will convene on Tuesday with the opening gavel falling around Noon. This will be Kentucky’s short non-budget session, which is 30 legislative days. The four day organizational part of the session where they will officially elect leaders, name committee chairs and appoint members to committees takes place this week. This is basically complete in the Senate with each party having announced their leadership elections and committee assignments. The House is much less resolved as it appears there could be multiple contested races for House Democrat leadership posts, including Speaker Pro-Tem. House Republicans will have several contested races for leadership posts, as well. Until these leadership elections are completed, work naming committee chairs and committee members will hold until later in the week.

Once the organizational business is concluded, the legislature will recess Friday, January 9th until February 3rd when they are scheduled to return for the remaining 24 legislative days. When the General Assembly returns in February, they will have four and a half weeks remaining. This is not a lot of time to pass significant legislative measures, especially if an issue is controversial. Among the issues the General Assembly will be dealing with this session are: heroin abuse; teacher and state employee pension reforms; local option sales tax; and public-private partnerships. None of these have consensus going into the session, which will occupy leadership’s time working out final details on these bills as the session progresses.

Once completing their business, legislators will recess for the veto period of 10 days and return for 2 veto days on March 23rd. The session is currently scheduled to be finished by March 24, but legislators have until the end of March to complete their business.

You can access the official session calendar HERE.

You can access the official standing committee meeting schedule HERE.

Back to Frankfort Reception

Please Join Us For Our Annual

Welcome Back to Frankfort

Legislative Reception

Wednesday

January 7th, 2015

5 PM —7 PM

Government Strategies

229 Shelby Street

Frankfort, KY

Session Communications

We will be communicating with you frequently throughout the session, especially as legislative activity ramps up heading towards February. You can expect a weekly session summary and bill tracking report tailored to your interests in order to keep you updated on issues and bills of interest. In addition we will be communicating from time to time  on issues of general importance as they arise, like the outcome of this week’s legislative leadership races. We also encourage you to sign up for our daily Kentucky Politics newsletter HERE and checkout our redesigned website www.govplan.com. As always we will not hesitate to contact you when issues of interest arise.

SOPA is Alive

A few years ago, millions of Americans helped stop SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act, that was supported by MPAA and would have led to censorship across the web. Congress received millions of phone calls and emails in opposition. SOPA didn't pass.

However, over the weekend news broke that MPAA's efforts are still alive and have a new target...Google. And their new path...the states.

In this New York Times article the MPAAs plans to work with one state's Attorney General to continue their censorship fight...Here is a key passage:

The movie association and its member companies, the messages show, have assigned a team of lawyers to prepare draft subpoenas and legal briefs for the attorneys general. And the groups have delivered campaign contributions — with several movie studios sending checks — to Jon Bruning, the Republican attorney general of Nebraska, who was helping push their cause, and who made an unsuccessful bid for governor this year.

In one instance it even appears the MPAA edited a letter on behalf of the MS Attorney General Hood.

Document Letter to Google From Mississippi’s Attorney General This document shows revisions to a letter sent to Google by the attorney general of Mississippi, that had been largely drafted by a law firm representing the Motion Picture Association of America. OPEN Document

Here is more from Google's post on this topic:

The MPAA conspired to achieve SOPA’s goals through non-legislative means

According to The Verge, “at the beginning of this year, the MPAA and six studios … joined together to begin a new campaign” to figure how it could secretly revive SOPA. It “joined together to begin a new campaign” to achieve wholesale site-blocking by “[convincing] state prosecutors to take up the fight against [Google].” The movie studios “budgeted $500,000 a year towards providing legal support”—and the MPAA later sought up to $1.175 million for this campaign. 

 All in all it looks like SOPA is still alive and its supporters to censor the internet are also alive and well.

Senate Republican Committee Assignments

It was announced today that Sen. Chris McDaniel (R-Taylor Mill) will chair the Senate Appropriations & Revenue Committee; Senator-elect Julie Raque Adams (R-Louisville) will chair the Senate Health & Welfare committee; Sen. Albert Robinson (R-London) will chair the Senate Veterans Affairs committee.

Here is an unofficial copy of the Republican rosters for Senate committees for 2015. These are Republican members only. Apparently Democrat appointments will be made at a later date.

Agriculture:
Paul Hornback, Chair
Carroll Gibson, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
C.B. Embry
Chris Girder
David P. Givens
Stan Humphries
Damon Thayer
Whitney Westerfield

Appropriations & Revenue:
Chris McDaniel, Chair
Stan Humphries, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Ralph Alvarado
Danny Carroll
Carroll Gibson
Chris Girdler
David P. Givens
Wil Schroder
Brandon Smith
Max Wise

Banking & Insurance:
Tom Buford, Chair
Jared Carpenter, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Julie Raque Adams
Chris Girdler
Chris McDaniel
Albert Robinson
John Schickel
Dan “Malano” Seum

Economic Development & Labor:
Alice Forgy Kerr, Chair
Chris Girdler, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Carroll Gibson
Ernie Harris
Jimmy Higdon
Wil Schroder
Mike Wilson
Max Wise

Education:
Mike Wilson, Chair
Max Wise, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Julie Raque Adams
Jared Carpenter
Danny Carroll
Carroll Gibson
David P. Givens
Jimmy Higdon
Alice Forgy Kerr

Health & Welfare:
Julie Raque Adams, Chair
Ralph Alvarado, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Tom Buford
Danny Carroll
David P. Givens
Jimmy Higdon
Alice Forgy Kerr
Max Wise

Judiciary:
Whitney Westerfield, Chair
Wil Schroder, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Danny Carroll
Carroll Gibson
Alice Forgy Kerr
John Schickel
Dan “Malano” Seum
Robert Stivers

Licensing & Occupations:
John Schickel, Chair
Paul Hornback, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Joe Bowen
Tom Buford
Jimmy Higdon
Chris McDaniel
Dan “Malano” Seum
Damon Thayer

Natural Resources & Energy:
Jared Carpenter, Chair
Brandon Smith, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
C.B. Embry
Chris Girdler
Ernie Harris
Paul Hornback
John Schickel
Whitney Westerfield

State & Local Government:
Joe Bowen, Chair
Stan Humphries, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Julie Raque Adams
Ralph Alvarodo
Chris McDaniel
Albert Robinson
Dan “Maleno” Seum
Damon Thayer

Transportation:
Ernie Harris, Chair
Brandon Smith, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Joe Bowen
Jared Carpenter
C.B. Embry
Jimmy Higdon
Albert Robinson
Whitney Westerfield
Mike Wilson

Veterans, Military Affairs & Public Protection:
Albert Robinson, Chair
C. B. Embry, Vice-Chair
Majority Senate Members:
Carroll Gibson
Ernie Harris
Stan Humphries
Chris McDaniel
Dan “Malano” Seum
Whitney Westerfield
Mike Wilson
Max Wise

October Receipts - GF up 4.6% & RF down .3%

RECEIPTS FOR OCTOBER 2014

General Fund receipts rose 4.6 percent

Road Fund receipts fell 0.3 percent

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Monday, November 10, 2014) - State Budget Director Jane Driskell reported today that October’s General Fund receipts grew 4.6 percent compared to last year. Total revenues for the month were $755.7 million, compared to $722.5 million during October 2013. Receipts have increased 1.9 percent for the first four months of the fiscal year, and need to grow 4.4 percent over the final eight months of FY15 to achieve the official revenue estimate of $9,801.2 million.

Driskell noted that the General Fund had a solid month after a first quarter in which receipts grew only 1.1 percent. “October was clearly a strong month of revenue growth as nominal collections grew $33.2 million, an amount higher than the nominal growth in the entire first quarter of FY15. The main contributions to the healthy growth in October were the individual income tax and sales taxes, which grew 4.8 percent and 6.3 percent respectively while corporate and property receipts continue to underperform.”

Among the major accounts:

● Individual income tax collections rose 4.8 percent, primarily on the strength of withholding collections. Receipts are up 5.2 percent for the first four months of FY15.

● Sales and use tax receipts rose 6.3 percent in October and are up 4.1 percent for the year. Corporation income tax receipts decreased 0.3 percent in October. Year-to-date receipts have fallen 24.1 percent.

● Property tax collections increased 41.1 percent in October, but are down 5.5 percent year-to-date. Large swings in property tax revenues are typical in the fall months as the bulk of receipts in this category are received between November and January.

● Cigarette tax receipts grew 11.5 percent in October and are up 0.2 percent for the first four months of the fiscal year.

● Coal severance tax receipts decreased 5.8 percent for the month and are down 5.2 percent year-to-date.

● Lottery revenues fell 3.3 percent in October but are up 4.2 percent for the year.

Road Fund receipts for October totaled $126.7 million, a 0.3 percent decrease from October 2013 levels. Based on year-to-date collections, Road Fund receipts can decline 2.0 percent and still meet the official FY15 estimate of $1,546.7 million. Motor vehicle usage tax receipts fell 4.3 percent for the month and have declined 1.4 percent year-to-date. Motor fuels taxes increased 0.8 percent in October and have grown 1.4 percent for the year.

Director Driskell noted that the October Road Fund performance is not unexpected. “Road Fund collections continue to be weak, as we anticipated. Growth in motor fuels tax collections is limited by a decline in demand. Motor vehicle usage tax receipts have been hampered by the impact of recent legislation which provides for a new car trade-in. It is anticipated that the credit will reduce collections by $34 million in the current fiscal year.”

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