The beginning of March marks the beginning of the end of the 2019 session of the Kentucky General Assembly.
In odd-numbered years, the legislature holds a “short session” with only thirty working days for legislators to meet. There are only nine working days in March, including two days of “concurrence” on March 12 and 13. After that, Governor Bevin has ten days to veto any bills already passed by the legislature. Then, on March 28 and 29, lawmakers can vote to override any of those vetoes.
The Kentucky Electric Cooperatives legislative team is in Frankfort advocating on behalf of the 1.5 million co-op consumer-members across Kentucky. There are several issues of interest to cooperatives:
* Through research and discussions with legislators, we have concluded the tax issues for cooperatives in HB 402 will not negatively affect co-ops.
* We continue to advocate for a reasonable solution to Municipal Joint Action Legislation, HB 252. The legislation was supposed to be heard last week but was not called in committee.
* SB 100, net metering legislation, is still being worked on in the House. We are hopeful, through our discussions with legislators and members of leadership, that we can achieve final passage of the bill.
We appreciate the support and involvement of the co-op community and continue to encourage you to let your local lawmakers know that we appreciate them remembering co-op concerns when they cast their votes in Frankfort. Those comments mean more than anything to lawmakers.
