January 13, 2020
Registration Open!
FREE to Big I Kentucky Members
Schedule
8:30 - 10 am
Breakfast
 
10 am - 12 pm
Banking and Insurance Committee Meeting
 
12 - 2 pm
Meet with YOUR legislators
(call to schedule a one-on-one meeting)

Start Your Engines

The 2020 session of the General Assembly started last Tuesday. This is the 60-day session where legislators will consider and act on the biennial state budget. There were no committee meetings during the week. Legislative activity was confined to the House and Senate Chambers with the filing of bills and referral of bills to committees. By week’s end, 325 bills had been filed with 241 having been introduced in the House and 84 in the Senate.

The Chambers generally designate their priorities for the session by the assignment of a low bill number. Based on this tradition the Senate’s priorities for 2020 are:

Senate Bill 1 Sen. D. Carroll and others. SB 1 would prohibit universities and other public agencies from adopting any immigration “sanctuary” policies. 

Senate Bill 2 Sen. R. Mills and others. SB 2 would require voters to produce a photo ID in most instances prior to casting their ballot.

Senate Bill 3 Sen. C. McDaniel and others. SB 3 proposes to amend the Constitution to move elections of state law officers to even numbered years, beginning in 2028.
  
Senate Bill 4 Sen. J. Higdon and others. SB 4 proposes to cut back on the authority of the Secretary of the Transportation Cabinet and to establish a Kentucky Transportation Board to determine the state road plan and Transportation priorities. 

Senate Bill 5 Sen. R. Alvarado and others. SB 5 is a bill that would require any special purpose governmental entity (special district) to submit proposals for increases for taxes or fees to the legislative body of the city or county in which it is located.

Each of the Senate’s priority bills were taken from the committee to which it had been assigned this week and given a reading, readying the bills quick action next week. We are expecting Senate Bills 6-10, additional priorities for the Senate to be filed today.

The House has yet to file and designate its priorities for the session.

The Chambers also took several other steps of a housekeeping nature during the week, including adopting their rules for the session. The House took the significant step of doing away with the consent calendar, a procedure for adopting a number of (usually) non-controversial bills as a group without debating or voting on them individually on the floor. The elimination of the consent calendar was explained as a step toward further transparency in the legislative process. This step may, however, create a logjam, particularly late in the session, when dozens of bills used to be adopted as a group by consent. The new House rules try to offset this by a change to the rule on explanation of votes during debate, dropping the time limit for explanation from 3 to 2 minutes.

In other housekeeping measures, the chambers made some shifts in members’ committee assignments to account for changes in membership due to resignations and special elections.

House President Pro Tem David Meade was designated by the Majority Caucus assessment to act in the role of Majority Floor Leader in the absence of Rep. John “Bam” Carney. The thoughts and prayers of all involved in the legislative process are with Leader Carney, who remains seriously ill and hospitalized since before Christmas.
State of the Commonwealth and Budget Address

In other developments this week, the dates for two significant addresses were announced: Governor Andy Beshear will speak to Joint Sessions of the General Assembly with his State of the Commonwealth speech on January 14 and a budget address on January 28. These are always significant sessions milestones that will be especially meaningful this year as the new Democrat governor goes before Republican super-majorities of each chamber to outline his policy and spending priorities. 
Candidate Filing Deadline

Another important session milestone, the deadline for filing for office for legislative races, has passed on January 10, which is several weeks earlier than in past sessions due to a statute change. We will have further analysis of upcoming races at a later date, but here’s a first look at the candidate filings:
Senate

With one-half of the 38 members subject to re-election: 
  • Eight Senators are unopposed (4 Rs & 4 Ds) including Stivers, McGarvey and the Republican running for Humphries seat.
  • 3 Open Seats: 2 Ds & 1 R - Sen. Clark, Sen. Humphries and Sen. Carroll 
  • 2 Senators with a primary: Girdler & Robinson
House

With all 100 members of the House subject to re-elections: 
  • 28 House races are unopposed (16 Rs & 12 Ds)  
  • 15 open seats (5 Rs & 10 Ds)
  • R seats open: Elkins, Rothenberger, Hoover, Turner, Stewart
  • D seats open: Rand, Stone, Meyer, Booker, Graviss, Keene, Sims, Howard, Adkins, Harris
  • 13 Representatives with a primary (4 Ds & 9 Rs):
  • 4 Democrats: Burch, C.Miller, Kulkarni, Westrom
  • 9 Republicans: Rudy, Webber, Lee, McCoy, Upchurch, Osborne, Brenda, Yates, R.Huff
The full list of candidate filings can be viewed HERE.
Big I Legislative Update

HB 150 (Rep. Joe Fischer), to limit the application of the ALI Restatement of Law, based on the NCOIL model which was sponsored at NCOIL by Rep. Fischer. Of note, ALI has engaged a local lobbying firm.

SB 12 (Sen. Alvarado) to require insurers to notify insureds and agents of changes in the terms and conditions offered in a renewal policy.

HB 53 (Rep. Prunty) This is a licensure and regulation bill for PEOs. The lobbyist for the NAPEO, the National Assn. of Professional Employer Organizations, reached out to Big I to see if we had any concerns. We encourage you to review the bill as it mentions insurance extensively.
 
Also this week, Sen. Girdler filed SB 84 to make statutory technical corrections and provide that an alteration of terms shall not be considered a refusal to renew under certain circumstances. We are reviewing the bill to determine its impact on your customers.
Kentucky Department of Insurance News

Other significant insurance related news took place this week with the appointment of Sharon P. Clark as Commissioner of Insurance. Commissioner Clark is no stranger to state government and to the Department of Insurance. She previously served as Division Director, Legislative Liaison and as Commissioner of the Department from 2008 to 2016. At this time, Commissioner Clark’s administration at the Department includes the following:

  • D.J. Wasson, Principal Assistant 
  • Erin Bravo (General Counsel), Legal Division
  • Lee Webb, Division Director, Agent Licensing 
  • Shawn Boggs, Division Director Consumer Protection
  • Russ Hamblen, Market Conduct
  • Juan Garrett, Division Director, Insurance Fraud Investigation
  • John Melvin, Division Director, Insurance Product Regulation

We expect the Department to have three legislative priorities this session: an NAIC bill on credit for reinsurance that will be required for the Department’s accreditation next year; Commissioner Clark’s confirmation and a Department reorganization plan. 
If you have any questions on legislation, please contact Big I Ky’s President & CEO, Tara Purvis, at tpurvis@iiak.org .