What all did the 2024 Kentucky legislature pass into law? Here’s a rundown

After 60 days of legislative work, the Kentucky General Assembly has passed more than 160 bills into law.

From the economy to energy, from constitutional amendments to crime, from vaping to self-driving vehicles, the legislature tackled a wide array of topics.

Some bills, those that contained emergency clauses, became law immediately when the legislature adjourned. The rest will become law mid-July, 90 days after the session ended.

The heaviest lifts were House Bill 6, the Executive Branch budget that spends roughly $15 billion from the state General Fund each year over the next two fiscal years, and House Bill 1, the $2.7 billion one-time appropriations bill. Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed a handful of line-items in the 200-plus page document, but the legislature overrode the vast majority of those vetoes.

In touting the budget, Republicans have celebrated projections that it will hit the “triggers” required for the state to drop the state’s personal income tax rate from 4% to 3.5%. GOP legislators have pushed the tax rate down from 6% since taking full control of the legislature in 2017.

Some budget hawks and most Democrats have stood against the tax cuts, arguing that they undercut the state’s ability to carry out much-needed services like K-12 education and expand into new ones like universal pre-K. Republicans say the cuts will spur growth that will continue to help fund a functional government.

“The past month’s receipts were 12.7% higher than the year before. People were worried that our tax cuts were going to hurt our revenues. They are not,” Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said. “Even though we’re cutting taxes, we’re getting more money in.”

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At issue, in particular, for Democrats was the budget’s lack of a mandated teacher raises.

Republicans modestly increased the total amount spent on the state K-12 funding formula, but increased the per-pupil spending rate by 3% in the first year and another 6% the following year.

“This budget leaves out and across the board raise for teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other educators who keep our schools running. It’s not only unfair to keep underpaying these crucial positions, it hurts our state’s economy,” House Minority Caucus Chair Cherlynn Stevenson, D-Lexington, said. “Kentucky will remain less competitive when it comes to attracting the best and the brightest educators.”

Some of the most-discussed bills were the two proposed constitutional amendments that received final passage and will make it on the final ballot in November. Those two amendments — one allowing public dollars to go toward private and charter school education and the other banning non-citizens from voting — will only make material change if approved by a majority of Kentucky voters.

Here’s a look at what else the legislature passed, oftentimes over the governor’s veto.

• House Bill 5, called the Safer Kentucky Act by supporters, is a sweeping anti-crime bill with tougher penalties for many offenses and an estimated price tag of more than $1 billion over the next decade. Republicans say its needed to combat crime, but Democrats have largely objected to many portions, including criminal penalties for public homelessness and much longer sentences for a wide array of crimes without any additional jail or prison funding. Beshear vetoed the bill over concerns about the homelessness component and cost.

• House Bill 7 would legalize and regulate self-driving cars on Kentucky roads. It was vetoed by Beshear on the grounds that Kentucky did not have enough time to test such vehicles before they were legalized. However, sponsor Rep. Josh Bray, R-Mt. Vernon, has pointed to the success of other states in legalizing them.

• Senate Bill 1 was a priority for Stivers. It establishes an endowment research fund specifically for collaboration between the state’s public universities. Stivers also championed passage of a resolution requiring the Council on Postsecondary Education to conduct a feasibility study on transforming the Hazard Community and Technical College in Southeastern Kentucky into a four-year, residential university.

• Senate Bill 299 will reshape the state’s regulatory landscape for horse racing and gaming, making gubernatorial appointments to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission subject to Senate approval and creating a new public corporation to oversee all gaming. It was vetoed by Beshear but overridden by both chambers.

• Senate Bill 2 will allow Kentucky schools to hire non-law enforcement armed “guardians” to secure schools. Many Democrats and gun control advocates spoke against the measure, but it received robust Republican support in the legislature. Beshear allowed the bill to become law without his signature.

• Senate Bill 349 will increase regulatory hurdles for utility companies looking to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants, a move advocated for by the state’s rural electric cooperatives and coal industry interests. The commission would likely extend the life of coal plants that are no longer economical for certain companies — a point that bill opponents, the president of Louisville Gas & Electric and Kentucky Utilities, have said will be costly to ratepayers and make it harder to transition to renewable energy.

• House Bill 11, targeted at curbing vaping among the state’s youth, will set new rules for businesses that sell vape products in Kentucky. Critics have expressed dismay that the bill — originally a crackdown on both tobacco and vape smoking by youths — ended up far weaker after lobbying from tobacco companies. The bill got a mixed reception among Republicans and Democrats, but was ultimately passed and signed into law by Beshear. Shortly after passage, a group of retailers sued against the bill.

• House Bill 622 got significant media attention for passage during a time of transition and health questions for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. It will take the governor out of the process of replacing a U.S. Senate vacancy and change it to a pure special election model, similar to how vacancies for U.S. Congress seats are filled in Kentucky. It made it past the governor’s veto easily in both chambers.

• House Bill 388 would make Louisville Metro Government elections nonpartisan, among other things. In a veto message, Beshear called it “antidemocratic” to make such a local change without approval of Jefferson County voters, and Louisville Democrats in the statehouse have largely agreed. Republicans argue that making elections nonpartisan would require mayors and councils to seek votes beyond traditional Democratic strongholds.

• House Bill 513 would require legislative approval for the removal or installation of statues and art in the Capitol rotunda. Beshear vetoed it as an encroachment on the Executive Branch, and pointed out that under the bill the Historic Properties Advisory Commission would have had no authority to remove the statue of former president of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis as they did in 2020.

• Two measures inching Kentucky toward a future with nuclear energy from Sen. Danny Carroll, R-Benton, Senate Bill 198 and Senate Joint Resolution 140, were passed. Senate Bill 198 was vetoed by Beshear due to its setting up a board that wasn’t majority governor-appointed, but it was overridden by the legislature. The final version of House Bill 1 contained $40 million to support nuclear energy via a research arm of the University of Kentucky.