Legislative Update from the office of 82nd Rep. Nick Wilson
Two hundred and thirty-three years after Kentucky’s first legislators convened the Commonwealth’s first General Assembly, we gaveled in the 2025 Regular Session. The Speaker of the House called the chamber to order on Tuesday, January 7 at noon in the historic Kentucky State Capitol Building.
While much of the first few days was committed to administrative tasks like our official swearing in, adopting the rules that will guide our work, and moving into our Capitol Annex offices, lawmakers also set the tone for this year’s session by passing our first bill, HB 1. The measure would lower the state’s individual income tax to 3.5% in January of 2026.
The legislature has already cut the tax by a third since 2017, and economists estimate this latest half a percent cut will leave an additional $718 million in the paychecks of Kentuckians when it is fully implemented. This should be helpful at a time when our nation faces record, persistent inflation.
HB 1 is actually the most recent step in a plan to eliminate the income tax gradually as the state meets a set of requirements that ensure a tax decrease will not endanger necessary state programs.
While HB 1 goes to the Senate for consideration, several other issues remain on our session agenda. These include:
Education: A renewed focus on education includes the creation of the House Committee on Primary and Secondary Education and the House Committee on Postsecondary Education that will allow greater emphasis on these two very different age levels.
For example, despite record amounts of funding (even after adjusting for inflation) and the implementation of measures aimed at strengthening schools and learning at the K-12 level, too many schoolchildren still do not read or comprehend math at grade level.
Lawmakers will continue to work to make sure resources are reaching the classroom, and that policies implemented by the Kentucky Board of Education achieve academic success.
Medicaid: We will continue to look for ways to make Medicaid, the state and federally-funded program that provides health care for our poor and most vulnerable, more efficient as well as more effective. More than a third of our state’s population receives benefits through the Medicaid program, including more than half of Kentucky children, and billions in state and federal tax dollars are spent to provide health care through Medicaid. However, despite these investments, we still have among the worst rates for chronic diseases and fatal conditions.
Protecting Our Most Vulnerable: Lawmakers will move to ensure legislation passed last session that would provide resources to those providing kinship care to Kentucky children gets implemented after the executive branch has refused to do so.
The legislature will also consider additional measures to protect the state’s vulnerable, including domestic violence victims.
Housing Shortages: Kentucky is facing a more than 200,000-unit housing shortage.
Last interim, the Housing Task Force took a comprehensive look at the issue and identified a few ways state policies can be updated to help address the shortage. This session we will likely consider licensing, permitting, and other policies to make sure they are not barriers.
In addition, I am hopeful that we will also take a look at HB 132, legislation that I filed last week that will ensure schools receive funding for providing home or hospital instruction.
For example, in our district this will support Corbin Independent as they provide instruction to students at the Trillium Center.
We will return to Frankfort on February 4. Until then, if you are interested in following along, the Legislative Research Commission (LRC) maintains a helpful, information-packed website. It contains every bill and resolution, schedules, contact information, and information about the legislative process.
I regularly refer to LRC publications, which provide research information on a variety of issues and can also be downloaded from the website.
As always, I can be reached anytime through the toll-free message line in Frankfort at 1-800-372-7181.
You can also contact me via email at Nick.Wilson@kylegislature.gov and keep track through the Kentucky legislature’s website at legislature.ky.gov.
House Bill 33 would allow for expansion of casino-style gambling in Kentucky (by Trevor Sherman)
49th District Rep. Thomas Huff (R) has sponsored a bill that, if successful, will “allow the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation to license and regulate casino gaming and fantasy contests” in the Commonwealth.
HB 33 aims to “create new sections of KRS Chapter 230 to establish licensing requirements for full casino, limited casino and riverboat gaming.” This means that facilities such as the Mint Gaming Hall here in Whitley County could significantly expand its offerings to customers.
“My original hope was to make us like Indiana, basically,” Huff said in a recent telephone interview. “To make it so we can have facilities where you can go to play cards, shoot dice, and get the whole casino experience.”
Huff, who is in his fourth term representing part of Bullitt County in the House of Representatives, said that expecting the measure to pass in a short session might be considered a “heavy lift,” but he is happy to at least keep the conversation going, if nothing else.
“To me, it’s a freedom issue,” Huff explained. “If you are of-age, and you want to do it, then you ought to be able to do it. You shouldn’t have to go to Indiana or one of the other surrounding states.”
Huff said that fully legal casino gambling is the direction that Kentucky is most likely headed in, and from a strictly fiscal standpoint, he hopes to see it happen sooner rather than later. “This would be a great way to increase revenues considerably without having to apply any additional taxes on anyone,” he added. “Plus, it would create a lot of new jobs and allow for the constructions of new facilities and hotels, and things like that.”
Huff said the main barrier to proposed legislation like this getting passed is typically the number of opponents who insist on approaching the matter only from an ideological point of view, instead of considering what makes the most sense financially. With that being said, he says that he is currently getting a lot of support from constituents in his home county.
HB 33 is currently awaiting committee assignment in the House. To follow the progress of this bill throughout the 2025 Legislative Session, please visit legislature.ky.gov.
Proposed legislation could provide county jails with much-needed financial support from the state (by Trevor Sherman)
The enormous cost associated with operating a county jail has been a regular topic of conversation in the pages of the News Journal over the years. Whitley County Judge Executive Pat White, Jr. has commented on several occasions that the county loses millions of dollars each year, with much of those funds going toward housing inmates who are being charged with various state-level offenses.
Counties all across the Commonwealth are feeling the squeeze due to the considerable financial burden of maintaining a local detention center. For this reason, there are currently a lot of eyes on House Bill 35, which is being sponsored by 94th District Rep. Mitch Whitaker (R), and would “require payment to the county of a fee and, if applicable, the fees set forth in KRS 532.100(7), for each day a prisoner is charged with a felony and lodged in the county.”
The proposed legislation goes on to stipulate that payments would cease “the day the prisoner is acquitted of the felony charge or has judgment rendered otherwise involving no felony.”
This bill is similar to others that have been filed in recent legislative sessions, but according to White, it is somewhat narrower in scope than past filings.
“It is the same type of conversation that has taken place in the past,” White said. “This one is limited to just felony charges, though, so it would only be the higher-level crimes.”
Still, White said that, at any given time, a large portion of the inmates being lodged in the Whitley County Detention Center would check the appropriate boxes to qualify for reimbursement from the state. “It would certainly be a big relief to the county,” he said.
White pointed out that, in addition to the ongoing financial concerns, there is also a certain level of safety concern that must be taken into account when housing this type of offender for long periods at a time (sometimes several years). For this reason, he said that receiving financial assistance really just comes down to doing what is fair considering the difficult circumstances.
Of course, if the county was in a position to receive reimbursements from the state for jail-related costs, then it could take some of those aforementioned millions of dollars that it loses each year and apply it to other projects that could better the lives of the local citizenry. Road improvements, recreational projects, tourism initiatives and more would all be on the list.
“We’re having to give stuff up that the people of our county deserve in order to pay for this,” White said of the ever-increasing detention center operating cost. “It really takes away from what we’re able to do in other areas of the county government.”
As the current president of the Kentucky County Judge Executives Association, White said that he is happy to be in a position that gives him a broad platform to be heard on this particular topic. He said that it does give him a louder voice, and he plans on using it to continue informing people about the issue.
HB 35 is currently awaiting committee assignment in the House. To follow the progress of this bill throughout the 2025 Legislative Session, please visit legislature.ky.gov.
Pair of House bills aim to help get more workers professionally licensed (by Trevor Sherman)
Do you recall discussions last year regarding ongoing efforts in our region to help former jail inmates obtain gainful employment and escape the cycle of recidivism? How about the recent interview with 86th Rep. Tom O’Dell Smith where he discussed ongoing talks in Frankfort that would amend certain licensing requirements in hopes of getting folks into the workforce quicker? Well, a pair of bills currently being proposed in the Kentucky House of Representatives are aiming to help with both of those initiatives.
House Bill 54 is being sponsored by Republican Kim Banta out of the state’s 63rd District (Boone and Kenton counties). If passed, it would “allow on-the-job training equivalencies of internship and cooperative placement hours to count toward those hours needed to obtain licensure.”
HB 45 would also, “require that the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction recognize and honor the agreements toward licensure in the professions regulated by the department, including electricians, plumbers, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning.”
Meanwhile, House Bill 103, co-sponsored by Democrats Nima Kulkarni (40th District) and George Brown, Jr. (77th District), proposes the amending of the Kentucky Revised Statutes in order to “narrow the class of offenses to which the chapter applies, prohibit disqualifying individuals from pursing a professional license solely due to a finding that the applicant lacks good character, add consideration of the age of the person at the time the crime was committed, the evidence relevant to the circumstances of the crime, and evidence of rehabilitation in making licensure decisions.”
HB 103 also requires an amendment to KRS to require a hiring or licensing authority, if denying licensure, to notify the individual in writing detailing the specific offense that led to the denial, as well as the reasons why the offense directly relates to the duties and responsibilities of the occupation.
HB 54 and HB 103 are both currently awaiting committee assignment in the House.
To follow the progress of the bills throughout the 2025 Legislative Session, please visit legislature.ky.gov.
