Committee advances multiple bills including flood relief cap increase, tourism commission changes, and school bond reporting

The Kentucky Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee on Tuesday advanced several House bills by favorable expression in a single session. The measures and their committee outcomes are listed below.

House Bill 54544 (flood relief cap adjustment): A committee substitute retained the underlying work and adjusted the National Guard cap so the program's limit would be $100 million over the course of the biennium instead of $50 million per fiscal year. The committee adopted the committee substitute and passed the measure with recorded ayes and no nays; the committee reported the bill with a favorable expression.

House Bill 552 (tourist commissions; Kentucky-Ireland Trade Commission; marina licensing): The committee adopted a substitute that (1) establishes a Kentucky-Ireland Trade Commission to coordinate trade-related activity with Ireland and (2) adds provisions related to licensing agreements for marinas and exemptions from certain procurement code provisions. The committee passed the substitute and the bill with recorded favorable votes.

House Bill 606 (school district bond reporting): The bill adds a reporting requirement so that general obligation bonds issued by school districts are reported to the capital oversight entity as required by KRS 45.812 (as referenced in committee testimony). The committee adopted a committee substitute and advanced the bill with favorable expression.

Other actions and administrative motions: - The committee moved and adopted title amendments where required and recorded roll-call votes following committee practice.

Roll-call summary (as recorded in the transcript): - HB 54544: Committee substitute adopted; committee reported the bill with favorable expression (recorded ayes; no recorded nays). - HB 552: Committee substitute adopted; committee reported the bill with favorable expression (7 ayes, 0 nays recorded). - HB 606: Committee substitute adopted; committee reported the bill with favorable expression (7 ayes, 0 nays recorded).

Several bills were noted to have passed the House previously by large margins; committee members made brief comments and there was limited additional debate on these items. All measures listed above will proceed to the Senate floor for further consideration.