By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today
Gov. Matt Bevin is saluting Kentucky lawmakers for the historic work they completed in the legislative session that ended last month.
“What we got done was phenomenal,” he said in an interview at his Capitol office on Tuesday. “As soon as I think ‘I wish we would have gotten to this or that,’ I think to myself, ‘who would have thought that we would have gotten everything we did in four years, let alone in one session?’”
With Republicans in control of the House, Senate and governor’s office, they instituted criminal justice reforms and overhauled the state’s education system all levels, including allowing publicly funded charter schools for the first time in Kentucky and forcing the state’s universities to compete for government funding.
They banned late-term abortions and required ultrasounds for women seeking the procedure early in their pregnancies. They instituted changes that will allow Kentucky drivers’ licenses to comply with federal identification standards so that they can be used for boarding commercial flights. And they lifted a longstanding moratorium on nuclear power plants.
“There’s never been a piece of legislation in the history of Kentucky prior to this session that has been signed by three Republicans,” Bevin said. “And my goodness, we did not waste a lot of time getting things done. I tip my hat to this legislature, including a whole lot of new members.”
Roughly a quarter of the House members were new. Bevin said they did a stellar job of coming up to speed. “Some of the most thoughtful, deliberative, informed members, of the House in particular, were some of the new people,” he said.
The Kentucky House was controlled by Republicans for the first time in 100 years, with Jamestown Republican Jeff Hoover serving as speaker.
“I have just incredible admiration for how he stepped into that role, and quickly assumed that mantle of leadership,” Bevin said. “He did an extraordinary job of moving the process forward. It’s how we were able to get so much done in that first five days, and how we got so much done in the next 25 days. I have great admiration for him in the House and (President) Robert Stivers in the Senate. They were truly effective in their efforts.”
Other new laws on Bevin’s list of most crucial include those that make Kentucky a right-to-work state, that repeal the state’s prevailing wage, that help for ex-cons re-acclimate to freedom, and that limit prescriptions of painkillers to three-day supplies.
Bevin said many of the business-related bills will aid economic development. “I’m meeting this week with the board of a company, the mystery company everyone is wondering about,” and which led the General Assembly to approve $15 million in incentives the last day of the session.
“That’s going very well,” he said. “I feel very optimistic about the direction of that, and the ability to hopefully make an announcement in the not too distant future. That company would not be talking to us unless we passed right-to-work legislation.
If and when this gets announced, they will very publicly make it clear that there was zero chance that they would have been here” without a right to work law. That company would create 500 permanent jobs.
Bevin said improving the state’s economy is crucial. “Union and non-union alike are going to do very well in a strong economy,” he said.
He also said “repealing prevailing wage is going to save a hundred million plus dollars a year, conservatively, in public projects. So that one is going to be very impactful.”
Bevin also said charter schools will be transformative in the state.
“We were one of only seven states left that had not ever passed anything that gave kids a chance outside failing schools,” he said. “Now we’re giving them the possibility of something.”
Lawmakers passed pro-life bills requiring an ultrasound before a woman can have an abortion and banning most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, recognizing the values of Kentuckians who overwhelmingly wanted the legislation passed.
“Those were transformative things that were meaningful to a lot of people, and had been pent up for a long time,” he said.
Bevin touted the criminal justice reforms as a means to help people get their lives back together after serving prison sentences by allowing them to get occupational licenses.
“The irony,” Bevin said, “you used to be able, after completing a felony sentence, to become a lawyer, but you couldn’t cut hair in this state.”
Bevin believes his background in the business world is helpful in economic development efforts.
“Business people like to deal with business people,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that two of the three biggest capital investments in the history of Kentucky have been made in the last three months.”
Amazon has announced that it intends to invest $1.5 billion in Northern Kentucky and Toyota’s $1.33 billion in its Georgetown auto plant.
A few items he would like to see addressed are tax reform, pension reform and more tort reform, the first two of which he says will be addressed in a special legislative session later this year.
“This is where my children are growing up,” he said. “This is where I hope my children and grandchildren will live. And, because of that, I want this to be a good place to live.”
Governor: Accomplishment is perhaps in the eye of the beholder and I beg to differ with you. Since you were elected your main policy seems to be how much power you can grab. For example, The war against Louisville bills; SB107 and SB222. The war against public education bills: SB17, HB128, and HB520. You have demeaned the working people with HB1 and HB3. You have decided you know more women’s health than women and signed SB5, SB8 and HB2. You have waged a real power grab in your war against Universities with SB12 and SB107. SB4 just adds another layer of bureaucracy to medical malpractice suits. I though you were suposedly slimming government down. There is too much money in politics; you want more and signed SB75. I have read other Legiislator’s bragging letters as to their accomplishments and nobody mentions SB75 as do you. I would be embarassed also. No Governor, I don’t recognize your “accomplishments” and believe you have turned back the calendar to the fifties.