Rep. George Brown

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 197 to establish the Kentucky Community and Technical College System Prison Education Program within the Department of Corrections in partnership with the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) to provide inmates with job training; require KCTCS to construct a facility to house the program at Northpoint Training Center; establish convictions that preclude participation in the program; require the parties to enter into a memorandum of agreement establishing the responsibilities of each party; amend KRS 196.281 to establish entitlement to a certificate of employability upon successful completion of the program and require reporting by the department; amend KRS 335B.020 to establish that a person shall not be disqualified from public employment or obtaining an occupational license solely because of previous criminal conviction and obtaining a certificate of employment from the department shall constitute rebuttable evidence of rehabilitation and fitness for the occupation; amend KRS 355B.030 to remove a conviction of a Class A felony, Class B felony, or any other felony offense other than a conviction that would qualify the individual as a registrant as defined in KRS 17.500 as supportive of a rebuttable presumption of a connection between that conviction and a license issuance request.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 158 to define terms; allow the use of camera monitoring systems on school buses operated by a school district and allow the enforcement of a civil penalty for stop arm camera violations recorded by a camera monitoring system; establish the amount of the civil penalty; require that the revenue generated from a civil penalty be retained by the school district; allow a law enforcement agency to charge a fee of $25 from every civil penalty enforced by the law enforcement agency; require specific notice for a stop arm camera violation; establish defenses to a violation; establish procedures for a contest to a violation; allow for suspension of motor vehicle registration for failure to timely pay a penalty; require a school district or law enforcement agency to notify the Transportation Cabinet of the need to release a motor vehicle registration suspension within 1 business day of payment; amend KRS 189.370 to require traffic in the opposite direction of a school or church bus to stop for the bus on a highway that is not divided by an elevated barrier or unpaved median;amend KRS 189.990 to increase the maximum fines for failing to stop for a school or church bus that is receiving or discharging passengers.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to define terms; establish a proactive postsecondary admissions program to be managed by the Council on Postsecondary Education; require each public postsecondary education institution in Kentucky to establish the minimum academic qualification for prospective admission to the institution and implement the common online application approved by the council by July 1, 2027; require the Kentucky Department of Education and each certified nonpublic school to submit a compiled list with designated information of all high school students who most recently completed their junior year to the council and the Kentucky Center for Statistics on or before September 1 of each year; require the KHEAA to submit the KEES award amounts of public and certified nonpublic high school students to the council on or before September 1 of each year; direct the council to send a personalized prospective admissions letter notifying each eligible high school student of each public postsecondary education institution in Kentucky where the recipient qualifies for prospective admissions, provides instructions for the recipient to apply for full admission, and of the student's KEES scholarship amount; provide that the personalized letter shall not constitute a guarantee of admission; retain the right for public postsecondary education institutions to perform a comprehensive reviews of all admissions applications internally; create a new section of KRS Chapter 151 to direct the Kentucky Center for Statistics to collaborate with the Kentucky Department of Education and the Council on Postsecondary Education to publish annual data on academic and workforce outcomes; amend KRS 164.020 to direct the Council on Postsecondary Education to establish a common online application and maintain a website for students to apply to Kentucky public postsecondary institutions through the common online application.

Amend KRS 45A.345, relating to local procurement, to define "best value" and redefine "evaluated bid price" as "economic efficiency"; amend KRS 45A.365 to require invitations for bids to state that awards be made on the best value rather than the lowest evaluated bid price; delete requirement for the inclusion of a reciprocal preference for resident bidders; require awards to the best value bid rather than the bid that is lowest evaluated bid price remove reference to reciprocal preference; amend KRS 45A.370 to allow purchases through competitive negotiation using the best value bid rather than the lowest evaluated bid; remove references to reciprocal preference; amend KRS 45A.375, relating to competitive negotiation to allow awards to be made upon the best value rather than lowest evaluated bid, and remove reference to reciprocal preference; amend KRS 45A.385, relating to small purchase procedures, to increase the small purchase maximum amount to $60,000 from $40,000; index the maximum amount by $10,000 every 5 years beginning in 2030; require the Finance and Administration Cabinet to publicize the current amount; amend KRS 45A.420, relating to cooperative purchasing, to allow local public agencies to make agreements using an established discount, quote, formula, or other pricing method as established by the Commonwealth when an agreement does not establish a fixed unit price; amend KRS 82.083, relating to the disposition of property owned by a city, to amend the definition of "independent appraisal" as it relates to personal property for which there is no applicable nationally published valuation standard, to include a generally accepted method to determine a good-faith estimate; amend KRS 82.084 to add law enforcement vehicles and equipment to the exclusions from KRS 45A.345 to 45A.460 and 424.260; amend KRS 424.260 to increase the limit for making advertisements for purchases to $60,000 from $40,000; index the small purchase maximum amount by $10,000 every 5 years beginning in 2030; amend KRS 157.420 and 157.440 to conform; repeal KRS 65.027, relating to reciprocal preference to resident bidders.

Amend KRS 67.767 to require the Secretary of State to prescribe standard forms for net profits, gross receipts, and payroll occupational tax returns; form an advisory committee to develop the forms; require the advisory committee to file the form with the Interim Joint Committee on Local Government for its November 2026 meeting; require the Secretary of State to file administrative regulations including the standard forms and electronic links; and require tax districts to accept the standard forms and the associated payments electronically on and after January 1, 2028.

Amend KRS 304.1-050 and 304.1-110 to make technical amendments; amend KRS 304.2-160 to define "licensee"; amend KRS 304.2-220 to modify persons who are subject to examination by the insurance commissioner; amend KRS 304.4-040 to apply license revocation for failure to pay tax or fee to licensees; amend KRS 304.5-080 to define "inland marine insurance" and repeal the definition of "marine and transportation insurance"; amend KRS 304.9-035 to provide for an insurer's liability for acts of its adjusters; amend KRS 304.9-051 to provide that certain individuals working for an administrator are not acting as an administrator; amend KRS 304.9-105 to modify financial responsibility requirement for an agent license; amend KRS 304.9-133 to establish individual designation requirements for licensed business entities; amend KRS 304.9-085 to conform; amend KRS 304.9-135 to modify the definition of "insurance agency activities"; amend KRS 304.9-140 to establish nonresident license requirements for nonresidents with a limited line of authority that is not offered in this state; repeal the requirement to surrender a license upon termination; amend KRS 304.9-170 to modify prelicensing education and examination exemption for applicants licensed within previous 12 months; amend KRS 304.9-200 to repeal refund of appointment fee upon license refusal; amend KRS 304.9-230 to repeal the surety limited line of authority and establish preneed funeral limited line of authority; amend KRS 304.9-260 to repeal the requirement to send license renewal list to an insurer or employer; require proof of compliance with continuing education requirements for nonresident independent or public adjusters; repeal the requirement to surrender license upon termination; amend KRS 304.9-270 to repeal approval requirement for specialty credit producers and managing employees; amend KRS 304.9-295 to require nonresident independent and public adjusters that designated Kentucky as their home state to satisfy continuing education requirements; modify requirements for continuing education certifications; repeal license surrender and reissuance requirement; repeal and reenact KRS 304.9-436 to provide that authorized insurers shall not do business with unlicensed persons; amend KRS 304.13-346 to require property insurers to offer an optional policy provision to upgrade the roof structure of non-FORTIFIED dwellings; amend KRS 304.13-400 to repeal workers' compensation insurance deductible range; amend KRS 304.14-120 to conform; amend KRS 304.15-365 to establish requirements for optional maturity dates offered for individual deferred annuities; amend KRS 304.17A-600, 304.17A-607, 304.17A-617, and 304.17A-623 to define "adverse benefit determination" and "coverage denial"; repeal definition of "adverse determination"; require internal appeal for adverse benefit determinations; require external review for adverse benefit determinations, other than coverage denials; amend KRS 304.17A-619, 304.17A-621, and 304.17A-625 to conform; amend KRS 304.99-020 and 304.99-100 to repeal civil penalties and renewal requirements for specialty credit producers and managing employees; make technical amendments throughout.

Amend KRS 439.320 to establish a term of 4 years for members of the Parole Board; allow the Governor to extend a term not more than 1 year if the expiration of the term causes more than 2 terms to expire in the same calendar year; allow the board to utilize panels of 2 or more members for parole and final parole revocation hearings; amend KRS 439.340 to change the time for parole review eligibility to 180 or more days to serve.

Amend KRS 156.160 to require the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations for an alternate high school diploma and a modified high school diploma; specify requirements for alternate and modified high school diplomas; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to require the Department of Workforce Development to identify, compile, and publish a list of employers willing to employ individuals possessing an alternate high school diploma; amend KRS 158.140, 164.787, and 164.7882 to conform.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 257 to allow the determination and implementation of an on-farm animal health care or animal health production practice to be made solely by a farmer and his or her veterinarian.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 322 to establish and grant scholarships through the Kentucky professional engineer and professional land surveyor incentive scholarship fund; declare legislative intent to address engineer and land surveyor development and needs by providing Kentucky residents with postsecondary scholarships; establish the Kentucky professional engineer and professional land surveyor incentive scholarship fund as a trust and agency accounts direct the engineer and land surveyor board to administer the fund and award scholarships to qualified applicants; require a written contract between the board and the recipient where the recipient agrees to obtain engineer or land surveyor licensure within 6 years of graduation and practice in Kentucky for at least 1 year for each year of scholarships granted; acquire moneys for the fund through penalties and fines, assessments from license renewals, and the board's budgeted funds; make the applicant's failure to complete the terms of the contract subject to recovery of the fund assistance, attorney's fees, and 8% annual interest; require the board to annually report its scholarship data to the Legislative Research Commission for referral to the Interim Joint Committee on Licensing, Occupations, and Administrative Regulations.