The second day of the 2022 session of the Kentucky General Assembly is in the books. As expected, most of the focus so far has been on redistricting, which the General Assembly is constitutionally required to do every 10 years after new census data has been collected and released.

To no one’s surprise, the session’s first day on Tuesday offered more than its share of theatrics. While House Resolution 1 was simply meant to establish the rules of procedure, govern proceedings and establish decorum — an action passed by both the House and Senate at the beginning of each year’s legislative session — Democrats accused Republicans, who control both chambers, of limiting debate. House Minority Whip Angie Hatton, D-Whitesburg, complained the rules are “a nail in the coffin of what’s left of our democracy.” (Read more here.)

Sounds pretty serious…except that the procedural rules are nearly identical to those from last year, and nearly the same as when Democrats held the majority in the House.

In reality, the Republicans improved the rules by requiring approval of two-thirds of the House to end exhaustive debate whereas previously such approval required only a simple majority. The new rules increases the potential for dissenting voices to be heard by making it more difficult to end debate.

Today, the focus was on redistricting. Democrats are unhappy because the new districts were drawn by Republicans - redistricting is generally done by the majority party. There were no changes in the Senate redistricting plan that would require any incumbents to face each other in a primary. However, the House redistricting bill pits four sets of incumbents (two Republicans and two Democrats) against each other:

• Rep. Norma Kirk-McCormick, R-Inez, and Bobby McCool, R-Van Lear, in Eastern Kentucky;

• Republican Reps. Lynn Bechler from Marion and Jim Gooch Jr. from Providence, in Western Kentucky;

• Democratic Reps. Mary Lou Marzian and Josie Raymond, who represent House districts 34 and 31 respectively in Jefferson County;

• and Louisville Democratic Reps. McKenzie Cantrell and Lisa Willner.

The redistricting bills were heard and approved in committee with respective chambers’ committee members voting to move the bills to a vote on the House and Senate floors.

House members also voted to move the filing deadline for this year’s elections from Jan. 7 to Jan. 25 due to the redistricting process. (Some candidates won’t know for sure what district to file to run for until the redistricting plans are approved.) Those plans will also likely have to withstand a legal challenge that undoubtedly will be brought by Democratic legislators. HB 172 will be heard tomorrow in the Senate Standing Committee on State and Local Government.

If you’re looking for some entertainment tomorrow, tune in to KET at 11:30am EST to watch the Senate Education Committee meeting. The committee is scheduled to hear Senate Bills 1 and 25.  SB 25 allows school districts to take to up to 10 days of remote instruction because of the COVID pandemic. SB 1 challenges current law allowing School Based Decision-Making Councils (SBDMs) to set school curriculum and hire principals and returns that power to superintendents.

We’ve commented extensively about the need to reform SBDM Councils, including here and here. CEO Jim Waters testified on the need for SBDM reforms before the Joint Interim Committee on Education back in 2018 here (starting at around 16:00).

The legislative update is comprised by Sarah May Durand, director of government affairs for the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions. She can be reached at sarahmaydurand@freedomkentucky.com.