#KYGA Week 6: Emphasis on vehicle tax increase, literacy, KY State Police raises
The 2022 legislative session’s sixth week focused heavily on skyrocketing vehicle taxes. After some Kentuckians paying their car taxes in January saw a 40% increase in those taxes due to inflated car values caused by supply chain shortages and higher energy costs, they flooded lawmakers with calls and emails asking for help. BIPPS CEO Jim Waters recently highlighted this issue in his weekly Bluegrass Beacon column.
The House responding by passing a bill that would require the Kentucky Department of Revenue to use the average trade-in value and not clean trade-in value when taxing motor vehicles. Though already codified in current Kentucky law, Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration deviated from the law by changing its practice to using the clean trade-in value which does not take into account the actual condition of the car. The bill also requires that car values this year are determined by last year’s values rather than the inflated values due to COVID-caused car part shortages.
The Senate also acted by passing a resolution similarly freezing the car value rates for the next two years by requiring vehicle value assessments to be based on Jan. 1, 2021, values. The bipartisan resolution easily passed.
Another hot topic was education. A literacy bill containing policy ideas which the Bluegrass Institute has long addressed through research, blog posts and Waters’ syndicated Bluegrass Beacon column passed the House. Since a companion bill had already passed the Senate, we expect this new approach to training teachers on how to teach reading to take effect beginning Jan. 1, 2023.
A bill that would codify the House’s 2022 budget proposal to raise salaries for Kentucky State Police was received in the House. This pay raise would put state officers’ salaries more in-line with our current surrounding states’ salaries.
Lastly, a controversial bill passed a House committee that would require school resource officers in every Kentucky school. The General Assembly attempted to achieve this goal in a previous session, but the way the law read required schools to hire officers “as funds and qualified personnel become available.” The new language requires all schools to have resource officers by Aug. 1, 2022.
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.