2017 Interim LEGISLATIVE Volume 30, No. 5 August 2017 * Read online at www.lrc.ky.gov/legislation.htm RECORD Lawmakers get crash course in highway safety by Jim Hannah the time of the meeting, 415 people had already LRC Public Information died on Kentucky’s roadways this year, according to the Kentucky State Police. During the same FRANKFORT – Calling it an econom- period last year there were 456 death, in 2015 ic and public health priority, Kentucky’s top there were 405 and in 2014 there were 347. highway safety official said she is determined Hunter, armed with a dizzying array of sta- to better use crash data to identify where tistics, said new data suggests that number will wrecks occur and what programs best reduce continue to rise. She said the increase is being highway collisions. driven by people not buckling up in addition to “The cost of collisions is a staggering distracted and impaired drivers. $17.7 billion in Kentucky,” Office of Highway “We recently expanded from two major en- Safety Executive Director Noelle Hunter said forcement campaigns – our well-known Click It at the Aug. 3 meeting of the Interim Joint or Ticket seat belt campaign and our Drive Sober Committee on Transportation. “Of course, the or Get Pulled Over campaign – to now include value of human lives cannot be quantified.” a speed campaign targeting aggressive driving,” Rep. Steve Riggs, D-Louisville, comments before Kentucky’s traffic fatality rate is 1.6 times Hunter said. “The results of the expansion are the Aug. 3 meeting of the Interim Joint Committee higher than the national average, she said. At Continued on page 2 on Transportation. Lawmakers ponder future of public notices by Jim Hannah payer dollars. We have to find a balance between ties, said Kentucky’s public notice laws are sim- LRC Public Information all of those things.” ply out of date. Representatives from organizations rep- “The statutes that are currently in place FRANKFORT – To print, or, not to print? resenting Kentucky’s counties, cities and pub- keep us really reliant on forms of communica- That’s the question. lic schools all voiced concern about the cost of tion that are not always the most timely for the In the age of the internet, a group of state advertising financial statements, meeting dates, people or the press,” she said. “The explosion of legislators gathered recently to discuss whether pending ordinances and bid proposals in the lo- social media options … have changed the way to revise a decades-old law which requires pub- cal paper of record. information is released by not only the press but lic notice of official documents in local newspa- “City officials and city clerks, in particular, elected officials.” pers. don’t want to be mischaracterized as wanting to Rep. Attica Scott, D-Louisville, asked Ken- “I think everyone on this committee under- not give public notice,” said J.D. Chaney, deputy tucky Municipal Clerks Association President stands the need and importance of transparen- executive director of Kentucky League of Cities. Christine Upton what digital sites could be used cy,” said Rep. Michael Meredith, R-Oakland, at “We want to find the most efficient way to engage instead of printed newspapers. Upton, who is the July 26th meeting of the Interim Joint Com- our citizens and in the most cost-effective way also the Hopkinsville city clerk, said Facebook, mittee on Local Government. “I think everyone with taxpayer funds.” Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat in addition to on this committee also understands that there is Shellie Hampton, director of governmental a need for us … to be good stewards of local tax- relations for the Kentucky Association of Coun- Continued on page 2 THE KENTUCKY GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1 Safety, from page 1 more sustained law enforcement campaigns over a longer period of time and more opportunities for smaller law enforcement agencies to partici- pate in campaigns through mini grants.” She said she works with 171 law enforce- ment agencies including Kentucky State Police. “All of what I’ve shared with you are moving us forward in reversing the deadly trend of traf- fic fatalities and serious injuries in our beloved Kentucky,” Hunter said after outlining all the programs her office oversees. “To do so effective- ly, we must rely on data that illustrates the reality of the state of highway safety.” One of those programs she outlined was the Safety Assistance for Freeway Emergencies (SAFE) Patrol. It is a free roadside service that Interim Joint Committee on Transportation co-chairs Rep. Marie Rader, R-McKee, at left, and Sen. Ernie monitors Kentucky interstates, parkways and Harris, R-Prospect, talk after the committee’s August meeting. other major roadways from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. sev- en days a week in mostly rural areas. SAFE Patrol has 22 truck and 24 operators. said. “Annually our operators make more than Hunter said funding prevents her from ex- 37,000 stops rendering aid to vulnerable motor- panding SAFE Patrol to the entire state. ists,” Hunter said. “Outside of urban areas com- “We certainly recognize the inherent ten- mercial roadside assistance is often unreliable or sions between rural versus urban communities delayed for motorists in disabled vehicles. Some- and distribution of scarce resources,” she said. times we are the only ones that can get to them Co-chair Sen. Ernie Harris, R-Prospect, in a timely manner.” praised Hunter’s approach with the limited Rep. Steve Riggs, D-Louisville, asked why amount of state tax dollars budgeted for her of- SAFE Patrol is not available, for example, in Jef- fice and the strings attached to the federal grants ferson County since the data shows metropolitan she does receive. areas have the most crashes. “I’ve been chairman or on the committee “Over the years I’ve noticed many bureau- for eight years and this is one of the most infor- crats here in Frankfort don’t come from those mative briefings I’ve received,” he said. “In fact, Rep. Sal Santoro, R-Florence, makes a comment areas so they like to turn their back on giving us this is the first one to go into so much great de- following meeting testimony. the services we need to improve that data,” Riggs tail of your office.” Notices, from page 1 government websites could all be harnessed to revenue from public notice advertisements from disseminate public notices. a local school district while paying more than “I think we need to move along … in terms Shellie Hampton, director of $7,000 in school taxes. of reducing unfunded mandates because that is governmental relations for the “I would say that is a pretty good return on what this is,” said Rep. Jerry T. Miller, R-Louis- Kentucky Association of the investment for the school district to get 10 ville. “It is an unfunded mandate.” Counties, said Kentucky’s times in taxes than what the newspaper charged Sen. Wil Schroder, R-Wilder, said he was for publishing the financial statement,” Thomp- going a step further than Miller. public notice laws are simply son said. “I think it is a subsidy,” said Schroder, who out of date. He added people read online content differ- has previously introduced legislation amending ently than they do newspapers. Newspaper read- the public notice law. “We are subsidizing these ers aren’t necessarily seeking out public notices small newspapers as an expense to taxpayers.” when they open a newspaper, Thompson said, Kentucky Press Association Executive Di- tax-paying businesses and employers. He said, but they do read them in the course of browsing rector David Thompson said newspapers are for example, that one local paper receives $773 in the pages. 2 2017 Interim LEGISLATIVE RECORD Prison costs, victims rights eyed by panel by Rebecca Hanchett LRC Public Information FRANKFORT—Kentucky had to dole out nearly $43 million in additional, non-budgeted funds last fiscal year to house state inmates. This “necessary governmental expense,” or NGE as the funds are called, is only a fraction of $140 million in NGEs the state has had to spend on corrections over the past six years in addi- tion to budgeted funds, Kentucky Public Advo- cate Ed Monahan told the August Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary. Unless corrections costs are controlled, Monahan said the state can expect to pay an additional $100 million on its prison population in the next two years. Telling lawmakers they need to realign corrections spending so that funds are used in a “smarter way,” Monahan suggested more money be invested in treatment. Increasing the threshold for felony theft, now set at $500, along with earned parole or lower penalties for some Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, makes a comment during the Aug. 4 meeting of the Interim Joint Committee crimes are other ideas he shared. on Judiciary. “Change this long-term. There are good ideas… Seize them in this next biennium and Rep. Robert Benvenuti, R-Lexington, said a start to change this financial outcome that is in- 25 percent reduction in crime is nothing to scoff evitable if nothing changes,” said Monahan. at. He said thousands of would-be victims were Those concerned with being tough on protected because of that reduction in the crime crime were reassured by Monahan that Ken- rate due to incarceration. tucky’s crime rate is falling, with violent crime “I think we need to maintain a very sharp plummeting 28 percent over the 30-year peri- focus on the victims—not only those (who) are od between 1985 and 2015. The issue is the rate ultimately victimized but those who are nev- of imprisonment has not fallen along with the er victimized because, in fact, the system does crime rate—instead nearly quadrupling over the work, many times.