7 ways GOP control of the Kentucky House might impact your life
After being relegated to the back bench of lawmaking in the House for 95 years, the
Unfettered by
Here's how those laws might impact your life.
It might get harder to have an abortion
Bevin's administration has already successfully sued and temporarily shut down the only abortion clinic in
Over the past couple years,
"We are pretty confident that those bills will be taken up rather quickly," Cothran said.
Cothran said the
"We'll probably be looking at other states," he said.
Your tax bill might change
Bevin and House Minority Floor Leader
"This will come and everything is going to be on the table," Bevin told WHAS. "And I do believe we have to move to a more consumption-based economy and less of a production-based economy."
In other words, expect income taxes to go down and sales taxes to increase or expand to additional goods and services.
In a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Hoover said he shares Bevin's commitment to reforming the tax code, as did
"Comprehensive tax reform has to be done in this state," Hoover said.
Hoover, though, wouldn't guarantee that lawmakers will take up the complicated task in 2017. Instead, he promised it would be done by the end of the 2018 legislative session.
"The biggest one is tax reform," Fugate said.
It might get harder to sue your doctor
One of Bevin's major goals is to create reform in the courts.
Most recently, the
Supporters of the bill argue that limiting the ability to sue doctors for large sums of money would help lower overall medical costs because doctor's wouldn't have to pay as much for malpractice insurance. Opponents note that there are about 2,700 deaths annually in the state due to preventable medical errors.
Bevin also has been frustrated by rulings against him in
You might get to choose a charter school
Bevin is a major proponent of charter schools, which are run by outside groups but funded by taxpayers. They often don't have to meet the same requirements as traditional public schools.
While charter schools are unlikely to affect rural parts of the state, where the population is small, it could have a major impact on the school systems in
The most recent charter schools proposal in the state
Already, Bevin's appointees to the
Unions will likely get weaker
Bevin and Republican lawmakers have repeatedly promised to enact so-called "right-to-work" legislation that would end workplace requirements for union membership.
"We fully expect them to implement these backward policies to prevent us from raising wages for workers," said
The people most affected by the law would be the 11 percent of the workforce who were covered by union contracts in 2015. Non-union workers would only be affected if the law brings more jobs or drives down wages.
Repeal of the prevailing wage law is likely
Anti-union legislation is often coupled with proposals to repeal
Londrigan said eliminating the prevailing wage requirement could affect the stability of the construction industry.
"What will happen is the wages of construction workers on state bids will decline," Londrigan said.
Opponents argue prevailing wage obstructs the free market and causes costs for government projects, such as school construction, to needlessly escalate.
"It increases taxpayers cost of building infrastructure based on artificially inflated wage," said
Things could get complicated for gay and transgender Kentuckians
Neither Bevin nor Hoover have indicated they plan to take up legislation that would affect the LGBTQ community.
However, several newly elected House members campaigned against transgender people being allowed to use the bathroom that coincides with their gender identity.
Last legislative session, the
While running for office, Bevin called the transgender bathroom issue nonsense, but his office later joined a lawsuit against the Obama administration over the issue.
In
"The problem is that some of the local gay rights legislation is a recipe for anti-religious expression," Cothran said.
In
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