Lawmakers talk individual bills, potential change to driver’s licensing

Lawmakers are off today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King JR. Day, but they’ll have a full list of things to consider when they return to Frankfort on Tuesday.

Outside of a budget, bills are being filed in both chambers and State Senator Craig Richardson says his bill focused on making sure pharmacies are properly reimbursed by Medicaid has a similar bill in the house, and its focused-on easing some of the burden from Medicaid at the state level.

In the house, State Representative Walker Thomas has filed a bill—House Bill 339—that would protect the jobs of civilian air patrols who respond to natural disasters to delivered aid, if that response kept them away for an extended period of time.

There’s a push to move some aspects of driver’s licensing back to the state level and out of the state regional driver’s licensing offices, due to long wait times and far distances to travel for rural communities.

It likely wouldn’t affect Hopkinsville all that much, since we have a regional office in the city, but representative Myron Dossett believes more options are better for everyone involved, as long as it doesn’t create a burden on local agencies.

It’s possible we could see a rough version of the state budget and a road plan created by legislators, as soon as this week.