Editor’s note: I subscribe to a number of updates from our state leges. All are valuable, and all are worth reading. But, I always get a special kick out of reading the update from Senator Morgan McGarvey. In addition to the legislative news, he includes references to history and literature, to pop music and to sports, and side comments about life in the General Assembly. After his latest, I contacted him to ask if we could occasionally share his update with you, our readers, and he graciously agreed. So, here it is. Enjoy!
Legislative Update – February 12, 2021 – Senator Morgan McGarvey
You have to love the General Assembly, at least some of the time. The place is agathokakological – made up of both good and bad.
I know, I know. Orwell famously warned, “Never use a long word when a short one will do.” I could have said, more simply, that our legislative work is patchy…our success rate is spotty…our record is mixed.
As Mother Teresa reminded us, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak.” So as my mountain ancestors would have put it, “We did ok this week.”
We passed the Historical Horse Racing bill (“HHR”) out of the Senate, 22-15, and sent it to the House. The Republicans who run the place needed Democrats to pass the thing. Without our seven votes in the Senate the HHR bill fails, and along with it the prospect for keeping a type of gaming that employs 1,400 people and produces state revenue that otherwise would have gone into other states’ coffers, via those strategically placed gambling facilities across our borders.
There is good and bad in legalizing HHR. It’s true that gaming takes from some of our more vulnerable citizens, but the opportunities to wager are already here (the Kentucky lottery, bingo parlors, on-line action, horse racing, church picnics, and other states’ gambling outposts located right across our borders). At least HHR bleeds a bit of the benefit into Kentucky government, and it does bolster our signature horse racing industry. Kentucky siphoned off about $15 million in taxes on historic racing last year, which I agree is too low as contrasted against the $3 billion handle. We should have raised the tax rate this year to at least that of actual horse racing, or moved to a tax rate more in line with how slot machines are taxed in other states (because let’s face it, that’s what these HHR machines really are). However, to let this opportunity pass and allow other states cannibalize these benefits from our citizens is, as Vizzini says in The Princess Bride, “Inconceivable!”
(Yes, I remember Inigo Montoya’s sharp retort: “You keep using that word. I don’t think you know what it means.” In this instance I do. It fits.)
Next year we won’t need 60 votes in the House and 23 votes in the Senate to raise the taxes on HHR, as we do this year because it’s not a normal budget year and we need a super-majority to raise revenue. The racing industry has publicly stated it supports raising the taxes on HHR (which should tell you how low they are) and we will hold them to it. (Also, as a procedural note, the Senate cannot pass legislation raising taxes. Revenue raising measures must come from the House. That’s why it wasn’t on the Senate proposal or offered as an amendment).
Another propitious denouement arrived in Senate Bill 80, the Senate’s first meaningful step toward police reform in the wake of local and national calls for change. Under current law, a police officer accused of egregious misconduct can simply retire and avoid further investigation into his or her alleged wrongdoing. SB 80, sponsored by former police officer Sen. Danny Carroll, removes that unfair prohibition by allowing such investigations to continue.
In an ironic twist, “hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia” is one of the longest words in the dictionary: It is the name given for a fear of long words. So simply put, SB 80 is a step in the right direction. We still need to enact a host of other criminal justice reforms, including banning no-knock warrants and giving subpoena power to civilian review boards, but this is progress.
Another good bill passed the Senate this week. SB 84, sponsored by Sen. Julie Raque Adams, gives additional dignity to people who give birth while incarcerated. A few years ago we learned that shackles remained on women while they gave birth. An earlier bill from Sen. Adams ended that barbaric practice but, in the process of prohibiting incarcerated women from being shackled during childbirth, it was discovered other reforms were necessary. This latest proposal bans solitary confinement for pregnant people, extends postpartum care (72 guaranteed hours of bonding time with inmate’s baby), and grants an option to meet with a social worker and arrange plans for childcare, reunification, and substance-use treatment.
By the way, I have Anu Garg in A.Word.A.Day to thank for that word “agathokakological.” It comes from the Greek agathos (good) and kakos (bad). It’s rooted in the Indo-European kakka-/kaka, which means to defecate, which also gave us the word “poppycock,” which sometimes applies in our state Senate debates.
That certainly is a good way to describe SB 83, a perfectly dreadful bill that passed through the Senate judiciary committee this week. SB 83 allows a person who provides any form of healthcare to choose NOT to care for someone based on their religious or philosophical beliefs. How do you run a hospital if this becomes law? The far-right people pushing this bill are only thinking of doctors and nurses who don’t want to prescribe birth control or see LGBTQ patients. But what about the LGBTQ doctor or nurse who doesn’t want to provide services to someone wearing a MAGA hat? The broad implications of this bill could be disastrous, leaving patients with healthcare providers only following a hypocratic oath, not the Hippocratic Oath.
I had lots of words from which to choose in describing the state legislature. There are 171,476 full entries in the Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary and 47,156 obsolete words.
Better yet, I could have made one up myself. Hey, Shakespeare himself was the first to use more than 1,700 words. What I know for sure when you’re in Frankfort is that you almost never have the last one.
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