Time now for our end of week review of some major political developments, particularly in the state capital, as the legislative session winds down.

Inside Kentucky politics and we have a dynamic duo from Owensboro originally with us.

Joining us by Skype is Kelsey Coots, who is the co-founder and principal at Blue Dart Consulting.

And Rebecca Hartsough, who is a policy analyst, a lobbyist and policy director at Babbage.

Co-Founder.

Welcome, Owensboro.

What you say for the Blue Angels.

Nailed it.

Now, Kelsey, let me start with you first to talk about we've got four days when we go back on Monday until they take a ten day recess for the governor to issue any vetoes and they come back on the 29th and 30th of the session to wrap up, and they can still pass legislation at that time.

What do you see as moving?

What do you see as stalling and what are some potential missed opportunities that if they don't get to it this week, they would have missed the opportunity to do some things you think they should?

Yes.

Well, first off, thanks for having me.

And I will start off by saying Rebecca and I are both 270 proud.

So thank you for coming out.

But this session, lawmakers, I think, have spent a significant amount of time focused on fabricated culture war issues instead of working to solve real problems that our people face.

So instead of advancing the conversation, the conversation on things like universal pre-K, student loan forgiveness for teachers, school employee raises and more, they're working to allow guns to be carried on our college campuses and are really worried about passing this slate of hate in passing a vision for Kentucky that I like to say, where it makes our neighbors fearful of one another and where cynicism reigns.

So they've been busy bullying trans kids, that's for sure.

And doing nothing really to address the fact that Kentucky ranks 44th in health care.

And so in these waning days, these four left until the veto period, They've yet to pass medicinal marijuana.

While it does have a hearing, I believe on Tuesday, there is little room for error for it to be passed this session.

But I'm hoping that it is passed because we know that Governor Beshear has expressed interest in in signing it.

So while they continue to focus on doing everything that they can to institute a two tiered 48 and everything, win at all costs, vision for Kentucky, the rest of us know that we have real challenges that need to be faced.

And so I hope in these last days they really remember who they serve, because there's a lot of extremism that I've seen coming out of Frankfort, which is dangerous and really misses the mark.

So how do you see it, Rebecca?

Well, I'm going to push back a little bit.

I mean, this is a different type of session.

This is a 30 day short session.

And leadership, when they came to the sort of framework here in saying what we were going to do is they were going to limited in scope.

And so I certainly and I know what Kelsey is saying about controversial issues, about, you know, whether it's trans kids, drug shows, those things coming through.

But, you know, talking about education, health care, those sorts of things, they require programing, which then requires funding.

This isn't a budget year.

And so we're in the middle of a budget year.

So it just inherently tailors what we can do.

The hard part about this transition here is that we have had three years of breakneck pace with the General Assembly.

I mean, we had COVID, we had the pandemic.

And so there were a lot of alterations made where we had a budget every year for the last three years.

And so it's been a bit arresting for some of us to get back in the swing of, okay, what is this short session?

What does it really mean?

And so and what can they do?

And they have been true to their word about what they said and that they would not really open up the budget if they did so, it would be for absolutely necessary things.

Like the Bowling Green Veterans Center and a couple of other items, a couple.

Of other items and they have small appropriations, if you will, you know, that are either clean up or to get seed money to start something.

That's that's what they've done.

And Kelsey did touch on things, medical marijuana, sports betting.

There's there's some other bills that are very.

Machinery.

And it has to get through the Senate now the green machines lobbying and the and the legislators supporting that feel pretty confident that make it through the Senate and they'll ban them and the sports betting lobby feels pretty good much better about this issue than they did last year.

So the fact that lawmakers are willing to actually place their bets and vote on to gambling related measures and think that's going to happen.

Well, what's hard about that is that so it requires a more of a threshold.

And so 60% of each chamber and by my count, that's about 23 members in the Senate of the 38.

So it's just harder to get through this year because it isn't a budget year.

Right.

So that's a that's a harder hurdle to clear.

But I know that those people feel feel comfortable right now where they are.

And we've gotten some assurances that it at least be heard.

But they're not.

They had the votes to get it across.

The line is going to be a different story.

Well, Kelsey, when it comes to medical marijuana, sports betting, Democrats seem to be aligned with Republicans on these issues.

I'm not so sure about Gray machines.

There might be some division there.

But some of those big ticket items you mentioned, Democrats seem to be on board with those things and maybe even filed their own pieces of legislation.

Yes, it's been actually really interesting from my point of view to follow everything that's happening, because it seems like the Republican caucus at times is who is not aligned, as we saw last week, I think with the gray machine tabling of the debate and all of that.

And then how far where we're kind of taking the medicinal marijuana vote, I think I've heard that it's getting a hearing and they think they have the votes to get it out of committee.

But will it be voted on, you know, on the floor and things like that?

And so it's it's sort of like if the Republicans can get it together on medicinal marijuana and a couple of these things, then, you know, there's been indications that Governor Bashir will, you know, will sign those bills and that he's supportive of some of those measures.

And so what did we say?

We have four days to wait and see.

And so.

Rebecca, because they can when they come back after that ten day veto period, they can still pass legislation.

It's not just reserved to override vetoes.

And they could put the governor in a pretty sticky spot.

And they can they can in medical marijuana, I think is an issue that they think that, you know, if they give it to the governor, he's going to sign it.

So it's something that still has a longer lifespan than some of these other bills.

Right.

And I mean, the other hard part here is that we've got a lot of new members.

And so some of these issues coming over either to the House or Senate, they don't they don't have these senators or representatives on the record just yet.

And so it's created some interesting dynamics like it did with gray machines.

And so that also comes to play with medical marijuana, comes to play with sports betting, comes to play with some of these controversial issues, to be sure.

Yeah.

Rebecca Hart, so thank you so much.

Kelsey Coots, shout out to the 207 team today.

Yeah, pretty good representation, I'd say.

Thank you, ladies.

So have a great weekend.

Thank you so much.