Time now for our into week review Inside Kentucky Politics.

And today we're joined by two former Kentucky secretaries of state, our good friends and election night commentators is Trey Grayson, who's with Frost, Brian Todd and also Bob Babbage, who was the founder of Babbage co-founder.

And so we're glad to have both of them.

Then a busy weekend.

Frankfort Gentlemen.

Indeed.

So let's start first with House Bill one.

The governor on Friday today signed House Bill one, and he noted in a video message that because of record high inflation, Kentuckians can keep more money in their pockets.

And plus, since other reductions really hadn't affected the income tax revenues, he felt it was okay to sign this bill.

He'd been getting pressure from the business community.

Bob, But I'm curious about how Democrats.

Is he out of step with maybe what House and Senate Democrats would have wanted him to do?

Well, he did sign the bill and he embraced it, but he didn't really give it a bear hug.

He explained the reasoning for signing it now and the need for people to have a return of funds that they have paid, even though there's a school of thought that those funds could be used for other purposes.

Even the governor himself has advocated for a significant expansion of kindergarten, for example.

That's an investment for the future.

This is an investment back to taxpayers now for the expenses that have gone up worldwide for food and other kinds of things.

Yes.

Trey Grayson, the Republican response to this was, well, it is an election year.

Yeah, the Yeah, it is.

An election.

Year.

Yeah.

So do you think that was his.

Motivation last year?

Yeah, he vetoed last year.

But you know, the question you asked about Bob, he didn't want to answer it is he goes out of step with this.

Other Democrats, they I think unanimously or nearly unanimously voted against this.

It's probably smart politics.

It makes this issue a little bit off the table.

It makes it harder for the Republicans to say, look, he was against cutting taxes, as the governor says, of high inflation with record surpluses.

So I would say a couple months ago we would have been shocked by this.

But there were signals that the governor had given publicly that he was more open to this than we would have thought.

And so I actually wasn't surprised by.

So let's pivot now to talk about two of the big issues that dominated the capital this week.

First, the abortion ruling that came on Thursday that keeps that near-total ban on abortion in place, that affects that trigger law and also the heartbeat law that would restrict abortions around six weeks of pregnancy, sending back to the lower court.

Daniel Cameron, who is part of this lawsuit and who argued this case, seemed to take a victory lap here.

But when we look at what the justice, Debra Lambert, who wrote the opinion said, said the right to abortion exists by implication under the Kentucky Constitution, and it made it imply that perhaps there could be future challenge by a different party.

So it was Daniel Cameron.

I'll go to you, Trey Grayson, Was he premature and kind of taking a victory lap at this particular point?

Well, I begin when where began the last conversation.

It is an election year and he's running for governor and he's got a chance to fight to support it.

I think it is premature.

This was a decision only on the merits of an injunction, not on the merits.

And you can reach a different conclusion.

The justices at least hinted that they might ultimately say substantively that the trigger laws on the traditional, even if it's still allowed to be in place until they make a final decision.

So I think on these kinds of con Parties often declare victory prematurely.

But for Cameron's case, the final decision until after the primary.

So, of course, he was going to claim that victory a little bit early to try to benefit and show them he's fighting for more, you know, fighting to ban abortion.

Kentucky, which is a popular position inside the Republican Party electorate.

Anything to add there, Bob?

No, I think it's a good summary.

He does get a victory in that his side is still very relevant in the case.

But there are rules for the court.

And the court basically said the folks who ask the question can't ask the question, but here's who could.

And if that comes back to the court, then we might get a different outcome and not so much a victory for Cameron, but for now it's a significant step for him.

And he continues with that issue as the primary goes on every day.

And that's an advantage, a Cameron advantage.

S.B.

150.

We learn these bills by their names more than we do Bob and Trey by what they actually do this what is called are parents rights in public schools.

Are rights in public schools as it's identified Senator Max Wise, he was a lieutenant governor candidate, is the sponsor of this bill from Campbellsville, wanting parents to have more transparency and communication, particularly when it comes to school curriculum, teaching of human sexuality and student preferred pronoun.

You so I'll start with Bob on this.

This has been a very passionate debate.

Yes.

In the last few days.

And the state capital, yes.

There's that adage that politics it's not politics, it's politics.

It's not personal.

We say it often, not personal.

It's politics.

But politics is very personal because you believe in many things very deeply.

And when the tide goes against it, it's tough.

In this case, it was profoundly personal for both sides because the opinions are closely held and derive from faith and experience that are extraordinary.

So to be a witness to that and a participant of that as we are on the sidelines of quite something.

Yeah.

And Trey Grayson, I mean, I'm wondering about the business case against Senate Bill 150 at a time when we're constantly hearing about we need more people to come to Kentucky to become business friendly and competitive.

Are these kinds of measures what will actually persuade people to come to Kentucky and work in Kentucky?

Let me read my op ed that I wrote in The Courier Journal last Sunday in the print edition of The Online World, and before that, making the case that specifically this bill, because I wrote it before the show was introduced, but bills like this are not working.

We ought to focus on economic issues and not these kinds of of bills that would cause people to not want to locate in Kentucky.

Bob's out about how this debate was.

Senator Bergstein is a trail late.

Some transgender son committed suicide and also happened to coincide with his capital rally this week.

So there were a lot of personal at stake on both sides of this issue.

But yeah, I think from an economic development standpoint, I wish we weren't doing things like this.

That being said, this bill was less extreme than some of the other bills that have been introduced.

And I think leadership is trying to navigate this.

There's an interest in the Republican Party electorate to do something on these issues, and they were probably trying to minimize the economic impact.

So that's why Senate Bill 150 moved as opposed to some of the other bills.

We'll see how this plays out.

It's only one chamber and a lot of those other bills are in the House where there seems to be more support for a broader, broader bill that.

We will keep our eyes on it.

Bob in Virginia When Young can be, McAuliffe's turning point was about parents rights, and McAuliffe said flat, No, Youngkin got it right, at least for the voters won the race.

And I think others around the country, including the senators, clearly is those leaders are are seizing on this and putting this in legislative action.

And that's what happened here in the Senate this week.

Again, very emotional, very moving, but very, very serious for for many people.

We'll continue to keep our eyes on it.

And we thank you for doing the same.

Trey Grayson and Bob Babidge are good friends.

Thank you for joining us.

Safe travels to Trey Grayson and good to see you both.

Thank you.