I'm Laura Rogers, catching up now with a senior editor for NPR based in Kentucky, Rowland Barton Ryland.

Happy New Year to you.

New Year.

And of course, it's a busy new year in Frankfurt.

The General Assembly getting underway, convening for a 60 day legislative session.

And so let's talk about some of the priorities that you anticipate being on the list for our lawmakers.

Yeah, well, the biggest priority is we've talked a lot about before is that the state lawmakers have to pass a new two year budget.

The state is forecasted to have around a $1 billion surplus this year.

There's a lot of discussion over what to do with that extra $1 billion.

And this comes after a series of of years where the county's has actually done pretty well, at least with respect to the states, to the amount of money that the states bring in and and and can spend.

You know, a lot of folks are calling for that money to be spent on, you know, investing in state services, expanding state services, paying folks more.

That's something that Governor Andy Beshear has talked a bit about and will be talking about in his state of the Commonwealth address, which takes place tonight.

But also, this is this is something that some more conservative lawmakers have also been looking at really shrinking the amount that the state government brings in, or at least lowering the income tax rate, changing how the state's tax system works.

There's no reason for that to automatically happen this year, even though lawmakers have passed such a long in former legislative sessions didn't meet the criteria for that to happen.

But I think that's going to be a big part of the discussion over what to do with this extra tax money.

There's a couple other big items, a big public safety bill that's been discussed about a lot about, you know, towards the end of last year that will be taken up this year.

And also a bill that would, you know, kind of target, so-called DUI diversity equity and inclusion programs at the state at state universities.

I think that's gonna be a big ticket item for some conservative lawmakers that want to pass this year.

And Governor Beshear released his budget proposal a couple of weeks ago and gave an inaugural address just a few weeks ago.

So as you alluded to, the state of the commonwealth address now just minutes away, what do you expect to hear from Governor Beshear in that speech tonight?

I think he's going to bring up a lot of those budget priorities that he unveiled late last month.

One, it's a it's another high profile opportunity for Kentuckians, folks who are tuned into KCET to see what the governor is up to.

It has to say if they, you know, missed that previous announcement.

And he's going to be talking a lot about, you know, how he wants to invest in state government, how he wants to there's a proposal to give teachers raises and also, you know, put more funding into education.

He's also these kind of build himself as an education first governor, both during his first term and during last year's campaign season.

What I'm really interested to see, too, is, you know, to what extent the governor is making another nod at what's going on around the country, something he did.

I thought that was interesting during his kind of end of year interviews, was addressing a lot of the immigration, a big national issue that a lot of states are dealing with.

And and a lot of conservative states have been passing kind of bills to make it a lot harder for folks who are crossing the border illegally to.

That's really targeting folks who are crossing the border illegally.

And then what he said is, you know, he went out of his way to say that we need to be humane and thoughtful as to how, you know, how states deal with this.

And I'm interested to see if he talks about that and other issues like that, because a lot of folks are wondering what he's going to do after this next four year term in office.

Yeah, a lot of speculation about his future plans in politics and for people who are interested in running for public office.

You know, the filing deadline, we're just two days away from that.

And of course, a lot of people have already filed that plan to do so.

But do you anticipate seeing a lot of people getting in some of those last minute filings?

Yeah, absolutely.

These last couple of days are critical to see what the lay of the land is going to be like for all of these races, and especially in the state legislature.

But this is also the is for other offices as well throughout Kentucky.

I I'm very interested to see this.

It's also it's just such an awkward time because the end of the first week of the legislative session, there's a lot so much going on.

So a lot of these things come in right down to the wire on Friday, January 6th.

Something just a little of the context of what's going on right now.

Your Republicans are at a very at a high watermark at this point of seats in the state legislature and about 80% of seats in both chambers.

Meanwhile, a big national Democratic group is actually targeted.

Kentucky is a place where they're seeking to invest in legislative candidates to try and get some of those seats back.

Well, we'll see exactly how many seats Democrats are actually able to sail for, and that's because that's something they've done a really bad job of in recent years.

They just haven't even put up candidates in a majority of the seats and in the legislature.

But this'll it'll be interesting to see what the lay of the land is after that.

And then a preview of what's to come in both the primary election in the spring, but then in the general election in November, when you know all the seats in the House and half of the seats in the Senate will be up for reelection.

And also a presidential election year, which we know that can affect turnout at the polls as well.

Also want to go back to a story that we shared earlier in our program tonight about that big disruption at the state capitol today.

That evacuation due to a bomb threat.

Right.

And this is something that that happened across the country.

There were there was an email that was sent to, by my count, about 24 different state governments threat saying that there is a bomb somewhere in the state government buildings.

And about seven of them, seven state capitals, shut down at some point today to investigate this threat, which appears to have been a hoax.

You know, this is so early in the year and really only a handful of states are in session right now.

There will be a lot more come next week.

But this also comes after a lot of, you know, so-called swatting events took place in Detroit over the holidays when lawmakers across the country were they had hoax calls to police saying some sort of, you know, shooting was taking place at lawmakers homes.

And again, a hoax call that police would show up at folks houses.

But I wondering if more of this disruption is going to take place because it's you know, it's disturbing and they have to be taken seriously, but it's really something for police and others to consider about when trying to, you know, smoothly pass laws and help state government run and hoping to not see more of this.

Absolutely.

We certainly don't need more distraction.

Right.

When our state lawmakers are trying to make these really big decisions for the future of Kentuckians.

Rylan, always appreciate your time.

Thank you so much.

And much more to come throughout here the next couple of months as the as the General Assembly continues its session there in Frankfort.

And we appreciate your insight and perspective, as always.

Thank you.

Great to talk to you.