Owensboro area state House members DJ Johnson and Scott Lewis said Friday that they have a variety of issues they are pursuing in the General Assembly session that convenes Tuesday.
Johnson, an Owensboro Republican, said the overriding issue of the session will be the new two-year state budget. Johnson said he agreed with comments by state Sen. Gary Boswell that the budget will be lean, but said all area lawmakers would work to fund projects in the Owensboro region.
“It will be a tighter budget, but at the same time, we have a responsibility to fund the projects important to our community,” Johnson said. “As Sen. Boswell said, our local representatives will be working to fund those projects identified to us.”
Regarding the new budget, Johnson said, “I hope we introduce the draft early in the session, so we can discuss the details.”
Johnson, who is chairman of the House Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs committee, said there have been meetings with a variety of officials involved with elections, including Secretary of State Michael Adams, the State Board of Elections, the Registry of Election Finance and with the county clerks association to discuss where they would like to see changes in the system.
Johnson said while he would not be sponsoring the bill, there will be a large bill that will address the issues brought up by the various groups. The “Continuing Improvements” bill would include non-controversial issues that could be packaged into one bill, he said.
Larger election issues would have to be filed separately in their own bills where they would receive discussion in elections committee, Johnson said.
“I’m anticipating three, maybe four election bills,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he and Boswell have worked on a bill that would allow local governments to inventory vacant state properties and petition the government to sell them. Johnson said the bill would also require the state to maintain vacant state buildings.
The idea for the bill came from the former Day Treatment facility on Kentucky 54, which sat vacant for several years after that program moved out in 2018. The city purchased the property this year and sold it to a private developer. It is now being demolished.
“The worst thing about the 54 property is it sat there unmaintained, to where it lost value,” Johnson said.
The property deteriorated and was known for attracting juveniles and as a place where homeless people would stay, city officials said previously.
Johnson said while he is working on the issue, he won’t rush it through the session.
“This is a pretty complicated topic, and I’m introducing it with the hope that it will get through this session,” he said. “But there may be issues I haven’t identified.”
If more time is needed, the bill could be reintroduced in 2027, Johnson said.
Lewis, a Hartford Republican whose district covers Ohio and Hancock counties and part of Daviess County, is chairman of the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee. Lewis, former superintendent of Hancock County and Ohio County schools, is retiring from office at the end of 2026.
Students who enter Kentucky schools not able to speak English are given one year to learn; after that, the students’ academic progress, as measured through test scores, is included in the school’s overall performance. The federal Every Student Succeeds Act requires that schools be accountable for ESL student test scores starting in their second year.
“We are accountable for their test scores in the second year, when they basically can’t speak English,” Lewis said.
Lewis said he is working on a proposal to give non-English speaking students more time, such as two or three years, before schools become accountable for the students’ test scores.
“We need to put them on a level playing field before teachers and staff are responsible for their scores,” Lewis said.
While some standardized tests are mandated by the federal government, such as for reading and math, Lewis said he is working on plans to reduce the amount of standardized testing.
“We are interested, for teachers and students, in reducing the amount of testing we do at the end of the year,” Lewis said.
An issue Lewis is working on for the session is increasing access to school structure for young children, to prepare them for Kindergarten. Lewis said Pre-Kindergarten is not available statewide. Universal pre-Kindergarten is a priority for Gov. Andy Beshear.
“We need more opportunities, especially for our 4-year olds” to be exposed to books and the structure of school, to ready them for Kindergarten, Lewis said. Lewis said he is working on avenues where students could receive that structure, either in schools or in child care centers.
Lewis said he would want child care facilities to be involved as opposed to having all pre-K instruction in schools.
“We need to come up with something that works for both parties,” Lewis said.
Lewis said ideas are still being considered.
“How we fix that or what it would look like coming out, I’m not sure,” he said.
One way to increase access to pre-K programs would be to change the eligibility requirements, Lewis said. Currently, families with incomes at 160% of the poverty level quality for free pre-K programs. Amending the income guidelines so people would become eligible at 200% of the poverty level would lead to more children attending pre-K programs, Lewis said.
Lewis said there are “child care deserts” across the state, where child care is unavailable. Johnson said he is working on a bill that could increase the number of children a child care facility can look after by amending the regulations around “available space” in facilities.
“We still are short of child care centers,” Johnson said. “It’s not great in Daviess County, and it’s horrible in other places.”
Johnson said the idea would be to amend the definition of “available space” in child care centers so centers could care for more children. Any changes would be done with child safety in mind, he said.
“We have to be careful. We don’t want to (decrease) the safety and care for the children,” Johnson said.
But Johnson said child care facilities need to have sufficient clients to stay in business.
“But if the (child care center) has to close, there’s no care” for anyone, he said.
Lewis said he is also working on proposals to change the way students’ achievement is measured.
Lewis said, currently, academic progress is measured by comparing students against the previous year.
“I would like to see us go back to focusing on the growth of the student,” Lewis said.
Both Johnson and Lewis said addressing Medicaid will be an issue in the session. Lewis said the Medicaid reimbursement rate for dentists needs to be adjusted.
“In our rural counties, we are having dentists that don’t accept Medicaid because the reimbursement rate hasn’t increased in 20 years,” Lewis said. “I think we need to look at Medicaid in general and the reimbursement rate. The Medicaid (issue) is a big deal. It may decide what we have to spend in other areas.”
Johnson said, “Medicaid will be a topic of discussion,” and said focuses will be on modernizing Medicaid service while eliminating areas of waste and fraud.
“It’s an obvious need,” Johnson said.
Rep. Suzanne Miles, an Owensboro Republican and a member of the House’s GOP leadership team, did not return a call for comment Friday.
