Little accomplished, little gained, from General Assembly

By JOHN HULTGREN
Kentucky EMS Connection

FRANKFORT — The General Assembly ended its 2004 session last night without passing a budget, disrupting school district planning for next year, and raising the possibility of a partial state government shutdown.

With very little accomplished in this year's session, it's little wonder that EMS received little from 60 days of political maneuvering that stalled largely over Gov. Ernie Fletcher's tax reform plan.

Only two bills that related to EMS were passed by the General Assembly. Those bills are:

• House Bill 226, relating to wireless communications, will require funding and support for a public safety shared infrastructure. The bill was signed into law by the Governor on Apr. 2.
• House Bill 427, which would allow emergency services boards to collect up to 10 cents for each $100 of property value for each special district whose board is merged, has been delivered to the Governor. Gov. Fletcher has the option to veto this bill, and since the session is over, his veto could not be overridden.

Other bills important to EMS, but which stalled in the opposite chamber, included:

• House Bill 492, which would have established an office of trauma care and specify the contents of a state trauma care system, passed unanimously in the House with one committee substitute but died in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
• Senate Bill 217, which would have provided that a person is guilty of assault in the third degree when he causes or attempts to cause physical injury to EMS personnel, organized fire department members, and rescue squad members. The new law would have been named the Brenda D. Cowan Act after a Lexington Fire and EMS EMT who was fatally shot on the scene of a domestic dispute last February. The bill passed unanimously in the Senate but died in the House Judiciary Committee. This was the third year that a bill attempting to add assault of EMS workers to the assault in the third degree law has failed.
• Senate Bill 193, which would have created a special EMS license plate and raised money for EMS continuing education, passed unanimously in the Senate but died in the House Transportation Committee. Spearheaded by the Kentucky EMS Connection, it took three years to get this bill into the General Assembly.

Other bills of interest to EMS which also died included:

• Senate Bill 1, which proposed a constitutional amendment relating to health care liability limitations, passed the Senate and a House Committee but was never voted on by the full House. 
• House Bill 20, which would have created a certified volunteer firefighter identification program, passed the House and made it out of a Senate Committee but was sent back to another Senate Committee after it was amended to also increase financial aid to volunteer fire departments, where the bill died.
• House Bill 78, related to interlocal agreements and incentives for disaster and emergency services, made it out of one House Committee but was recommitted to another House Committee, where it died.
• House Bill 608, which would have exempted peace officers, fire fighters, and EMS paid personnel from jury duty, died in the original House Committee it was assigned to.

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