FRANKFORT, Ky. - The first day of the special session was short but it left Democrats with some hope.

The House enrolled three bills on Friday.

• House Bill 1, sponsored by Rep. James Tipton, R-Taylorsville.
• House Bill 2, sponsored by Rep. Joe Graviss, D-Versailles.
• House Bill 3, Sponsored by Rep. Angie Hatton, D-Whitesburg.

HB 1 is the legislation drafted in accordance to the call of the special session from Gov. Matt Bevin.  This legislation would institute a contribution rate freeze at 49 percent for one year, and give employers of quasi-governmental agencies and regional universities several options: stay in the system, or leave the system by making installment payments or a lump sum.

HB 2 is the Democrat’s pension relief proposal, which has been referred to as BR 11. It would institute a permanent contribution rate freeze at 49 percent, while re-directing about $130 million from the retiree health insurance fund to the pension fund for five years, the money would be paid back over time.

HB 3 would institute a permanent freeze on the pension contribution rates at 49 percent.

All three bills have been assigned to the House State Government Committee and are listed on the agenda, but it’s unclear if they will actually get heard.

“I haven’t seen the exact language of the bill, so I can’t speculate on that at this point,” Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said. “We’re open to all thoughts and ideas but the call is going to limit us to some degree on what we can do.”

House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, was encouraged to see the Democrat proposals receive a reading and be sent to the committee.

“I’m hopeful that the committee process will be opened up to amendments,” Adkins said “I’m hoping that the ideas that will be worked on that we’ll be able to make a very strong bill that will protect those pension systems, and that will also make sure those 9,000 people that are in the system now, that that my opinion on the governor’s bill is that it violates the inviolable contract with the opt out provision written as it is now.”

Democrats took issue with the narrow scope of the special session call saying Bevin was trying to legislate himself.

“There is extreme concern over how narrow this call has made, extreme concern about legislative independence and the worry about a governor being able to come whenever and call a special session  and dictate not only the call,” Adkins said.  “I want you to understand, the governor does have the ability to call us into special session, the governor does have the ability to make the call on the subject matter, but the governor does not have the ability in the constitution or in Mason’s manual to basically write the legislation of the whatever that subject of that call may be.”

This is a claim Republicans have shot down.

“He is the only one that can call it, he is the only one that can write the call, he is the only one who can include the wording of that call the constitution dictates that,” Speaker Pro Temp David Meade, R-Stanford, said. “The time for legislative independence was back during the 2019 session, when we had a bill that we passed out of this body that ended up becoming vetoed, but we could have passed that bill much earlier had certain members of this body been willing to participate in that process and willing to pass it.”

If aspects of the Democrat proposal are included in HB 1 or any other changes are made, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, says the governor would need to be consulted.

“The call is such as the governor would have to amend the call of the extraordinary session unless there is an agreement by him on that type of amendment,” Stivers said. “The bill as it is being introduced is what would be passed through both chambers.

Whether the scope of the session is too narrow or not, Senate Minority Leader Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, says he hopes whatever is passed is well thought out.

“My hope is that we come in and don’t make this an ideological fight,” McGarvey said. “That we’re not limited by something the governor is trying to force on the legislature and we actually solve this problem together to make sure people who have a pension can keep it and the system is sustainable going forward.”

The House State Government Committee will be meeting upon adjournment on Saturday to hear the bills.