FRANKFORT, Ky. — Democrats make up less than a quarter of the Kentucky legislature, but House Minority Leader Joni Jenkins, (D-Shively), said she still hopes their voices will be heard.

What You Need To Know

  • The next legislative session starts Jan. 4 and ends April 14

  • Lawmakers will discuss a two-year budget, redistricting, education, unemployment and more

  • Republicans control both chambers of the legislature and only need a simple majority to override the governor’s veto of any legislation

“We know that there are times that they’re going to need us and there are times that they’re not going to need us,” she said.

Jenkins said she’s been discouraged from what she’s seen from Republicans since the last session.  

“We’ve seen a lot of committees questioning the governor’s actions; I think that’s not productive,” she said. “We’ve seen some discussion on very emotional issues like critical race theory, and I look at those as a diversion from the real problems that Kentucky is facing.”

But she said she’s still hopeful the GOP will be open to collaboration on the budget next year.

“Revenues are up as well as there is still some federal relief money to be spent, so it’s a great opportunity for Kentucky to make some bold investments,” Jenkins said.

The two-year spending plan will be the biggest thing to come out of Frankfort in the upcoming session, but there’s going to be plenty of debate on other topics as well. A task force has already put together recommendations to fix the unemployment system.

“From what I understand, a lot of their priorities are business-based,” Jenkins said of the task force, which was made up of mostly Republicans. “And we want strong businesses, but in the House Democratic caucus, we are focusing on the workers and on families.”

And another task force looked at ways to make the state’s education system better, including a possible change to the school funding formula, which would make it based on a district’s enrollment as opposed to the current method that’s based on attendance.

“I’m from Louisville,” she said. “We want to make sure that Louisville is treated fairly, but I also am concerned that we need to make sure that smaller, rural communities are treated fairly as well.”

Right out of the gate, though, we could see new legislative and congressional maps as part of the redistricting process.

“We’re certainly anxious to see those maps and we, as the minority party, will hold them to make sure they are constitutional,” Jenkins said. “

And with all of that going on, Jenkins said she’s going to be busy the next several days leading up to when the legislative session starts Jan. 4.

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