Southern Kentucky participates in general assembly, expands local housing work
It’s been a busy year so far for Southern Kentucky members. The year started off with action in support of House Bill 70, which would restore the right to vote to most former felons in Kentucky once their sentence is complete. Local members met with five legislators on January 15, and all five have since voted in support of the bill. With recent changes in House Bill 70, which is now in the form of a committee substitute (you can read about that HERE), members will be contacting those same legislators and requesting they hold true to the original House version of the bill and not support the recent changes. Current and upcoming actions include calls,e-mails, and visits to legislators and letters to the editor in papers here at home.
On February 1, members co-hosted a local citizen lobbying training along with Community Farm Alliance and Bowling Green Fairness. Participants received tips on how to interact with lawmakers and the media as well as sessions CFA’s Farms to Food Banks program, local and statewide anti-discrimination laws, tax reform, and voting rights.
In early February members and friends met again in Glasgow to discuss fair housing concerns and renters’ rights as a follow-up to a fall Renters’ Rights Workshop hosted by KFTC and the Glasgow WKU Sociology Department. The students collected renters’ stories from across the Barren River Area, developed curriculum for the renters’ workshops and created evaluation tools for the project. By the end of the semester, the students became community leaders in Glasgow and are continuing to build momentum to improve the quality of life for renters in Glasgow.
Several SOKY members also made the trip to Frankfort for I Love Mountains Day with hundreds of other Kentuckians on February 12 to speak out for clean air and water and better energy policies in support of House Bill 195 (Clean Energy) and House Bill 288 (The Stream Saver Bill.)KFTC will be lobbying on Wednesday, Feb 26 for Clean Energy Lobby Day. Any members wanting to attend can register HERE.
Fairness Day at the Capitol was a hit, with members meeting early in the week for a sign making party before making the trip to lobby and rally for ant-discrimination protections across the state. The House version of a statewide fairness law, House Bill 141, has 18 co-sponsors, including Speaker of the House, Greg Stumbo. Bowling Green Fairness meets every second Monday of the month at 6:00 p.m. in Cherry Hall at WKU. Contact [email protected] for more details.
The next meeting for the Southern Kentucky chapter of KFTC is Tuesday, February 25 at 6:00 p.m. at the Foundry (131 West 11th Street, Bowling Green.) We’ll be taking a look at the growth of our local housing work, making plans for voter empowerment in 2014, and taking action on current legislative issues such as voting rights for former felons and property owners’ rights regarding eminent domain.
Be sure to join us on March 5, as KFTC is honoring the 50 year anniversary of the 1964 civil rights march on Frankfort by participating in this year’s 50th Anniversary March. SOKY KFTC members, along with Bowling Green Fairness and students from WKU will be making the trip by carpool, caravan, and bus. If you’d like to ride the bus, it will be leaving from the Greenwood Mall parking lot at 5:00 a.m. on March 5th. There’s a $40 charge per person and you can register HERE or by calling the Bowling Green Human Rights Commission at (270) 782-7900. If you’d like to carpool, please contact Denney at (270) 779-6483 or [email protected].
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