Lawmakers discuss pressing topics, priorities ahead of the 2026 legislative session

Before returning to Frankfort for the upcoming legislative session, regional lawmakers shared their thoughts concerning hot-button issues and their priorities at Monday's Pennyrile Area Development District (PeADD) meeting.

The meeting was hosted at the Pennyrile Forest State Park Lodge. From the Kentucky Senate, District 1 Senator Jason Howell, who represents Crittenden, Lyon and Trigg counties; District 2 Senator Danny Carroll, who represents Ballard, Carlisle, Livingston and McCracken counties and District 3 Senator Craig Richardson, who represents Caldwell, Christian and Muhlenberg counties, were in attendance.

Then from the Kentucky House of Representatives, District 8 Representative Walker Thomas of parts of Caldwell, Christian and Trigg counties; District 4 Representative Wade Williams of Hopkins County; District 6 Representative Chris Freeland of Lyon County; District 5 Representative Mary Beth Imes of part of Trigg County and District 4 Representative Jim Gooch Jr. of Crittenden County were also in attendance.

The legislators sat as a panel and were asked about county jail costs, the continuation of the senior meals program, the use of open record requests and their budget priorities.

The financial burden of jails has been an ongoing issue for county governments and was discussed by lawmakers in the past, but no legislative steps have been made yet to alleviate that burden. Gooch says jail officials need to be looking into housing more federal prisoners and ICE detainees, because then those facilities could receive more federal funding.

Howell says there is not just one solution to alleviate the financial burden of jails. He says they may need to provide more funding for public defender offices, and he’s heard some people talking about removing the jailer position and having sheriff offices or fiscal courts oversee the jails.

In September, Area Development District officials announced that they were facing a funding shortfall, which would have negatively impacted their senior home-delivered meals programs. However, in October, the governor’s office announced that more funding had been allocated to ensure those programs continue through the end of the year.

Thomas recently helped deliver some of those meals, and beyond ensuring that senior citizens have food, he says the program is a chance for people to check in on those folks. Thomas says he plans to advocate to get senior meal programs the funding they need during this upcoming session.

PeADD Executive Director Jason Vincent says they currently have around 200 seniors on a waiting list for the meals program.

Turning toward priorities, Carroll says he will be focusing on bringing nuclear energy to Kentucky. Carroll says he plans to file a bill to get $150 million allocated toward the implementation of nuclear energy, and then use $75 million from the allocation to create a pilot project to prepare three sites for nuclear reactors.

Kentucky’s 2026 legislative session starts on January 6.