Kentucky Senator Max Wise (R-Campbellsville), addressed several local residents who attended his “Town Hall” style of meeting Friday at the Clinton County Courthouse. Wise, whose senate district includes Clinton County, holds the sessions on a regular basis to keep his constituents informed of legislative developments.

Senator Max Wise came to Albany last week and held a “Town Hall” meeting in the upstairs courtroom of the courthouse on Friday, January 20.

Wise spent more than an hour in front of a good crowd of people interested in many of the topics he discussed. Wise said he was excited to get back to work this year and was pleased with the progress he thinks can be made in Frankfort.

“What a change in times we are in in Frankfort,” Wise said. “I just can’t express the change of atmosphere in the first two weeks in January compared to the first two years I was up there.”

Wise was also excited about the Speaker of the House who, lives right here in our district.

“I know if he was here right now and not in Washington D.C., Jeff Hoover would be right here by my side,” Wise said. “I can’t thank Jeff enough for what he is doing. We need good God fearing Christian men and women in office. Jeff was gracious that first week and he let every person in the house stand up and speak. I just can’t thank him enough for his leadership. I can’t say how happy I am that the speaker of the house remains in our district right here.”

One item Wise talked about was the fact he wasn’t in his job as a career. He said there are several senators who are in place as a career and he said they shouldn’t be.

“I’m not here for that. I want to be here to serve the people,” Wise said.

Wise said he is very excited about the year and what all the state is going to do in order to help with infrastructure. He said there is going to be some major changes in the roadways, especially with U.S. Hwy 127.

“It’s going to be phenomenal with moving forward on road projects. I saw where they are releasing with 127, work that’s going to be done over there that will connect Russell County and Clinton County. I think the timing is set up perfectly for what we are wanting to do with infrastructure.”

Wise said this session is not a budget year, but rather a legislative session and they will be focusing on legislation.

“Next year, on an even year, 2018, we will be a 60-day budget session,” Wise said. “This year is just on legislation. During that first week we signed seven bills that were signed into law by the governor. I don’t know in my lifetime, and I’m 41 years old, I’ve never heard of seven bills passed in five days.”

Some of the bills that were passed that first week were the “Right to Work” bill.

Basically it gives the employee the right to not have to join a union if they don’t want to.

“I believe it should be their choice if they don’t want funds taken from their check or told they have to be in a union,” Wise said. “I know we have hard working Kentuckians out there who have labor skills and many of them do work that I can’t do. We just felt like we are constraining our state of outside businesses and employment that are willing to come into Kentucky. A lot of the companies are going to ask the question, ‘does your county or state have a right to work?’”

Wise believes this bill will keep businesses from going to surrounding states.

“We have got to get ourselves on better footing economically and we felt like getting “Right to Work” was a step in the right direction,” Wise said.

Another bill Wise said was passed and he thinks will help the school systems is Repealing Prevailing Wage.

“I think a lot of our school projects will be built with a lot more ease with prevailing wage,” Wise said.

Two other bills that were passed dealt with Pro Life and Wise said he will always be Pro Life.

“I campaigned on being a Pro Life legislator. The ultrasound bill, which is a bill we’ve tried for years to get through and we also passed the 20-week abortion bill,” Wise said.

The 20-week abortion ban bill, according to Wise, mandates that “no abortions will be performed after 20 weeks of life,” Wise said.

Wise said another issue the senate dealth with was the University of Louisville Board restructuring.

“This is basically been a sandbox fight between the governor and the attorney general. We felt like we had to do something about the situation,” Wise said. “We got right in that and passed what we felt like we needed to. This is an issue that will follow us in the upcoming weeks.”

When the senate reconvenes in February, Wise said one of the issues they will work on will be judicial redistricting. Wise said the judicial redistricting will add 17 more family court judges to the system.

“We have a lot of people right now who don’t have the family structure in place,” Wise said. “Another thing we are going to get in to when we go back in session is education bills. I’m the vice-chairman of the Senate Education Committee and it’s about charter schools.”

Wise is not for charter schools in rural areas he said.

“I’m a full believer in public education. I’m a product of public education just like most of the people in this room are,” Wise said. “I think public charter schools are fine for places like the west end of Louisville. Bigger cities are fine, but not for Albany.”

Wise finished the town hall meeting by opening up the floor for questions and he heard from several of the members in the crowd. Several issues he touched on were teacher retirement and tax reform.

“I will not let a text message, phone call or email go without it being unanswered,” Wise said.