The 2026 meeting of the Kentucky General Assembly has been underway for just over two weeks in Frankfort. In that time, 82nd District Rep. Nick Wilson has been hard at work, re-filing two bills from last year’s legislative session, filing a pair of new bills focused on childcare, and co-sponsoring another bill that aims to amend the law as it relates to the state’s inheritance tax.
Wilson has filed House Bill 215, which proposes a special discounted rate at state park lodging resorts and golf courses for Kentucky residents. The bill, filed as HB 293 in the 2025 legislative session, is called the J.E. Jones Kentucky Fairways Act in honor of the late Whitley County School Board member, who was also an avid golfer.
Last year, Wilson’s proposal was met with concern from the commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Parks, who said the measure would likely have negative financial ramifications on the state parks system. In a letter, the commissioner estimated that the proposed discount for Kentucky residents could result in a loss of over $3 million in revenue per year.
Wilson’s argument has been that the discount would help to generate enough new business to make up for any projected shortfalls, and that the act would ultimately pay for itself in the long run.
HB 215 is currently being reviewed by the House Committee on Tourism and Recreation.
Wilson has also re-filed HB 290 this session, which relates to the funding for updates to materials found in county law libraries. The bill received unanimous support in the House last session and passed through the Senate Committee on State and Local Government. It did not receive a vote in the Senate, however, despite being reported favorably.
Wilson has referred to HB 290 as “common sense legislation” that will be helpful to communities, bar associations, and individual lawyers, especially younger lawyers just starting out. If passed, it will allow law library funds to be used to expand digital and electronic resources by paying for things like subscriptions to computer-assisted legal research programs, internet access, and computer equipment. Currently, these funds can only be used to purchase physical resources, such as books.
“I feel confident that it’ll pass pretty early,” Wilson said of HB 290, which has been assigned to the House Committee on Local Government. “I feel good about that one. Everyone has agreed on it, so I am trying to get it over to the Senate as quickly as possible.”
Seeking to expand inheritance tax exemptions
For the second time in as many years, Wilson is serving as the primary co-sponsor on a bill, HB 46, which aims to make changes to the way that surviving relatives are classified when it comes to the state’s inheritance tax laws.
“Kentucky is one of only five states that have an inheritance tax,” Wilson recently explained. “Someone asked me about that before I got elected, and I said that Kentucky doesn’t have an inheritance tax. Well, I was wrong.”
Wilson went on to explain that the way the law is currently structured, surviving relatives are grouped into different classes. According to Kentucky Revised Statute (KRS), Class A includes parents, spouses, children/stepchildren, grandchildren and siblings. These relatives are exempted from paying inheritance tax. Class B relatives, which include nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, son-or-daughter in-laws and great grandchildren, are not exempted.
“What this bill would do is move Class B relatives to Class A and exempt them from the inheritance tax,” Wilson said of HB 46. “That is important, because it’s just not as simple as parents raising children anymore. I know people personally who were raised by aunts and uncles, and that’s who they consider to be mom and dad, but they were never legally adopted. This just makes it so that relationship is treated the same as a parent-child relationship, specifically when you are discussing leaving somebody something in your will and whether there should be a tax on it or not.”
Currently, HB 46 is being reviewed by the House Committee on Appropriations and Revenue.
Addressing childcare issues
“I expect childcare to be looked at in this session, and that there will be some legislations passed on it.”
This, Wilson explained, is what led him to “throw some feelers out there” as it relates to childcare this session by filing HB 328 and HB 329, which relate to childcare centers and child welfare investigations, respectively.
Specifically, HB 328 seeks to amend KRS to establish licensure requirements for childcare centers and establish operational standards for childcare centers. HB 329, meanwhile, aims to establish record keeping and process requirements for reports of alleged child dependency, neglect, or abuse.
“It kind of gives a little bit more due process to daycare centers when they are being inspected,” Wilson said. “Frankfort has investigators who can inspect daycares, and they can pop in at any time to make sure that things are going well. That is good, and we need those people, but it also seems that, for this particular type of business, there are not as many allowances.”
Wilson said that he thought it would be worth having a discussion about how childcare centers specifically are being investigated, just to make sure that the correct and most effective processes are in place. He said that striking the proper balance is a “fine line,” explaining that you obviously don’t want to be too lenient, but also acknowledging that it can be difficult to find a daycare right now. For this reason, he said it is important to not bog centers down with unnecessary paperwork and overly burdensome regulations that can potentially lead to unwarranted shut downs.
“It’s probably really hard to craft legislations that threads the needle on this, but I’d like for the discussion to at least be on the table,” Wilson said.
Opposition to proposed changes to deer harvesting
When asked to speak about anything else that has caught his attention in the early days of the 2026 legislative session, Wilson pointed to a bill (HB 142) that is seeking to amend KRS to make several requirements of the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Department as it pertains to deer harvesting. Among those requirements would be issuing a deer permit for the taking of one additional antlered deer during a hunting season to any requesting individual.
“I don’t plan on voting for that if it goes up for a vote,” Wilson said. “This is a perfect example of how diverse our state is, because some legislators [come] from central and western Kentucky [where they] have more deer than we do.”
Wilson said that he wanted to bring the bill to people’s attention, saying that, if it does end up moving forward, he plans on trying to make some suggestions for how it could possibly be implemented only in certain zones, as opposed to statewide.
“The fact is, in eastern Kentucky, we don’t need two tags for bucks,” Wilson said. “We just don’t. That is one [bill] that I’ve heard a lot about that I want people to know that I will be fighting to make sure we don’t have it in Whitley County. I know that people care a lot about the deer population, and it’s not always been good in our area. I don’t know if it would be considered good or bad right now, but I know that it’s better than when I was a kid. We don’t want to see that go away.”
Currently, HB 142 is being reviewed by the House Committee on Agriculture.
Overall, Wilson said that he feels the 2026 meeting of the Kentucky General Assembly is off to a good start. He said that it is difficult to gauge things at this particular point in time because several committee meetings have yet to take place, but he does expect to start seeing some bills getting passed as early as this week.
To follow along with the progress of all bills filed in the House and Senate throughout the 2026 legislative session, go online to www.legislature.ky.gov.
