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Read. Follow. Verify.Kentucky HB 774 Requires State and Local Entities to Report Court Costs, Fines, and Fees
Last action · March 11, 2026: received in Senate to Committee on Committees (S)Sponsors: Jennifer Decker and 1 other
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What This Bill Proposed
Kentucky HB 774 requires state and local governmental entities to compile and electronically submit annual quantitative data on criminal and traffic-related costs, fines, and fees to the Office of the Kentucky Center for Statistics beginning July 31, 2027. The legislation mandates public online publication of these financial figures and demographic breakdowns by November 1, 2027, while prohibiting the release of personally identifiable information. Additionally, the bill tasks the Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee with submitting an annual summary to the General Assembly starting January 31, 2028.
Local governments, courts, and state agencies must dedicate administrative resources to track, aggregate, and report financial and demographic data regarding court-ordered financial obligations. Residents gain searchable online access to public spending and fine collection metrics without exposing individual identities.
- The General Assembly is the legislative branch of the Commonwealth of Kentucky responsible for enacting state laws. context
- The Office of the Kentucky Center for Statistics maintains state data warehouses to link education, training, and workforce records across agencies. context
Who It Would Have Affected
Groups the bill's text would have affected, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
Governmental entities
Cities, counties, detention facilities, and judicial divisions must compile and electronically submit annual financial and demographic data regarding costs, fines, and fees.
Office of the Kentucky Center for Statistics
The office must collect annual data submissions, apply de-identification standards, and publish the information in an interactive, searchable format online.
Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee
The committee is required to prepare an annual summary of the published data and submit it to the General Assembly.
Key Facts
- Governmental entities must electronically submit annual quantitative data by fiscal year for costs, fines, fees, interest, and late payments to the executive director of the Office of the Kentucky Center for Statistics.
- Data submissions must include total aggregated amounts, disaggregated amounts by type, restructuring or discharge amounts, and demographic distributions of individuals ordered to pay.
- Demographic reporting is required only for categories where the entity already collected or maintained data prior to the act's effective date.
- Governmental entities must report fund allocations and recipient details, excluding statutory special or trust funds, along with the statutory authority, paid amounts, and percentage shares.
Show all 11 facts
- The initial data submission deadline for all governmental entities is July 31, 2027, and annually thereafter by July 31.
- The executive director must publish the submitted data in an interactive and searchable format on the Office of the Kentucky Center for Statistics website beginning November 1, 2027.
- The director must apply de-identification standards to prevent the identification of any individual ordered to pay charges.
- The Legislative Oversight and Investigations Committee must prepare a summary of the published data and submit it to the General Assembly beginning January 31, 2028, and annually thereafter.
- The Auditor of Public Accounts may perform a financial audit of revenue records from costs, fines, and fees at the request of the Governor or any General Assembly member.
- Final audit reports must be made publicly available and submitted to the Legislative Research Commission, Attorney General, and Governor.
- The act may be cited as the Costs, Fines, and Fees Reporting Act.
Frequently Asked Questions
What information must governmental entities report under this bill?
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Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
This bill did not become law - Died at adjournment · passed the House · in the Senate.
Procedural history
7 actions- Mar 11, 2026SenateIntroducedreceived in Senate to Committee on Committees (S)
- Mar 10, 2026HouseFloor3rd reading, passed 98-1
- Mar 9, 2026Houseposted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Tuesday, March 10 2026
- Mar 5, 2026HouseFloor2nd reading, to Rules
- Mar 4, 2026Housereported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar
- Mar 2, 2026HouseCommitteeto Judiciary (H)
Show 1 earlier action
- Feb 26, 2026HouseIntroducedintroduced in House to Committee on Committees (H)
Version history
Only one version on file - nothing to compare yet. As later stages (committee substitute, engrossed, enrolled) are captured, the redline appears here.
View official text →Lobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Discoveries
Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.
Centralized State Financial Transparency
Shifts financial tracking of local and state criminal and traffic fees into a single searchable state database managed by the Kentucky Center for Statistics.
Connected Entities
Sources
apps.legislature.ky.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance20Lowered because this bill did not pass (its text scored 75)
- Controversy30Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz25Current news / social attention level
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