March 2015 – Page 32 – Welcome to Wyandotte Daily!

Legislative update from Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, R-5th Dist.

Contact: steve.fitzgerald@senate.ks.gov

Education costs stay down for illegal aliens

The government of Kansas should protect and serve the citizens of the state. Taxing those citizens to pay for reduced tuition for illegal aliens is morally wrong. It is using coercive powers of the state to take from those who have obeyed the law and give to those who have flouted the law. It encourages more disrespect for the law and more illegal aliens.

Illegal aliens impose an enormous burden on the taxpayers of Kansas because of the cost of welfare, education, and often their incarceration. Too many Kansans and too many illegal aliens have been victimized by those who are here in violation of our laws. The illegal aliens and their families are exploited, and, afraid of going to the police, they are easy prey. And yet, we continue to provide benefits that attract more and exacerbate the situation.

Law-abiding citizens of other countries apply for visas, go through background checks and health screenings before coming here. Illegal aliens do not. Yet, Kansas law provides incentives for those who violate our laws. This is an injustice to those in other countries who follow the rules and obey the law as well as to the Kansans who foot the bill.

This is a disservice to Kansans and it must be stopped. Unfortunately, a bill (HB 2139) to end the insanity of encouraging more illegal immigration (no background check, no health screen, often no actual identification) has been tabled in the House Committee on Education. Those members tabling this bill are responsible for the continuation of this misuse of tax dollars and the continuation of the serious problems associated with a rapidly growing illegal alien population that come here or stay here in violation of the law, something that cannot be done in their home countries.

The United States accepts more legal immigrants than any other country in the world. It also has the highest number of illegal immigrants. Legal immigrants are always welcomed and their desire to live here legally is appreciated. The gate crashing, however, needs to stop. Providing inducements for such illegal activity is a betrayal of the trust that Kansans place in their elected representatives.

During the debate in committee there were charges of “racism, sexism, and fear mongering.” No, this is not about race; it is about the law. It is about the right and ability of the American people to have a country with borders and laws against invasion by those who ignore our borders, disregard our laws, take our benefits, and demand more. The charge of racism is a clear sign that those in favor of this ruinous policy that is increasing our tax burden, overloading our education system, clogging our emergency rooms, filling our courts and prisons are simply bankrupt when it comes to defending it. They have no excuse and so they charge “racism” in an attempt to bully representatives – and it worked.

Most shameful of all is the support for this illegality comes from members of the business community who want cheap, compliant labor, labor that is unlikely to join a union or make a fuss because it is here illegally. Representatives fearful of losing the support of those businesses and sensitive to being called a racist simply abandoned their duty and turned their backs on the Kansas worker who must compete in this environment where his wages are held down by competition from those who have no right to be here and who are taking his tax dollars to support themselves.

Religious freedom for college students

SB 175 enacts law prohibiting post secondary educational institutions from taking any action that would deny a religious student association any benefit available to any other student association. The bill creates a cause of action for a student or religious student association wronged by a violation of this provision and in doing so the afflicted party could assert such violation as a defense or seek appropriate relief, including monetary damages.

I introduced the bill and carried it on the floor. Ridiculous charges were made to the effect that the bill would allow otherwise illegal racial discrimination, etc. The bill will simply allow student religious organizations to continue as they have done. No instances of any problems were cited by the opposition; but, they had imaginary scenarios of terrible things happening. The Senate approved the bill on a final action vote of 30-8.

Transparency bills

SB 86 is intended to increase government transparency among the public in the legislative process by establishing the Kansas Transparency Act. Currently the daily proceedings in the Senate and House chambers are broadcast in real time over internet audio but starting Jan. 1, 2016, the Act would require legislative committee meetings that are held in four designated rooms in the Statehouse be broadcast as well. Additionally, archives of all broadcasts in those designated rooms would be required to be publicly available on the internet to be accessed at a later date. The bill passed unanimously.

SB 193 is an innovative approach to the challenging decision for many students and their parents with regard to investing in higher education. The bill requires post secondary institutions in Kansas to publish a single-page degree “prospectus” for each degree offered. By making a more informed decision early in the process, students will be able to save more in the long-run, and have more to show for the degrees they ultimately earn. The bill passed on a vote of 27-11. I voted for this bill.

SB 98 updates the Kansas Open Records Act by requiring that minutes be taken at all meetings that fall under the Kansas Open Meetings Act. The presiding officer would determine the format but minutes of all meetings would be required. It also updates how much public agencies can charge for black and white copies of public records. Each copy could not exceed 25 cents a page. The measure has been the result of over two years of compromise and negotiations among a number of stakeholders on both sides of the issue. Proponents of the measure believe that the average citizen should have the ability to easily access public documents without facing an unreasonable financial cost. The bill passed unanimously.

SB 86 creates the Kansas Transparency Act which expands the Kansas Open Records Act. The bill requires legislative committees to have an audio feed streamed live over the internet. Four designated committee rooms will be equipped to allow for broadcasts by Jan. 1, 2016, with the rest of the statehouse’s committee rooms following by 2019. Those first four rooms would be designated by the Legislative Coordinating Council. Archives of the broadcasts would also be available to the public on the Kansas Legislative website. Proponents of SB 86 believe the measure would allow more people to become more informed about the legislative process. The measure was approved unanimously.

SB 42 requires that every registered lobbyist submit a report disclosing the amount of money they receive from public entities. The reports will be open to the public and must be filed by Jan. 10 for the previous year. All reports will be available on the Secretary of State’s website. There were two amendments added on the floor that would ask governmental agencies to disclose all public funds that are used to lobby and publish that information the same way they publish their annual budget either online or in newsprint. Taxpayers deserve to know the amount of public money being spent to lobby for more tax dollars. The bill passed unanimously.

Bills from the House

HB 2096. On Thursday, the Senate Commerce Committee passed HB 2096, which contains the contents of what were originally SB 179 and SB 212. The bill stops automatic paycheck deductions for union dues for state, municipal and school district employees.

This does not prevent any employee from making a contribution by other means. It also limits collective bargaining between state agencies and their workers to salary issues and moves dispute resolutions to the secretary of the Kansas Department of Labor, instead of the board, which is abolished under this bill. The bill is expected to be on the Senate calendar this week.

Job growth and low unemployment in Kansas

According to figures from the Department of Labor, there is a steady increase in the number of private sector jobs in Kansas – which are now at a record high. However, we need even more private sector growth.

Unemployment continues to stay at a low 4.2 percent, according to the Department of Labor. This helps to keep our expenses under control and is an indicator that wages should be rising. We need to bring our taxes and expenses down so that there are more resources in the economy for private employment.

Passions high on both sides of Medicaid expansion debate

Citizens on both sides of the issue attend hearings and offer their perspectives

by Jim McLean, KHI News Service

Mary Weber, a para-professional in the Wichita school district, falls in the Medicaid expansion gap.

The recent legislative hearings on Medicaid expansion brought representatives from dozens of powerful groups to the Statehouse.

Lobbyists representing hospitals, doctors and some big businesses pleaded with members of the House Health and Human Services Committee to approve an expansion proposal one day. The next, representatives of conservative, anti-tax organizations urged committee members to continue to say ‘no’ to expansion, despite the billions of additional federal dollars it would inject into the Kansas economy.

But the hearings also attracted scores of everyday citizens. They included those who need the coverage that expansion would provide and others opposed to extending benefits to non-disabled adults.

Mary Weber is a single mother of three who works as a para-professional in the Wichita school district. She helps students with disabilities keep up in the classroom.

Weber’s children qualify for Medicaid – known in Kansas as KanCare – but she doesn’t. Adults with dependent children must earn less than one-third of the federal poverty level to be eligible for KanCare. That translates into about $8,000 a year for Weber’s family of four.

At the same time, Weber’s annual income isn’t enough to qualify her for federal subsidies that would all but cover premiums for private coverage purchased in the Affordable Care Act marketplace. She’s caught in what has come to be known as the Medicaid expansion gap.

“I make too much for Medicaid and not enough for the ACA (tax credits),” Weber said.

Weber had health problems that sent her to the hospital last year. The care she received cost about $1,200 and she couldn’t pay the bill.

“For a single mom, that’s a lot,” she said. “I ended up having to pay for part of it, but the hospital wrote off a big chunk of it.”

The need for such write-offs has been lessened in states that have expanded their Medicaid programs to cover adults earning up to a third more than the federal poverty level – about $16,000 for individuals and nearly $33,000 for families of four.

But many Kansas hospitals have seen their “charity care” numbers climb at the same time they are dealing with reductions in Medicare payments.

Weber said she understands that Medicaid expansion is a politically charged issue because of its connection to Obamacare. But from her perspective, the politics are blinding legislators to the fact that expansion could provide coverage to about 150,000 Kansans, most of whom are now uninsured.

Weber searched for a respectful way of expressing her frustration. But after a few stops and starts she gave up and said what was on her mind.

“It’s a bunch of crap,” she said. “Medicaid expansion would give a lot of us who work and who are trying to make a living the health insurance we need.”

Walter Cunningham also has strong opinions on the issue. He was one of several people who attended the hearings wearing green t-shirts that said “Light the Fire of Freedom in Kansas” on the front and “Ideas Don’t Work Unless You Do” on the back. The shirts were supplied by Americans for Prosperity Kansas, a conservative group with ties to Wichita’s Koch brothers that lobbies for smaller government.

Cunningham, also from Wichita, said welfare benefits make people too dependent on the government. He cites his adult daughter as an example.

“I have a daughter who chose obesity and chose to smoke to the point where she ended up losing a part of her leg (to diabetes),” Cunningham said. “She’s now on kidney dialysis. She has no insurance. So, she’s plaguing the system.”

His daughter receives about $1,000 a month in Social Security disability benefits, Cunningham said.

“I told her not to take any of the money and ‘you can come die with us because that’s what you’re going to end up doing,’” he said. “So, the government – Social Security and Medicare – have given her a cushion, which she did not deserve.”

The lobbyists for AFP and conservative think-tanks who spoke against expansion weren’t as blunt as Cunningham but there were echoes of his objections in their testimony.

“Medicaid expansion, in my opinion, is morally indefensible because it puts able-bodied folks in line ahead of the disabled. The arguably not-needy ahead of the truly needy,” said Dean Clancy, a Washington, D.C. veteran of conservative causes who now works for the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability.

To be clear, the disabled Kansans on Medicaid waiver waiting lists Clancy referred to are receiving medical care. However, they are waiting for Medicaid support services to help them live independently.

Eliminating the waiting lists appears to be a prerequisite for Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, though it would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the state’s share of expansion costs.

That reality appears to have made it even less likely that Kansas lawmakers will seriously consider a bill backed by the Kansas Hospital Association that requires the Brownback administration to craft an expansion proposal and negotiate its approval with federal officials.

The chairman of the HHS committee, Wichita Republican Dan Hawkins, has said he has no immediate plans to schedule a vote on the bill.

The nonprofit KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. All stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online.

– See more at http://www.khi.org/news/article/passions-high-on-both-sides-of-medicaid-expansion-debate#sthash.TEeKJVae.dpuf

Legislative forum planned Tuesday evening

The MainStream Coalition plans a Legislative Forum, “Local vs. Topeka,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, at the West Wyandotte Library, 1737 N. 82nd St., Kansas City, Kan.

Expected to be on the program are Mike Taylor, lobbyist for the Unified Government; and David Smith, chief of staff for the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools.

Cosponsors of the event include El Centro, Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation and NEA.

For information, call 913-649-3326 or visit the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/events/1552191461709981/.