Month: April 2022

Representatives, senators must iron out differences in their proposals

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — A bill to legalize sports wagering took a significant step Wednesday, clearing the Kansas House just over 24 hours after the measure appeared to stall in committee.

The future of the bill was up in the air after the House Federal and State Affairs Committee abruptly adjourned Tuesday when an amendment proposed on behalf of legislative leadership failed twice. But in an unusual turn of events, the bill was pulled from the committee by House leadership and placed on the calendar for debate Wednesday.

Representatives approved an amendment offered by Rep. John Barker, R-Abilene, to gut the contents of a competing Senate bill and place the House plan language into it.

“This has been a good debate that’s been ongoing for years,” Rep. Barker said. “It’s nice to pass bipartisan bills, and I think we’ve arrived at that today.”

The House approved the bill by an 88 to 36 vote. Senators and representatives will likely conference to iron out differences in the proposals in the coming days.

Legislators backing the measure are hopeful this session will finally see sports wagering legalized through a proposal with widespread support from gaming interests, which have debated for years how to divide revenue and who would control the action. The bill authorizes sports gambling by allowing the Kansas Lottery to contract with gaming facility managers.

Managers could offer wagering through websites, mobile applications and on-site. The state would receive 20% of revenue through online gambling and 14% from in-person bets.

Kansas Lottery estimates indicated sports wagering would generate additional revenue for the state of $1.8 million in 2023, $6.0 million in 2024, and $10.0 million in 2025.

An amendment tacked on by Rep. Vic Miller, D-Topeka would address problem gaming, allowing Kansans to self-identify if they know they have a problem. If those who self-identify make wagers, the winnings would go to the Problem Gambling and Addiction fund as an additional incentive not to gamble.

“I think it is time Kansas joined the rest of the country moving this direction, … so I don’t have a problem with the bill,” Rep. Miller said. “But it does have consequences. I have seen it firsthand. I know how devastating it can be. I don’t think this amendment goes nearly far enough to address it, but at least it’s something.”

Rep. Trevor Jacobs, R-Fort Scott, said the fact an amendment needs to be brought to address a problem this bill would further was laughable. He criticized his Republican colleagues for backing ideas expanding access to gambling, alcohol and marijuana, which he saw as contrary to the core of the party platform.

“I’ve got a great idea,” Rep. Jacobs said. “Why don’t we present a bill that creates a problem and then puts an amendment in there that tries to fix it. Great idea.”

Rep. Boog Highberger, a Lawrence Democrat, was displeased with the process the bill went through over the past two days but said he would vote for the measure because his constituents supported it.

Throughout the bill process, lawmakers from Kansas have pointed to an effort occurring across the border in Missouri to legalize sports wagering that is inching toward fruition. Kansas representatives expressed an eagerness to see their plan passed first.

Before that, senators and representatives will need to iron out differences in their proposals, including whether to let sportsbooks deduct revenue tied to free play bets from taxable revenue. The Senate version includes, this while the House version does not.

“People in Kansas are doing sports betting right now. I think a lot of people that are doing it don’t even realize it’s illegal,” said House Minority Leader Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita. “It’s time we provide a legal means for people to do it, regulate it and tax it. You know, this bill isn’t perfect, but it’s a compromise.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/03/30/kansas-house-revives-and-passes-stalled-sports-wagering-bill/.

Advocates hail legislation as tool to lift Kansans out of poverty

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — The Kansas and Senate voted to send Gov. Laura Kelly a measure Thursday mandating able-bodied adults without dependents hold down a job for 30 hours a week or enroll in a job training program to receive federal food assistance.

Rep. Sean Tarwater, a Stilwell Republican who chairs the House commerce committee, said he was convinced placing the requirement into state law would compel more people 18 to 49 years of age without a disability to enter the workforce. If Kelly concurred, Kansans meeting the work-hour minimum or enroll in job training wouldn’t be blocked from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also called SNAP or food stamps.

“It’s a successful program. Helps people learn new skills. Get higher wage jobs,” said Rep. Tarwater, who expects the bill to help motivate people to get a substantive job. “We think people will just go back to work for 30 hours rather than go to a class.”

Opponents of House Bill 2448 said the only public advocate for shifting the Kansas job training program from a voluntary option to a government mandate in relation to food stamps was the Florida think tank Opportunity Solutions Project. A representative of the organization said the pressure tactic was necessary to move people off the sidelines and into an economy starved for workers.

Rep. Stephanie Clayton, D-Overland Park, said the legislation would require the Kansas Department for Children and Families to hire employees — perhaps as many as 30 — to track whether SNAP applicants were fulfilling the weekly work or job training directive.

“You’ve got an outside, out-of-state organizing trying to impose their will and their policies on us,” Rep. Clayton said. “In short, sketch process from a sketch proponent. It will impose an unnecessary burden on taxpayers.”

The legislation cleared the House on a vote of 70-46 after emerging from the Senate on a vote of 28-11.

In the Senate, debate brushed up against the comparable themes of government’s duty to encourage people to find a way out of poverty and the risk of undermining an individual’s immediate food security in exchange for potential job gains down the road. In addition, champions of the bill said the issue was crafting self-sufficiency among adults. Skeptics called it just mean.

“The whole purpose of this is to encourage people to get the training to go back to work,” said Sen. Beverly Gossage, R-Eudora.

Sen. Pat Pettey, D-Kansas City, Kansas, said she was concerned individuals who needed food stamps could jeopardize their low-paying job to comply with the training program order. She also said the bill could cost DCF as much as $2.7 million annually to track compliance among SNAP applicants or recipients.

Kansas lawmakers should expand enrollment in job training initiatives so families can escape bondage of generational poverty, said Rep. Pat Proctor, R-Leavenworth. He said it was “morally wrong to perpetuate a system that keeps people poor.”

Rep. Jason Probst, D-Hutchinson, said the bill was designed to make life more difficult for impoverished people even if they had a job. He said the legislation had more to do with conservative legislators scoring points with their base voters than addressing food or training needs of the poor.

In fact, he said, the legislation represented an unnecessary expansion of state government and a waste of tax dollars.

“This is bad policy if you’re conservative,” Rep. Probst said. “It’s bad policy if you care about poor people. We’re doing this all just to be mean to poor people and say we get to decide what they do and don’t do.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/03/31/legislature-ties-snap-for-able-bodied-adults-to-job-training-or-part-time-job/.