Feb. 24, 2015
It is an honor to represent our community in the Kansas Senate. While the Legislature is in Session, I do my best to stay in touch and keep you informed by email. If I can be of service to you, contact me 785-296-7375, room 125-E
at the Kansas Statehouse.
In this issue:
• Last week at the Capitol
• Joint rules settled
• School finance update
• Democrats introduce tax credit bills
• Republicans introduce revenue proposals
• T-Works declared dead
• County treasurer changes postponed
• Newsworthy Notes
Last week at the Capitol
Last week marked the sixth week of the legislative session. To date, the Senate has debated and voted on 14 pieces of legislation. All received the constitutional majority vote, meaning they passed with 21 votes or more so they will now move on to the House for consideration.
This is a historically low amount of legislation passed for the point we’re at in the session. On average over the past four years, the Senate has debated and voted on 34 pieces of legislation by the Friday before turnaround – the mid-way marker for session.
Feb. 27 was the deadline for most bills to clear their house of origin. With a few exceptions, bills that do not make it out of their first chamber will remain in committee and are considered dead for the session.
Joint rules settled
Work has been somewhat delayed because the House and Senate were working to resolve a disagreement over a rule added to the Joint Rules. The rule limits the number of bills that can be bundled into one conference committee report. The agreement both chambers came to was to only allow five bills to be bundled, but exempted tax measures from the rule.
School finance update
The truth is there isn’t a school finance update. As you may recall, the governor has proposed to repeal the school finance formula and replace it with block grants for the next two years. Next week marks the mid-point of session and neither chamber has had pieces of legislation introduced that specify the governor’s proposal to reform the school finance formula. This is going to quickly become a problem as school districts begin planning their budgets for the next school year.
Democrats introduce tax credit bills
Senate Democrats introduced two bills that seek to help those who were impacted the most by the governor’s failed experiment – low income Kansans. Senate Bill 199 would restore the child care tax credit and Senate Bill 200 would increase the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) from 17% to 20%. The EITC encourages low-wage earner to stayed employed and off of assistance programs.
Republicans introduce revenue proposals
Republicans have introduced a number of revenue proposals that unfairly target groups of Kansans. These proposals include:
•Sen. Jeff Melcher (R-Leawood) introduced a bill that would change a nearly 30-year standard of how agriculture property value is assessed. An early estimate of a fiscal note for Senate Bill 178 indicated the average agriculture land property value would increase from $4.25 an acre to as much as $20 an acre.
•Sen. Les Donovan (R-Wichita) introduced in the Senate Committee on Assessment and Taxation a bill that would repeal the sales tax exemption on farm equipment and
machinery. An estimated fiscal note indicates revenue of $73 million. A bill number has yet to be assigned. Cities and counties across the state would be happy to see a bill introduced to remove the exemption on machinery to equipment. This would bring over $6 million into the general fund of the Unified Government.
•Sen. Donovan also introduced a bill that would repeal of the sales tax exemption on residential and agriculture utilities. An estimated fiscal note indicates revenue of $183. A bill number has yet to be assigned.
•Senate Bill 251 reduces the Earned Income Tax Credit from 17% to 8% and makes it a non-refundable credit. This reduction would cause a reduction in Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds.
•Senate Bill 233 increases the tobacco and liquor taxes. It’s estimated it would generate $212 million over two years.
None of these bills present real solutions. I will not support policies that fail to address the root cause of the state’s budget crisis – the governor’s failed economic experiment – and, instead, pit groups of Kansans against each other.
T-Works declared dead
The Kansas Contractors Association has declared the T-Works Transportation Program is dead after the Kansas Department of Transportation released data indicating the Brownback administration has raided the highway fund by $2.1 billion.
For the current fiscal year alone, the governor has swept the highway fund by nearly half a billion dollars, and proposed in his budget to take an additional $725 million in Fiscal Year 16 and Fiscal Year 17. So, in the next three years, the highway fund would be raided, again, for more than $1 billion.
This sweep of funds leaves nothing left to fund new highway construction. It also makes it difficult to maintain current roads. This is a direct attack on a proven job-creating program. I have not supported and will continue to not support any efforts to further de-fund T-Works.
County treasurer changes postponed
Last week I told you that the Kansas Department of Revenue had identified an
“efficiency” and were no longer going to send letters to notify motorists when their vehicle tags renewed. This week, the department issued a statement that it would be indefinitely postponing these changes in order to further consider concerns raised by county treasurers.
Newsworthy notes
•Senate Bill 222- This is a bill I introduced that will add loaded firearm in a place accessible to children to the statute, dealing with child endangerment. This bill was heard today. Thank you to Wyandotte County, Assistant District Attorney, Sheryl Lidtke and to Theodore Redick from KCK for testifying at the hearing.
•Dairy Farmers to Kansas City, Kan. – Kansas City’s largest held private company is moving its headquarters and all 325 of its employees to Kansas. The Dairy Farmers of America are moving to the Village West district in KCK. Anew facility, which will be utilized as a new base for their operations will be built and finished by December 2016. This continues the trend of making western Wyandotte the place where people go to work.
•New job for Joe Reardon- Two years after leaving office, former Kansas City, Kan., Mayor Joe Reardon is returning to public life to head the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority in a newly created position. Mayor Reardon is a perfect fit in this position to expand and unify the region’s public transit system.
•Bone marrow Registry Drive- A former preschool student of mine, Mason Caudle is battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant. There will be a Bone Marrow registry Drive for ages 18 to 44 on March 7 at the Turner Recreation Center Gym. Please lend your support for a great cause.
•There is new online tool available at http://standards.ksde.org that provides Kansas citizens the opportunity to study and submit feedback on the state’s current English language arts and mathematic academic standards. Kansas College and Career Ready Standards, approved by the State Board of Education, represent what students should know and be able to demonstrate at each grade level.
•Don’t forget to vote! Local elections will be held on March 3.