Category: Kansas Legislature

Kansas lawmakers fall a few votes short of banning transgender athletes from women’s sports

Kansas House lawmakers failed to override a veto from the governor, spelling the end for a ban on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.

by Steve Koranda and Jim McLean, Kansas News Service

Topeka, Kansas — Kansas lawmakers failed Thursday to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a ban on transgender girls and women competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams.

The Senate successfully voted to override, but the failure in the House spells the end of the bill for this year. Republicans came close to the needed 84 votes in the House, but ended up with only 81 when a few members of the GOP didn’t support the plan.

It’s a repeat of last session, when Gov. Kelly vetoed a similar bill and lawmakers lacked the votes for an override.

The measure would have prohibited transgender athletes on girls’ and women’s teams at institutions like public grade schools, high schools and colleges.

Almost all Republicans supported the bill, saying it was about making sure that girls and women in sports do not face a disadvantage competing against transgender athletes.

“This is what we’re dealing with: male and female biology,” Republican Rep. Trevor Jacobs said on the House floor. “I can identify as many things, but that doesn’t make it so.”

Several Democrats pushed back against that, including Rep. Stephanie Byers, the first openly transgender lawmaker in Kansas history.

“It comes down to whether or not we recognize someone’s identity,” Rep. Byers said. “This is not my lifestyle. This is my existence.”

Rep. Byers said there may be only a single transgender athlete trying to compete on a girls’ sports teams in Kansas. The association that manages sports for grades 7 through 12 in Kansas told the Associated Press that it had been alerted of six or seven instances of transgender youth competing in sports, but couldn’t confirm how many of them were transgender girls.

Opponents of the bill said it discriminates against transgender youth and can make them feel more isolated.

“Trans kids just want to be accepted for who they are at their core,” Democratic Rep. Susan Ruiz said. “It’s not about playing sports. It’s not about fairness. It’s about singling out a group of kids.”

Opponents of the bill said that isolation could play a part in the higher rates of suicidal thoughts studies have found among transgender youth.

The few Republicans in the House who voted against the bill did not explain their reasons during debate on the plan.

In the Senate, the only dissenting Republican was Sen. Brenda Dietrich, a former Topeka school superintendent. She said she couldn’t support including grade schoolers in the ban.

“I’m just sad that this bill includes our youngest students,” Sen. Dietrich said in an emotional explanation of her vote to sustain the veto on Tuesday.

The plan would have required the Kansas State High School Activities Association, the Kansas Board of Regents and the boards governing municipal universities, community colleges and technical schools to adopt rules and regulations to enforce the ban.

Stephen Koranda is the news editor for the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter @Stephen_Koranda or email him at stephenkoranda (at) kcur (dot) org.

Jim McLean is the senior correspondent for the Kansas News Service and the Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio. You can reach him on Twitter @jmcleanks or email jim (at) kcur (dot) org.

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.

Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.

See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-04-28/kansas-lawmakers-fall-a-few-votes-short-of-banning-transgender-athletes-from-womens-sports

Education bill gets committee green light, awaits full House and Senate vote

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Republican legislators reached a compromise Wednesday on a mega education bill to fully fund schools, allow open enrollment across districts and enact more than a dozen other policy provisions.

The bill, which the full House and Senate may debate as early as Thursday, would provide full funding under the Gannon school finance settlement. However, the K-12 education conference committee chose to ignore a proposed $30 million allocation for special education sought by Gov. Laura Kelly.

Special education advocates say the state needs to increase special education funding by $155 million for the state to reach the mandated 92% of “excess costs.” But GOP legislators on the committee argued the state was on track to meet the requirement and should not allocate more money without knowing in detail what the funds would do to help Kansas students.

Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican and chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, touted the efforts of both chambers to find a compromise in House Bill 2567. Sen. Baumgardner criticized school districts, Gov. Kelly, and plaintiff school districts in the Gannon lawsuit for trying to solve problems by throwing money at the issue.

“We’re going to target that money because we expect to get results,” Sen. Baumgardner said. “We know that there will be data, and I look forward to hearing the results of these new and innovative changes for our kids in Kansas.”

Gov. Kelly initially proposed a $7.5 million increase for special education but then increased her request.

Rep. Valdenia Winn, a Kansas City, Kansas, Democrat, took issue with the accusations that plaintiff school districts were more concerned about money than student performance.

“I found that disturbing unless you have evidence that the school districts who sued didn’t have those students in mind,” Rep. Winn said. “That’s one thing, but to make a statement like you did that is a little sweeping and at the end of the day, we’re all about student achievement.”

The bill also includes an open enrollment provision that would allow students to transfer to any district with capacity beginning in the 2024-2025 school year. School boards and many other education advocacy groups opposed this provision during committee hearings, instead urging legislators to continue allowing local school boards to make decisions based on local factors.

In addition, the delegations agreed to include an option for school districts to use an online program funded by federal and state money. Previously, the program would have been a requirement and districts would need to pay out of pocket.

The legislation allocates $43 million more in state dollars for the statewide school mill levy to offset an expanded property tax exemption recently approved by the Legislature.

Earlier Wednesday, the Legislature gave final approval to House Bill 2466, which is intended to provide computer science courses in all high schools. The committee allocated grant funding for the program.

Sen. Renee Erickson, a Wichita Republican and former school principal, said she was taking a leap of faith even agreeing to allocate the funds prescribed in the bill.

“I have a big problem with giving school districts any more money,” Sen. Erickson said. “I hope I don’t regret that, and rest assured I will be going through this with a fine tooth comb every step of the way.”

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/2022/04/28/education-bill-gets-committee-green-light-awaits-full-house-and-senate-vote/

Kansas Senate backs gradual elimination of sales tax on food by 2025

Democrats push for immediate elimination

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — A Kansas bill providing a multiyear, staggered elimination of the state sales tax on food moved a step closer Wednesday to becoming law.

Kansas’ current sales tax on food is 6.5%, among the highest in the nation, and for years has been among top reform issues for Gov. Laura Kelly, legislators and advocates. But despite the bipartisan support for the change, Republican leadership in the Kansas House and Senate did not entertain a debate during the regular session.

On Wednesday, Senators for the first time debated the issue on the floor, approving a compromise between both chambers without opposition. The plan would take a year-by-year approach to scale down the food sales tax, dropping from 6.5% to 4% on Jan. 1, 2023, then 2% the following year and eliminating the tax altogether in 2025.

While the vote was 39-0, Democrats argued the Legislature should eliminate the sales tax entirely or begin the reduction in July. Senators rejected an effort by Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, to force a debate on a plan proposed by Kelly to eliminate the tax immediately.

“This is not a stunt. This is to get some immediate food sales tax relief to people now,” Sen. Holland said.

House Democrats also tried to force a debate on the governor’s plan with a similar approach but lacked the votes to support the procedural action.

Republicans argue the phased in approach is more fiscally responsible, but Democrats called it a political move aimed at denying Kelly something positive in an election year. The House could take up the bill on Thursday. Kelly hasn’t indicated if she would sign it into law.

Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas City, Kansas, said many people in his district go to Missouri for large purchases, hurting Kansas grocery stores and other vendors.

“I’m sure each of you can talk about some wins in your district, but I don’t know what else to tell them we have done this year that affects us this year,” Sen. Haley said.

Democrats voted in favor of the bill while pointing out the Legislature was not capitalizing on a rare budget surplus and an increasingly optimistic revenue projection.

Sen. Caryn Tyson, R-Parker, expressed frustration with how long it took to get several tax policy items approved but said the approach to cutting the food sales tax over three years via House Bill 2106 wasn’t political. She said immediately lowering the tax to zero was unrealistic and did not provide enough time for vendors to prepare.

“If it was the Tyson plan, we would have had food sales tax done in 2012,” Sen. Tyson said. “I’m going to take what I can get. It’s not perfect, but we’re going to get this issue started and get it going in the right direction for Kansas consumers.”

Sen. Tyson and other Republicans frequently point out that Gov. Kelly vetoed a bill in 2019 that would have eliminated the food sales tax over several years. In her veto message for that measure, which included tax breaks for multinational corporations and other tax changes, Gov. Kelly said she would sign a thought out policy but not a rushed attempt with tax cuts Democrats viewed as harmful to the state’s bottom line.

Attorney General Derek Schmidt, Gov. Kelly’s presumptive GOP gubernatorial opponent, said in a news release earlier this week he would have signed the bill. Schmidt has supported a plan to reduce the sales tax on food and saw this year as a prime opportunity to pass the tax cut.

“In this time of raging inflation, this tax relief will bring much-needed help to so many Kansans throughout our state,” Schmidt said following the Senate vote. “After repeated false starts in years past, now is the time to finally get this done, and I urge the House of Representatives to pass this as well before adjourning this week.”

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/2022/04/27/kansas-senate-backs-gradual-elimination-of-sales-tax-on-food-by-2025/