Category: Kansas Legislature

Final Kansas budget locks in public university tuition freeze, but fee hikes are still on table

Kelly: $37.5 million budget hike sufficient to hold line on student tuition

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Lawrence — Kansas public university students uneasy about the cost of their education dodged a tuition hike this fall, but won’t know until mid-June whether they’ll be dinged with higher campus fees.

Maneuvering by the Legislature and governor on tuition added complexity to the task of pulling together university budgets for the fiscal year starting July 1. The Kansas Board of Regents are preparing to vote on what campus fees get elevated at the system’s six universities.

The $37.5 million allocated by the Legislature to universities governed by the Board of Regents, and Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a budget provision that would have allowed tuition increases, mean students wouldn’t pay more in tuition during the 2022-2023 school year. It would be the fourth consecutive year without a tuition rate adjustment at the University of Kansas following the 2.8% boost in 2019. The five other universities in the system have each adopted tuition increases twice in the past five years.

Cheryl Harrison-Lee, chairwoman of the Board of Regents, said affordability of higher education was a center piece on the system’s priority list. Status quo tuition rates and more need-based student financial aid will combine to improve student access to education, she said.

In January, Kelly and the Board of Regents requested a $45.7 million increase from the Legislature. The justification was a desire to restore funding cut in the past, acknowledge a projected inflation rate of 1.9% and initiate a 2% budget increase to put off higher tuition rates.

The budget adopted by the House and Senate was $8 million less than sought by the Board of Regents. To cover the gap, university administrators in Lawrence, Manhattan, Wichita, Emporia, Pittsburg and Hays drafted proposals for tuition increases ranging from 1.07% at KU to 3.07% at Fort Hays State University, which has the system’s lowest tuition. Officials at the other state universities in Kansas set their sights on tuition increases of 1% to 1.3%.

Those plans were withdrawn after Kelly line-item vetoed the budget proviso opening the door to higher tuition. Kelly said higher education in Kansas was on solid footing because the universities could expect to receive $1 billion in the new fiscal year.

“I believe that the regents institutions will be able to continue to hold tuition flat, making college more affordable for Kansans of all backgrounds. This is especially important if we, as a state, are going to provide the workforce needed to fully actualize the benefits and opportunities of our recent economic growth,” Kelly said.

KU chancellor Doug Girod said the governor’s rejection of the tuition-increase option left university officials no choice but to embrace a tuition freeze, but wouldn’t necessarily block changes to campus or academic fees.

He said Board of Regents universities were grateful for nearly securing their full budget request to the 2022 Legislature.

“It played out as well as we could have hoped,” Girod said. “We certainly are most grateful to the governor and the Legislature for the support they have passed our way.”

Ken Hush, interim president at Emporia State University, said the university had concluded after the legislative session ended that a 3% tuition increase would have been appropriate. That idea was trimmed to 1% before abandoned in response to the veto. A 1% increase in ESU tuition would equate to $221,000 in new revenue.

“We felt it was a good investment,” Hush said. “We embrace what’s happened.”

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/2022/06/01/final-kansas-budget-locks-in-public-university-tuition-freeze-fee-hikes-still-on-table/

Kansas Action for Children focuses on early education, food security and health insurance

Nonpartisan organization asks Legislature to invest surplus in next generation

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Kansas Action for Children’s Adrienne Olejnik knows the look of kids enduring without a sustainable food source, quality early childhood education and benefit of routine medical care.

Her job required she look squarely in the eye politicians of the 2022 Kansas Legislature making decisions that didn’t always place those needy children high on the agenda despite the state’s extraordinary financial surplus.

“I would like them to have the conversations that they have ignored for the last several years,” Olejnik said on the Kansas Reflector podcast. “We have too many uninsured kids. Too many kids are going hungry.”

Here’s a peek at three statistics motivating Olejnik: 86,000 under age six are without licensed childcare, 43,000 went without health insurance in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one in six face food insecurity.

“We’re sitting on that budget surplus, and I know they want to be cautious and somewhat frugal, but they rush to make tax cuts all the time, and yet they don’t rush to invest in kids. So, if I had a magic wand, I would really have them consider what their role is to our next generation,” said Olejnik, vice president at Kansas Action for Children.

KAC, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization based in Topeka, works with local organizations, state policymakers and other advocates to make a difference in lives of children across Kansas. Their quest is to build a state where every child secures the care, education and resources to thrive.

The Legislature annually produces bills aimed at the welfare of children, but KAC believes lawmakers frequently settled for status quo. The 2022 Legislature voted to hold hundreds of millions of dollars in reserve funds, which would be available for future investments rather than have immediate impact.

“You know, right now, families are surviving — not necessarily thriving,” said Jessica Herrera Russell, also of Kansas Action for Children.

The House and Senate did agree to lower the state’s food sales tax from 6.5% to 4% on Jan. 1, 2023. The legislation signed by Gov. Laura Kelly, who preferred the state’s regressive sales tax on groceries be eliminated July 1, would result in zeroing out the state’s portion of food sales tax Jan. 1, 2025.

“When the initial cut does start, it will help … with these rising costs due to inflation on groceries,” Russell said. “Hopefully, that money can go back into families’ pockets.”

The Legislature passed an economic development bill that featured expansion of the employer childcare tax credit. Since 2012, it’s been limited to certain types of businesses. Going forward, all sorts of companies will be able to deploy the credit to improve affordability and availability of childcare for their workers.

Olejnik said a wave of organizations and individuals pleaded with the Legislature to amend state law to widen access to a program designed to support workers struggling to secure childcare.

“That’s one of the successes for us this session,” Olejnik said. “A business can support their employees by either providing onsite childcare, and some businesses here in Kansas do that. It could also subsidize the cost of child care for their employees. So, they can make some level of contribution to make it more affordable.”

The Legislature declined to expand eligibility for Medicaid to more than 100,000 Kansans under the Affordable Care Act. The governor recommended expansion. Polling has indicated most Kansans support extension of KanCare to lower-income families, but resistance among some Republican lawmakers remained. They argued the program could be too costly or creation of a bigger entitlement program wasn’t good for Kansas.

Olejnik said the state ought to enlarge the category of people covered by Medicaid and invest more in delivery of Medicaid services to people with disabilities on waiting lists.

The Legislature approved, despite a veto from Kelly, a bill forbidding the Democratic governor from proceeding with rewriting the $4 billion annual contract with three for-profit insurance companies that provide KanCare services statewide. That legislation was controversial because no individual, group, company or lobbyist stepped forward to claim ownership of the bill.

Olejnik said the current state contract with KanCare providers fell short because it didn’t require disclosure of important information about availability and quality of services to children.

The Legislature did, however, adopt a bill adding Kansas to a new federal program boosting postpartum depression coverage through Medicaid from the current two months after birth to 12 months after birth. It was recommended in January by Kelly, and the House and Senate included the necessary language in the state’s new budget.

“We know that when mothers are healthy, their babies are healthy,” Russell said. “They’re on that right path to getting their health care needs met. So, this was really important.”

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/2022/05/30/kansas-action-for-children-focuses-on-early-education-food-security-and-health-insurance/

Kansas House Speaker Ron Ryckman, other reps join list of retiring lawmakers

by Noah Taborda, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — House Speaker Ron Ryckman confirmed Monday he would not seek reelection, along with nearly a dozen other representatives who announced plans to step away from the Legislature.

The decision confirmed speculation the Olathe Republican would not run again. Rep. Ryckman was first elected to the House in 2012 and served an unprecedented three terms as speaker.

While Rep. Ryckman did not say what would come next, he did tell reporters he wouldn’t be running alongside Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the presumptive Republican nominee for governor, as his lieutenant governor. In his farewell speech, Ryckman said serving three terms as speaker and the work accomplished during that time were an honor he would cherish.

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose, to every work,” Rep. Ryckman said. “I know our state will be in good hands. Thank you for the seasons we’ve had together.”

In addition to Rep. Ryckman, nine other House members announced they would not be seeking reelection, bringing the total number of departing representatives past a dozen. All 125 seats in the House are up for reelection in the November general election.

Also departing from Republican House leadership is Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch. The Ottawa Republican has served alongside Rep. Ryckman since they both entered Legislature in 2012.

“Make every moment here count,” Finch told his House colleagues. “Always be about your work.”

Joining them in retirement is Rep. Jim Gartner, a Topeka Democrat who has served since 2016. Rep. Gartner said he enjoyed the first two years in Topeka when cooperation across the aisle seemed a reasonable thing.

But in recent years, Rep. Gartner lamented, he did not have as much fun. He has repeatedly taken issue with the bundling of bills, and in his farewell speech, he urged colleagues to do better.

“You have the power to change things,” Rep. Gartner said. “All I would urge you is to utilize the power and use it the right way. Let’s get back to the roots of the process that we normally follow.”

Rep. Gartner served as a prominent Democratic voice on the House Taxation Committee. He joins Topeka-area Reps. Anne Kuether and Ron Highland, who previously announced their retirement.

Rep. Tom Burroughs, D-Kansas City, Kansas, is stepping back from Legislature, where he has served since 1997. He was joined by fellow Kansas City, Kansas, Democrat Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, who has been in office since 2011.

Rep. Lonnie Clark, R-Junction City, Rep. David French, R-Lansing, Rep. Steve Huebert, R-Valley Center, Rep. Marty Long, R-Ulysses, and Rep. Jim Kelly, R-Independence, all announced their decisions not to seek reelection Monday. Reps. Megan Lynn, R-Olathe, and Rep. Richard Proehl, R-Parsons, announced their retirements from the House earlier this year.

Also retiring from the House, although seeking office elsewhere, are Rep. Jesse Burris, R-Mulvane, and Rep. Stephen Johnson, R-Assaria. Burris is running for a Sedgwick County magistrate judgeship, and Johnson is running for state treasurer.

“I live on a river near Assaria,” Rep. Johnson said. “There’s always just a bit of excitement and anticipation about whatever is around that next bend. All the best as each of you continue your journey beyond the next bend.”

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/2022/05/24/kansas-house-speaker-ron-ryckman-other-reps-join-list-of-retiring-lawmakers/