I figure I can put in my 2-cents worth of comments, literally, on the grand piano controversy over a piano expenditure at Sumner Academy.
I figure that’s about how much it would cost me.
The piano, according to agenda documents, is costing around $48,000. The expenditure was seized upon this week by people who are trying to argue that the public schools are spending too much.
As someone who lives in Kansas City, Kan., I estimated that if every resident of the city chipped in about 32 cents, they could buy a grand piano for the students. But, if a lot of people can’t afford to chip in that much, and only one-third can afford to chip in, that takes the cost to almost $1 per person.
A grand piano might last from 40 to 50 years, and it won’t need to be replaced soon. So, I figure that the yearly cost to me over this period of time would be about 2 cents. I realize that they’re buying it all at one time, but the 2 cents estimate is correct, I believe, because when I compare it with other school expenses, they often will occur again every year. My math may not be exactly right, but it is likely the cost would come out to less than $1 per person, and that’s the cost of one soft drink, a one-time expense, at some restaurants. I can afford that.
It’s my opinion that more funding is spent on the “popular” sports than on some other activities in the schools. Recently, the school district decided to build a new football field for Schlagle High School, a large expense. Schlagle currently doesn’t have its own stadium and plays its games at other schools’ fields. I did not hear any loud criticism in the community of this football expenditure, and I personally am not against it.
Like football, piano is a state-level competition at the Kansas State High School Activities Association. There are students who compete and may bring home the state trophy in this activity.
Some schools nowadays are spending a lot of money on computers and other high-tech gadgets, but I’m not hearing a lot of criticism about it. Equipment for various educational programs here is sometimes expensive. At the vocational educational level, now under the community college level, there are equipment costs for program such as welding and auto repair that can be expensive.
Music and art have long been viewed as “extracurricular activities” by some people, but I believe they are just as important as any other subject in school. There are students who make careers in these fields, and they are just as important as any other fields. Having the right equipment for training could make a difference in whether a student is hired for a position in the field after their school years end.
Why use tax dollars on these items? The power of helping each other increases greatly when more people pitch in to help. If one person were to try to give a grand piano to the school, it would be very difficult, but if an entire city does this, it would be easy. It would be about 2 cents.
Sen. Pat Pettey Sen. Pat Pettey, D-6th Dist.
Feb. 2, 2015
In this issue:
• Last week at the Capitol
• January revenue
• Cuts to schools
• Body cameras
• Senate Bill 60
• Safe communities amendment
• Over at the House
• KCK issues addressed
• KCK officials visit
• Turner Middle School pages
Last week at the Capitol
Legislators, other Kansas dignitaries, and hundreds of visitors celebrated Kansas Day – the 154th anniversary of our statehood – on Thursday. I spent the rest of the week in committee meetings, where a number of bills have scheduled hearings and a few have passed out of committee.
Action on the Senate floor was taken on the first bill of the session, Senate Bill 4. The bill passed unanimously as it is a simple measure that establishes an already existing department within the Department of Administration as an agency for budgetary purposes.
To track bills, go to www.kslegislature.org and click on the Bills and Laws link. You are also welcome to testify before a committee on any issue important to you. A written copy of your testimony is required at least 24 hours prior to the committee hearing.
If you have any questions about testifying or about bills in general, feel free to contact my office at 785-2967375 or stop by my legislative office, located in 125-E of the Topeka Statehouse.
Daily calendars, committee and district information, and full text and summaries of bills are all available online at www.kslegislature.org. To hear legislative proceedings, just click on “Listen in Live.”
January revenue
The Kansas Department of Revenue has released that revenue came in $47.2 million for the month of January.
Budget Director Shawn Sullivan indicated the state will face cash flow problems mid-February if no action is taken to revise the current fiscal year’s budget. This month’s loss in revenue only makes it worse.
Cuts to schools
The Senate Committee on Ways and Means is scheduled to hold a hearing on Senate Bill 71, which would change the method of computing supplemental general state aid and cut $39 million from our state’s schools. This bill comes less than year after the Kansas Legislature passed a bill to increase supplemental aid to school districts to satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court’s equity ruling. I am wholly opposed to this bill.
Cuts to my school districts for the 2014-2015 school year:
Turner-$178.946
Kansas City, Kansas-$1,068,655
Bonner Springs-$213.725
Shawnee Mission-$4,189,594.
Body cameras
The Senate Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice heard testimony this week on a bill introduced by Sen. David Haley, D-4th Dist. Senate Bill 18 would require any law enforcement officer “who is primarily assigned to patrol duties” to be equipped with a body camera while performing such duties. The camera would be used to record interactions between residents and the police, including motor vehicle stops. For non-emergency situations, residents would be allowed the option to request the recording be stopped.
Supporters of the bill argue it would help reduce ambiguity and create more transparency. Opponents argue it would be a challenge for local governments to cover the cost of the cameras and the additional personnel required to review the footage.
The intent of this bill is good, but the mechanisms in the bill and the lack of concern for the local control are big issues.
Senate Bill 60
This bill addresses participation by home-schooled students in school district activities regulated by KSHSAA.
This bill would allow students that live in a district’s boundaries, but do not attend the public school, to participate in the extra curricular activities. If you have any interest in this issue, please share your thoughts with me.
Safe communities amendment
Last Thursday Rep. Nancy Lusk and I introduced what we call a “safe communities” revision of the Personal Family Protection Act regulating holders of conceal-and-carry licenses.
The new legislation would authorize administrators of a post-secondary educational institution, state or municipally owned medical care facility or adult care home, a community mental health center or an indigent health care clinic to go beyond the current cap of a single four-year exemption from the law.
I feel that locally elected leaders have already heard from their communities and have made the tough decision of whether to allow guns or not in their municipal buildings or educational institutions. This legislation allows them to continue on the path of using local control to make decisions based on what is best and safest for their citizens.
Action in the Kansas House
• Rules change – Every two years the House must pass a set of rules by which to govern itself. It’s not a high profile debate, but is has a significant impact on the legislative process. This year, the house adopted two new rules. One rule prevents any work from being done after midnight or before 8 a.m. by the House. This makes it so there will not be late night sessions like we have seen in previous years where laws are passed literally while Kansans slept.
The other rule is a joint rule so it applies to the House and Senate. It limits the number bills that can be bundled together for a final vote. In the past, it has been known for conference committee reports to include up to a dozen bills. This is done as a strategy to pass bills that may otherwise not pass if they stood alone.
The Senate will be working these rule changes this week.
• Straight ticket voting – Secretary of State Kris Kobach testified in the House Committee on Elections on House Bill 2108 that would allow voters to simply cast ballots for all candidates of their preferred party with one check of a box rather than having to fill in a box for each candidate. The committee plans to work the bill next week. I do not support it.
Issues from KCK addressed
I am pleased to report that beginning today, Feb. 2, the bus system in KCK will accept one ride tickets. This is due to the work of Sister Bridget Dickason from the Keeler Women’s Center. They provide assistance in bus tickets to people looking for employment. This is a great use of resources to get potential employees to employers.
KCK officials visit
I had the opportunity to see both Wyandotte County Sheriff Don Ash and County Appraiser Gene Bryan while they were in Topeka for their organizations’ annual meetings.
Senate pages
Today I had five students from Turner Middle School brave the cold temperatures to come to Topeka to be Senate pages. They were Ricardo Alvarado, Rebecca Russell, Matt Jones, Joanna Torres and Nathan Zager.
Rep. Stan Frownfelter by Rep. Stan Frownfelter, D-37th Dist.
2015 education funding
A bill that has been fast tracked in the Kansas Senate has me deeply concerned about the future of funding for public schools.
The bill, SB 71 which was introduced earlier this week, would immediately cut more than $39 million from Kansas schools by amending the supplemental general state aid calculation.
The cuts would affect almost every school district in the state and would occur during the current school year, meaning districts wouldn’t receive funds they had budgeted for.
In the future, local communities could adjust to the proposed recalculations by raising their mill levies at the cost of local tax payers, but that wouldn’t solve the immediate problem schools would face this year.
The future of KPERS
Earlier this week the House Committee on Pensions and Benefits heard testimony on a bill that would issue $1.5 billion in pension obligation bonds to finance a portion of the $9.8 billion unfunded liability of the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System.
The bill also schedules a reduction in employer contributions in 2017 to free up funds to begin making payments on the bonds.
The cost of interest on the debt would total more than $1. 2 billion, which is almost as much as the original cost of the bonds. Borrowing and creating new debt to cover old debt is not fiscally responsible and does not resolve the state’s systemic revenue problem.
Committee hearings on the bill have ended, and the committee will continue to work the bill next week.
Medicaid expansion
Hearings on a bill that would expand Medicaid continued this week.
The measure would provide coverage to an additional 169,000 Kansans who are currently without insurance.
Independent estimates conclude that the state has lost over $380 million in federal funds by refusing to expand Medicaid.
Kansas healthcare providers have begun pleading with the legislature to expand Medicaid because it is critical to the future of rural hospitals across the state.
Job numbers
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that recent job growth in Kansas was slower compared to other states our region. In December of 2014 Kansas’ job growth for the year was record as 0.9 percent, placing us behind three of our four bordering states:
o Nebraska- 0.8 percent
o Colorado- 2.6 percent
o Oklahoma posted 2.2 percent
o Missouri posted 1.6 percent
Gov. Brownback’s tax plan was supposed to provide “a shot of adrenaline to the Kansas economy,” by creating jobs for Kansas workers, yet job creation has slowed since his tax cuts took effect in 2013. The real result of Gov. Brownback’s tax plan has not been jobs, it has been a $1 billion budget deficit.
Happy Kansas Day
On Thursday of last week we observed something that is near and dear to every legislator- Kansas Day. As I celebrated the state, I was reminded that for over 154 Kansans have fought to make their lives and their communities better; from abolition, to woman’s suffrage, to the end of government-sanctioned racial segregation Kansans have never been to forge their own way, and I am honored to serve Kansas as a member of the House of Representatives.
The adoption of a state fish
The Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources has introduced a bill that would make the channel catfish the official state fish.
The channel catfish is the “bread and butter of Kansas Fishing,” and can be found in almost all waters across the state. The Kansas staple is a favorite of fishers with the largest recorded catch in Kansas history weighing in at 38 pounds and 6 ounces.
Education ruling to be appealed
Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced that he intends to appeal the recent court decision that ordered the state legislature to increase funding to education to meet the constitutional mandate to adequately fund public education.
The appeal is just another political move that hurts Kansas schools. The legislature shouldn’t adequately fund public education because a court orders it; we should do it because it is the right thing to do. It is time to stop playing partisan politics with our children’s futures and invest in public education.
Raising the minimum wage
Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate that would raise the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.25 per hour. Each bill outlines an incremental increase of $1 per year, each year, until 2017. A full time minimum wage employee who currently earns $15,080 a year would earn $21,320 by 2017 if the bill passes. Both bills are awaiting action in their chamber’s committees.
Changes to conceal and carry
A bill in the Senate would allow any Kansans who can legally own a gun to conceal the firearm while carrying in public without a permit. The proposed bill changes the current conceal and carry law, which was passed in 2006, and requires individuals to complete a firearm safety course before obtaining a permit. The bill, if passed in the Kansas Senate, would come before the House to debate in the coming weeks.
In the pipeline
There are a few bills of interest that will be heard in the next few weeks that I am keeping my eye on.
One initiative in the House would make it a crime to post nude photographs of a former spouse or significant other without their expressed consent. Two bills have been proposed to outlaw so-called “revenge porn,” and Kansas would join sixteen other states that have laws against such online posts.
The House Judiciary Committee has introduced a bill that would abolish Kansas’ death penalty, replacing it with life in prison without the possibility of parole. Kansas’ death penalty was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, and was reinstituted in 1994 by the state legislature. The most recent execution occurred in 1965 when Perry Edward Smith and Richard Hickok were put to death for the murders of Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon Clutter. The deaths of the Clutter family were made infamous by Truman Capote’s 1965 book, “In Cold Blood.” The state currently has nine capital punishment inmates awaiting execution.
A bi-partisan bill to establish a sales tax holiday weekend has been proposed in the House. The sales tax holiday would take place every year during the first weekend in August, and would allow Kansans to purchase items like school supplies, textbooks, backpacks, and clothes prior to school starting in the fall. The bill has been referred to the Committee on Taxation and is awaiting a hearing.
Keep in touch
It is a special honor to serve as your state representative. I value and need your input on the various issues facing state government. Please feel free to contact me with your comments and questions. My office address is Room 174-W, 300 SW 10th, Topeka, KS 66612. You can reach me at 785-296-7691 or call the legislative hotline at 1-800-432-3924 to leave a message for me. Additionally, you can e-mail me at [email protected]. You can also follow the legislative session online at www.kslegislature.org.
