Neighbor News Update
The legislature is now in full swing and committees are busy at work hearing bills and moving them out of committee. This past week we had a couple of bills that were brought to the floor for final action. That means they were voted on by the House and will be sent to the Senate or came to us from the Senate and voted on in the House.
FLOOR ACTIVITIES
The first issue that came to us was Senate Bill 30. This was the Senates version of a funding “lockbox” for years two and three of the education finance bill. Added to this bill was some debt repayment for the Regents institutions to help with the much needed deferred maintenance program. Several amendments brought to the floor to add funding for correlation weighting, at-risk funding, and issues addresses by the 2010 Commission on education but failed on the floor.
One amendment was added to reduce KPERS debt to make sure the funds were appropriated to secure retirement for employees. KPERS has been raided for many years and is currently 2.7 billion dollars short in funds. Hopefully, this will not be eliminated during the Conference Committee negotiations. Since this was added to the original bill, it must go before the Conference Committee and then come back to us for another vote.
I voted yes on SB 30 because the State of Kansas made a commitment to our children. While is does not address all of the needs that we have in Johnson County, it does allow school districts to have the ability to plan their budgets. Hopefully, the formula can be tweaked to better meet the needs of our children in Johnson County.
We also had a bill this week that addressed the sunset on secret pass-through costs for security of utility companies (HB2034). I worked on this issue during my last time in office (2003-2004) at which time there was major discussion by all parties. At that time, we attached a sunset of two years to review how this program was progressing. A review at that time showed the utilities had not really used this option because they were not sure how they were going to use the funds. Another sunset was placed to review the use of such funds and was due to expire in July of this year.
I did propose an amendment to this bill to again have a sunset that would extend to 2009. I felt that some of the utilities had only had a short time to implement this program and we did not clearly have information as to the impact to the end users. Security is a top priority—that goes without saying. This was a request for a review that did not cost the state or the utilities any money, did not divulge any secret information, but simply provided oversight to protect you, the rate payor. The amendment failed, but the vote was close (65-54).
A few other bills were voted for Final Action but were technical clean up bills. If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to let me know. If you have issues that are of a priority, please e-mail me. I would love to hear from you.
WHERE’S YOUR NEIGHBOR?
- Meeting with Shawnee Mission NEA – Mary Ann Ciochon
- Shawnee Mission School Board Mtg. – Shawnee Mission West
- Chamber Breakfast
- Meeting with Cox Communication on Cable Changes
- Kansas Cooperative Council Dinner
- Meeting with builders, realtors and KEC regarding energy concerns
- City Hall Day at the Capitol
- Eggs and Issues Breakfast at Ritz Charles – Speaker
- Shawnee Chamber of Commerce annual dinner
WHAT TO LOOK FOR THIS WEEK
On Tuesday, January 30th, a committee of three Republicans and three Democrats will be appointed to review and make recommendations to the House of Representatives regarding the election of Gene Rardin.
As you may know, Gene Rardin won by three votes and Republican, Dennis Kriegshauser, has challenged that final vote tally. The Board of Canvassers certified that Gene Rardin had won, as well as the judge in Johnson County. This was based on recounts and testimony presented in the courts. The court did reduce the margin of victory to two votes.
Now, the final decision is in the hands of the legislature. May the body work quickly and in a bipartisan manner to resolve this issue!