Kansas House of Representatives
40th District
Volume 2011, Issue 13: April 27 - 30, 2011
In This Issue
- Back in the Capitol
- Around Home
- Budget Update
- Biggest House Debate this Week
- Kansas Sampler coming to Leavenworth
- Keep in Touch
Back in the Capitol
After a three-week break, the Kansas Legislature reconvened this week
for the 2011Wrap Up Session. In legislative lingo, this means that it is
"crunch time" in the Statehouse. This is the last opportunity of the
year to take action on all of the critical issues you have been reading
about in the newspaper since January – the state budget, tax policy,
and changes to the Kansas retirement system to name a few.
The legislative session is scheduled for 90 days each year and Monday,
May 2nd will be Day 81. The length of the Wrap Up session is uncertain.
We can be here anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, but as the
Budget is the one Bill that we must pass each year,we will be here until
it passes, even if we go past 90 days.
Around Home
Wednesday,April 27th, the Governor issued a proclamation and members of
the Kansas Senate and House of Representatives each unanimously approved
Resolutions recognizing April as "Month of the Military Child in
Kansas." A group from the Kansas National Guard Teen Council joined
us to receive the proclamation and to be recognized. Today about 1.7
million American kids and teenagers have a parent serving in the
military. More than 33,000 of these children are Kansans. Kansas works
to support its military families and I hope all military families will
look at the Kansas Department of Education's special section on its
web site dedicated to military families, and also look at the "Child
Care Aware of Kansas" website at
http://www.ks.childcareaware.org/parents_military.html. Military
children lead unique lifestyles, full of positive experiences as well as
the challenges and fears of having one or both parents deployed, but
thankfully Kansas has local resources to help.
Also on Wednesday, Shelby Turner and Andrew Tremaine joined me in Topeka
to serve as pages. They did a great job and I had fun spending time
with them and learning from them. Shelby's dad is an Army Reservist
who has deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan and Andrew's mom is an
elementary school principal.
On Thursday, April 28th, I joined parents of fallen service members in
the Governor's ceremonial office to witness the signing of a Bill
establishing a 'Families of the Fallen' license plate in Kansas. Now
the families of fallen service members can display their pride for their
loved ones who gave all for our country, as well as spread awareness in
our communities that we still have courageous citizens who volunteer
their lives to defend the other 99% of Americans. The Governor spent
some time with each parent and we were joined by Senator Dwayne Umbarger
and Representative Gary Hayzlett, the chairmen of the Senate and House
Transportation Committees. I heard that Diana Pitts, from the NE Kansas
Chapter of the American Gold Star Mothers was even interviewed on
television that night!
On Thursday I also had lunch with Becky, Paul and Sarah Johnson in
Topeka. They came up to see the House in action, tour the Capitol and
visit with me. I was very excited as they are not only friends from the
40th District, but Sarah and I were East Junior High, Leavenworth High
School, Saint Mary College and KU buddies and she is moving back to
Kansas soon!
Budget Update
I do not have much to report on the budget yet. The Senate and House
Conference Committee met over the break and managed to narrow the 250
differences between their budgets to 210 differences. The biggest
compromise was an agreement to accept a House amendment to make an
across the board cut to agencies (other than schools and public safety)
rather than a 7.5%pay cut. This will result in a larger than 7.5% cut
to some agencies, but the agencies will have the ability to decide how
to make the cuts themselves.
Currently, the Conference Committee is still scheduled to meet next week
to discuss the 2012 budget, but the House Appropriations Committee and
Senate Ways and Means Committee are still meeting to come up with an
"omnibus" budget bill that would cover the rest of 2011 in addition
to 2012. In the past, the legislature would have a budget approved
early in the session and then would make necessary adjustments through
an "omnibus" budget during the wrap up session. This year there has
been no approved budget to date.
Biggest House Debate this Week
The House spent most its time voting on a number of conference committee
reports this week that sent Bills to the Governor for signature. We
also had a few longer debates. One was SB25, the Community Defense Act.
This bill was exactly the same as HB2107,which passed the House earlier
in the session but saw no action in the Senate,so the House Leadership
decided to send it to the Senate again. Another debate was not even
about a Bill, butHR6015, a House Resolution. This Resolution would have
instructed the Attorney General to initiate a lawsuit challenging the
process that was followed to issue a license to Peninsula Gaming,the
company that has started building the third State run casino. This
casino is being built in Sumner County in south central Kansas and is
estimated to create 3000 jobs in one of the hardest hit counties for
unemployment. The Resolution failed.
A Bill that surprised me for its lack of debate was SB97. This bill
would extend the judicial surcharges on docket fees for one more year
and raise them by 25%. The judicial surcharge was put in place last
year in order to avoid furloughs and closure of the Kansas court system.
SB97 was heard in the House Judiciary Committee earlier this session
and approved to extend the surcharge for one more year because the
fiscal situation in the Judicial branch has not improved. Currently,
the money that the Judiciary receives from the State General Fund
essentially only covers payroll. Any other money needed to run the day
to day operations is collected through fees. This bill was later
referred to the House Appropriations Committee where it was amended to
raise the surcharge another 25%. Friday it passed through the House
floor debate with a 73 to 29 vote despite raising fees and will be voted
on Monday afternoon.
Kansas Sampler Coming to Leavenworth
The 2011 Kansas Sampler Festival will take place May 7-8th in
Leavenworth, KS at Ray Miller Park just in front of the VA Center on the
NE corner of Highway 7 and Limit St. Organizations and representatives
from across Kansas will be at the festival to share with attendees what
all there is to 'see, do,hear, taste, buy, and learn in Kansas'.
This is a great and fun event with not just information booths, but also
samples of specialty foods, and bands, and samples of things to do
across the state.
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. To
write to me, my office address is Kansas State Capitol, Topeka, KS
66612. You can also reach me at (785) 296-7668 or call the legislative
hotline at 1-800-432-3924 to leave a message for me. Additionally, you
can e-mail me at melanie.meier@house.ks.gov. Don't forget that you
can also follow the legislative session online at
www.kslegislature.org,including live broadcasts of the House and Senate
while on the floor.
