Kansas House of Representatives
40th District
Volume 2012, Issue 2: January 16-20, 2012
In This Issue
· Second Week Back in Topeka
· Governor's Tax Proposal Update
· Veterans, Military Affairs & Homeland Security
· Corrections & Juvenile Justice
· Judiciary
· Redistricting
· Around Town
· Keep in Touch
Second Week Back in Topeka
We have completed the second week of the session and I have good news!
I testified for HB2178, the Non-Resident Military Spouses' Licensure
bill, this week in the Senate Committee on Federal & State Affairs. The
Committee worked the bill as I ran to the House Floor for session, and
by the time I was headed back to the committee it was over and the
Committee had passed it out to the Senate as a whole favorably for
passage! The next step is getting it on the Senate's calendar for a
vote. Since it passed the House last session and there were no
amendments made, once it passes the Senate it will head to the Governor
for signature. We have hit the ground running in Topeka this year.
Most of my spaces available for "House Pages" have been filled but
there are still a few left for March 1st. A Page gets a tour of the
Capitol, their picture with the Governor, and helps the legislators on
the floor of the house chamber. If you know of any young people from
the age of 11 through high school who would like to spend the day in the
Capitol with me, please let me know so that I can invite them over.
Governor's Tax Proposal Update
The Department of Revenue crunched the numbers for the Governor's tax
proposal this week. It turns out that under the proposal, the income
taxes for 564,328 of the 1,383,290 returns filed each year actually go
up. For everyone else, there is a tax break ranging from 14.2% to
18.5%. The higher the income, the higher the tax break. Problem is,
they did not figure in all the government and military retirees who's
retiree pay is currently exempt from income tax in Kansas. I have
requested the department to crunch those numbers also.
The Governor visited Leavenworth this past Friday to be the guest
speaker at the Leavenworth County Development Corporation's (LCDC)
annual meeting and to visit the Leavenworth/Lansing Chamber of
Commerce's Military Affairs Council (MAC). The Governor stressed his
support of the federal facilities in Leavenworth at the LCDC meeting.
He talked about the Military Summit he held in Leavenworth last year and
how he wants to accommodate military retirees and to keep military
entrepreneurs here in Kansas. At the MAC he was asked how he would
convince military retirees to stay in Kansas, rather than move across
the river to Missouri, if he was going to tax their retiree pay and
Missouri did not. The Governor stated that by making the income on LLCs
and S Corps non-taxable, and by building a small business incubator and
luxury condos in the area, that Leavenworth would attract the military
retirees.
That same day, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and other
members of the Republican leadership held a press conference where they
announced their own tax plan. I have not seen anything in writing yet,
but the basic differences of their plan and the Governor's plan are to
let the temporary sales tax increase expire on schedule, to keep all
current statutory income tax exemptions and credits in place, except the
Earned Income Tax Credit(EITC), and to use any revenue surpluses over 2%
to incrementally reduce the income tax over time. In fact, the only
thing in common with the Governor's plan is to eliminate the EITC.
Veterans, Military Affairs & Homeland Security
This week our committee heard more testimony about the interim work of
the various groups on how Kansas can assist our returning veterans with
the growing need for mental health services, such as The Kansas
Association of Community Mental Health, the National Guard Association
of Kansas, the Pawnee Mental Health Services, the Veteran
Administrations East Kansas Health Care System and the Kansas Commission
on Veteran Affairs. Some of the recommendations of the groups after
their interim work are:
1. Create a computer system or webpage that lists all groups that
support veterans as a "Network of Care" that anyone can access to
find services near them.
2. Increase funding for Community Mental Health programs. Such funding
has been reduced from $23 million to $10.2 million last year because of
state budget cuts. These cuts included programs for veterans such as
cutting $5 million for "Family Care Centers" for military families.
3. Improve dissemination of information about veteran programs.
4. Increase state grant money for the uninsured. They explained that
this would not only help all Kansans but also veterans because many
young veterans cannot afford the TriCare military insurance for the
guard and reserve.
5. Urge TriCare to recognize state licensed substance abuse counselors.
Currently there are only three TriCare approved outpatient substance
abuse providers in Kansas (in Salina, Shawnee Mission and Newton),and no
residential providers in the state.
6. Safeguard the veteran scratch off lottery ticket proceeds that are
meant for veteran services from being used for filling other budget
shortfalls. This could be accomplished by establishing a special fund
for the proceeds rather than sending them into the State General Fund
before allocating money to the Kansas Commission on Veteran Affairs.
Corrections & Juvenile Justice
This week our committee met with the Health& Human Services committee
and the House Federal & State Affairs Committee for an informational
hearing on human trafficking in Kansas. The Attorney General's
Advisory Board on Human Trafficking emphasized that this is an issue in
Kansas and it will not be solved until the demand for this illegal
activity is addressed. They stated that the facilitators and the
victims will be easily replaced as long as there is a demand for this
multi-million dollar illegal industry.
We received the results of the post audit report on the Board of
Indigent Defense Services this week. As a result of the report, there
have been a couple of bills introduced and we had hearings on them as
well. HB2419 would require anyone found guilty to pay for their defense
services by having a additional judgment entered against them for the
cost of their defense attorney. HB2413 would require the disclosure of
tax information from the Department of Revenue to the Judge to assist in
the determination if someone is actually unable to pay for their defense
services.
We also heard a presentation on the Juvenile Detention Alternatives
Initiative (JDAI) pilot programs in Kansas. Currently there are five
counties (Douglas, Sedgwick, Wyandotte, Johnson, and Shawnee)that are
receiving training and advice from the Annie E. Casey Foundation on
restructuring, cost saving and fairness measures with public safety as
the ultimate goal. Risk assessment is a large part of the process
because studies (and probably common sense) indicate that placing high
risk juvenile offenders in custody with low risk offenders normally
results in more high risk offenders.
Judiciary
The committee was fairly quiet this week. We had several bill
introductions and a hearing on HB2252, a measure to restore the former
name after divorce. It seems that under current law, if a person is
divorced in another state and the name change did not take place as part
of the divorce decree, if the person decided to change their name in
Kansas they have to go through the entire petition process of a name
change through the courts. This bill proposes that simply producing the
divorce documents should suffice.
There is a hearing scheduled on HB2297 for Monday, January 30th in
Judiciary. It is an act relating to civil relief in foreclosure
procedures for veterans while they are deployed. This bill was
introduced by the Veterans, Military Affairs & Homeland Security
Committee last session in an attempt to avoid situations that have
occurred in the past where a deployed service member returns to the US
to find that their house was foreclosed on while they were gone despite
the federal Service members Civil Relief Act.
Redistricting Update
The Senate Committee on Redistricting has introduced their plan for the
four Congressional districts in Kansas that keeps Johnson and Wyandotte
counties, plus a slice of Leavenworth County, in the 3rd District, and
includes southeast Kansas' Montgomery and all of Douglas counties in
the 2nd District. The most remarkable part of the Senate's map is the
number of residents per district. The top priority of determining
district boundaries is supposed to be the idea of "one person, one
vote." That means each district should be made up of a number of
residents as close to the ideal number of 713,280persons as possible so
that everyone gets equal representation. This Senate proposal creates
four congressional districts with a population deviation of just 3
voters! The 1stDistrict would have 2 fewer people than ideal, the
Wichita-dominated 4thDistrict would have one more person than ideal and
the 2nd District would have1 fewer person than ideal. The 3rdDistrict
would be dead-on with 713,280 persons!
Around Town
On Friday I attended the Leavenworth County Development Corporation
(LCDC) annual membership meeting where the Governor was the guest
speaker. Congratulations to the board members who were reappointed for
another three years of service: Ron Baker (Cushing Memorial Hospital),
Steve Christensen (First State Bank), Josh Hoppes (Mutual Savings), Pete
Payne (Country Club Bank) and Rick Schneider (Exchange National Bank).
I also took part in the Leavenworth/Lansing Chamber of Commerce's
first Legislative Forum of the session at the Carnegie Arts Center.
There was a great turn out and many questions on lots of issues from
taxes and education to second hand stores and term limits. The next
forum is scheduled for4 pm, February 17th at the Lansing Community
Center.
Saturday was Ladies Night Out, sponsored by the Leavenworth Times and
Cushing Memorial Hospital. There were hundreds of ladies there to enjoy
a relaxing evening and to raise money for the Alliance Against Family
Violence. I was there with the Leavenworth County Humane Society and
some adoptable pets that made fast friends with the ladies along with
some friendly dogs from the Human Animal Bond organization.
Keep in Touch
You can track my activities on my website www.meier4kansas.com, my
FaceBook page www.facebook.com/Meier4Kansas, and Twitter
www.twitter.com/melaniemeier. I am privileged and honored to be your
voice in the Kansas Capitol.
If I can ever be of assistance to you,please feel free to contact me at
home or in Topeka. My office is still in the Docking State Office
Building on the 7thFloor, Room 722. 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. You can also follow the legislative session
online at www.kslegislature.org.
If you need to directly contact a particular agency in state government,
you can find useful telephone numbers online at
http://da.state.ks.us/phonebook.
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