Kansas House of Representatives
40th District
Volume 2012, Issue 6: February 13-17, 2012
In This Issue
• Excitement in the Statehouse
• House Republicans Tax Plan
• Redistricting
• Veterans Affairs
• Corrections & Juvenile Justice and Judiciary Committees
• Coming up this Week
• Keep in Touch
Excitement in the Statehouse
This past week was very busy and full of excitement. This coming week
is "turnaround" so our committees were working late to get bills
passed out on time so that they can be voted on and sent to the Senate.
Turnaround is what the legislature calls the day when bills passed by
the house are sent over to the senate for consideration, and vice versa
with the Senate's bills coming over to the house for consideration.
Over 100 additional bills were introduced in the House last week to meet
the introduction deadline!
We had a bit of excitement around the Capitol this week as two unrelated
security incidents kept Capitol Police very busy on Wednesday and
hearings in committees were drowned out by protesters chanting and
cheering in the Capitol. In the first case, two explosive devices were
discovered in an unattended pickup truck across the street from the
Capitol. The Topeka Police Department's bomb squad was summoned and
the vehicle owner was apprehended in the tunnel between the Statehouse
and the Docking State Office Building. In the second incident, a man was
arrested after issuing several threats in a telephone call to Governor
Brownback's office. The man was located via caller ID, questioned,
then arrested. Then that same day protesters came inside after
gathering on the grounds most the day, to deliver thousands of letters
to the Governor. Capitol Police did an excellent job of managing these
situations. I am grateful for their service.
Three shadows and six pages assisted me this week. I enjoyed having
them in committee with me and showing them around the Capitol and hope
each one felt their day was worthwhile. Sunday night I enjoyed
attending the 4H Citizenship in Action banquet before the 4H'ers
headed over to the Capitol to hold a mock session. They had three bills
to debate and vote on.
House Republicans Tax Plan
This week, the House Republican tax plan was published in writing. In
order to pay for their tax plan, the House GOP proposes to adjust the
percentage of general sales taxes that are sent to the Department of
Transportation. This adjustment would result in a cut of $300 million
from the Highway Fund over the next two years (and perhaps more money
over a longer period of time). The Highway Fund is the revenue source
for the comprehensive transportation plan that was signed into law in
2010, also known as T-Works. T-Works is projected to create 175,000 new
jobs and generate $6.4 billion to our state's economy over the next
ten years.
Redistricting
Even though the House seemed to have passed its new map of Kansas House
Districts out easily, the redistricting discussion has started to heat
up. There has been some contention with proposed Senate districts,
especially with a map that would separate folks that have already
declared they are running against incumbents from the districts they
have already filed in. There is also contention with the many versions
of the Congressional map that have been introduced in the House. One
proposal introduced by the Speaker of the House is very similar to the
"salamander map" that was being shown across Kansas last summer in
the traveling redistricting committee. It would put Leavenworth and
Wyandotte Counties in the same district as counties that border
Colorado. There are at least 2 other proposals that have a district
that stretches across the top of Kansas, from Colorado to Missouri, and
includes Leavenworth County. You can see the proposals at
redistrictingks.com.
Veterans Affairs
HB2480 was passed out of the House Taxation Committee and placed on the
consent calendar. This bill would make the federal and military
retiree's "Thrift Savings Program" distributions taxable in
Kansas. Currently, all public retiree plans are exempt. As the
Governor and House Republicans' goals are supposed to be lowering
income taxes, this does not make sense to start taxing retirees. I
objected to this bill being on the consent calendar and it was taken
off. I do not know if it will be brought to the floor for debate in the
next few days, but be sure to let your voices be heard. Because it is
from the Taxation Committee, it is exempt from the normal deadline for
"turnaround." Information on how to contact the taxation committee
and all legislators is found at kslegislature.org.
Monday, there are a couple of hearings related to veterans. In the
House Education Budget Committee there will be a hearing on HB2652 which
is a bill to grant in-state tuition to any veteran who served their
country honorably for at least 3 years. In the Social Services Budget
Committee there will be a hearing on HB2696 which is a proposal to
develop a central database of information on Kansas resources supporting
veterans. In other words, a "one stop shop" for veterans to find
services.
Corrections & Juvenile Justice and Judiciary Committees
We were very busy in both committees again. We passed out two bills
that were introduced in response to tragic events in the national news
last week: "Caylee's Law" and the "Penn State Law." I carried
the bill on electronic cigarettes that the Leavenworth County Attorney
and the Leavenworth City Police Department introduced. It passed the
House 112 to 6 and is on its way to the Senate. We tabled a couple of
bills: one about tracking information on anyone selling to a second-hand
store and another on further definition of support when determining
severance of parental rights in adoption cases.
Coming Up This Week
As of Friday morning, we had over 65 bills waiting to be voted on in the
House. There were many more added Friday afternoon and will be still
more on Monday. Starting Tuesday and the rest of the week, we should be
in the House Chambers most of the day to debate and vote on bills. I
will have pages again on Wednesday. They should stay busy!
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 7th Floor, 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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