Adventures in the Statehouse, Vol 2012 Issue 11

Melanie Meier's Adventures in the Statehouse
Kansas House of Representatives
40th District

Volume 2012, Issue 11: March 19-23, 2012

In This Issue

- Time for Conference Committees
- Redistricting Saga Continues
- Autism Insurance Debate
- Keep in Touch

Time for Conference Committees

We had a short week of long days in Topeka. With First Adjournment
approaching on March 31st, we were on the floor from morning to evening
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in an effort to push through as many
nonexempt bills as possible. We took final action votes on about 60
pieces of legislation in that three-day period, and there is much more
to come next week. We actually re-debated many of the bills that have
already passed the House, because they were House bills that the Senate
has ignored so committees and Representatives amended them into Senate
bills in an effort to keep them alive. I do not recall this tactic ever
working, but we seem to do it more often every year.

The House adjourned for the week late on Wednesday evening, giving
conference committees a chance to begin their work on Thursday and
Friday. They will continue throughout this coming week. The Conference
Committees are each made up of 3 Senators and 3 Representatives and they
discuss the differences in the House and Senate versions of bills.
Sometimes they come to a consensus and bring the decision back to their
respective chamber for another vote, and sometimes they do not come to a
consensus and the bill dies. Often they put many bills together in
deals to get bills that are important to someone back for a vote. It is
not uncommon to get a Conference Committee report back with several
bills in it, some you support and some you do not support, and you are
given just a few hours or minutes to decide if you will vote yes or no
on the whole lot. Our schedule will be very fluid this coming week as
we wait for conference committees to meet and pass out their reports for
a vote.

Redistricting Saga Continues

Populations shift significantly over the course of ten years, which is
why all congressional, legislative, and State Board of Education
district boundaries must be redrawn once a decade. After months of
discussion, the full House finally took up the House congressional
reapportionment map on Thursday. The Congressional map that we voted on
in the House this week was highly controversial. It connected the First
Congressional District from western Kansas and the Colorado border to
the eastern border to include Leavenworth and Wyandotte Counties,
splitting Wyandotte from the rest of the Kansas City Metro area. This
map was very similar to the map that was presented in the Redistricting
Committee that traveled the state last summer, and was described as a
"conspiracy theory." During debate, this map was replaced with a
compromise map that kept Wyandotte with the rest of Kansas City.
However, the amended map was ultimately voted down on final action, and
actually killed the Senate's version of the Congressional map because
the House Committee had replaced it with their version.

There is now talk that the next Congressional map to be debated by the
House will put Shawnee County, instead of Wyandotte, into the First
District. I am not sure which district Leavenworth County will end up in
with this rumored version. The Senate also debated their Senate map
last week and ended up postponing their decision because the debate
became so heated. At this point, Kansas is one of only two states in
the country that has yet to finish reapportionment. We have not seen any
school board maps yet and the only surviving map so far is the House
districts. And not to forget that besides getting through the
legislature, both the Congressional and Kansas Board of Education maps
have to be reviewed by the courts. Ten years ago, the process took
until July.

Autism Insurance Debate

On Wednesday, the House spent four hours debating House Bill 2764, which
is a bill that would require health insurance companies to provide
coverage for the treatment and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders
(ASDs). The bill would cover children until they turn 19 and requires a
study to determine the actual cost of providing coverage for the
treatment and diagnosis of ASD.

Opponents to the bill said that the mandate was burdensome to business
and unfair to children on public health care. Proponents argued that
study after study has shown autistic children who receive early
treatment are more likely to be mainstreamed in school and employed
after school, which saves money in the long run.

The bill was heavily amended on the House floor. One amendment expanded
the required coverage to children under Medicaid. This brought up
questions about how the state will pay its share, which is estimated at
$25 million. Another amendment capped the cost of the new autism
coverage to insurance policyholders at $.31 per policyholder, per month.
The bill requires up to $36,000 of coverage per year for autistic
children from birth to age six, and $27,000 for all other up to age 19.
Per this amendment, that benefit would be reduced if enough people
access the benefits to push the costs above the $0.31 threshold. The
$0.31 limit is based on the costs of similar coverage in Missouri.
Kansas has had a pilot program that offered insurance coverage for its
public employees' families for the past year. The cost for the pilot
program has been estimated at $.14 per policy holder per month. The
bill passed the House by a vote of 92-30.

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.

Adventures in the Statehouse, Vol 2012, Issue 10

Melanie Meier's Adventures in the Statehouse
Kansas House of Representatives
40th District

Volume 2012, Issue 10: March 12-16, 2012

In This Issue

- Drop Dead Day Nears
- Budget Debate All Day Friday
- KPERS Debate this Week
- Keep in Touch

Drop Dead Day Nears

This coming Wednesday is "Drop Dead Day" in the Kansas Legislature.
That means that any bill that is not acted on by the House and Senate by
this day, is considered dead. Of course, there are bills that are
exempt, such as the budget, and it seems like anything can show up in a
conference committee report! So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be
long days of debate in the House Chambers. Thursday and Friday, the
legislative staff and members of conference committees will start the
process of merging bills together and meeting to find compromise between
the House and the Senate. Any of us that have bills out there that we
are tracking to make sure they make it through the process will have to
be vigilant as the schedule is hard to track during this period of time.

Budget Debate All Day Friday

On Friday the House debated its mega-budget that included changes for
the current fiscal year 2012 and then fiscal year 2013. Debate went for
7 hours, there were at least 23 amendments offered and at my count, 8
actually adopted. There was a lot of time spent on debating the merits
of the new rule adopted last year that does not allow an expenditure in
the budget unless there is a corresponding cut. As there is a revenue
surplus right now over $400 million, there is great debate over whether
we should reinstate some of the most painful cuts from the last few
years or continue to build up the bank account. Many of the proposed
amendments were reflections of this debate, including putting money back
into things such as:
-K-12 education
-Parolee, probation and anti-recidivism programs
-Community Mental Health
-Services for autistic children
-Raising state employees' wages that are undermarket and/or under the
poverty level
-Kansas Highway Patrol

Some of us tried to keep track of the changes as amendments were offered
and either adopted or rejected. It appears that this version of the
budget actually spends more than last year, and even adds an additional
$1million to the legislative budget. Maybe this is a sign that we will
not be finishing the session within the 80 day goal set by the Speaker
of the House after all. But remember, even after the long debate on
Friday, we still have to see what the Senate does with their own version
of the budget, see on what compromise the conference committee agrees,
and then see if the Governor uses his line item veto or vetoes the
entire bill. We are quite a ways from a finished product!

KPERS Debate this Week

One of the subjects that I get questions on almost every day is the
Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS). This is one of the
goals that the Governor set last year when he took office was to come up
with a plan to address the unfunded liability level of the current
KPERS. A special committee traveled Kansas all last summer and
submitted a proposal to the legislature this session to switch to a
defined benefit system, that has been rejected by the House Committee on
Pensions.

It seems that everyone agrees that KPERS is a well run program that has
very low overhead costs and has received the investment returns right on
target of its estimates. The unfunded liability comes from the
Legislature's choice to not fund its portion since the 1980s.
Therefore, those who are in the system continue their view that they put
in their required contributions, so the state needs to do its part.

This week the House Chamber will be debating the KPERS bills that the
House Pension Committee finally came up with last week after hearings
all session. The provisions included in the bill are:
- a 3-year salary cap of $20,000 for school professionals who go back to
work after retiring
- a raise of Tier 1 employee contribution rates from 4.0 to 6.0 % and a
multiplier increase from 1.75 to 1.85 %
- elimination of the automatic cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for Tier
2 employees, while maintaining the current 6.0 % employee contribution
rate and raising the multiplier from 1.75 to 1.85 %
- raises each year of the employer contribution until it reaches 1.2 %
in 2017
- creates a new Tier 3 that uses a Cash Balance plan for new employees,
for more information on what the bill's Cash Balance plan does, please
see the website's supplement note on SB259 at,
http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/measures/documents/supp_note_sb259_01_0000.pdf

Overall, a cash-balance plan is a defined benefit plan that is a whole
lot like a traditional pension, but with a few elements that closely
resemble a 401(k). You don't invest any of your own money in the plan,
nor do you have any responsibility for the investment choices. Instead
of your benefit in retirement being based on a formula that takes into
account how long you were on the job and your average salary during your
last few years of employment, the cash-balance plan credits your account
with a set percentage of your salary each year, plus a set interest rate
that is applied to your balance. Each year, you get a statement that
shows the hypothetical value of your account, as well as what sort of
monthly income payout (or lump sum) that will generate when you retire
at 65. If you leave the company before retirement age, you may take the
contents of your cash-balance plan as a lump sum and roll it into an
IRA. A traditional pension is not portable. The Office of Budget
Management has reported that the Cash Balance plan results in lower
benefits for participants that have been in a retirement plan for a
while. A cash-balance plan is great if you are young and plan on
job-hopping. But if you work for the state for a very long time - the
total amount you'll get from a traditional pension plan is typically
bigger than what you'll get from a cash-balance plan, because the
formula for a traditional pension gives heavy weight to your average
salary over the last few years of employment. With a cash-balance plan,
it is a simple average of every year's salary.

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.

Adventures in the Statehouse Vol 2012, Issue 9

Melanie Meier's Adventures in the Statehouse
Kansas House of Representatives
40th District

Volume 2012, Issue 9: March 5 - 9, 2012

In This Issue

- Kansas Adopts the Honor & Remember Flag
- Property Tax Relief – Maybe this Time!
- Income Tax Debate
- Kansas Taxes on Civil Servants and the Military
- Keep in Touch

Kansas Adopts the Honor and Remember Flag

This was a busy and emotional week in Topeka. Committees were busy
pushing through hearings and passing our bills, and there was some good
debate in the House Chambers. The Leavenworth/Lansing Chamber of
Commerce Leadership Class and representatives of our Leavenworth Virtual
School, Parents as Teachers, St Vincent Clinic, and St John's Hospital
were among some of the visitors this week. On Thursday we had some
very special visitors here to witness Kansas' adoption of the Honor &
Remember Flag. Kansas families of the fallen, veterans, the Patriot
Guard, and representatives of the Survivor Outreach Services office on
Fort Leavenworth joined Mr. George Lutz, a Gold Star father and creator
of the Honor and Remember Flag, in the House and Senate Chambers to hear
the reading and unanimous voice vote of HR6014 and SR1832. The Governor
presented them with a Kansas flag that was flown over the Capitol on
Thursday in honor of the occasion. Mr. Lutz explained why he created
the flag to the Governor by saying, "The Honor and Remember Flag is a
symbol of gratitude when there are no words to say. It replaces no
other flag and it flies below any flag that it flies with because it is
the foundation of all service – love of country." Kansas became the
tenth state to adopt this symbol.

Property Tax Relief -- Maybe this Time!

On Friday the House debated a new, but very familiar property tax bill,
HB2609. This bill does two things. First, it provides $90 million to
local governments for the next two years to lower their property taxes.
Second, it requires municipalities to lower their mill levy to match the
same amount of any rise in property valuation to avoid "property tax
creep." The municipalities may still raise the mill levy if needed
through a resolution or ordinance, if they provide notification in the
local newspapers to inform the tax payers of the increase and the
reason.

Income Tax Debate

SB177 will be debated this week in the House. Toward the beginning of
the session, the Governor announced his plan for a new income tax
bracket system and SB177 is a combination of the Governor's plan and
the House Republican plan. The major components of the bill are:
- A formula for reducing the tax rate of the current 3 brackets. It
would only kick in with any revenue increase in excess of 2%. It does
not require an ending balance, unlike the Governor's plan.
- An exemption of LLC's, Subchapter S corporations, and sole
proprietorships from taxes.
- An addition of 23 more counties to the ROZ (Rural Opportunity Zones)
which would exempt a person from income tax if they moved there from
another state, bringing ROZs to 73 of the 105 Kansas counties.
- The end the refund of many income tax credits (Earned Income Tax
Credit, food sales tax rebates, community service, farm
net-operating-loss carryback, employer child day care assistance,
declared disaster capital investment, disabled access, historic site
contribution, individual development account, regional foundation
contribution, small employer health care, telecommunications and
railroad machinery and equipment).
- The elimination of the two-year tax exemption for oil production in
excess of 250 barrels per day or more for new drilling.
- The diversion of $351 million from the Highway Fund to cover income
tax revenues lost, with reimbursement over 5 years in installment
payments from State General Fund starting in 2016.
- The increase of the standard deduction for head of household from
$4500 to $9000 in 2014.

Kansas Taxes on Civil Servants and the Military

Thursday the House debated HB2480, which is the bill that would tax the
federal civil service and military retirement Thrift Savings Program
(TSP) distributions. The proponents gave a variety of reasons for this
bill saying things such as: this was only a technical fix or this would
make Kansas compliant with federal law or this would make Kansas law the
same as federal law. This bill was originally sent to the consent
calendar, where it would have passed in three days with no debate. I
objected and had it removed from the consent calendar and sure enough,
it was evident that there was no consent on this bill or even much
understanding of retirement and how it is taxed in Kansas. Changing the
law from saying "benefits in whatever form" to "defined
benefits" is a policy change and anything but "just a technical
fix." The statements that this bill would make us compliant with or
the same as federal law are not accurate because years ago, Kansas
decided to exempt all government retirement rather than tax it all.
Conversely, under federal tax law, it is all taxed. By making only one
of the three parts of the federal retirement system taxable, we would
not be the same as the federal law and there is no issue of compliance
with federal law as this is Kansas law we are debating. So, after quite
a bit of debate back and forth and many questions on how retirement is
taxed, I made a motion to send the bill back to the House Taxation
Committee so that the House could do further research before voting to
raise taxes on military and civil servant retirement benefits. The
motion passed and the bill went back to committee.

This week the House will be debating HB2769, a bill that deals with
property taxes on military installations. Now that the Department of
Defense has hired private companies to build and manage the housing on
military installations, there is a question of property tax on the
buildings. The federal government is exempt from state property tax,
but the private companies that own the new houses are not. HB2769 would
exempt these companies in Kansas. This Bill was requested by the
Governor's Military Council in light of looming Defense Department
budget cuts and the likely rise in housing costs to the Department of
Defense if taxes must be paid on the houses.

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.

Adventures in the Statehouse, Vol 2012, Issue 8

Melanie Meier's Adventures in the Statehouse
Kansas House of Representatives
40th District

Volume 2012, Issue 8: February 27 to March 2, 2012

In This Issue

- Kansas Armed Forces Appreciation Day
- Property Tax Relief, Never Mind
- A Couple of Taxation Committee Updates
- Redistricting
- Veterans, Military Affairs & Homeland Security
- Interesting Hearings Scheduled for this Week
- Keep in Touch

Kansas Armed Forces Appreciation Day

Last week was a short for the Legislature. The legislature staff used
Monday and Tuesday to transfer all the bills between the House and the
Senate and we started back up on Wednesday to consider the Senate's
bill's. The Governor proclaimed Thursday as Kansas Armed Forces
Appreciation Day. Service members from Kansas military installations
joined the Legislature and Governor for a proclamation and the
ceremonial signing of the Military Spouses' Licensure Bill. The
mounted color guard from Fort Riley was at the Capitol and the
Governor's Military Council met before the Governor left to visit
Harveyville, Kansas, where a tornado hit earlier in the week. I enjoyed
having pages on Thursday also, and they were able to join in the Armed
Forces Appreciation Day activities.

Property Tax Relief, Never Mind

Last Wednesday, after thinking about it over a 5 day weekend, the Kansas
House of Representatives reconsidered and disapproved House Bill 2212 on
a final action vote of 34-83. I guess final action is not always final
action! The property tax plan would have applied $90 million of the
state's $351+ million surplus over the next two fiscal years to the
Local Ad Valorem Tax Reduction Fund (LAVTRF). The LAVTRF was first
established in 1938 so that the Legislature would help local government
keep property taxes down. Funds were distributed to each of the
state's 105 counties and the local units of government are required to
use the money to reduce the local property tax rate. The Legislature
stopped funding the account in 2004. A 2011 study by the Tax Foundation
concluded that Kansas ranks 21st in competitiveness for individual
income tax rates, 32nd for sales tax rates, and 41st for property tax
rates and the Department of Legislative Research has confirmed that
property tax rates have increased over 65 percent over the last decade,
while incomes have either remained stagnant or declined.

Redistricting

Last Wednesday, the House Redistricting Committee introduced even more
proposed Congressional maps. I believe the number is up to 16 now.
This Monday and Wednesday, they will be meeting to hold hearings and
testimony from the public on them. The Senate Redistricting Committee
met and passed a proposed State Senate district map out for a vote by
the whole Senate. The map collapses a district in the west, pitting two
incumbent Senators in the same district and creates a new district in
Johnson County that has no current Senator. This version does not
include the proposal to make Leavenworth County its own Senate district.
The vote is expected this week.

Veteran, Military Affairs & Homeland Security

There will be a hearing in the House Health and Human Services Committee
this week on SB303. This proposal was requested by the Kansas Funeral
Directors Association. It would establish a procedure to determine if
unclaimed cremated remains are veterans, and if they are to give them to
a veteran cemetery for honorable disposition. It passed the Senate
39-0.

HB2769 was introduced last week in the Taxation Committee. It adds
housing developments and related improvements located on US military
installations Kansas, which are developed as part of the military
housing privatization initiative to the existing statute exempting
federal government property from Kansas tax. This is housing provided
exclusively or primarily for use by military personnel of the United
States and their families. This applies to Fort Leavenworth, as the new
housing built there is owned by a private business, on land they lease
from the federal government.

Interesting Hearings Scheduled for this Week

I've scanned the House and Senate calendars for any bills that may
interest the district, especially topics that I receive questions about.
Here are a few:
- KPERS. There will be discussion and public input accepted on Monday
and Wednesday on a proposed Cash Balance Plan.
- VCAP. The House appropriations committee will be working on the
proposed budget this week. On page 67, it discusses the Kansas
Commission on Veterans Affairs and shows the amount allotted to the
Veteran Claims Assistance Plan to still be $467,268. This is still
short the $32,732 that Rep Henry attempted to add in the sub-committee
to bring the grant back to the original $500,000 that started the
program years ago and that the Veteran Service Organizations are
required to match.
- Hunting. Senate Natural Resources Committee will have hearings on
extending the deer season, the use of crossbows, and the use of
handguns while hunting on Thursday and Friday.
- Sales Tax Exemptions. The Senate will hear SB376 on Wed. It proposes
reducing the sales tax on food to 3.15% in 2013 and then after January
1, 2014, eliminating it altogether. It proposes the elimination of most
sales tax exemptions including: services, utilities, laundry mats,
membership dues, transfer of vehicles, original construction, bingo
cards, medical supplies and all by-name non-profit organizations.

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.