Kansas House of Representatives
40th District
Volume 2012, Issue 16: May 14 - 20, 2012
In This Issue
- The Session Ends (?)
- Budget
- Redistricting
- Keep in Touch
The Session Ends (?)
The 2012 Legislative Session ended in a sad note last Sunday when
Representative Bob Bethell died in a car accident less than an hour
after adjournment. He had spent the last minutes of the session trying
to get the House to concur on a bill that would have established an
oversight committee for the State's new KAN-CARE plan that is going
into effect in January 2013. The bill failed. Rep Bethell was a 69
year old retired teacher who ran senior living centers. He was also a
pastor and headed many community projects in his town of Alden Kansas,
an annual fundraiser for the Special Olympics in Topeka, and a ministry
for the women in the Topeka Corrections Facility. This was his 12th
session. He always had a smile for you and wore a "Veggie Tales"
tomato pin and a Mickey Mouse tie. He was the Chairman of the Longterm
Care and Aging Committee. We will all miss him.
We wrapped up the session on the 99th day, but I am hesitant to say that
we finished. We managed to finally get a budget agreed upon but failed
in passing a redistricting map. At the end, the two chambers did not
even look at each other's bills. When I asked the research staff
person that had been making all the maps for us for this past year how
it was going during the last week, he told me that he had been told that
he was finished and the maps were just going to the courts.
Now we wait to see what happens with the courts and which of the bills
that actually made it to the Governor's desk get signed. Then maybe
we will be finished.
Budget
After working until midnight on Saturday, May 19th, the Budget
Conference Committee finally came to an agreement. The bill is SB294,
if you would like to look it up on www.kslegislature.org. There are some
good things in the budget and some areas that are lacking. The budget
ended up with the 7.5% statutory positive ending balance that I have
been told, has never happened before. This is good, because we will
need the money to offset the income tax cuts that also passed this year.
Of course, this budget will only be final when the Governor signs it
and he has line item veto power. Some of the big line items in this
years' budget:
- $60 per student was added to the base for education funding. This
included $40 million to K-12 and $27 million to other education funding.
None of the money for education came out of the Highway plan.
- The plan to raise the undermarket pay of State employees was funded.
This was a promise made by the legislature to employees that earned
wages below the poverty level years ago but had not been funded because
of budget shortfalls in the past. This is the 4th year of the 5 year
plan.
- The Veterans Claims Assistance Program was fully funded for the first
time in many years.
- The Children's Initiative Fund was funded. This is the fund that
pays for important early childhood education programs such as Parents as
Teachers, Early Headstart and Pre-School.
Some things that could have been better:
- Money was taken from the death and disability portion of KPERS. No
money should ever be borrowed from KPERS.
- No money was appropriated for the Local Ad Valorem Tax Refund Fund,
which means no property tax relief, despite both chambers voting for it.
- Money the House voted in for Meals on Wheels was taken out.
- The House had voted to appropriate enough money to end the physically
and developmentally disabled waiting lists for services. The amount was
reduced so much that while 100 will be able to gain services, 3900 will
remain on the waiting list.
Redistricting
The House passed a new Congressional Map this past week. It is called
"Kansas Six" and you can see it at www.redistrictingks.com. This
map extends the 1st District of Western Kansas, across the top of the
state, down through Leavenworth County to pick up half of Lawrence.
Fort Riley remains in the 2nd District, while Fort Leavenworth becomes
part of the 1st. It looks very similar to the map that was shown as an
example of gerrymandering throughout last year, except that it splits
Douglas County (Lawrence) rather than Wyandotte. The Senate did not
consider it.
You have probably seen in the news that the redistricting issue is now a
federal court case. At least 27 parties have filed to try and influence
how the maps are drawn. There is a 3 judge panel that will now decide
what to do. The case starts on May 29th. Depending on who you ask,
there are several possibilities of what the judges may decide:
1. The judges may draw the Congressional districts because they are a
federal issue, but tell the Legislature it has to draw the State House,
Senate, and Board of Education districts itself.
2. The judges may tell the Legislature that according to the Kansas
Constitution it is the legislature's job to redraw, and refuse to draw
anything.
3. The judges may draw the Congressional districts and leave the State
level districts alone, because the "1 person, 1 vote" requirement is
a federal requirement.
4. The judges may draw all the districts themselves.
5. Some other outcome?
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 the
legislative hotline, 1-800-432-3924. 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.
