Kansas House of Representatives
40th District
Volume 2012, Issue 14: April 30 – May 4, 2012
In This Issue
- House is Crawling Along
- Sgt. Enzbrenner Honored
- Redistricting
- Tax Plan Confusion
- Keep in Touch
House is Crawling Along
Week 14 was a long week for the House, as we watched the Senate debate
and vote on their plans for redistricting, the tax plan, the budget and
KPERS. As the Senate worked on the stated priorities of this session,
the House voted on several non controversial conference committee
reports Monday through Thursday, and debated 5 bills on Friday.
The 90th day of the Legislative Session, Friday May 11th, is nearing.
The Speaker of the House told us to be prepared for a long week of hard
work, but many are worried that we will not be done by Friday.
Our office assistants have been let go for the session, so if you call
my office number you will only get an answering machine that is shared
with two other Representatives. Please call the Legislative hotline or
my cell phone to reach me.
Sgt. Enzbrenner Honored
Friday, May 4th was Kansas Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Day. The
day was marked by a ceremony at the Kansas Law Enforcement Officer
memorial on the Capitol grounds with the addition of Sgt. David
Enzbrenner's name. On December 9, 2011, Atchison Police Department
Sgt. David Enzbrenner was killed on duty. Sgt. Enzbrenner was 46 years
old and a 24-year veteran of the Atchison Police Department.
Representative Jerry Henry of Atchison, invited the members of the
Atchison Police Force, Sgt. Enzbrenner's wife Kerri, and their three
daughters: Avery, Abbi, and Celia, to the House Chamber prior to the
ceremony. At that time, we were able to express our gratitude for Sgt.
Enzbrenner's services, and condolences to his family and fellow
officers.
Redistricting
The Senate debated and passed their map of Senate Districts this week.
The Senate chamber was full of House members, there to check out the
action. The debate went on for hours after two amendments were
initially made to adjust the boundaries of two districts that the
Senators stated were part of a compromise with House leadership.
Most of the debate centered on whether a district in western rural
Kansas should be collapsed so that a new district could be formed in
Johnson County, where most of the population growth over the last 10
years has taken place. The result was a map that collapsed a western
district.
The next morning in the House, a motion was made to concur with the
Senate map. Despite all the talk of a compromise, the Representative
that made the motion stated that he was voting against his own motion
and urged the House to also vote no in order to kill the Senate map.
This is an unprecedented motion, as there has been a long-standing, yet
unwritten, agreement between the House and Senate that neither would
interfere with the other in determining their own districts. Despite
this, arguments were made that the Senate's map would be determined
unconstitutional because of the percentages of deviation in each
district being between 3 and 5% and that it would split a 48% Hispanic
community in rural Kansas. The map was defeated.
The Kansas rules allow no larger than a 5% deviation in population from
the targeted amount of residents and Federal law requires that
"majority minority" districts can not be split. Kansas only has one
district at this time that is a "majority minority" district; it is
District 4 in Wyandotte County.
A "majority minority" district must meet three criteria: first, the
minority group must be large enough and geographically situated such
that a relatively compact district in which they are a majority can be
drawn up; secondly, there must be a history of cohesive voting among the
minority group; and thirdly, there must be a history of racially
cohesive majority voting behavior sufficient to prevent the election of
most of the minority group's favored candidates. The creation of
majority-minority districts has had a substantial effect in increasing
African-American, Hispanic, and Native American representation in state
legislatures across the country.
Tax Plan Confusion
The Senate and House Taxation Conference Committee met again this week
to make adjustments to their Conference Committee Report from the prior
week. Three separate sets of cost figures had been released by the
Kansas Legislature Research Department in as many days with very
different bottom lines. The Department of Revenue also produced their
own estimates that were different than the others. The differences were
attributed to things such as not figuring in the loss of revenue when
the temporary sales tax increase expired and bills that have passed this
session that would cost money.
The Conference Committee's new plan would phase in the reduction in
the income tax rate for residents with incomes over $30,000 over 5 years
and by 2017, taxes would be eliminated on LLCs, S Corporations, and Sole
proprietorships. Some parts that make me uncomfortable with the
Conference Committee Report include the Committee's addition of at
least 6 more bills that were never debated in the House and their
assumption of a 4% growth in the economy each year, which has been
criticized as being too optimistic as we slowly come out of the
recession.
Two of the six members of the Committee refused to sign the Conference
Committee Report, so a few more procedural steps are required before the
report comes to the House floor for a vote. When that happens, it is
called an "Agree to Disagree" report.
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.
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