Kansas House of Representatives
Volume 2013, Issue 8: March 6 - 8, 2013
In This Issue
- Short but Busy Week
- Combatting Human Trafficking in Kansas
- The Modernization Fee on Your Vehicle Registration
- The Merger of KDOT and KTA
- Innovative School Districts
- Keep in Touch
Short but Busy Week
The legislature hit the ground running upon its return from Turnaround.
I testified in several Senate Committees on House Veteran Bills and the
House Veteran Committee had a hearing on a Senate Bill already. Then
next week there are at least two more House Veteran Bills being heard in
the Senate and another Senate bill in the House Veteran Committee. At
this rate, we should start seeing some of these bills hitting the
Governor's desk soon for signature!
Combatting Human Trafficking in Kansas
In Corrections & Juvenile Justice Committee this week we heard
informative and emotional testimony on SB61 which creates and amends
statutes dealing with Human Trafficking. The bill is 98 pages long and
creates 7 new sections of statute as well as amending current law. The
new sections allow the Attorney General to train law enforcement,
creates a Human Trafficking Advisory Board and establishes a fund for
paying for that training and the support, care, treatment, and other
services for victims of human trafficking and commercial sexual
exploitation of a child. The bill creates secure facilities for victims
to stay in and a website for information on how to get help. The bill
eliminates the word "prostitution" and replaces it with "the sale
of sexual relations" throughout Kansas statutes and patronizing a
prostitute would be called "buying sexual relations."
Victims of Human Trafficking Organizations that support victims such as
the Wichita State University Center for Combatting Human Trafficking and
Veronica's Voice, and various law enforcement organizations and
prosecutors all testified with the Attorney General on the need for the
bill. When asked if this was really a big problem in Kansas and if
other states around Kansas had such legislation and programs, a
prosecutor from Sedgwick County stated he could think of at least 24
cases that he personally had worked and that they often entail the
transport of young girls throughout the state and to and from other
states. The Attorney General stated that Missouri currently has tougher
statutes on Human Trafficking than Kansas, but Kansas has law
enforcement and support organizations that are actually on the ground
fighting this issue now and they are the ones who are asking for SB61 to
give them the tools they need to stop Human Trafficking.
The Modernization Fee on Your Vehicle Registration
Did you ever notice the "Modernization Fee" when you registered your
vehicles during the past four years? This is a fee that the 2008
legislature decided to create in order to pay for the new vehicle
registration computer system that we heard so much about last summer. I
had been receiving inquiries from folks in the district recently, asking
why the fee is still being charged now that the new system is in place.
So I was happy when we had a hearing in Transportation & Public Safety
Budget Committee this week on HB2137, which proposed deleting this $4
fee.
It turns out though, that the 2010 T-Works Transportation Plan had a
section in it making the fee permanent and sending the money to the
State Highway Fund. This amounts to approximately $12 million a year.
The proponent of the bill stated that the legislature had promised that
the fee would be temporary and end when the computer system
modernization program was complete. The opponents stated that the
legislature promised the $12 million a year to the T-Works Program to be
part of the funding stream for 10 years of contracting for Kansas
creating 175,000 jobs and $81 million in projects to each county. I
asked why the fee was still called the "Modernization Fee" if that
is not what it was. The next day a Representative offered an amendment
in committee to change the name of the fee to the "T-Works" fee and
to have it expire in January 2021, when the current T-Works program
would end. This way he said that the legislature would be keeping both
promises. The Committee adopted the amendment and recommended the bill
favorably to the House as a Whole.
The Merger of KDOT and KTA
This week the House debated HB2234, which would merge the Kansas
Turnpike Authority (KTA) into the Kansas Department of Transportation.
The debate went on for 2 hours on the House floor and the final vote is
Monday morning. This bill is something that the Governor proposed in
his State of the State Address last January and he counted $30 million
of savings in the budget over the next 2 years as the expected result of
the merger. However, after 3 days of hearings in the Transportation
Committee and further testimony in the Transportation & Public Safety
Committee, the Secretary of Transportation could not explain how the
savings would be achieved. The two agencies already work closely
together in accordance with a law that was passed in 1975, that requires
close cooperation while keeping the organizations separate. The
Transportation Committee amended the bill to remove many of the
requirements it proposed and the carrier of the bill now says that
pretty much nothing will change.
The KTA will remain a quasi-governmental organization that operates on
its own with its own funding and debt, and continue to cooperate with
KDOT. The Secretary of Transportation will remain a member of its
board, but will not be the Chair. The tolls can only be used for the
turnpike and any connecting road within a 10 mile limit of the turnpike.
A clause allowing KDOT use of KTA's "other resources" was struck
from the bill to avoid any situations where, for example, the KTA would
purchase vehicles or equipment and give it to KDOT as a way to fund
projects outside the turnpike.
After all the amendments, there are some who say that this bill is
nothing but a restatement of current law and could have been a
resolution just urging continued cooperation. But, the bill does repeal
over 90 statutes, so something must be changing. As I read through the
long list of statutes, some appear to be redundant and others seem to
have expired – such as studies or projects to be done by a certain
date. I counted at least 20 of the statutes being repealed that deal
with budgeting issues. There are also some questionable repeals,
including a provision that states KTA bonds are not a debt to the state
and only payable by KTA revenues, and another that prohibits KTA members
or employees from contracting with KTA to avoid ethical and conflict of
interest issues – a basic ethics requirement for most contracting
authorities. Of the 31 statutes being retained, I found some that
needed to join the list of repealed statutes like one that directs a
feasibility study to be done by December 1981, and one that gives law
enforcement duties to the KS Highway Patrol on the turnpike but refers
to the duties described in KSA 74-20a03 that was repealed in 1972.
So what I am trying to say is: that despite days of testimony and
discussion, it is still not clear what this bill exactly does and no one
can fully explain its consequences. There was no organized study of the
impacts and there was no fiscal assessment - a fiscal note is normally
prepared for every bill that explains the bill's budgetary impact on
the State.
Innovative School Districts
This week we debated and voted on HB2319. This bill was named "The
Innovative School Districts" bill. The Senate also debated and voted
on their version of the bill, which was virtually identical. These
bills would exempt some school districts (10 in the House version and 28
in the Senate version) from almost every Kansas statute except for
special education, issuing of bonds, and election of the school board,
KPERS, and the school funding formula.
The Kansas City Kansas School District testified in favor of the bill,
but later submitted a statement that they did not necessarily want to be
exempt from ALL other statutes. The KCK School District is one of two
districts in Kansas that currently are already exempt from the normal
Kansas Assessment process. They previously requested and were granted
the exception because they wanted to use the ACT, and its family of
tests that build up to the ACT, as its method to assess student
progress. Proponents said "HB2319 cuts all the red tape and lets
teachers be free to innovate." Opponents of HB2319 stated that with
such a sweeping exemption, these districts would not have to do a long
list of things, such as: hire certified teachers and staff, fund the
gifted or financial literacy programs, and use competitive bidding.
There would be no attendance rules or open meeting rules, the districts
could drive their buses into other districts to take the best athletes
and/or academic achievers, and there would be no collective bargaining
or due process rights for teachers and other employees.
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 on the 4th floor of the Capitol, Room
451-S. 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. And do not forget to 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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