Melanie Meier's Adventures in the Statehouse
Kansas House of Representatives
Volume 2013, Issue 14: May 13-17, 2013
In This Issue
- Wrap Up Session Continues
- Passed Some Conference Committee Reports
- "What ifs?" on the Budget and Taxes
- Keep in Touch
Wrap Up Session Continues
The Legislature has passed day 80 of the 2013 Session. An 80 day
session was the goal set at the beginning of the Session this year, but
stalemate seems to have arrived in Kansas. The House and Senate Tax
Conference Committee met on Wed (their first since the wrap up session
started). The House offered a tax plan that would raise the sales tax
by half of what the Senate proposed during the session. The Senate
quickly turned it down. The Senate President had originally stated that
the Senate budget negotiators would not meet with the House negotiators
until the House passed a bill to raise the sales tax, but the conference
committee on the budget finally met this week also. The committee
started its negotiations between the House and Senate positions on at
least 99 lines of the budget and many proposed provisos. Although there
is no constitutional requirement to raise sales tax and the budget will
balance without an increase, the Governor has warned that he will veto
any budget passed until a tax bill is passed to raise sales taxes. Day
90 will be on Thursday, May 23rd.
The House did Pass Some Conference Committee Reports
The House voted on three conference committee reports this week. They
all passed and are on their way to the Governor's desk for signature
or veto.
1. HB2204 extends the judicial branch surcharge for two more years and
allows the judicial branch to use the money to fund the support
staff's salaries. This bill was originally about mortgages but the
language was replaced with SB218. SB218 is the bill that would have
also taken the portion of docket fees that go to organizations such as
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for children), the Kansas
Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence, and Kansas Legal Services,
and sent it to the State General Fund. If that were to happen, all
these individual organizations would have to appear before the
Legislature to ask for money. That section was removed and HB2204 now
only extends the surcharge.
2. HB2115 is the combination of HB2115 and HB2114. It amends the rules
for temporarily hiring a retired judge when needed and it requires a
debtor to pay the cost of debt collection, rather than just deducting it
from the debtor's original debt to the court.
3. HB2249 is a combination of three bills, as HB2074 and HB2118 were
added. The original HB2249 provides a refund of property tax for fire
services if your property falls within two tax districts due to
annexation or boundary changes – intent is to protect a property owner
from being double taxed for fire services. HB2074 prohibits a city or
county from adopting restrictions on solid waste if such restrictions
interfere with another city or county that is serviced by the same
disposal site and requires the Sec of Health & Environment to prepare a
report on solid waste management with recommendations on legislative
changes and the cost associated with the changes. HB2118 removes the
requirement that proposed projects within 500 feet of a historic
property in the city and 1000 feet outside the city, be subject to
historic design and appearance restrictions. It restricts historic
reviews to projects that would involve, damage or destroy properties on
the national or state registries of historic places.
"What Ifs?" on the Budget and Taxes
Now that the large income tax cuts made last year are coming into
effect, it seems half the legislature has changed how it looks at the
budget. The Senate has become very concerned with the projections of
revenue out to 2018, but the House is still focused on the budget being
formed this session. While the Revenue Consensus folks (that the
legislature uses for future revenue projections in the budget process)
have been very accurate in the past, they normally just look one year
ahead. They do not have a track record for long term projections.
While the Senate is now insisting that the sales tax be raised to offset
the income tax cuts made last year and that "sales taxes do not matter
to economic growth," the House has not agreed. Kansas has the largest
state sales tax rate in our region (KS: 6.3%, MO: 4.22%, NE: 5.5%, CO:
2.9%, OK: 4.5%). This is especially concerning to communities such as
ours, on the border where it is easy for our residents to go next door
to Missouri to make their large purchases at a reduced sales tax rate.
The continuation of higher sales taxes will be used to counteract the
income tax cuts made last year, without giving Kansas the chance to see
if the promised results will come true. Will they produce thousands of
new jobs and entice more businesses to move to Kansas and spur economic
growth? Or, will a higher sales tax bring in the money to run our state
schools and public safety services, but possibly deter some businesses
from making the move for fear of lower sales? Or, will a higher sales
tax allow Kansas to go to zero income taxes without significant loss of
infrastructure? Will the House hold firm and give the tax cuts from
last year a chance? Maybe we will know by day 90.
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.
Kansas House of Representatives
Volume 2013, Issue 14: May 13-17, 2013
In This Issue
- Wrap Up Session Continues
- Passed Some Conference Committee Reports
- "What ifs?" on the Budget and Taxes
- Keep in Touch
Wrap Up Session Continues
The Legislature has passed day 80 of the 2013 Session. An 80 day
session was the goal set at the beginning of the Session this year, but
stalemate seems to have arrived in Kansas. The House and Senate Tax
Conference Committee met on Wed (their first since the wrap up session
started). The House offered a tax plan that would raise the sales tax
by half of what the Senate proposed during the session. The Senate
quickly turned it down. The Senate President had originally stated that
the Senate budget negotiators would not meet with the House negotiators
until the House passed a bill to raise the sales tax, but the conference
committee on the budget finally met this week also. The committee
started its negotiations between the House and Senate positions on at
least 99 lines of the budget and many proposed provisos. Although there
is no constitutional requirement to raise sales tax and the budget will
balance without an increase, the Governor has warned that he will veto
any budget passed until a tax bill is passed to raise sales taxes. Day
90 will be on Thursday, May 23rd.
The House did Pass Some Conference Committee Reports
The House voted on three conference committee reports this week. They
all passed and are on their way to the Governor's desk for signature
or veto.
1. HB2204 extends the judicial branch surcharge for two more years and
allows the judicial branch to use the money to fund the support
staff's salaries. This bill was originally about mortgages but the
language was replaced with SB218. SB218 is the bill that would have
also taken the portion of docket fees that go to organizations such as
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for children), the Kansas
Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence, and Kansas Legal Services,
and sent it to the State General Fund. If that were to happen, all
these individual organizations would have to appear before the
Legislature to ask for money. That section was removed and HB2204 now
only extends the surcharge.
2. HB2115 is the combination of HB2115 and HB2114. It amends the rules
for temporarily hiring a retired judge when needed and it requires a
debtor to pay the cost of debt collection, rather than just deducting it
from the debtor's original debt to the court.
3. HB2249 is a combination of three bills, as HB2074 and HB2118 were
added. The original HB2249 provides a refund of property tax for fire
services if your property falls within two tax districts due to
annexation or boundary changes – intent is to protect a property owner
from being double taxed for fire services. HB2074 prohibits a city or
county from adopting restrictions on solid waste if such restrictions
interfere with another city or county that is serviced by the same
disposal site and requires the Sec of Health & Environment to prepare a
report on solid waste management with recommendations on legislative
changes and the cost associated with the changes. HB2118 removes the
requirement that proposed projects within 500 feet of a historic
property in the city and 1000 feet outside the city, be subject to
historic design and appearance restrictions. It restricts historic
reviews to projects that would involve, damage or destroy properties on
the national or state registries of historic places.
"What Ifs?" on the Budget and Taxes
Now that the large income tax cuts made last year are coming into
effect, it seems half the legislature has changed how it looks at the
budget. The Senate has become very concerned with the projections of
revenue out to 2018, but the House is still focused on the budget being
formed this session. While the Revenue Consensus folks (that the
legislature uses for future revenue projections in the budget process)
have been very accurate in the past, they normally just look one year
ahead. They do not have a track record for long term projections.
While the Senate is now insisting that the sales tax be raised to offset
the income tax cuts made last year and that "sales taxes do not matter
to economic growth," the House has not agreed. Kansas has the largest
state sales tax rate in our region (KS: 6.3%, MO: 4.22%, NE: 5.5%, CO:
2.9%, OK: 4.5%). This is especially concerning to communities such as
ours, on the border where it is easy for our residents to go next door
to Missouri to make their large purchases at a reduced sales tax rate.
The continuation of higher sales taxes will be used to counteract the
income tax cuts made last year, without giving Kansas the chance to see
if the promised results will come true. Will they produce thousands of
new jobs and entice more businesses to move to Kansas and spur economic
growth? Or, will a higher sales tax bring in the money to run our state
schools and public safety services, but possibly deter some businesses
from making the move for fear of lower sales? Or, will a higher sales
tax allow Kansas to go to zero income taxes without significant loss of
infrastructure? Will the House hold firm and give the tax cuts from
last year a chance? Maybe we will know by day 90.
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.
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