Education Bill Hearing Held
On Tuesday, March 15, the House Appropriations committee finally conducted a hearing on the education bill that had been introduced to address the February Kansas Supreme Court ruling on the funding of K-12 education.
The main components of House Bill 2731 are that it would re-establish the funding mechanism of the former financing formula that was eliminated with the CLASS Act, or better known as the block grant funding bill. The entire finance formula is not going to be reinstated, just the portion of the formula that addresses the equity portion of the lawsuit on which the Supreme Court has rendered its decision. They have yet to state their position on the adequacy funding of the Gannon lawsuit. This bill would address that equity portion and reinstate the funding for Capital Outlay and Supplemental General State Aid.
When the block grant funding went into effect on July 1, 2015, the school districts from across the state received their portion for Capital Outlay that was the same amount that they had received for the 2014-2015 school year. This amount was to be the same in the next school year, until a new school finance formula was created. Since the court has ruled that that funding is not equitable, this bill reestablishes the formula for determining Capital Outlay funding as it was prior to the implementation of the block grant funding.
In determining the amount of funding for supplemental general state aid, like the formula calculation for Capital Outlay, the old formula based on the school district’s assessed valuation per pupil, and if they would fall under the 81.2 percent, that school district will receive additional funding.
House Bill 2731 also removes the provision of the block grant funding bill by exhausting the Extraordinary Needs Fund that was devised to financially assist districts if they experienced extraordinary cases where additional funding was needed. Since the Extraordinary Needs Fund would be abolished, that would place those funds back into the State General Fund to be used to pay for part of the supplemental general state aid appropriation. House Bill 2731 failed to make it out of the Appropriations committee on Thursday, March 17.
LLC Tax Loophole Bill Has Hearing
Since the passage of the 2012 tax plan, there has been a long criticism over the portion of that tax plan with the income tax exemption for certain businesses, namely LLCs. At the implementation of the tax plan, it was expected that approximately 119,000 businesses would be exempt from income taxes ballooned from that original number to over 330,000. With this miscalculation, namely from many existing businesses converting to the exempt business types, has caused much of the financial distress we are currently facing. On Tuesday, March 15, the House Taxation committee held a hearing that would place these exempt businesses back on the income tax rolls, which would generate $260.9 million, and would then buy down the sales tax rate on food from the current rate of 6.5% to a rate of 2.6%.
Horse and Dog Track Bill Hearing Held
During the four sessions that I have served the 109th Kansas House, there has always been bill introductions regarding changes to the expanded gaming act of 2007 that would change the tax rate that slot machines at operating Horse and Dog tracks are required to send to the state of Kansas.
On Tuesday, March 15, there was a dramatic attempt to circumvent the Speaker of the House to have the bill that was introduced, by a procedural move, brought up as the first item of business to be discussed on that day. After a rules committee decision that this procedure was not in order, the bill was not debated on the House floor. Given the dramatic scene on Tuesday, the House Appropriations committee had already scheduled a hearing on this bill, House Bill 2537, for Wednesday, March 16. We conducted the hearing and there were many supporters and many opponents regarding this legislation.
The basis of this bill is that the current taxing element on slot machines are not uniform for the state owned casinos and for the Greyhound and horse tracks, also referred to as racinos, throughout the state of Kansas. The three tracks that are identified in this bill, which currently are not operational and would require a vote in each of their respective counties, are the Wichita Greyhound Park, The Woodlands, and Eureka Downs.
If this bill were to pass, and if the voters in these counties where these facilities are located, would adjust the current tax rate of 40% for the racinos and bring that rate to the same rate that is applied to the state owned casinos of 22%. The main question of contention by the opposing side is if the state of Kansas would alter the contract that was made with the state owned casinos, then would the state of Kansas be contractually obligated to repay the casinos the privilege fees, which were paid at the time of application to secure the management of the casinos, which could exceed $100 million. We conducted a hearing on this bill and I do not foresee this making it out of committee.
Calendar and Contact Information
This Friday, March 18, marked the final day during the 2016 Legislative Session where committees met. All bills needed to be passed out by Friday in order to be under consideration next week.
When we come back from the weekend, we will be on the floor all day Monday to deliberate and debate bills. We will have a considerable amount of bills. The schedule for Tuesday through Friday will be waiting on the conference committees from the House and Senate to discuss and consider bills and then send those back to the House and Senate members to vote on the conference committee reports. We will adjourn on Friday, March 25 and will return for Veto Session on Wednesday, April 27.
If you have any concerns, feel free to contact my office at (785) 296-7672, visit www.troywaymaster.com or email me at [email protected].
The honor to serve you in the 109th Kansas House District and the state of Kansas is one I do not take lightly. Do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns and questions. I appreciate hearing from the residents of the 109th House District and others from the state of Kansas.
Troy L. Waymaster, Bunker Bill
State Representative
109th Kansas House District
300 SW 10th
Topeka, KS 66612