Well, it comes down to the state needing $400 million, maybe a little more or less, and the way that the Legislature is going to get it is to raise your income taxes. That much is sure.

What isn’t sure is just how lawmakers intend to extract that money from you. The choices are to set up a range of two, maybe three, income tax brackets so that the wealthy pay a higher percentage of their income than the poor or just a flat rate for everyone.

The first option sounds like “from each according to their ability…,” doesn’t it?

Except that a flat rate of income tax sounds, well, equalizing. We’re all contributing the same percentage of our income, and it just might be easier to figure out what we owe if it’s just a single rate.

The House and Senate, remember, a couple weeks ago tried a three-bracket formula, so that the wealthy paid a little more, the middle-and-lower paid a little less, and of course, those little LLCs paid taxes on their income that isn’t described as wages, just profits from their businesses.

Well, that three-bracket formula went singing through the House, danced through the Senate and was slapped down by Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto. The House overrode the veto, the Senate didn’t and so we don’t have a tax plan yet.

Now, the flat 5 percent tax rate is on deck in the House, and the Senate is still dressing up its 5 percent bill for a shot at Senate passage.

While the 5 percenter raises less money than a graduated tax, it’s catchy and conservatives tend to like that concept of everyone paying an equal tax on their income, no matter how much or little.

Real key to that 5 percent rate is what happens to those without much in the way of income. The poor and relatively low income Kansans…the 5 percent rate probably hits them harder, makes them decide whether they are going to be able to afford the basics—like food and housing and care for their children—that they might be eligible for state assistance for if they must pay too much of their check in taxes.

Well, the solution for that is the personal exemptions. You just set a mark, maybe $5,000 or maybe $10,000 and that money isn’t taxed. It gets them a little boost in spendable income to cover their basic needs.

Where do you set that exemption? High enough, and the poor actually won’t see an out-of-pocket increase from their current 2.7 percent rate because less of their money is taxed at that 5 percent. That’s good for them, and it sounds like you care for the poor.

Set the exemption low, and those poor pay taxes on a higher percentage of their income, which means they don’t have much money left with which to care for their needs and their children’s needs.

And, if you’re making $80 ,000 or $100,000 or more, well, you’re not going to change your lifestyle much based on the tax-free exemption.

That money that the state loses through those exemptions? It’s money that isn’t coming into the treasury to pay for education, for social services, for highways, for …well, just about anything you can think of for which the state foots the bill.

A few brackets, the wealthier paying more? That covers the exemption losses, but, well, do the better-off really want to make the state better-off?

We may find out this week…

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

By State Sen. Rick Billinger

The Senate spent 4 days “on the floor” debating bills this week. Only exempt committees could hold meetings. We passed 45 bills, and sent numerous bills to the Governor’s desk for his signature. Next week the conference committees will meet and hopefully reach an agreement so bills passed by the House and Senate may be delivered to the Governor. A conference committee is comprised of the Chair, Vice-Chair and Ranking Minority member of the House committee and Senate committee that the bill was processed in. If the bill was changed in the second chamber in any way the original chamber can either approve the changes (concur) and the bill goes to the Governor, OR the conference committee can meet and discuss the changes.

The most controversial bill on Monday was HB 2044 which is known as the Bridge to a Healthy Kansas bill, also known as Medicaid Expansion.  The expansion of Medicaid will give Kansas the opportunity to draw down federal dollars to help insure 150,000 Kansans living without healthcare.  They are essentially the people who make too much to qualify for assistance and too little to afford insurance on their own.  Federal tax dollars paid by Kansans are now going to other states that have expanded eligibility rather than being returned to Kansas to help those in our community. The bill that establishes the KanCare Bridge to a healthy Kansas and establishes the Clubhouse Community-Based Psychosocial Rehabilitation Program to be administered by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). With regard to the KanCare Bridge, the bill would expand Medicaid eligibility on 1-1-2018 to include any adult who is under 65 years of age, who is not pregnant and whose income does not exceed 138% of the federal poverty level. The bill contains work referral requirements and premium payment assistance. The bill would establish the KanCare Bridge to a healthy Kansas program drug rebate fund and the KanCare Bridge to a healthy Kansas program privilege fee fund to be expended for Medicaid medical assistance payments. All moneys collected by KDHE from drug rebates connected to program beneficiaries would be deposited into the drug rebate fund, and all moneys collected from privilege fees connected to program beneficiaries would be deposited into the privilege fee fund. There are reporting requirements and an establishment of a KanCare Bridge to a Healthy Kansas Working Group.
After a lengthy debate the bill was advanced to final action. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 25-14 to pass the bill. I have heard from hundreds of people in our district, our local hospitals and many medical providers about Medicaid expansion. The Governor received the bill Wednesday and vetoed the bill on Thursday morning, The House made a motion to override the bill the same morning. It takes 84 votes in the House to override the veto and 27 in the Senate. Due to the absence of one of the House members who was attending a funeral out of town, the House delayed action until next week. If the House of Representatives successfully overrides the Governor’s veto, the override will be taken up by the Senate. 

The bill directs KDHE to terminate the program over a 12-month period if the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) falls below the percentages established under the federal health care and education reconciliation act of 2010.
   94% calendar year 2018
            93% calendar year 2019
            90% calendar year 2020 and each year thereafter
Debate on this bill was robust, especially in the wake of the Republican-led Congress’s inability to push through an anticipated repeal and replace vote on the Affordable Care Act, which would have dramatically altered Medicaid and states’ expansion eligibility.

The House now has 30 days to vote to override the veto. If the House overrides the veto with 2/3 majority, the bill will then come to the Senate for a vote; if the House fails to override and sustains the veto, the bill is dead for this legislative session.

Other Senate activities. On Monday, our Ways and Means Sub-committee agreed with the House on changes to the rescission budget bill of 2017.

On Thursday, the Senate passed Senate Substitute for SB 189, an appropriations bill containing FY 2017 adjustments and a two-year budget for FY 2018 and FY 2019. The proposed budget includes additional funding for the University of Kansas and Kansas State University to moderately restore the cuts both these schools received in 2016. It also includes funding for a 2% pay raise for state employees, who haven’t seen an across-the-board increase in 10 years. (The raise does not apply to legislators.) The bill removed many of the Governor’s budget proposals, such as selling off the state’s future tobacco settlement payments in exchange for a lump sum and consolidating all K-12 school employees into a single state-run health plan.

During debate on the floor, an amendment was brought to allow the Senate to wait until May, once updated revenue estimates are received, to decide whether to add roughly $140 million to make a final quarterly payment into KPERS in 2018 and another $198 million at the end of fiscal year 2019. The bill would spend roughly $6.3 billion from the State General Fund and close to $16 billion from all funds. This does not include any additional funding for K-12 education, which is being handled through separate bills in both the House and Senate.

SB 138 changes the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) pertaining to working after retirement. The bill would exempt from the earnings cap those retirees who retired on July 1, 2009, or later; were retired for more than 60 days prior to July 1, 2017; and were subsequently hired in a school position requiring a license. Under current law, only retirees who retired prior to May 1, 2015, are eligible for this exemption. The special exemption, which is scheduled to sunset on July 1, 2020, would become permanent. The special education and certified hard-to-fill positions would be eliminated; the exemption for licensed school personnel would remain. The annual duty of the State Board of Education to certify the top five hard-to-fill positions would be repealed.

Next week is the last legislative week before first adjournment, so debating Conference Committee agreements will be a top priority. While we’ve passed a large number of bills aimed at bettering Kansas, we know we still have a few large agenda items to address before gaveling out in May-including balancing. our budget and creating a school finance formula.

Who brings us the news? Mostly it’s still men, according to a new Women’s Media Center study, “Divided 2017.”

The report says that among the major TV networks, online versions of CNN, Fox, The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast, and the nation’s ten largest newspapers:

Male anchors and reporters predominate by about three to one among broadcast news outlets, which the Center notes is a “regression” from how things used to be. Work by women anchors, field reporters and correspondents actually declined, falling to 25.2 percent of reports in 2016 from 32 percent when the WMC published its 2015 “Divided” report.

For newspapers and wire services such as The Associated Press and Reuters, “bylines” run about 62 percent male. Online, men receive 53.9 percent of bylines.

WMC reports that “men produce the most stories on sports, weather, and crime and justice. Women’s bylines are largely on lifestyle, health and education news.”

The gender disparity shown in the WMC survey is obvious in terms of numbers and simple equity, considering that women make up 51 percent of the population. But its implications, including the impact on news credibility, may not be so clear to news consumers. WMC Director of Communications Cristal Williams Chancellor noted in an interview that many of our fellow citizens are “comfortable” with men in anchor chairs or dominating story bylines. But in an era in which a majority of people say they distrust the news media and its motives, the most credible news operations should have diverse staffs that represent both their subjects and their audiences, she said.

Clearly, the news industry still falls short of having enough women to meet that goal. Why?

It’s not for a lack of qualified female job candidates-in-training: Women made up two-thirds of the student body enrolled in journalism and media-oriented degree programs during the fall 2013 semester, according to data from most recent Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Enrollment.

One factor in the lack of overall visibility may come from the finding that “lifestyle, health and education” remain the topics where women most likely appear. I can recall that same circumstance in newsrooms of the 1960s.

Another bit of history: The American Society of News Editors’ annual newsroom census found in 2016 that the number of women leaders and employees has remained nearly the same since the 1990s. The survey that year reported that “women made up about a third of newsroom employees overall, with a higher number employed at online-only sites than at newspapers. Women comprised 38 percent of daily newspaper employees in this year’s survey and nearly 50 percent of online-only news organization employees.”

At a 2014 ASNE conference, women who were editors also called for changes in hiring and the review/promotion process to address old canards of how women in leadership roles are perceived. Fast Company senior editor Kathleen Davis referenced a study of 248 performance reviews of 180 men and women in media, prepared by both men and women, which showed the word “abrasive” was used 17 times for women and never for men.

None of these stats or biases is the sole province of newsrooms, to be sure. And going back to the mid-20th century, women in leadership roles in major news operations — from the news desk to the corporate suite — more often resulted from inherited ownership than from corporate diversity considerations.

But the profession that represents us all in gathering and reporting the news ought to be more of a leader in the 21st century in being representative of all of us.

Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @genefac.

April 3, 2017

2017 State Budget: Committee Consensus
On Tuesday, March 28th, the House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means Conference Committee just built consensus on the Senate’s substitute for House Bill 2052. The Senators and Representatives present came to agreement on four different and important sections of the bill. First, the House of Representatives agreed to Senate recommendations for deleting funds to KPERS for the last quarter of FY 2017. The Senate agreed to the House recommended position of allocating $40.3 million for Medicaid Home and Community Based Services in FY 2017. The third area, in which the House agreed to the Senate recommendations, creates a layered repayment option plan to payback the proposed delay of the fourth quarter payment to KPERS for the current fiscal year. A mechanism was discussed to repay the $115.5 million from State General Fund to the KPERS Trust Fund for the delayed payment in FY 2016, repaid with interest, that statutorily is to be repaid in FY 2018. The last important area of consensus was one in which Representatives conceded to a modified version from the Senate which orders the Director of the Division of Budget, consulting with the Director of Legislative Research to transfer 10 percent of the State General Fund to the budget stabilization fund, otherwise commonly referred to as the “Rainy Day” Fund, on or before August 15, 2020.
K-12 Education Budget

Tuesday, March 21st, the House K-12 Education Budget Committee was briefed on the Kansas Equity and Enhancement Act, House Bill 2410. This bill, which relates to the finances and instructions for education in FY 2018 and FY 2019, represents the work product of an entire session of public input derived through a fair and open committee process. The bill encompasses components of several plans and ideas that were presented and is closely connected to the recommendations from the cost study prepared by the Kansas Legislative Post Audit. Hearings on the bill were held Thursday the Friday of last week and concluded on Monday, March the 27th. The committee will continue to work on the bill to find a formula that provides our students with the best possible opportunity for excellence.

Medicaid Expansion Fails: House Bill 2044
The vote to override Governor Brownback’s veto on House Bill 2044, Medicaid Expansion, failed in the House of Representatives on Monday, April 3rd, by a vote of 81 to 44. The motion to override the veto from the Governor was made just within minutes of the Governor vetoing the bill. Although it was debated considerably, a motion was made to table the veto reconsideration and for discussion to resume later. Although I did vote against House Bill 2044, I did vote in favor of overriding the veto because I have received additional information on how the implementation of the bill would benefit our local hospitals in our area of the state.

The 2018 & 2019 Mega Budget Bill
The House Appropriations Committee passed out favorably, Substitute for House Bill 2364 last Thursday, March 30th. The bill contains the deliberative work of the Budget Committees and Appropriations Committee on the FY 2018 and FY 2019 budget. Initial estimates have an ending balance of approximately $100 million for FY 2017, ($248.6) million for FY 2018, and ($237) million for FY 2019. Kansas Legislative Research Department will provide an explainer and various budget documents on the bill. Once these documents are finalized, they can be found at: https://www.kslegresearch.org/KLRDweb/Appropriations&Revenue.html. The bill will be updated online, once the Committee Report is read in. Expect to see floor action on the bill next week.

Tax Committee
On Tuesday, the Committee began its work on House Bill 2395, a bill containing what is referred to as a “flat tax.” The Committee recommended the bill favorably on Wednesday. The bill collapses the current two income tax brackets into a single bracket of 5.0 percent, starting in Tax Year 2018. The bill also repeals the non-wage business income tax, effective for Tax Year 2017. A key component of the bill is the reduction of the food sales tax rate from 6.5 to 5.0 percent, beginning on January 1, 2019. Medical expenses would also be allowed to be itemized deductions in Tax Year 2018. Standard deductions would also be increased. The bill also repeals the formulaic component of 2012 tax law, commonly referred to as the “glide path to zero.” The Department of Revenue estimates an increase of SGF receipts of $373.7 million for FY 2018 and $472.7 million for FY 2019.

On Tuesday, the Tax Committee worked two bills related to collection of internet sales taxation. The Committee passed out favorably two bills, following adoption of technical amendments from the Revisor’s Office. HB 2400 is based on South Dakota law. HB 2235 reflects Colorado law. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Colorado’s favor and that ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in late 2016. This coming week, the Tax Committee will have hearings on: HB 2399, tax credit for child and dependent care services and HB 2406, repealing property tax exemption for certain pipeline property.

Simon’s Law
On Thursday, Senate Bill 85, also known as “Simon’s Law,” overwhelmingly passed the House with a vote count of 121-3. The bill would prohibit a hospital from withholding, withdrawing, or restricting life-sustaining measures for any child, without written parental consent. Senate Bill 85 would also prohibit do-not-resuscitate orders from being issued without parental consent. The Crosier family lost their son, Simon, after a DNR was issued and life-sustaining treatment was withheld, without their consent or knowledge. Simon’s Law ensures that parents, families, and providers are included in difficult medical decisions concerning the child. Kansas is the first state in the nation to approve of this pro-life legislation. The bill will advance to the Governor for his consideration.

Contact Information
As always, if you have any concerns, feel free to contact me (785) 296-7672, visit www.troywaymaster.com or email me at [email protected]. Also, if you happen to visit the statehouse, please let my office know.

It is a distinct honor to serve as your representative for the 109th Kansas House District and the state of Kansas. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and questions. I always appreciate hearing from the residents of the 109th House District and others from the state of Kansas, as well.

Troy L. Waymaster, (R-Bunker Hill) is the 109th Dist. State Representative and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.