SENATE HIGHLIGHTS

Last week marked the sixth week of session with the first half of the legislative session almost behind us.  As we approach “turn-around” the Senate held floor debate on Tuesday and Wednesday and worked bills which were sent out of committees to the full Senate.  The bills voted on by the full Senate now cross over to the House of Representatives where the process starts over.  Conference committees will meet to iron out the differences between the Senate and House versions before the 2019 session ends in May.  

FLOOR ACTION

EXPIRATION DATE OF RISK-BASED CAPITAL INSTRUCTIONS – SB 28 will change the date specified in the Insurance Code for risk-based capital (RBC) instructions.

EXEMPTING CERTAIN DOMESTIC INSURERS FROM FILING ENTERPRISE RISK REPORTS –SB 66 will modify registration requirements in the Insurance Holding Company Act related to filing exemptions for enterprise risk reports.

M DRIVER’S LICENSES OPERATING UNDER TEMPORARY PERMIT – SB 17 will remove an exception for motorcycles operated with a temporary registration permit from requirement for each operator of a motor vehicle in Kansas to hold a license classified for the operation of the motor vehicle.

CLAIMS AGAINST THE STATE – SB 25 will authorize expenditures of $82,886 in FY 2019 to pay claims against the State of Kansas.

APPROACH OF AN EMERGENCY VEHICLE – SB 40 will remove language requiring a law enforcement officer to issue a warning citation from, and after, the effective date of the act, and prior to July 1, 2001. This is for provisions requiring a driver to move into a nonadjacent lane or, if changing lanes is not possible or unsafe, proceed with due caution upon approaching an authorized emergency vehicle or police vehicle using flashing or hazard warning lights.

SEAT BELT USE IN TRAFFIC INFRACTION – SB 41 will amend the Uniform Act Regulating Traffic to specify the violation of law that requires seat belt use by occupants ages 14 and older in passenger cars or autocycles. This will now be considered a traffic infraction.

KANSAS FARM BUREAU MEMBER HEALTH CARE BENEFITS – SB 32 will allow the Kansas Farm Bureau to establish a health care benefit that offers coverage specifically for Farm Bureau members in Kansas. Senate Bill 32 aims to reduce the number of uninsured Kansans by creating competition and free-market options for health care. Senate Bill 32 is the Farm Bureau’s solution to addressing the critical need for KFB members to find affordable health care coverage. A recent study pointed out that 65 percent of agriculture producers view health care as the number one threat to the future of their operation. 

KANSAS REAL ID LICENSE

Passed by Congress in 2005, the REAL ID Act enacted the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation that the Federal Government “set standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as driver’s licenses.” Starting October 1, 2020, every state and territory resident will need to present a REAL ID compliant license/ID, or another acceptable form of identification, for accessing Federal facilities, entering nuclear power plants, and boarding commercial aircraft.  This is called “card-based” enforcement.  The card, itself, must be REAL ID compliant unless the resident is using an alternative acceptable document such as a passport.  The card that is Real ID compliant will feature a gold circle with a star cut out symbol printed in the top third of the card on the front right side.  Real IDs are optional and Kansas residents can choose between either Real ID card or a Nonreal ID card and there are no changes to fees for Kansas cards.  In order to receive a Real ID card, a proof of lawful presence is required such as a birth certificate, unexpired US passport or naturalization certificate.  Also required is a social security card, current W-2 or 1099 or current pay stub showing full social security number.  Proof of Kansas residency is required by several means including a rent or lease agreement, renewal postcard, vehicle registration, utility bill or financial institution documents such as a bank statement, deed or mortgage.  More information can be found at https://www.ksrevenue.org/dovrealid.html.  You can order certified vital records like birth certificates at https://www.kdheks.gov/vital/birth.html. 

TOUR THE STATE CAPITOL FROM HOME

Take an online tour of the magnificent Kansas State Capitol, floor by floor at  https://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-state-capitol-online-tour/15843.  The classically inspired building is an impressive public monument as well as the working offices for the governor and legislators. The building holds a dramatic array of art, architecture, and colorful Kansas history. The building hours are 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday – Friday, and now open 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturdays.  

FROM THE STATE LIBRARY

Research for Kids

The State Library has online interactive eBooks, storybooks, and puzzles for children.  These resources encourage new and reluctant readers to develop a love for reading. BookFLIX (PreK to third grade) pairs children’s video storybooks with related nonfiction titles. TumbleBooks offers animated talking picture books and read-along chapter books that improve sight word recognition. Britannica E-Stax (PreK to 5^th grade) features nonfiction that can be downloaded to any Internet enabled device. https://kslib.info/kids.  If the page above asks for a Kansas Library eCard number, you may get one at any library in Kansas.  Most people will be automatically recognized as inside Kansas and will not need this step.   Questions: [email protected] or 785-296-3296.

VISITORS FROM SENATE DISTRICT #36

The sixth week of session was another busy week with visitors to the Kansas legislature. Three hundred plus 4-Hers from across Kansas held their mock Legislative session in the House Chamber on Sunday evening and then met us for lunch on Monday in the Capitol.  Mental Health Centers, Kansas Association of Conservation Districts and students and staff of the Kansas After School program were in the Capitol for their annual visit and receptions.

I always encourage you to stay informed of the issues under consideration by the Kansas Legislature. Committee schedules, bills, and other helpful information can be easily accessed through the legislature’s website at www.kslegislature.org. You are also able to ‘listen in live’ at this website.  The House meets at 11:00AM and the Senate at 2:30PM.  Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. An email is the best at this point in the session.

Thank you for the honor of serving you!

Senator Elaine Bowers
Kansas State Capitol Building
Room 223-E
300 SW 10^th St.
Topeka, KS  66612
[email protected]
785-296-7389
www.kslegislature.org

Elaine Bowers, R-Concordia, is the 36th Dist. state senator and serves as the Senate Majority Whip. The 36th Senate District includes Cloud, Jewell, Lincoln, Mitchell, Osborne, Ottawa, Republic, Rooks, Russell, Smith and Washington counties and portions of Marshall and Phillips counties.

The media reports that many fiscal issues confront Governor Laura Kelly and the 2019 Legislature.  An unreported vital issue is funding of the Kansas Water Plan (KWP).

For Fiscal Year 2019, the Governor recommends a State General Fund (SGF) Transfer of $2.75 million and an Economic Development Initiative (EDIF) Transfer of $0.5 million, totaling $3.25 million for the Kansas Water Plan. This amount is woefully inadequate.

I respectfully request Kansans to ask their legislators to take the following actions with respect to the KWP in Fiscal Year 2020 and thereafter:

• To fully restore the $6 million State General Fund Transfer and $2 million Economic Development Initiatives Fund Demand Transfer, totaling $8 million in Fiscal Year 2020 and thereafter.
• To fully recover the denied SGF Transfers and EDIF Demand transfers totaling over $77 million since their statutory establishment by the Legislature in 1989.
• To support the dedication of 1/10 of 1 percent of state sales tax revenue to provide a more adequate, reliable, and long-term financial support of the Kansas Water Plan.
• To support a required super majority vote, for example 80 percent, of the Legislature to transfer monies from the KWP to non-KWP purposes.

The “2019 Kansas Water Authority Annual Report to the Governor and Legislature” contains useful information. For example, pages 12 and 13 show in feet the 2017-2018 groundwater level changes and the years remaining until 0% reservoir storage occurs.

It also shows past year’s progress in meeting the challenges, which is appreciated. But much more and faster progress is needed to resolve challenges. Kansans can access the “Report” by typing “Kansas Water Office” in the search box of their computers.

Kansans are continuing to lose their surface and ground waters. They can reverse these trends by asking their legislators to take the above actions.

Allyn O. Lockner,

Topeka

It’s going to take a few days, but the first and biggest fight of new Gov. Laura Kelly and, well, apparently the entire Legislature, will break out this week.

The bell that started the first round: Friday’s 117-0 passage by the House of the Senate’s unanimously passed on Valentine’s Day of a short little bill that sends $115 million to the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System to pay back the $97 million (plus interest) that it didn’t pay in 2016.

Repaying debt…not a bad idea, except that everything is different when the Legislature is dealing with the pension fund that, while “not actuarially balanced,” is still making those monthly pension check payments to retirees.

But here’s the big fight over the very first bill passed by this year’s heavily Republican Legislature to the brand-new Democrat governor Kelly: pay KPERS now, or pay KPERS later…

Why is this so mesmerizing? Because the governor clearly lost her argument to the Legislature for her own KPERS plan. Now, she can sign the bill, reluctantly, and say she just didn’t want to waste time with a veto.

Or, she could veto the bill and get overridden. Hard to say who would want to be in that picture with her.

Or she could just put it in her desk drawer, and after 10 days it becomes law anyway with none of her DNA on it.

The governor hasn’t said what she intends to do with the bill.

There really isn’t a good choice for her, and it’s going to be interesting to see how she describes what she’s going to do with the bill. A well-thought-out explanation is necessary, one that will make the ultimate beneficiaries of the pension program believe she’s working for their best interests.

The “pay KPERS now” side of the issue makes sense to pay back money that lawmakers borrowed from the pension fund back when the state was scrambling to keep its annual balance out of red ink. That $97 million non-payment to KPERS was needed as the state started a series of tax increases to dig out of the former Gov. Sam Brownback “lower taxes and the economy will boom, and we’ll take in more money” experiment which just didn’t work.

The “pay KPERS later” side of the issue? Well, Kelly had a different idea. Refinancing the pension fund’s actuarial shortfall (basically the amount it would need to pay off all its members in one day) over another 30 years brings smaller annual payments that the state is more likely to actually pay. Everyone gets paid, it just takes longer…and the state pays interest on that refinancing for 30 years, a long time.

***

The politics are interesting, because that borrowed money is from the schools/state workers’ section of the pension fund. Democrats voted for the bill because those two categories of pensioners are often solid Democrat voters.

Republicans decry that interest the state would pay on refinancing the pension system under the Kelly plan. They’ve made a big deal out of the $24,000 per day interest the state is running up by not paying that $115 million now. They apparently pay cash for their cars and houses.

What happens next? Nobody but the governor knows. But whatever Kelly does, it is going to influence future governor-Legislature fights, and whatever happens, she’ll go into Round 2 of the prize fight a little weakened.

Dramatic, and it might tell the future. Or at least change the relationship between the governor and the Legislature.

Get your bets down…

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 KIM BALDWIN
McPherson County farmer

During certain parts of the year I secretly cringe when someone walks into my house. It’s not that I don’t like visitors; it’s more about what my houseguests might see when they enter our home. In the winter and spring, odds are my floors will have some mud deposits that someone tracked in. In the summer and fall, dirt clods and seeds sprinkled around my house are a given.

“It’s just part of life,” I tell myself. Even then, at times it still creates a bit of uneasiness for me when someone comes to visit.

My concerns about my house have had to take a backseat though, as we have an extended houseguest this year. My farmhouse — in all its seasonal, messy glory — has been on full display as we have opened our home to a high school foreign exchange student. She’s a Sicilian from a large city who is accustomed to warm weather, ocean views and pasta. Lots of pasta.

In preparing for her exchange experience, she watched all the Hollywood teen movies to help her formulate an understanding of what life would be like for her in America. There were dance routines, musical interludes, mean girls, study groups and school dance scenarios that she studied.

She made a conscious choice to come to the United States to study and participate in the lifestyle and culture. Little did she know, the images, events and people portrayed in the movies she studied in preparation for this once-in-a-lifetime experience would be very different from her reality: life on a farm in rural, central Kansas.

Our family’s goal is to carry on our business as usual while also working to give her the best possible experience this year. It’s safe to say Hollywood didn’t prepare her for the majority of it.

Common conveniences including accessibility to a mall, a movie theater, a great pizza place and a coffee shop are all still possible, although getting there requires a bit more planning and miles on our part.

She’s experienced early drives into town to get to school, dirt road treks required to get to a classmate’s house, small class sizes at our rural school where the math teacher is also the cross country and scholars bowl coach, making selections at our small town grocery store and the beauty of a community coming together for a weeknight high school basketball game.

She’s had friendly conversations with folks during a community meal served family-style at a local church, checked out books from our local library, discovered butterscotch, experienced slow Wi-Fi, which affects her Netflix viewing. She’s also learning the beauty of Amazon’s two-day shipping.

She’s watched our farm dog give birth, and she’s held a piglet in her arms. Our local FFA chapter members welcomed her and then put her to work , and she has experienced the joy (and chill) of traversing the farmyard on an inner tube pulled by a four-wheeler following a recent snowstorm.

While the clothes shopping options are limited, especially for a teenager who usually spends portions of her weekends visiting shops trying on clothes with her friends for fun. She’s beginning to realize that we have to plan our shopping adventures a little more than she would in Sicily. And, thank God almighty, it only took two trips to Wichita to secure the prom dress!

After multiple video calls with her family and Snapchat posts seeking advice, she has even purchased her own pair of cowboy boots. The girl is committed and living a life she didn’t even know existed. To say she’s adjusted nicely is a huge understatement. She has become part of our small, rural community, and she has fully embraced the lifestyle and all the community has to offer.

While she has learned and experienced a lot during her time with us, I know my family has gained some valuable lessons as well. And for me, allowing her to view our farmhouse in all its seasonal, messy glory is something I’ve been able to relax about. After all, it is just a part of life for our farm family here in rural, central Kansas.

“Insight” is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.

Women’s health can be directly tied to the burden of household responsibilities. In a 2016 study, researchers found that women are more often the primary parent of children, the one who determines family healthcare decisions, the caregiver for the elderly parents on both sides and the one that does more of the cooking and dishes, cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping. Other studies have found that doing dishes alone was particularly burdensome.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor says our society is getting somewhat better in sharing the household work, but a difference still remains. For example, in 2003, men participated in food preparation and clean-up on average of 35 percent of his days, and in 2015 it was 43 percent. Nice to see an eight percent improvement but the women’s share in 2015 was still 70 percent. In 2015, women participated in cleaning housework 50 percent of her days while it was 22 percent for men. Lawn and garden work was the only chore accomplished more by men than women.

How much does this happen because the man is often the primary earner? In another study done at Indiana University in 2016, they studied household work in families where the woman’s income was larger than the man’s. They found that household burdens seemed not to align with income but rather with the traditional roles of masculinity and femininity. They also found that in same-sex couples, gender identity still directs roles. We haven’t reached equality of the sexes at work and we haven’t reached equality at home, either.

This is important because of the possible negative effect it may have on family relationships. There are studies to show that each person in a household has expectations and responsibilities, whether it be the alpha mom, the alpha dad, the children or even the grandparents. If the woman (or the man) expects the other to pitch in but ends up stuck with all the chores, she or he may be disappointed, embittered, angry and feeling abused. If those hard feelings are not resolved and are covered up, then depression may be the result.

When one member of the family is hurting, everyone feels the pain. Research data from Myrna Weissman PhD, a professor of psychiatry, shows that mental illness and depression spreads within a household. Strong emotional sharing occurs there, and when emotional pain of one person in the family is treated and improves, everyone gets better.

Simply helping with the dishes might be an enormous step toward making a happier home.

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