Hello from Agra!

We are ready to begin the second half of the 2019 Kansas Legislative session. At the time I am writing this column, we are at home in the district after having the local county Farm Bureaus along with the Ellis stop co-sponsored by the city of Ellis and Ellis Chamber of Commerce on Friday. It was good to see many constituents brave the weather to discuss topics important to them. It was great to be at selected stops with Senators Billinger and Bowers also.

SB 9 hit the governor’s desk on last Tuesday. This is the KPERS stabilization bill that was passed unanimously by both the House and the Senate. The governor has 10 days to consider whether to sign, veto, or allow the bill to become law without her signature.

SB 9 helps keep our promise to KPERS – the retirement system for our teachers and other public employees – by paying off a $115 million debt that the state owes to the retirement plan. SB 9 is in contrast to the governor’s KPERS proposal, HB 2197, which would have generated $160 million in short-term cash for increased state spending but increased the state’s debt costs in KPERS by $7.4 million.

HB 2197 was met earlier this session with resounding disapproval in the House. The governor’s plan failed on vote of 36-87 with both Democrats and Republicans opposing the reamortization effort.

By passing SB 9 and rejecting HB 2197, we can protect funding for our retirees responsibly pay down the state’s debt and ensure that the next generation isn’t left to pick up the tab for today’s spending.

Before we broke for turnaround there were a few bills worked on the house floor: On Wednesday, February 27, the House passed HB 2006, a bill that makes significant changes to increase transparency in the state’s economic incentives. On a vote of 122-0, the House overwhelmingly approved of the requirement for the Department of Commerce to develop an online database for the purpose of disclosing data on economic development incentive programs. This would include any economic incentive program that is administered by the department, and also includes any tax credit program except for social and domestic credits.

This bill would make economic incentive data readily and easily available and would allow the public to know how their tax dollars are used, where they are used, and by whom they are used. The database must be posted on the department’s website, and it is required that these programs be searchable by name, business, and county. In addition, the history, goals, and purpose of each program would be disclosed, as well as the qualifications for such programs. The total amount of incentives claimed, received and distributed from/by each program, recipient (business), and county would also be public. The bill also maintains the necessary confidentiality parameters regarding private taxpayer information. Lastly, the Legislative Post Audit Committee would be charged with conducting a comprehensive analysis of each incentive to prove its efficacy every three years.

HB 2006 serves as a tool to hold government accountable. This bill would install the necessary safeguards on the executive branch to prevent potential fraud and abuse. Both policymakers and the public ought to know how many economic incentives are issued each year, and to what end have those incentives performed. It encourages scrutiny but also ensures a greater effective use of taxpayer dollars.

Also, on Wednesday, February 27, the House passed HB 2144, also known as the Community College Taxpayer Transparency Act, on a vote of 84-40. Essentially, the bill would require community colleges to post information online concerning fiscal matters. On each college’s website, the bill would require the posting of tuition rates, fees, cost per credit hour, percentage of students attending each campus, enrollment percentage of students residing inside and outside of the community college district, property tax revenues and mills levied over five fiscal years, and scholarship information. This must be posted under an easily identifiable link on their respective websites. The bill would also require imposed student fees, for specific purposes, by the community colleges to be spent specifically on those purposes. Such purposes must also be outlined in their billing statements as well.

Additionally, community colleges would be required to identify which of their offered courses are fully transferable to the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) four-year institutions. KBOR and each colleges’ website must specify which particular courses are fully transferable.

Property taxes are levied within a community college district to fund the local community college. Requiring that these colleges post property tax information along with scholarship information, general credit hour costs and other information digitally ensures that taxpayer dollars are spent appropriately. Disclosing the specific purposes of each student fee also guarantees this.

HB 2144 would also allow community college students and prospective students to verify which offered courses will afford them the opportunity to transfer to a Regents institution, should they decide to attend any of those institutions.

I still have some concerns about this issue and I am sure there will be some additions and subtractions when the Senate takes up the measure. Transparency is a good thing. We just need to make sure there is context to the numbers or it is anyone’s guess how the numbers could be used to make a positive or negative impact.

Last week we talked a little about SB 22. Right now, the state budget is set to raise taxes on certain Kansans. If we do nothing, the governor’s budget will trigger a tax increase on Kansans who itemize their mortgage interest, property taxes or medical expenses as well as on several of the state’s largest employers.

Governor Kelly’s plan would keep the federal dollars intended to be returned to Kansans under recent federal tax cuts and instead use those dollars to fund unsustainable state spending increases.

Senate Bill 22 would adjust the Kansas tax code to address the changes at the federal level so Kansans can continue to itemize and so that employers are not hit with a tax hike on income that has historically never been taxed at the state level.

While the governor campaigned on reducing the sales tax on food, her budget keeps the Kansas food sales tax among the highest in the nation and provides no relief for Kansans at the grocery store. SB 22 would reduce the food sales tax by 15% and give help to working Kansans every single time they go to the grocery store. Some say a penny isn’t that much, but to borrow a line: “a little bit goes a long way every week.”

SB 22 also closes a glaring loophole that punishes businesses on Kansas’ Main Streets. For too long, this loophole has put our local businesses at a disadvantage when they’re trying to compete with out-of-state businesses. That loophole is the one that makes Kansas businesses collect sales taxes when they sell online but leaves out-of-state businesses free to scoff at our laws. It also makes Kansans personally responsible for collecting their own sales tax on behalf of those out of state tax cheats.

This bill closes that loophole and stops penalizing Kansas businesses and Kansas customers. It places the burden to collect and pay taxes on the out of state businesses who have had an unfair leg up on our local mom and pop shops. The bill also removes the line for out of state sales tax from Kansas taxpayers’ forms so it’s crystal clear that Kansans are no longer tax collectors for other state’s businesses.

Winter sports season is wrapping up and congratulations to those students who competed in wrestling and basketball. We have a couple of teams playing in the state tournament and a couple that came very close. Overall, with the challenges we have dealt with because of the weather, I think all of us are looking for the warm weather that track and field season brings.

If you come to Topeka during the session, my office is in Room: 149-S. My phone number is 785-296-7463 and email is: [email protected] and you can always try my cell number is 785-302-8416.

It is my honor to by your representative.

Rep. Ken Rahjes (R-Agra), is the 110th state representative and chairman of the Higher Education Budget Committee. House District 110 includes Norton and Phillips counties as well as portions of Ellis, Graham, and Rooks counties.

The following statement is from Governor Laura Kelly:

In the seven weeks since the inauguration, my administration has been hard at work.

I presented a plan that balanced the budget, prioritized schools, paved the way for Medicaid expansion, invested in children and families, enhanced public safety, and left the largest ending balance in two decades.

My budget was structured to stabilize our fragile state finances and pay down the record amount of debt racked up during the last eight years. Not only that, my bipartisan Cabinet hit the ground running with the long, hard task of rebuilding our state agencies.

Together, we’ve increased transparency by sharing, honestly, the severity of the problems we uncovered at the Department of Corrections, Department for Children and Families, and Department of Revenue. We’ve shed light on the number of no-bid contracts hidden throughout state government.

Contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, that didn’t go through the proper channels, and may not be in the best interests of Kansans.

My team at the Department of Administration is currently in the process of developing new, stricter standards of ethics and accountability in the procurement process. We look forward to announcing that plan once it is finalized in the coming weeks. And we are just getting started. We understand the urgency of our work. Our work touches the lives of Kansans every day and we take that very seriously.

Unfortunately, I’m disappointed that the Legislature has yet to act with the same level of urgency, especially given the breadth of our challenges and the deadlines we face.

As a former legislator, I have deep respect for the legislative process. It is not unusual for many of the biggest issues of the session to be resolved later in the session. This is not a race. But the deadlines are real. And they are right around the corner. It’s frustrating that little progress has been made on the most critical issue of the session: school funding.

After seven weeks, I worry that some legislative leaders have allowed serious deliberations and the development of policy alternatives give way to partisan games and unnecessary name calling.

In 2011, the first year of the previous administration, the Legislature debated and acted on 99 more pieces of legislation by this point in the session than they have this year. At this moment, halfway into the session, just one piece of legislation has reached my desk.

I’ve met with leadership. I’ve met with lawmakers of both parties. And my door continues to be open. I’m eager to find bipartisan consensus when lawmakers return for the second half of the session. I’m looking forward to seeing their plans so we can begin negotiations.

On election night in November, I was hopeful that lawmakers could put our differences aside and work together on behalf of Kansas families. Today, I choose to remain hopeful. I am ready to find middle ground.

I was elected to rebuild our state following years of mismanagement and failed policy. I offered a plan to do just that. I hope lawmakers will join me in earnest when they return.

In the meantime, my team will continue to do our work – cleaning up messes and charting a more responsible path forward. We will continue to put the best interest of families first. We will prioritize schools, health care, roads, and job growth.

All Day In The House
Starting last Tuesday, the members of the Kansas House of Representatives spent all day in the House chambers debating and voting on a wide array of bills.

On Tuesday, February 26, 2019, the House debated twenty five bills and Wednesday, we debated eight additional bills.

Some of the bills that we discussed were:

House Bill 2084, which revises the Kansas 911 Act. The bill also repeals three outdated statutes in the existing act.

House Bill 2006 requires that the Kansas Department of Commerce create a database for information regarding economic development incentive programs.

A couple of bills that were debated affected the Board of Regents in the state of Kansas. House Bill 2209 authorizes the Board of Regents to purchase cybersecurity software. House Bill 2168 allows the University of Kansas to sell property located in Douglas County and Kansas State University to sell two properties, one located in Saline County while the other property is in Cherokee County. Wednesday morning I voted in support of all these bills.

The House completed final action on all of the bills debated last week.

Turnaround
The culmination of last week marks what is referred to as “Turnaround,” or simply the halfway point of the legislative session. The Senate and the House spent the majority of last week in our respective chambers debating bills from the bills’ chamber of origin. Most of the House bills introduced so far this session needed to be debated and voted on by Thursday, February 28, 2019, or they would run the risk of not advancing in this session. The same can be said for bills in the Senate.

When we return on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, our focus will be on bills that were debated and passed out of the Senate. The Senate will then evaluate the bills that we in the House have passed. That will be the major work for the committees until we adjourn for our April recess.

More Bills
House Bill 2225 requires that a driver stop the vehicle at least fifteen feet before crossing a railroad track if other track equipment, in addition to a train which is current law, is nearby. I did not support this bill because it is common sense to stop at a railroad crossing.

House Bill 2223 makes revisions to vineyard permits by now calling them producer permits. The bill also allows for wine producers to use a wider variety of agricultural products for wine production. I support this bill.

House Bill 2360 is a bill that came from the Children and Seniors committee, and it concerns background checks for employees and volunteers that have unsupervised access to children, the elderly, or individuals with disabilities. I voted “yes.”

We had planned to debate House Bill 2173, the commercial hemp bill, however it was pulled from discussion this week. Due to the passage of the federal farm bill of 2018, which allows for the production of commercial hemp, we need to have this bill debated to clear up existing statute language that we passed last year.

Anytime that one would like to participate and listen to the developments of committee hearings or discussion on the House floor, one can tune in by listening to the audio footage at www.kslegislature.org.

Contact Information
As always, if you have any concerns, feel free to contact me (785) 296-7672, follow on twitter at @waymaster4house, 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 Waymaster (R-Bunker Hill) is the 109th Dist. state representative and chairman of the House Appropriations committee. The 109th District includes Osborne, Russell, and Smith counties and portions of  Barton, Jewell, Lincoln and Rush counties.

Last week was turn around week at the State House. Turnaround is considered the halfway point of the legislative session. Bills that have passed across the Senate chamber will now go to the House to be considered and bills passed across the House floor will come to the Senate for consideration.

Some of the bills of interest to our Senate District that passed this week are:

SB 67 passed out of the Senate this week. SB67 establishes the Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act. If an insurance company (insurer) shall preform a comparison of its insured’s and force policies, contracts, and retain asset accounts against a death master file, on at least a semi-annual basis, by using the full death master file once and thereafter using the death master file update files for future comparison to identify potential matches of its insured’s.

SB 15 revises the definition for “service-connected” as that term is used to determine death and disability benefits in the Kansas Police and Fireman’s Retirement System. Under current law, service-connected causes for death and disability benefits include heart disease, lung or respiratory disease, cancer and will add blood borne pathogens. This bill passed unanimously.

The Senate passed SB105 authorizing a city to determine the start date of a regular term of office for a city officer by resolution of the city. In law regarding city elections, the bill would require the start date be on or after December 1 following certification of the election and no later than the second Monday in January following certification of the election. If the city does not establish an alternative date, the bill would specify such term would begin on the second Monday in January.

SB 71 passed the Senate, which reauthorizes the Postsecondary Technical Education Authority by repealing the statute specifying sunset date of June 30, 2019. The bill would also require the TEA to make an annual report to the Legislature on the performance of its functions and duties.

School Board Elections: SB7 passed and would amend current law regarding the timing of appointing a replacement school board member, timing of elections of officers of a local board of education; the date local school district board officials take office, and the timing of an election to change the method of election or voting plan for school board members. SB7 also requires the first meeting of the Board of Education to be on or after the second Monday in January or at a later meeting if so determined by the Board at the first meeting, rather than in July.

Passing the Senate was Sub SB130 that amends law concerning advance ballots and associated signature requirements. The bill requires a county election officer to try to contact each voter who submitted an advance-voting ballot without a signature or with a signature that does not match the signature on file and allow the voter to correct the deficiency before the final county canvass.

I would like to thank Jay Smith and Jaelyn Daily for paging for me last week.

Thank you for allowing me to serve the 40th Senate District and please feel free to email or call me at [email protected] or 785 296-7399 or 785 899-4700.

Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland, is the Kansas state senator for the 40th District, which includes Cheyenne, Decatur, Ellis, Gove, Graham, Logan, Norton, Rawlins, Sheridan, Sherman, Thomas, Trego and Wallace counties as well as portions of Phillips County.