It’s time for the Kansas Legislature to go back to school — but not by way of the courtroom this time.
Emporia legislators predicted that once again, education will be a big part of the new session that starts Monday. This time, the priorities will be nailing down the funding for the $800 million increase passed in 2006 and catching up with more than $727 million in postponed repairs at the state’s universities.
Taking care of those repairs is “long overdue,” said Sen. Jim Barnett, R-Emporia.
“We need to look at these maintenance issues — not just catching up with the backlog, but making sure that 10 years down the road, we’re not in the same situation,” he said. “And this begs a larger question about our maintenance of state buildings in general.”
For the first time in a while, the Legislature does not have to worry about a multi-million dollar lawsuit from Schools for Fair Funding, which was answered by the 2006 three-year school funding bill. But how the third year will be funded remains uncertain, although the state’s revenue collections have been running ahead of projections.
Rep. Peggy Mast, R-Emporia, said she hoped Gov. Sebelius’s budget proposal would include an outline of how to fund education.
“In the past, she didn’t put in any new money and we were behind the eight-ball to come up with the resources,” Mast said.
Some details of the school finance plan may also get some tweaking, said Rep. Don Hill, R-Emporia, such as how to define an “at-risk” student. Right now, that’s based on whether the student qualifies for a free or reduced-cost school lunch. Changing the definition could impact districts with high “at risk” populations, including Emporia.
“It’ll be looked at, for sure, to see if there might be a better way to put those numbers,” Hill said. “It’s certainly not perfect. The question is, to the extent that it has flaws, can it be improved on?”
The Emporia legislators also expected to see more attention given to health care this year. Of course, that’s an umbrella that covers a wide range of subjects, such as dealing with the uninsured, ensuring health care for children, or preparing the state for a flu pandemic.
And as always, the economy itself will come up for discussion. Barnett noted a recent Topeka Capital-Journal article that found the Kansas tax burden to be above the national average.
“Certainly the state of Kansas needs a lot of attention when it comes to economic growth,” he said.
He noted that Gov. Sebelius had proposed reducing the unemployment taxes on businesses — the same proposal Barnett offered last year as a candidate for governor against Sebelius.
“That’s politics,” he said.
On Thursday, Sebelius announced she would include a $7.1 million economic development package in her budget proposal this year. The package includes signing bonuses for aviation workers, bioscience incentives and the establishment of an Office of Rural Opportunity to promote rural economic development.
Hill said that some of the initiatives were modeled after a Minnesota approach that he and other legislators saw first-hand last September.
“We’ve got some really meaningful initiatives coming up,” he said.
Committee work
With the start of a new session, it’s also time for legislators to get their committee assignments again. This year, Emporia’s lawmakers will serve as follows:
Sen. Jim Barnett: Chairman of the oversight committee for the Kansas Health Policy Authority, the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee and a new committee on health care. Member of the Senate’s Federal and State Affairs Committee, the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee and the rules committee.
Rep. Don Hill: Member of the House Education Committee (which has been merged with the Higher Education Committee), the Health and Human Services Committee and the Economic Development Committee.
Rep. Peggy Mast: Chair of the joint Legislative Post-Audit Committee. Vice-chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee and the Social Services Budget Committee. Member of the joint Health Policy Oversight Committee and the House Utilities Committee.