The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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This week brings what is known as “Turnaround Week” in the Kansas House of Representatives. A bill originating in the House must have passed through that chamber by the end of this week, or the bill will be considered dead for this legislative session. Some bills are exempt from that deadline.

Each week for the rest of this legislative session, The Gazette will look at what each of Emporia’s legislators worked on last week and what they have on their agenda for the week ahead.

Sen. Jim Barnett

Last week: At an Education committee hearing, Barnett dealt with the issue of legislation tied to funding for the Emporia School District, and other districts in Lyon County, in order to soften the effect of the Tyson layoffs.

USD 253 Superintendent John Heim and Southern Lyon County Superintendent Mike Argabright both appeared at the Statehouse last week to speak on behalf of putting in a two-percent floor on the reduction of adjusted enrollment. That would guarantee that each district received at least 98 percent of last year’s funding. Barnett said he felt good about how that hearing went and was also pleased that the Senate passed a multi-year school funding bill on Thursday.

“I think it’s in the best interest of the state and school districts to have a multi-year funding plan that will allow the school boards, administrators and teachers to plan on a multi-year basis, know that the funding will be available for the programs that they’d like to institute,” he said.

In health care, the Senate passed Bill 491, which would create a state electronic database for narcotics and other controlled substances. The bill came following the indictment of Haysville physician Stephen Schneider, who is accused of illegally prescribing painkillers to 56 patients who died of overdoses.

“Kansas is one of the few states that doesn’t have that type of electronic database,” Barnett said.

This week: The Education committee will hold another hearing on school district funding, this one for Chase County USD 284 and other similar school districts. Barnett has introduced a bill to help those districts receive more local-option funding.

“Chase County, it’s ranked as a wealthy district, although I don’t think they are a wealthy county,” Barnett said. “But under the current school finance formula, that’s how they are actually ranked, and as result they receive very little local-option funding.”

Barnett said he has had meetings with various stakeholders in the health care reform issue. He said several health care-related bills will be worked in committee this week, including one that would introduce a premium assistance program to make health insurance affordable for low-income Kansans.

“We have some small business pieces included that I think are important to help small business have more access to affordable health care insurance,” he said. “That’ll be a big part of what I’m working on this coming week.”

Rep. Don Hill

Last week: Hill doesn’t believe that House Bill 2776, a bill he introduced to make the state school funding formula more favorable to USD 253 following the Tyson layoffs, will be worked in the House. Instead, Hill said, the Senate bill on the funding formula will probably be used as a vehicle to help USD 253. He said it sometimes made sense to have identical legislation moving in both houses.

Hill, a member of the House education committee, said he was excited about several school finance bills passing out of committee last week. Two bills offer incentives to encourage low-enrollment districts to consolidate. One bill states that small districts that choose to consolidate will, for a period of three years, receive the same funding they would have gotten had they remained separate. Another bill offers funding formula incentives for districts that consolidate in a shorter period of time.

“In the last eight or 10 years, we’ve gone from 304 school districts in Kansas down to, I believe they were down to 296,” Hill said. “Which I tend to believe (is) too many. Very inefficient on the cost side, and probably of greater concern is the fact that when school districts go small, they’re not able to deliver the quality of education.”

This week: Hill will work on the legislation related to allowing the expansion of the Holcomb coal-fired energy plant. The bills passed each chamber with a veto-proof majority and now are in the hands of a six-legislator conference committee that considers both versions. The conference committee can make its own changes to the bills and send them back to each chamber in the form of a report. Hill said he has been trying to find ways that the two bills can be improved to the point where they will gain more support, including provisions about conservation and encouragement of renewable energy.

“Most of us, myself included, are interested in the Holcomb station being moved forward,” he said. “But we’re also very interested in making strides on the environment.”

On Tuesday, the House and Senate will both be working on a proposal for expansion of the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, something Gov. Kathleen Sebelius endorsed in her State of the State address last month. The legislation would add to the number of students at the Lawrence campus and would also create a satellite campus in Wichita. The KU pharmacy school will participate in hearings in both chambers on Tuesday, and Hill said he would spend time with its representatives.

Also, Hill said, the House will spend significant time looking at disaster relief following a particularly high number of weather-related disasters in the state in 2007. He said that issue will be examined both in the Economic Development committee and in separate group activities.

“Been a lot of legislation introduced on that,” he said. “None has really moved so far.”

Rep. Peggy Mast

Last week: Mast battled influenza last week but didn’t miss any votes.

“I’m thankful that I’m not too far from my niece’s house,” she said. “I would quarantine myself in the bedroom of my niece’s house almost every afternoon, all afternoon long and tried to get rested up so I could get over the flu.”

Mast is sponsoring House Bill 2570, which is now in the Judiciary committee, to outlaw Salvia, a psychedelic plant that is often chewed or smoked for recreational use. She expects that bill to be amended onto another bill and passed.

Her resolution condemning gangsta rap is expected to reach the Senate floor soon. Mast said she requested the resolution after meeting Topeka civil rights activist Sonny Scroggins late last year when Scroggins was walking around the Capitol.

“When he told me what he was walking for, I thought it was a very valid concern about the effects that the lyrics of gangsta rap had on young people that hear it repeatedly,” she said, “and how demeaning it is to women and how destructive it can be to children.

“I told him that (with) First Amendment rights, we couldn’t regulate free speech, but I would be glad to draft a resolution to make people aware of the lyrics and also get the conversation going.”

This week: Mast says illegal immigration will be one of several time-consuming issues up for debate on the House floor during this week’s “crunch time.” She said that legislation will deal largely with requiring employers to use the federal E-Verify system to confirm that a prospective employee is legal.

“Illegal immigration seems to be an issue that has statewide interest as far as all the people that I know that have sent out questionnaires and everything, illegal immigration has been one of the top concerns that people have written about,” she said.

Other issues that have been put off for awhile, such as budget and tax legislation, may also be discussed, Mast said.