Legislators experience positives, negatives
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 01:21 p.m., March 17, 2008
Updated 01:21 p.m., March 17, 2008
Emporia’s state legislators had some divergent opinions about last week’s activity at the Statehouse. Here’s The Gazette’s weekly look at issues and legislation that Sen. Jim Barnett, Rep. Don Hill and Rep. Peggy Mast were looking at last week, and what they anticipate coming up this week.
Sen. Jim Barnett
Barnett didn’t mince words. “This has been a crappy week,” he said frankly.
Last Monday, Barnett was dismayed when a Senate health committee removed premium assistance from a health-care reform package.
“That was the plan that provided health insurance for the poor in our state,” he said. “We all pay for their health care now through the emergency room. This was one of the most important aspects of the health-reform package.”
Barnett said he was disappointed that after nine weeks, the Senate hadn’t yet moved a single health care reform bill to the floor.
Senate Bill 458, the illegal immigration bill that requires employers to use the E-Verify system to check whether prospective employees are legal, wasn’t handled in committee to Barnett’s liking, either. He said the committee, acting against accepted rules of the Senate, “gutted the bill and placed in a number of new laws that had never received a hearing in the Kansas Legislature, and came with no analysis of the cost to the state, either. I thought it was a mockery of good government.”
The committee, he said, should have allowed a substitute motion to return the bill to its original language.
A bright spot of Barnett’s week was that Senate Bill 577, the legislation he introduced for home radon awareness, passed the Senate by a 33-7 vote and will head on to the House. The bill would place language about radon risks in bold font in real estate contracts, including the risk of lung cancer, and would let buyers know about radon testing and treatment options.
This week, Barnett anticipated debating the immigration bill on the full Senate floor.
“This will be a very difficult debate, and one that I think will possibly bring a great deal of disappointment to a majority of Kansas citizens that feel this state should do what is possible to deal with the issue of illegal immigration,” he said.
Rep. Don Hill
Hill believed the past week was the most productive one of this legislative session. He was pleased with the progress made on the new state pay plan. He said the current plan has been around since the mid-1950s, doesn’t recognize merit and doesn’t resemble anything being done by responsible government entities.
“There’s no meaningful opportunity for job performance assessment,” he said. “There’s no opportunity for folks to be rewarded based upon merit or performance, and so the new system will put all those components in place.”
The new package includes a pay raise for state employees, but Hill said the merit-based system would ensure that raises are earned, rather than automatic. He said that many people are paid below what they should be.
“So getting the pay package reform passed is very important,” he said, “and passed in a very bipartisan way, and the effort on the part of legislators in both parties, as well as the governor ... it is a good step forward.”
Hill also lauded two tentatively approved House bills making up a tax reform package. One of the bills streamlines the tax code and allows the state to gain tax revenue from out-of-state corporate entities that don’t fall under the current tax code. However, Hill said he didn’t like a corporate tax cut included as part of the bill that will have a net fiscal impact of $22 million less revenue for the state.
Senate Bill 426 earned recommendation to be passed out of subcommittee last week, and Hill hoped that by the end of this week, it would be passing out of the Senate and on to the House floor. That bill is designed to minimize the effect of the Tyson Fresh Meats layoffs on Emporia Unified School District 253’s state funding.
Budget issues, Hill said, will be an increasing area of focus this week.
Rep. Peggy Mast
Mast continued her work last week on the House subcommittee looking at the proposals of the Kansas Health Policy Authority. The subcommittee kicked out a bill that in part mandates Section 125 insurance plans, which result in cost deductions for both employees and employers. Mast said the bill has many “moving parts,” and it will take a lot of time for everyone to embrace the bill because of its complexity.
“There’s such a learning curve of understanding how everything’s going to interact,” she said. “... Most people don’t even know what Section 125s are. So, getting people educated on how they can benefit by having those type of health care plans, and by having (a health savings account).”
One piece of legislation, House Bill 2934, would require Medicaid enrollees to also enroll in wellness programs if they abuse drugs or are obese according to the Body Mass Index. Mast said that perhaps the Medicare and Medicaid populations need to be encouraged to practice healthy behavior.
“And if we can get them, we may be able to enable them to go back into society and be able to have more productive lives. But I think we’ve been ignoring those problems, and maybe that’s a good place for us to start,” she said.
This week, Mast anticipated “a long and arduous day” of health care debate, as well as the debates on illegal immigration and the budget.
“We need to find out exactly how we stand financially and how much money we will have available before we can deal with some of the increases that we want, some of the enhancements,” she said. “There’s a lot of things that we need to address still that’s going to be put off to the very end, as usual.”
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