The Kansas Legislature has a number of issues to tackle during this year’s session, and area lawmakers gathered Saturday to answer questions from their constituents about the tasks ahead.
Sen. Jeff Longbine and Reps. Don Hill and Peggy Mast were on hand at Sauder Alumni Center for the first Eggs & Issues of 2012. They came prepared to discuss the issues facing the legislature this year, including income tax reform, school finance reform and possible fixes for KPERS, the retirement fund for state employees.
“We are ten days into the legislative session ... and the pace and resolve we’ve seen is much stronger than it was last year,” said Longbine in his opening remarks. “... There is a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done this legislative session.”
Longbine said this year’s issues to be addressed are difficult and complex, but lawmakers are anxious to get the work started on what looks like the most ambitious agenda the state has seen in years.
“The governor has given us a challenge, and we will begin to address these issues,” Longbine said. “... Our job this year will be to work on how to provide government services and work to put the state in a better position to provide jobs and improve our economy.”
Mast expressed gratitude for the opportunity for the legislators to hear what’s on the people’s minds. One of the biggest issues facing the state will be redistricting, she said.
“Every district will change,” she said. “It’s still in flux.”
Mast said she also looks forward to tackling the issues facing the state this year, focusing on Gov. Sam Brownback’s agenda.
“His proposals might not be popular, but I know where his heart is,” Mast said of Brownback’s agenda, part of which includes income tax reforms that would raise taxes for those making less than $25,000 and cut taxes for those making more than $250,000.
Hill said the legislature is off to a good start, though the agenda for the year is one of the most ambitious he has seen.
“This is by far the quickest start that we’ve experienced since I’ve been in the legislature,” he said. “Last year was the slowest start that I’ve experienced.”
Hill said that this year, there will be five or six issues the legislature will face, “any one of which could have consumed previous legislatures for the entire session.”
When it came time for questions from the packed venue, the first one was aimed at Brownback’s income tax reform proposal, which the governor claims is aimed to help create jobs.
“The governor’s income tax reduction proposal would majorly impact low-income people,” said Sarah Wyrick. “He said that he would compensate by increasing social services. I’m skeptical of that, and I also think it’s curious that on the national scene, Republicans are calling President Obama the entitlement president and saying ‘let people keep their own money,’ and our governor, a Republican, is saying, ‘let’s keep more of the people’s money and give them entitlements.’”
Sen. Longbine, who is serving on a Senate committee studying the income tax proposal, said there are a number of proposals under study.
“There are a number of tax proposals we’ve looked at,” Longbine said. “We were at a meeting yesterday where we had 23 conferees who gave testimony on all sorts of proposals. I think we’re all in agreement that we would all like to pay less in income taxes and that we want to have businesses creating more jobs and stopping the migration of citizens out of the state.”
Longbine said some of the details of the governor’s proposal are problematic and that other avenues of reform are being looked at.
“As we work through those tax proposals, I don’t think we’ll end up with the governor’s proposal ...” he said.
Mast echoed Longbine’s comments, saying the legislature doesn’t want to raise taxes on those who can least afford it.
Hill pointed to KPERS reform as one of the most important issues facing the legislature, one that has needed to be addressed for years.
“This may well be more than a one-session proposition,” he said of efforts to shore up the retirement fund for state employees. “Kansas has the second worst pension system in the nation.”
Hill called for the state to start paying on the $8 billion unfunded liability, although the governor’s budget does not include payments to KPERS.
“We want state employees to know their pensions are secure; we want to be able to make that assurance,” Hill said.
Another question that received a lot of attention regarded the state’s funding of the arts. Last year the governor eliminated arts funding for the state, a move that has put Kansas as the only state not providing arts funding.
“I was disappointed with the last session in terms of funding the arts commission,” Hill said, adding that Emporia, with its new arts center, is an example of how the arts are important for economic development.
“We are aware that our arts center is the envy of many communities,” he said.