Marti Crow

This Week at the Statehouse
We had a short week of long days in Topeka this week. With Drop Dead Day approaching on March 27, we were on the floor from morning to evening Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday trying to push through important (and some not so crucial) nonexempt bills. We took final action votes on 67 bills. The House adjourned Wednesday evening to give conference committees a chance to meet Thursday and Friday. Next week conference committees will be busy meeting all week to iron out differences between House and Senate versions of bills.

FY 2010 Budget Update:
The most significant piece of legislation passed this week was HB 2373, also known as the FY 2010 mega budget bill. We devoted all day Monday to the budget, debating over 30 amendments. After 10 hours of debate, the bill passed by a 70-54 vote. Tuesday, the Senate took up its version of the budget, which passed 26-14. Although we made some positive amendments, I have a number of concerns with the House budget proposal. However, be aware that the budget debate is far from over. A conference committee has already begun to meet on this bill, and there are a number of differences between the House and Senate versions. This means there still could be a number of changes once the two bills are reconciled. And we will come back in late April, after receiving updated revenue estimates, and work a final budget.

Some highlights:

K12 Education
    Providing excellent public education is always a top priority for me. The House bill, unfortunately, cuts state funding for K-12 education by $26 million which would reduce the budget an additional $33 per pupil and cut special education aid $4.5 million in FY 2010. Although this is being billed as a minor cut, it is actually a 2.7% cut of what was passed last session and promised to the schools for next year and takes school funding back to below the funding in 2007-08. And it could jeopardize our opportunity to receive federal stimulus dollars for our school kids. The budget does not take into consideration millions of dollars that are or will be available in gaming revenues. Using some of these funds would render a cut to school funding completely unnecessary. The Senate bill does not cut K12 education, so there is hope that these cuts will be reversed in conference.

Waivers for developmentally and physically disabled Kansans
    An amendment to the House budget adds about $13 million in spending to home and community based services for developmentally and physically disabled Kansans. The goal is to avoid placing these folks on waiting lists for services that can keep them at home rather than in more expensive nursing home care. The amendment passed 66-54.

State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)
    Both House and Senate bills include funding for expansion of low-cost health coverage for Kansas children. These are families that earn up to 250% over the poverty rate, too much to qualify for Medicaid, but they often cannot afford private insurance. The federal government pays the majority of the costs and these new families would also pay premiums. The House voted 75-48 to provide $1.2 million to the program, making Kansas eligible to draw up $6 million from the federal government. Providing health coverage for these kids is not only the right thing to do, it’s a good business decision.

Other House-approved budget cuts
An across-the-board cut of most Kansas state agencies by 10%.
A 9% cut to public safety spending
A 3.6% cut to state higher education institutions
A 10% cut to state legislators’pay

House measure requires drug testing to receive state assistance
    On Tuesday the House debated HB 2275 that would require random drug testing of all public assistance recipients in Kansas. The bill was approved at a vote of 99-26, after extended and heated debate. Nearly 14,000 Kansans receiving public assistance SRS would be subject to testing and those who tested positive for illegal drugs would be required to complete a treatment program. Public assistance would be terminated if a person fails the drug testing three times or does not complete treatment.
    Proponents argued that welfare recipients may use state dollars to buy illegal drugs rather than for legal and appropriate purposes. Additionally, proponents argued that this will help protect children under the care of drug abusers because the state would be better able to identify those individuals.
    Opponents took issue with an assumption that people who apply for public assistance are more likely to use drugs simply because they are poor. They also pointed out that the “random” testing was set up in the bill with ten days notice prior to testing. A similar law was struck down in Michigan as an unconstitutional search. The better, less expensive way, opponents said was to require drug testing and treatment when there is evidence of drug use. They also objected to the failure to provide any funding for testing or treatment.

Kelsey’s Law passes Senate
    In 2007, Kelsey Smith was abducted from a Johnson County Target store parking lot, raped and murdered. Her family has pushed for legislation that would require telecommunications companies to release GPS information on the cell phones in certain cases when a person is missing. The legislation is responding to the unfortunate fact that it took days to find Kelsey’s body because the cell phone company would or could not immediately release GPS information associated with Kelsey’s cell phone. Once authorities received the information, after four days, her body was found within 45 minutes.
    HB 2126 would clarify that Kansas allows the disclosure of location information to law enforcement agencies and would require the KBI to collect and distribute contact information for cell phone carriers. Cell phone carriers could establish their own protocols for disclosing call location information.
    This new law would not have saved Kelsey’s life, but its proponents contend that missing victims of crime may be found more quickly in the future. The bill passed the Senate unanimously on Tuesday. The House passed its version, 118-1 on February 20. The bill specifies that location information may be released in cases where there is danger of death or serious injury. It also prohibits a cause of action against a cell-phone provider who complies with this act.
If signed by Gov. Kathleen Sebilius, the Kelsey Smith Act would make Kansas the first state in the nation to pass such a law.