January 26, 2007 Newsletter
Working on the Agenda
Promises Made, Promises Kept
Republicans set a serious and multi-faceted Legislative Agenda on the first day of session and just two weeks later those priorities are seeing action. The House began floor debate on Tuesday with HB 2002, HB 2019 and SB 30. Both HB 2019 which addresses satellite voting and SB 30 which contained pre-funding for the out years of the school finances plan addressed top issues of the House Republican Caucus Agenda. The debate was good, the vote was solid and on Wednesday, January 24, the House saw its first Final Action votes.
Promise made:
EDUCATION
Republican House members have pledged to ensure our public school and universities maintain their high standards of education and to encourage our children to attend college in Kansas. The following bills address state funding for K-12 and Regents schools.
Promise kept:
SB 30 – Passing the House 105-17, the measure pre-funds year 2 and 3 of the school finance plan and addresses the Regent’s crumbling classrooms bond issue. It was amended on the House floor to include a 40 million a year debt reduction fund.
This was the #1 issue on the Republican Agenda and was one of the first bills debated on the House Floor.
The Republican caucus has taken the lead in demonstrating that our students are a top priority and that we back our commitments.
Promise made:
ELECTION AND CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM
The votes of every qualified Kansan should be counted in elections. To ensure this, we must bring more creditability to our state's electoral process.
Promise kept:
HB 2019 – Unanimously passed the House, expanding voters’ access when casting their ballots. The bill provides all counties with the option of establishing satellite and advance voting.
Election Reform was another of the House Republican’s top agenda items and was brought to the floor of the House for swift and appropriate reform demonstrating our commitment to bringing more credibility to our state’s electoral process.
Promise made:
HEALTH CARE
Every Kansan deserves access to affordable, quality health care. The burden of increasing premiums for individuals and small businesses has spun out of control. Kansans must be in charge of their health care dollars and the Republican caucus is committed to addressing this problem now.
Promise Kept:
Creation of Health Task Force – This thirteen member task force is focused on finding ways to make Kansas healthier by assisting individuals in taking care of their own health. The current Health Care system is broken and we are charging this task force with working towards massive reform this year.
The task force has already begun hearings to uncover ways to immediately address the problems facing Medicaid, commercial insurance, and the uninsured. We must promote access to quality care for all Kansans.
From these examples you can see that we are serious about swiftly providing responsible solutions to the problems facing our constituents across the state. We came to Topeka with a lofty goal in mind, to achieve what is best for all Kansans. Three weeks into the session we have passed two significant pieces of legislation and are hard at work addressing other priority issues.
Committee Work
The Legislative process is extremely intricate and is therefore sometimes seemingly slow. Though the entire House has only debated and voted on a few bills, our committees are busy working a multitude of bills; prioritizing the issues of the most importance and hearing critical testimony to prepare our members with necessary information before the bills come to a vote.
These are just a few of the bills currently working through the committee process that we will likely see on the floor of the House in coming weeks:
HB 2006, Alexa’s Law, amends the criminal code to recognize the life of an unborn child who is murdered; it is still working in the House Judiciary Committee. HB 2031, the franchise tax repeal; HCR 5005, a constitutional amendment to halt property valuations for property owners over 65 years of age; HCR 5006, a constitutional amendment to limit county appraisers are all working in the House Taxation Committee.
HB 2177 and HB 2198, address “robocalls” used during political campaigns and has been referred to the House Committee on Elections and Governmental Organization
HB 2143, revokes the hunting and fishing license of individuals arrears on child support payments; this has been introduced in the House Judiciary Committee.
HB 2134 requires legislative approval of any partnerships between a state university hospital and other entities with the intent of protecting Kansas investments. It has been referred to the House Appropriation Committee.
New Committees
Speaker of the House Melvin Neufeld announced the formation of the Select Committee on the State Employee Pay Plan.
“The Kansas Legislature needs to ensure the state pays its employees fairly and has a long-range plan to reward their hard work,” said Speaker Neufeld. “Our current system sometimes makes it difficult to maintain valuable workers and attract qualified applicants.”
Rep. Pat George (R-Dodge City) will chair the committee with Rep. Lee Tafanelli (R-Ozawkie) serving as Vice-Chair.
Chairman George said the committee will receive an overview of the current state employee pay plan from the Kansas Legislative Research Department this Thursday and then meet with a consulting group hired to conduct a comprehensive market study review of the state plan next week.
For full text of the Speaker’s Press Release regarding this committee, see below.
Next Week at the Statehouse
House Elections and Governmental Organization Committee will hold hearings on several bills regarding the Kansas Open Meetings Act. Further work on the House Republican Agenda will be done in the EGO committee on election and campaign finance reform.
The House Energy and Utilities Committee will have a hearing on HB 2019 which proposes a moratorium on coal-fired electric generation. FYI: the Energy Committee will be meeting Monday in 313-S, relocating the House Education Committee to 241-N.
The House Republican Caucus will be launching a new website. Though still under construction, it is our hope that it will becomes a helpful tool for you to better understand the legislative process and our ongoing work on top legislative priorities.
Kansas House Speaker Forms Committee to Study State Employee Pay Plan
Topeka - Kansas Speaker of the House Melvin Neufeld (R-Ingalls) announced today the formation of the Select Committee on the State Employee Pay Plan.
“The Kansas Legislature needs to ensure the state pays its employees fairly and has a long-range plan to reward their hard work,” said Speaker Neufeld. “Our current system sometimes makes it difficult to maintain valuable workers and attract qualified applicants.”
Minority Leader Dennis McKinney (D-Greensburg) echoed the need to study the pay plan.
"Some do not realize the difficulty of the jobs done by state employees such as our corrections officers and attendants at our state hospitals,” said McKinney. “This is an innovative approach to retain experienced and talented state employees."
Rep. Pat George (R-Dodge City) will chair the committee with Rep. Lee Tafanelli (R-Ozawkie) serving as Vice-Chair.
"I am honored to lead this committee. The last time we seriously looked at the state pay plan was 20 years ago," said Committee Chairman George. "Our goal is to come up with a plan that will put state agencies in line with the competitive job market. Our state employees invest their time and energy to provide valuable services to Kansans and they deserve to be treated as such."
Also on the committee: Reps. Mike Burgess (R-Topeka); Charlie Roth (R-Salina); Jo Ann Pottorff (R-Wichita); John Grange (R-El Dorado); Tom Hawk (D-Manhattan), Ranking; Ann Mah (D-Topeka); and Stan Frownfelter (D-Kansas City).
Chairman George said the committee will receive an overview of the current state employee pay plan from the Kansas Legislative Research Department this Thursday and then meet with a consulting group hired to conduct a comprehensive market study review of the state plan next week.
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