Legislative Update - Week Ten, March 17^th-21^st

Voter Survey Results

There has been a tremendous response on the voter surveys.  To date, 1100 people have responded to the survey.  I read the comments on each survey and try to find time to contact each constituent who has sent in a survey.  I would like to thank everyone who took their time to complete and return the survey.  It is great to know my friends and neighbors thoughts and concerns.

Results of the survey show the following:

Public Smoking Ban - 27 percent favor a State Law to be enacted, 20 percent favor Local Government deciding whether or not to ban smoking in public places, and 53 percent are in favor of business owners making the decision.

Cigarette Taxes – 56 percent of the responses favor an increase in cigarette taxes to fund health care reform.

Clean Air Requirement – 58 percent favor more requirements on industries (ethanol, manufacturing plants, oil and gas, aviation).

Coal Powered Electric Plant – 62 percent favor building the plant in western Kansas.

Concealed Carry – 58 percent favor not allowing students with concealed carry permits to be allowed to possess firearms in their vehicles in college campus parking lots.

Teen Driving – 58 percent favor more restrictions on teen driving.

Illegal Immigration – 82 percent favored tougher laws concerning illegal immigration.

All-Day Kindergarten – 61 percent are against funding All-Day Kindergarten.

Tax Policy – 67 percent are against tax increases for any reason.

Again, it is a great privilege and honor to represent you.  I do really appreciate your help.  I greatly enjoy reading your comments.

E-Newsletter

I am working hard to get the E-Newsletter out to provide up-to-date information.  If you find the E-Newsletter to be interesting, please help me by forwarding it to your friends.

First Budget Bill Passes the House

The budget that passed the House is a very base line budget with growth at 3.3% over last year’s spending and does include the promised funding for our schools. This is a budget that will be hated by almost every one for one reason or another. All of the Governors enhancements have been set aside until our final budget at Omnibus.  That list is very extensive and these items will be negotiated now through the rest of our session.  Also, the amount of other spending created by legislation that is passed this year continues to grow.  My office has been working to keep a running total of that amount.  This is also spending that will be considered. With all that in mind, it is an amazing fact to understand that this first budget still would spend around 140 million dollars over projected revenues.  It is very apparent that it will be a real battle to set our priorities and keep the spending under control.

Events in the Week Ahead

The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) is an exciting change to win a major federal lab for Kansas.  The NBAF is a critical national priority because it will preserve public health and the agriculture economy by protecting our national food supply through modern animal-health research. Kansas is one of the six finalists in the nation for this lab. We are ready to take the next step to make it happen.  Next week we will work on legislation that will be key to continuing to keep Kansas in the forefront in the competition with two other states for the facility.

Major economic impact for Kansas:

• Construction cost of $451 million
• 1,000-1,500 jobs during construction and 250-350 jobs after construction
• App. $1.5 billion in direct and indirect economic output over 20 years
• Start-ups and corporate relocations to be near the NBAF, thereby growing the Animal Health Corridor in Kansas.
• Perhaps more important, the NBAF will conduct research to prevent an estimated $1 billion loss that would result from a Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in the state.

Monday-Health Care Reform will be worked. In Election and Governmental Organization Committee there will be hearings on our recommendations for the annexation bills. We also hope to work on a couple of Consolidation Bills and photo I.D. in committees and on the House floor.

In the coming week-The Illegal Immigration Bills will finally be hitting the House floor. We are hoping to get some better reforms on these policies.

Numerous Issues will be hitting the floor in the next week. 

Contact Information

To reach me, please contact my office assistant, Maureen (she always knows how to find me) by phone at (785-296-6014), by US Mail at (Rm 121-W Statehouse, Topeka, KS 66612) or by email at (vickrey@jenevickrey.org) during the Legislative Session.