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Legislative Newsletter

May 15, 2010

The Kansas Legislature wrapped up its work last Tuesday after the House spent several long days debating budget and tax issues late into the night. We worked on the floor until around 5 AM one night and until 3 AM another trying to avoid the tax increase. Of course, the budget that would be approved for Fiscal Year 2011, which begins July 1^st, would have to balance.  Other issues we addressed during the 12-day veto session included a new transportation plan, stricter seat belt and DUI laws, a texting ban, and an attempted override of a governor’s veto. We had anticipated that the Veto Session would take more than the usual few days, which is why we had worked to save days back. With days in the bank for the Veto Session, in the end, we did finish the 2010 session in less than 90 days.

Fiscal Year 2011 Budget

Everyone knew this would be a difficult session when we started out in January. After cuts of nearly $1 billion in the last year, the state still faced a projected revenue shortfall of about $500 million.  As I have kept explaining week by week through the session, we have had a divide among lawmakers on how to balance the state’s budget and address the funding gap between paying for essential services and declining tax revenues. In the House, we considered two budget proposals during the wrap-up session that offered very different solutions.

The House Appropriations Committee worked four months to construct the first budget bill we debated. SB 572 was based on recommendations made by the House budget committees.  It would have balanced the budget without a tax increase through a combination of additional spending reductions and accounting procedures.  Late in session, an idea to close part of the budget gap by selling surplus state owned property was offered as an amendment to the budget bill. Just 1% of the states holdings would generate over $150 million.  Even though this would be one-time money placed into ongoing budget expenditures, it still would make sense to work to avoid a tax increase.

The second budget bill we debated on the House floor was referred to as the
“coalition budget”.  It was a “gut and go” amendment put together by a group of Democrats and 24 or so Republicans to replace the contents of SB 572.  In addition to the coalition’s gut and go, we considered about 60 amendments during the 20-plus hours of debate on the coalition budget.

Ultimately, the House rejected the first budget and passed the coalition budget 71-52.  The $13.6 billion spending plan required a tax increase of more than $300 million (see Tax Increases below).  I did vote against this budget understanding that if you spend the money then you should vote for the tax increase to pay for it. The Senate agreed 21-17 on the coalition budget which is now on its way to Governor Parkinson for his consideration.

Sales Tax Increase  - 6th time’s the charm?

Republicans were also divided whether or not to increase taxes to fund the
budget recommendations in the approved SB 572.   The tax increase bill was
brought to the Floor for debate 6 times before finally having the vote count to be brought up for consideration. I had voted every time to bring the debate to the Floor since it seems to be common sense that you would find out how much revenue you have before working on the budget.  House members debated a Senate tax plan to increase the State’s sales tax from 5.3% to 6.3% until around 3 AM Tuesday morning before narrowly approving the increase 64-61. I voted “No”.  It just does not make sense to slow the economic recovery with a 19% increase in sales tax which is what a 1% increase calculates to be. Chris Cartwright, Legislative Research Principal Economist, explained during hearings in the House that a 1% increase in our state sales tax would cause a 16.67% slippage. To define, slippage is the loss due to consumers either spending less or making purchases out of state or on the internet.   Dr. Art Hall, from the KU School of Business, added that an additional $41 million would be lost from income taxes as 3,936 jobs would be lost, also resulting in a $2.8 million reduction in private investment and $17.1 million less revenue for local governments.  These negative impacts will hit Miami County and counties located next to Missouri harder than counties located further away from the state line.

My Mother Loma Vickrey Passes Away

The last evening before coming to Topeka, my 11 year old daughter Johanna and I visited Grandma Loma.  One of their last conversations was about their common love of reading books and the variety they have read.  Grandma told Johanna “Little Women” was her favorite book she had read when she was Johanna’s age.  A couple of days later she passed away peacefully at home.  The next day Johanna and I looked through about every book at the Louisburg Band garage sale for a copy of Little Women.  As we looked I said a quick prayer with Johanna that we’d find one, which we didn’t.  After the funeral I had planned to find time to buy Johanna the book.  We started figuring out what to do with all the stuff that Grandma had and, late one night, I stopped by her bookshelf and pulled one book out of the numerous books she loved. I was amazed that the book I had in my hand was an old copy of Little Women.  Johanna will always cherish and remember Grandma Loma each time she looks at the book. My mother was always cheerful.  She enjoyed and loved everyone.

Late Term Abortion Ban Veto Override Fails in Senate

The next morning (on Friday) I did get back to Topeka for the important veto override.  An attempt to override Gov. Mark Parkinson’s veto of a bill strengthening regulation of late-term abortions performed in Kansas, succeeded in the Kansas House but failed in the Senate. House members voted 86-35 to override the veto while the senators’ vote of 26-14 was one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to overturn the governor’s action. Senate Substitute for 2115 would have closed the loop hole that allowed George Tiller to perform late term abortions.

Transportation Plan

On the last day of veto session, the House voted 86-38 to approve an $8.2
billion, 10-year transportation plan.  It uses about $5.5 billion in existing
state and federal appropriations combined with another $2.7 billion in new
financing to pay for the projects.

The new financing breaks down to issuing $1.7 billion in new bond debt;
collecting $1.5 billion from 0.4-cent increase of the state sales tax increase
and $131 million increase in registration fees in 2013 for all trucks.  For commercial and farm trucks weighing more than 8 tons, the increase will go from the current $18 up to $100 (over a 500% increase).  I voted “No”.  This was another huge policy that was approved by a motion to concur after only passing one side of the legislature.

Senate Bill 368 would increase penalties on those convicted of a second
DUI. They would face a one-year suspension of driving privileges. Then after 45 days they could begin driving to a restricted number of places — school, work, and treatment — if they had an ignition interlock device installed on their vehicle. They would then face a second year of being restricted to driving only with the interlock device. An interlock device prevents a car from starting if the driver's blood-alcohol level is half the legal limit of 0.08 percent. It costs the convicted individual about $70 to install the interlock device and $75 a month in fees. The interlock device has proven successful in lowering the number of those with a second DUI from continuing to drink and drive.

Senate Bill 300 would ban texting while driving a vehicle, with exceptions forvoice-activated devices and messages sent to emergency personnel.  Banning texting while driving has been an issue that I have supported since lastsession when the practice was known to be more and more prevalent especially by our younger drivers.  The bill also requires individuals under 18 to wear helmet protection when riding a motorcycle; would make it illegal to cover or obstruct the view of your license plate; and would extend the use of school bus from 20 to 25 years if the bus meets certain requirements.

Please contact me at home or by e-mail if you need help in any way.  Contact information is:

Jene Vickrey

  502 S Countryside Dr.

Louisburg, Ks.  66053

phone number 913-837-2585

email:  vickrey@jenevickrey.org

(I do take time to check it my email every day).