Jan. 11th 2010

State of the State              

The first day of the Kansas Legislative Session Governor Parkinson gave the State of The State address.   He opened stating that throughout history whether the Great Depression, WWII, or the challenge that we face this year, that the state of our state has always been and continues to be strong because of the courage and the resolve of our Kansas citizens. Our Governor explained the three issues that he asked the legislature to consider:

 First, to fill the 400 million dollar hole in the budget, a 1% increase in the state sales tax which would expire in 3 years except for  2/10% that would continue to fund a transportation program. He also recommended an increase of $.75 cents on a pack of cigarettes.   Both of these increases are dangerous for Miami County and our state when you couple the facts that over one third of our state’s population live within the counties on the Missouri border and that taxes in Missouri are $.17 on cigarettes compared to our current $.79. An additional $.75 would make us $1.37 higher. Their sales tax rate is 4.255 vs. a new Ks. Rate of 6.3% would increase the cost of purchases over $2.00 per $100.00 someone spends. This would place our business owners in a competitive disadvantage. Further compounding the problem is that Missouri does not charge any state sales tax on food and has lower liquor and gas taxes.    Consumers do develop shopping habits so if we increase these two taxes how many Kansans would start being influenced to go to Missouri to spend more and more of their money? When this happens there are numerous impacts, including losses to our businesses that result in loss of jobs,  loss of the local portion of the sales tax.  The 2^nd question is how likely would a future legislature be to give back the 8/10% in 3 years as promised?

 Second, Governor Parkinson asked that Kansas adopt a state wide smoking ban. He briefly explained the health benefits and that 22 other states have adopted smoking bans, one being North Carolina, a major tobacco producing state.   He promised that he would veto any watered down bill and that 75% of Kansans do support a ban. When I have time to work one up, I will be sending a survey to Miami County residents and that will be a question that I look forward to hearing back from you on.

The third issue is the creation of a rainy day fund to help Kansas avoid being caught without any reserves when we face economic downturns in the future. Last session, one of the committees that I serve on, Governmental Efficiency and Fiscal Oversight, passed a rainy day bill to the house floor and that bill now is in the Senate. The bill, if it becomes law, would place amounts that increase (above the April revenue estimates) in a fund that would be set aside for the purpose to help bridge us through the tough years. 

Governor Mark Parkinson did an amazing job giving the State of the State speech, without a teleprompter or notes, and it was very evident that he does deeply care for our state. On the way out of the Capitol,  I ran into Mark as he was getting into his car and he told me that it was a place to start our work.   It is encouraging having a Governor that is engaged and presenting defined plans for our state.

On Tuesday we started getting to work in our first meeting. We had an introduction of the bill that would make texting while driving a moving violation.   It is an amazing fact that drivers that are texting and driving are 85% more likely to be in an accident.  Maybe that isn’t such a big shock as that people text while they drive. The bill has support from AT&T and State Farm. Local friends and State Farm Agents, Lowell Hardesty and Marsha Adams, had already both asked me to support the bill. 

Tough Budget

We have already been to work to understand where we are and how it is that cutting 400 million out of a 14+Billion dollar budget is so painful. Well, included in that number are new SRS, Health Policy Authority and Department of Aging caseloads of over  133 million, Department of Education and KPERS payment increases and the fact that to get us through the last fiscal year Governor Parkinson barrowed around 200 Million from the federal ARRA funding.   As the numbers are crunched to get to a level budget from the previous year (which had significant cuts will take 400 million dollars) there are only two  options:  raise taxes or cut state government spending. While over 10 thousand Kansans have lost jobs in the private sector in the last year, our state’s full time positions grew 150 new jobs. To add tax increases would push our economic recovery further out.   It is going to be tough to get done. We are starting by working on a bill that would cut Legislative pay. Many people are having very tough times and would be thankful to have work to support their families even with a reduction in pay.

Contact Me

To continue in a similar vein, numerous constituents have called over the last few months needing help getting through to file for their unemployment along with other issues stemming from the economic downturn. If you need help or would like to contact me, my office phone number is 785-296-6014. Maureen Stinson, my Legislative Assistant will know how to find me. You can send E-mail to vickrey@jenevickrey.org or send regular mail to my office address:  

Rep. Jene Vickrey, Statehouse, Room 165-W, 300 SW 10^th Ave., Topeka, KS 66612