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E-NEWSLETTER
REPRESENTATIVE PAUL DAVIS
46TH DISTRICT
OFFICE:
420-South, State Capitol (**This
is my new office address**)
Topeka, KS 66612
785-296-7642
davis@house.state.ks.us
DISTRICT OFFICE:
900 Massachusetts Street, Suite
601
Lawrence, KS 66044
(785) 843-7674
(785) 843-7672 (fax)
HOME:
1731 Indiana
Lawrence, KS 66044
(785) 749-1942
Greetings from the Capitol! The session is definitely in full swing. Next
week will mark the halfway point of the session. Because of this, all
bills that have been introduced in a particular chamber must be passed
out of that chamber or they cannot be acted upon for the remainder of
the session.
I am somewhat disappointed that we have yet to spend much time discussing
education funding. There have been a lot of behind the scenes discussion
and I understand that a proposal may be put forward by legislative leadership
and the governor next week. However, I hope that we don't put this issue
on the back burner and wait until the
very end of the session to take action. We need to have extensive hearings
to discuss the Legislative Post Audit study and fully explore all the
potential changes to the funding formula that have been proposed.
In addition to K-12 education, here is a look at some of the issues that
are being debated at the Capitol:
BUSINESS MACHINE AND EQUIPMENT PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTION
A bill exempting new business machinery and equipment from the personal
property tax was passed by the House. This tax relief would give businesses
an incentive to invest in new technology in Kansas. As passed, the proposal
also makes up for the loss of revenue to local governments so the tax
burden is not shifted to homeowners.
Business owners have repeatedly brought to our attention their need to
invest in new equipment and technology. But the current Kansas machinery
and equipment personal property tax is a barrier to those investments.
We should encourage businesses to invest in new equipment and new technology
to keep pace with rapid changes in the market.
I decided to vote for this proposal because I became convinced by Governor
Sebelius and Secretary of Revenue Joan Wagnon that this very targeted
tax cut would stimulate economic growth in the manufacturing sector of
our state's economy. Additionally, the provisions that were inserted in
the bill by the House Taxation Committee that provide local units of government
with appropriations that offset the loss of revenue that they will realize
made the bill much more acceptable to me.
Obviously, with the significant investment that will need to be made
in public education now is not the time for a significant tax cut. But
this cut has a fairly minimal impact on the state general fund and I believe
it will help stimulate a sector of the Kansas economy that has been lagging
in recent years.
Governor Sebelius has made the website www.warmhelp.org available to
Kansans this winter to provide important tips for lowering energy costs
this winter. Natural gas prices have made home heating bills higher this
winter and this website provides homeowners with tips to save money and
conserve energy.
Energy Saving Tips:
-Turn down you thermostat and lower it even more at night and when you
are away from home.
-Put on extra layers of clothing instead of turning up the thermostat.
-Close vents and doors in unused and unoccupied rooms.
-Check and seal cracks around doors and windows.
-Have your furnace professionally cleaned and inspected. Change your furnace
filters monthly.
SEATBELTS ON SCHOOL BUSES
Rep. Mark Treaster (D-Pretty Prairie) has introduced a bill that would
require lap and shoulder seat belts to be installed in all Kansas school
buses by Jan. 1, 2007. Treaster said school buses are already "very
safe but I do believe we can do more."
Buses generally are lauded for the safety they provide through "compartmentalization,"
which means children are kept in their seat and protected by the large
padded seats around them. However, in 2004 a tractor-trailer slammed into
the side of a Haven public schools bus at 70 mph and a 13 year-old girl
was thrown from the bus and killed.
School districts and the bus industry have complained of the cost to
provide seat belts in school buses. It was estimated during a hearing
on Tuesday to cost $1,500 to $2,000 to fit school buses with seat belts.
Moreover, seat belts would reduce the capacity for some buses because
their seats could fit only two seat belts when today those seats carry
three children. The Kansas State Pupil Transportation Association said
there are 6,000 school buses in Kansas that carry about 200,000 students
each day. It would cost $970,000 to outfit buses in the Emporia district
with seat belts, $2.3 million to do the same in Auburn-Washburn and $900,000
in Manhattan.
Opponents said that seat belts may make it more difficult for children
to get out of overturned buses after accidents and that children could
use seat belts as weapons. Many children don't wear seat belts properly,
which can cause more serious injuries in accidents than if they weren't
wearing seat belts in the first place.
The House Transportation Committee took no action on Tuesday.
ABORTION CLINIC REGULATION BILL BACK AGAIN
Legislation heard Tuesday that would increase regulations on and inspections
of all medical clinics, including abortion clinics, was opposed by the
largest anti-abortion group in the state, Kansans for Life. The measure
would apply to every clinic in the state that does office-based surgery
or other medical procedures.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Nancy Kirk of Topeka said efforts in previous
legislative sessions to increase regulations on abortion clinics have
been defeated "because of the failure to recognize the need for much
broader regulation." Kirk said increased scrutiny of office-based
procedures is needed because many procedures once done in hospitals are
now done in office settings.
But Kathy Ostrowski, of Kansans for Life, said Kirk's bill was too broad.
"We don't know of any public health crisis in clinics other than
abortion clinics," Ostrowski said. Ostrowski didn't testify on Kirk's
bill, but her comments opposing the measure came later Tuesday.
Last year, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed a bill that would have imposed
additional regulations on abortion clinics. She said she would sign a
measure that covered all surgeries performed under anesthesia in doctors'
offices and clinics.
During a hearing on the proposal, physicians and state regulators from
the board of healing arts testified against the bill, saying it would
cost too much and would duplicate regulations on physicians who perform
office surgeries. The Kansas Board of Healing Arts and Kansas Medical
Society opposed the measure.
After the hearing, members of the House Health and Human Services Committee
decided to scrap Representative Kirk's bill and insert the provisions
of the abortion clinic regulation bill that has already been vetoed by
Governor Sebelius on two occasions. The bill will be voted on by the entire
House of Representatives next week.
GOVERNMENT CONSOLIDATION IN THE SENATE
It would be easier for local governments to start the process of consolidation
under a bill gaining first-round approval in the Senate. Most of the debate
in the Senate centered on the how much of a vote would be needed for cities
and counties to merge. Senators agreed, 22-17, that it would take 60%
of the total city-county vote.
The requirement for a 60% vote was proposed by Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler,
who said, "Cities and counties aren't on equal footing." That
came after the Senate rejected a two-thirds majority on a 19-19 vote.
Last session a consolidation bill passed the Legislature, but it required
the approval by both the population in the city and the population in
the county. It was designed for a consolidation effort in Shawnee County.
Although it passed heavily in the more populated City of Topeka, it was
rejected by the county residents who live outside Topeka.
The measure would remove provisions from state statute that serve as
barriers to local government mergers. It would allow cities and counties
to consolidate without first seeking approval from the Legislature, which
they must do now. Supporters have said the bill will help reduce the multitude
of local government entities -- from counties to townships to water districts
-- that give Kansas among the most numerous governmental entities in the
country.
WORKERS COMPENSATION DEBATED
Firefighters, steelworkers, lawyers and the elderly locked arms against
proposed changes to workers' compensation laws this week in the Senate
Commerce Committee, saying it would unfairly target anyone who people
who have been injured for reasons unrelated to their job. "Ageism
is exactly what SB 461 is about," said David Wilson of AARP Kansas,
which held its annual rally in the Capitol this week. "It is discriminatory
to aging workers."
AARP, Kansas AFL-CIO and several other labor groups contend that the
bill would allow employers to use preexisting health conditions as grounds
to deny workers' compensation claims from employees who are hurt on the
job. Almost everyone has some health problem or previous injury that could
reduce their benefits if they're hurt on the job, according to conferees.
In fact, that is especially true of older workers or veterans. Opponents
also say that it would remove any incentives companies have to keep injured
workers employed.
But supporters of the bill who testified Tuesday say the proposal allows
workers to get compensation for their injuries. It just limits companies'
liability to only the injury caused by the accident, not any preexisting
problems.
In her testimony, Kari Clark, administrator of Wichita Surgical Specialists,
P.A., asked lawmakers if employers should have to pay for preexisting
problems. More advocates of the bill will testify before the committee
tries to make any changes to the proposal and vote.
The Kansas Department of Labor said that 64,761 workplace injuries and
illnesses were reported in 2005. That's an average of 177 a day, one more
per day than in 2004. The average medical recovery time last year was
193 days, down 22% from 2004.
Kansas' weekly benefits for injured workers are among the lowest in the
country, according to a 2004 report by the Docking Institute of Public
Affairs at Fort Hays University.
FUNERAL PICKETING BILL DISCUSSED IN SENATE
Kansas University law professor Stephen McAllister was asked by the Senate
Federal and State Affairs Committee to provide advice on legislation that
was prompted by demonstrations by the Rev. Fred Phelps and his Westboro
Baptist Church at soldiers' funerals. McAllister told lawmakers yesterday
that a proposed 300-foot ban on picketing at funerals may be determined
by the courts as unconstitutional. "There are virtually no cases
that uphold a buffer zone of a significant distance," said McAllister
a constitutional law professor, former dean of the KU law school and former
clerk for U.S. Supreme Court justices Byron White and Clarence Thomas.
For years, Phelps and his family have been demonstrating at funerals
of AIDs victims. Recently, he started showing up at soldiers' funerals,
often with signs stating "Thank God for IEDs" and "Thank
God for Dead Soldiers." Phelps says soldiers are being killed as
part of God's punishment of the United States for accepting homosexuals.
At least 14 states, including Kansas, are proposing limits to protests
at funerals because of Phelps. In Kansas, Senate Bill 421 would ban picketing
and protest marches within 300 feet of a funeral service one hour before,
during or two hours after the service. Currently, state law says only
that it's illegal to picket "before or about" a funeral
service.
McAllister said the Legislature could probably restrict protests around
non-public forums, which include cemeteries, churches and funeral homes.
But, he said, a 300-foot restriction would probably not extend to traditionally
public forums, such as sidewalks and streets. He said courts have refused
to limit speech in those public areas.
Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, chairman of the committee, said he would
like the panel to think about McAllister's testimony and then perhaps
craft a bill later in the week. Brandy Sacco, whose husband Dominic Sacco
died in Iraq, said she was disappointed to hear McAllister's legal analysis,
but was confident lawmakers could write legislation that was constitutional.
"I'm not giving up," she said. Phelps and his followers protested
Dominic Sacco's funeral in Topeka in November.
BILL BANNING MARRIAGE UNDER AGE 16 PASSES HOUSE
The House this morning passed HB2541 a bill that would set the minimum
marriage age in Kansas at 16. Parental consent would be required for marriage
by 16 and 17 year olds, but no one under the age of 16 could marry in
this state.
No one spoke in opposition of the measure, which emerged after reports
of a Nebraska man marrying his 14-year-old pregnant girlfriend in Hiawatha
in Brown County. The couple came to Kansas to get around a Nebraska law
forbidding marriage for children ages 16 and younger. The husband -- Matthew
Koso, now 23 -- was sentenced earlier this month by a Nebraska judge to
18 to 30 months in prison for having sex with a minor.
Presently, Kansas has no minimum marriage age as long as a parent consents.
From 1999 to 2004, there were 34 marriages in Kansas involving children
younger than 15. Only Rep. Bonnie Huy, R-Wichita, spoke and was the only
vote in opposition. She gave examples of people who married before age
16 and made successful marriages which lasted a lifetime.
CONCEALED CARRY BILL PASSES SENATE
A bill that would allow Kansans to carry concealed handguns easily passed
the Senate this week. SB 418 passed the Senate 29-11, two votes more than
needed to override an expected veto by the governor. Three Senators would
have to change their vote to prevent a veto override by the Governor.
The bill would allow any Kansan older than 21 to apply for a permit to
carry a concealed handgun. The attorney general's office would conduct
background checks to eliminate anyone with a felony record, history of
mental illness, physical infirmity, or drug or alcohol addiction. Applicants
would have to complete an eight-hour safety course, and guns
wouldn't be permitted in a school, city hall, courthouse, jail, law enforcement
office or state office building.
Kansas is one of four states without a general law allowing the carrying
of concealed weapons. Thirty-five states have what is referred to as "shall-carry"
laws like the one that passed the Senate. These laws allow no discretion
for issuing a license to carry if the person is eligible under the statute.
The other states, like Iowa, have "may carry" laws which provide
law enforcement officials with more discretion or require that the applicant
have a good reason to need to carry a concealed weapon.
It is anticipated that the implementation of the law would cost $540,000
annually for the state to conduct background checks. Testimony about the
bill is that it would be expected that 48,000 Kansans would apply for
gun permits in the first four years of the law.
Business owners, churches and other entities where concealed weapons
are not specifically prohibited in the law, would be able to prohibit
guns on their property by posting signs. Violations would be misdemeanors,
falling under the state's trespassing laws.
Proponents of the law in the Senate described the bill as a crime deterrent
arguing that criminals would not prey on armed victims. But other Senators
worried about crime increasing. "Handguns are for killing people,"
said Sen. Roger Reitz, R-Manhattan. Republican Sen. Vicki Schmidt, Topeka,
said she was worried about accidental shootings.
I have voted against concealed carry measures in the past and will oppose
this one. I don't believe that concealed carry measures are going to make
our communities any safer.
"PORN TAX" HEARING HELD IN HOUSE TAXATION COMMITTEE
House Bill 2680, which imposes a 10 percent state excise tax on escort
services, strip clubs, and adult book and video stores was heard last
Friday in the House Tax Committee.
Revenue would be earmarked to fight exploitation of children through
the Internet, help victims of sexual assault and treat perpetrators of
sex crimes. Karl Peterjohn, executive director of the Kansas Taxpayers
Network in Wichita, said he objected to the bill because it added to the
tax burden of Kansas businesses.
Some legislators are studying a licensure proposal which they think would
better withstand a court challenge.
KEEP IN TOUCH
It is a special honor and privilege to serve as your voice in the Kansas
House of Representatives. I value and need your input on the various issues
facing state government. Please feel free to contact me with your comments
and questions. My office address is Room T-5, Docking State Office Building,
Topeka, KS 66612. You can reach me at (785) 296-7642 or call the legislative
hotline at 1-800-432-3924 to leave a message for me. Additionally, you
can e-mail me at davis@house.state.ks.us. You can also follow the legislative
session online at www.kslegislature.org.
Paul
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