The Kansas Legislature reached first adjournment Friday night and will break until April 30 when we’ll return to Topeka for the traditional wrap-up session. Passage of the mega-appropriations bill was the final item standing in the way of adjournment. Many issues, such as immigration and health reform and the Sunflower Electric energy bill are still pending and will hopefully be resolved when we come back the end of the month.
The appropriations bill, totaling over $13B from all funds, was held up by two powerful SE Kansas Senators who want two pet projects in their districts funded. Senate Way & Means Committee Chairman Dwayne Umbarger from Thayer wants the State to fund $750,000 for a local road project at the now abandoned Parson Ammunition Plant site. Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, of Independence, wants the State to issue nearly $40M in prison bonds so Yates Center, in his district, can build a substance abuse treatment prison. Neither project is needed, certainly not at taxpayer expense. The House has twice passed legislation to block the prison bonds. Earlier in the week the House rejected a budget compromise that included the road and the bonds by over 100 votes. The final bill, passed Friday night, moves any road project at Parsons off state budget and defers the prison bond issue to the wrap-up session when the omnibus appropriations bill for the year will be considered. The omnibus appropriations bill will contain the final items of funding for the year and will be based in large part on what the consensus revenue estimating committee projects the state will receive in revenues for the next fiscal year.
A new energy bill closely resembling one vetoed earlier by the Governor was passed overwhelmingly by the House and Senate before adjournment. The Senate again passed the measure with veto-proof numbers. This time, the House came within one vote of a veto-proof majority and I predict that by the wrap-up session sufficient votes for an override will be found. Interestingly, the Governor signed a bill Thursday that places the same restrictions on the Secretary of Agriculture with regard to food safety as the proposed energy bill would place on the Secretary of Health & Environment.
In other Legislative action, the House and Senate have both passed school finance bills that would fund a 4th year of a school finance plan by adding $59 to the base budget per pupil, worth more than $37M in additional funding. We’ve also sent to the Governor by a strong vote a comprehensive abortion reform act that would not change current laws dealing with who can obtain an abortion but would crack down on coerced abortions and would address problems occurring when prosecutors fail or refuse to enforce existing abortion laws. Reforms aimed at the Kansas Board of Healing Arts have also passed both Houses and the final version will be voted on in the wrap-up session. Efforts in both the House & Senate have led to the resignations of two top officials with the Board, which has been exposed as neglecting to operate the agency in the best interests of the public and health care community. Our new law regulating funeral picketing has now been signed by the Governor.