Last Thursday, this committee voted to reject $140 million in transfers out of the Kansas Department of Transportation and into the State General Fund in each of fiscal years 2016 and 2017. The motion was made by Rep. Russ Jennings and seconded by me. Actions have consequences and as a result of the consistent robbing of KDOT, projects are being put on hold – projects contracted by Johnson County engineering and construction companies, which employ thousands of Kansans across the state.
In response, the Appropriations Committee introduced a bill to strip the portion of the 2010 sales tax dedicated to KDOT, and members of the House leadership team applied pressure to many members of our subcommittee. Some were told that education would be stripped of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, some were promised campaign postcards showing their image atop a construction vehicle gleefully running over school children, some were told they would be pulled from committee assignments. In other words, threats were made.
On Monday, in a hastily called meeting held at the rail outside the House chamber immediately upon adjournment, a motion to reconsider was called for and the committee was asked to strip the Jennings amendment out of the bill. I spoke against the move, saying that we were just kicking the can down the road and avoiding the challenging decisions required in our current fiscal climate.
The sales tax bill is an empty threat – the sales tax revenue is dedicated to transportation funding and serves as the collateral needed to issue bonds. Without the dedicated sales tax, transportation would not be receiving enough cash revenue to pay for projects or issue bonds, effectively ending the TWORKS program. The reality of the situation is that education, transportation, and every other core function of our state government is under threat from a tax plan that is structurally flawed.
Children & Seniors
We hosted a hearing on HB 2170. The bill would create statutory guidelines for the use of seclusion and restraint of students with disabilities. My concern is that I do not believe any child should be subjected to the abuses we heard about in testimony. Current Kansas Department of Education regulations apply to all students, while this bill singles out students with disabilities. I have been working with the chief proponents of the bill to iron out some technical changes and hope we reach a solution that I am able to support when the bill is worked in committee later this week.
Vision 2020
We introduced HB 2270, the Vision 2020 Committee's Kansas-based solution to provide health coverage to 170,000 Kansans, and protect health care and other tertiary jobs across our state. If Kansas does not expand Medicaid eligibility, Kansas hospitals will continue to lose significant federal Medicaid funds. As we learned in committee hearings, many rural hospitals are at risk of closing because of the lost revenue.
Dubbed KanCare II, this expansion plan incorporates many good ideas from plans that have been approved in other Republican-led states around the nation that have received waivers to develop unique programs tailored to the needs of their local areas. Our bill includes a plan presented by the Kansas Hospital Association for hospitals to provide funding to cover the state’s 10% share of the cost of expansion.
We are currently focusing our attention on water issues. This committee has been proactive in the development of the State Water Plan, monitoring funding problems, program needs, and progress. While our own area has a stable water supply from the Kansas and Missouri Rivers, the rest of our state – the commodity-producing portion – is approaching a crisis in water levels. The Ogallala Aquifer lies underneath most of western Kansas, and is losing depth and breadth in staggering amounts each year, and our reservoirs are aging past their intended lifespans.
