Dear Constituents,
After hours of debate on just over 50 bills, the Kansas Legislature reached the halfway point of the 2010 session on Friday, adjourning until Tuesday for a break after “Turn Around Day,” the first major legislative deadline of the year. It’s a whirlwind of activity, and the long hours are grueling—but it’s also an exciting part of the process, and one of the more enjoyable times of the session in many ways.
The bulk of our work in the House took place on Thursday. While most of the legislation originally scheduled was fairly non-controversial, we had a long list of amendments—and debate stretched to into the evening hours covering a host of hot-button issues.
The 2010 rescission budget was the most important bill to clear the chamber, but we also cleared a critically important fix for small businesses facing drastic unemployment tax increases. Aside from those two “time sensitive” matters, most of the bills we considered dealt with efficiency controls, statutory fixes, and any other budget neutral proposals.
Although the week was full of activity, as a practical matter the Legislature will remain in somewhat of holding pattern until we have fresh budget projections. The decision to either raise taxes or further reduce spending presents a serious dilemma for legislators—and consequently not one we’ll be rushing to make. Once the boundaries of our budget limitations are well defined, we’ll begin crafting the ultimate solution to our shortfall, working to minimize the pain for taxpayers and beneficiaries alike.
Committee work was thin this week because of the increased floor debate—but we had a few measures to wrap up. Specifically HB 2432, a measure dealing with personal defense, was moved out of committee and passed on the House floor this week. This bill would allow citizens to defend their home and property without giving a warning if they believed their life was in danger. This is an important clarification in the law further giving protections to property owners who are victims of violent crimes.
As I mentioned, we’ll take a short break to allow time for legislation to be re-printed and exchanged between chambers, but by Wednesday we will be back to full speed.
Looking forward, I’m expecting the initial House version of the 2011 budget to be rolled out within two weeks. It’s going to be an incredibly difficult process. I’m continually concerned about the distinct possibility of revenues dropping in the next two months, which would put us deeper in debt, and facing some painful realities. Regardless, I hope you will keep me informed not only of your thoughts concerning the budget, but any other measures that might impact our families and community.
We’ll have about three weeks before our next major deadline, so if you’d like to visit Topeka or get involved with legislation now is certainly the time. I appreciate the opportunity to serve you, and hope that if I might be of any assistance you will contact me.
