Capitol View

The second week of the 2020 legislative session was focused on getting work moving in our committees.

For the tax committee, I am getting many requests for exemptions, credits and incentives. We are working to bring key stakeholder groups together on some of the larger issues such as our approach to internet taxes and whether to restore itemized deductions.

There are many requests for hearings. We began moving through those this week.

The budget committee had an interesting presentation on options for the Docking state office building combined with plans to update the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) testing laboratory. We need to take action on both of those spaces. The architect presented multiple plans, and cost estimates were provided from the department of administration. The total for both a new lab and renovating the Docking building is around $150 million.

The pension committee will receive the bill for the governor’s recommendation to re-amortize KPERS.

The KPERS board last week voted to not change (or not re-amortize) the payment schedule for our pension liability. I met with members of the governor’s staff to listen to their plans and share my concerns with how we fund KPERS.

I will continue to listen to ideas for a better plan, although I am hesitant to reduce our payments at this time.

While I am not on the federal and state affairs committee, they have been at the center of debate as we start the session.

The constitutional amendment which would put the life or abortion question on our ballot in the next election is one of the larger issues currently being discussed. The other major issue is currently in the Senate regarding Medicaid expansion. That legislation was passed in the House last year.

The education committee also started meetings with a report on bullying and an audit report on how our at-risk dollars are spent. We may need to adjust either our spending or what we measure as a part of atrisk to make the funding and expenditures consistent.

Behind the scenes, our civil discourse planning committee remains hard at work setting a course to continue our dialogue. We will have our second meeting in the next week.

Visitors this week included leaders from our local government. I appreciate these partners and all the hours they dedicate to make our communities and state better.

Thank you for your messages and communication. Please continue to share your thoughts with me at (785) 296-7696 or steven.johnson@house.ks.gov. I appreciate the honor of serving as your representative in Topeka.

Have a great week!

Editor’s Note — Rep. Steven Johnson, R-Assaria, and Sen. Richard Wilborn, R-McPherson, will be in Ellsworth County — at meetings in Wilson and Ellsworth — the morning of Feb. 22. Watch the I-R for further details.