It was a short week of legislative meetings, but a long week of planning for how to address issues in our remaining days in session. The week marked the beginning of the second half of session and we got to look at the bills coming over from the Senate.

There was some work in committees. The appropriations committee advanced bills that will further define responsibilities and funds for plugging abandoned oil wells.

In tax, we talked further about collection of sales taxes by remote sellers. We also tried a slightly different approach using a white board to consider options to eliminate the cliff created by Kansas income tax on social security.

It was helpful to me, and I hope committee members found the discussion useful to shape policy. We may try the approach on additional topics this week.

We received the Senate Tax Committee’s work on property tax issues and will begin work on those issues.

Sen. Tyson, who chairs the committee, did a lot of work over the summer to study alternative approaches to property tax.

Their approach would keep the total revenue to taxing entities level.

Changes in appraised value would change the mix between properties, but not result in an overall change in total tax revenue. Proposed increases would be sent to the property owner along with notification of when a meeting will be held to consider any increase. The local authorities would then vote on the tax change. This would further allow the current tax lid to be repealed. I have more to learn when we hear the bill in the House committee.

Revenues have continued to come in strong through the end of February, with tax receipts exceeding the estimate for the month by just over $60 million. With the volatility in both our markets and key Kansas industries we may see some weakening through the end of the fiscal year.

Work on the civility discussions has also continued. At the end of the week, I went to Kansas City to talk about what we have been doing in the legislature on KCUR, their public radio station. One of my colleagues, Kathy Wolfe Moore, D-Wyandotte County, invited me to join her on the segment.

The civility group has a meeting this week. Tim Shaffer from the Kansas State University Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy will talk with us about initiatives going on across the state and nation.

He will be joined by Trudy Rice with K-State Extension to talk about their Master Facilitator program. That program can help us work together to create more productive dialogue across Kansas.

The word for the week is “listen”. It fits well with our other words, as trust (a previous word) is built through listening. Listening is fundamental, yet can be difficult to do. A discussion of listening can turn into a sermon, which I am not qualified to deliver. It is more about hearing others than being heard ourselves. How do you think listening works in our society? How do we listen through all the noise? I am sure you have seen situations where listening has broken down, and the outcomes are usually not ideal.

There are several forums on coming Saturdays. The Salina Chamber has one at 8:30 a.m. March 14 at the chamber annex. Rice County Farm Bureau is hosting a forum at 10 a.m. the same day at Brew 56 in Lyons. I may be able to make the end of the Rice County forum. There is one in McPherson at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 21, at Kansas Municipal Utilities.

Thanks for your feedback on issues this session. Please continue to share your thoughts with me at steventjohnson@house.ks.gov, ven_tjohnson@house.ks.gov, at (785) 296-7696 or any of the forums you can attend.

I am honored to serve as your representative in Topeka. Have a great week!