Medicaid debate continues
Capitol View
Committee work continued to be the focus in the Kansas House this past week.
The first bills are making their way to start discussion and voting on the floor next week. While most items are not controversial, we have two major issues to lead off the session.
The Senate debated and passed the proposed constitutional amendment referred to as “Value them Both” on the life issue. That will be coming to the House for debate during this week, and likely the vote will be determined by the time you are reading this.
Thank you to everyone who has weighed in on this already, and please stay in contact.
The other major issue is Medicaid expansion. This issue is still in debate within the Senate Committee.
These topics will continue to earn the headlines in Topeka.
The budget committee heard from several agencies including corrections and KPERS during the week.
The governor’s proposals regarding KPERS funding continue getting a lot of discussion. I spent some time talking with the governor to learn more of her perspective. We continue to agree that we should use some of the revenues that have come in over projections to pay off KPERS liabilities.
While we also agree that the liability should be reamortized at some point, I don’t think we have yet reached that time. Payments must remain greater than the increase in the liability for the year to make any progress on reducing the debt.
The Secretary of Transportation took time to discuss the department’s plans to make sure our road maintenance needs are met in the coming years.
Related to the budget, revenues continue to come in strong. We appear to be adding over $50 million above revenue estimates for the month of January. While some funding priorities do demand attention, I hope we can maintain a focus on reducing debt with these funds.
The tax committee heard from the Tax Foundation. They studied our tax policies and interviewed several people across the state over the past year. They provided a book of recommendations to make our tax policies more consistent and competitive. We will be looking at many of these suggestions in the coming weeks.
The tax committee held a hearing on allowing Kansas taxpayers to itemize deductions on their income tax returns, even if they take the standard deduction on the federal return. Many lost the ability to itemize when the federal standard deduction was doubled last year. Other possibilities such as increasing our standard deduction were also discussed.
Many great groups came to Topeka and hosted receptions this week. We had a chance to catch up with representatives from our local telephone exchanges and Rural Electric Cooperatives among others. It is always good to catch up and get your updates in Topeka.
On Kansas Day, we announced our next meeting on the topic of civility which will be Feb. 3. We had fun sharing a quote from each of the four Kansans whose statue is in the rotunda. One of my favorites is from Amelia Earhart: “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.”