Capitol View

Last week brought many big items in the news and legislature.

Starting the week with the Chiefs Super Bowl victory led to many celebrations. Even if the team isn’t located in Kansas, many here are happy to share in celebrating the team and its victory. After the parade, I heard someone exclaim “I forgot what it was like to have something positive that everyone is talking about!”

On the flip side, one of my House colleagues attended the State of the Union address in Washington. He commented upon his return that the hate was palpable during the president’s speech at the U.S. Capitol.

This negative emotion is not the reason we are elected to serve. Common understanding is the antidote. The basis of service must be in love rather than hate as work toward our common goals and future.

My week started with testifying on pension funding before the House committee Monday morning. It was a good chance for me to hear and address questions from my colleagues.

Monday evening, we held our second event on civil discourse. Roughly 60 legislators shared their thoughts and vision for how we might continue forward. Tim Steffensmeier from KSU addressed the group.

The tax committee heard several items including:

1.) A tax credit to help repair track for short line railroads

2.) The method Utah uses to calculate and communicate property tax and property tax changes, and

3.) The possibility of increasing the Kansas standard deduction. The individual deduction has not been changed since the 1980s. The married and head of household standard deductions were increased in 2013.

Highlights for me were having a lot of students in the Capitol. On Wednesday, the eighth grade class from Lindsborg came to Topeka. They had a great program, learning about the legislative branch as well as hearing from Chief Justice Luckert and Lt. Gov. Rogers. Their energy was wonderful to share. With the legislature not being in session that day, we were able to freely explore all areas of the Capitol.

In addition, I had four pages from Little River and four from Ellsworth. All the students and their staff chaperones deserve a huge thanks for getting up before 5 a.m. to be in Topeka by 8 a.m. Thursday. I always appreciate their help and enjoy learning with them.

If you see one of these students, I hope you have a chance to ask them what they enjoyed or remember from their day.

Representatives from the realtors, travel and tourism, our county treasurers and Farm Bureau were in town for meetings. I appreciate the partnership of each of these and other groups to help make better policy.

Thursday and Friday in the House was the debate and vote on the proposed constitutional amendment. This arose in response to last year’s state supreme court ruling that the Kansas Constitution protects the right to an abortion.

This year’s House debate did feel a little different than other years.

While the debate is extremely emotional, I did not hear as many negative characterizations from either side about the other’s beliefs.

I did vote for the measure which would have sent the proposed constitutional amendment to a vote of the people at the next election. To share all we need to know about this issue is very involved and would take continued input from you and others. What protections do we think our constitution affords and how does it speak to this issue? The proposed amendment did fail, so will not be advancing at this time.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate your emails and look forward to your visits to Topeka. My email is steven.johnson@house.ks.gov.

Have a great week!