February 3, 2006
ssharp@ink.org
Friends:
I have a side project ALL of you will like. I asked State Treasurer Lynn Jenkins' office to search my ZIP codes (66215, 216, 217, 219) for all residents or businesses with unclaimed property totaling more than $100. After weeding out the parts of those ZIPs that are not in my district, I am left with more than 1,000 people! So, I will soon be sending you letters detailing how much you have in unclaimed property and how to go about claiming it. Visit this website and enter your name and the names of family members to see if you have money coming your way! I found $150 for myself!
We have come to the end of the time when legislators or committees can introduce bills, so what we have is it. Except (there are always exceptions) for exempt committees that can introduce whatever, whenever - Federal and State Affairs, Tax, Appropriations, and their partner committees in the Senate.
Announcements
Education and Personal Activities
Floor Activity
Commerce and Labor
Higher Education
Governmental Organizations and Elections
Where's Waldo
Resources
Announcements
Many of you saw, but without KC stations in Topeka, I heard through the
grapevine about KMBC TV's Wayne Godsey and his Editorial on Monday
supporting my driver's license bill! Here is the text of the
piece:
"Once in a while we hear about a proposed change in the law that is a no brainer. Such is the case with a bill introduced in the Kansas Legislature by Rep. Stephanie Sharp of Lenexa.
Kansas law requires automobile liability insurance. Currently, if an uninsured driver is involved in an accident, their license is suspended. To get it back, they must pay $100 fine, show proof of insurance, and, if at fault, commit to reimbursement of the other driver.
Too many of these uninsured motorists drop their insurance and stop paying victims as soon as they get their license back.
The proposal in Topeka would direct the Department of Revenue to resuspend the driver's license upon notice that a motorist cancels their insurance or defaults on the payment agreement.
It puts teeth into the requirement for liability insurance and makes it more likely that innocent drivers will not get stuck with a big repair bill.
In the long run, it could reduce the cost of premiums for all drivers."
Thanks, Mr. Godsey!!
Education and Personal Activities
Big week coming up!
My hearing on HB 2690, the aforementioned uninsured driver/suspension bill is this Thursday, Feb. 9.
Higher Ed is hearing SB 139 again this year - the KS Academy of Math and Sciences bill that passed the Senate 36-3 last year, and failed on the House floor. Go figure. Here's an explanation.
In education, the Select Committee on Education held hearings this week on At-Risk, Bilingual, and Low Enrollment/Correlation weighting. I'm not hearing much of anything that came out of the hearings, but there just is not a lot of education talk going on right now. More noticeable is the avoidance of the subject - I don't think we quite know what to do next (myself included).
Floor Activity
Mostly rats-and-cats bills to bring KS into compliance with federal
traffic regulations regarding length and weight of motor carriers,
prohibiting insurance company offices (AAA in this case) to handle
driver's license renewals. This was a pretty obvious conflict of
interest, but a creative pilot project for the Department of
Revenue. I understand the premise, to take pressure off DMV
offices, and make it more convenient for drivers, but it really offered
an unfair advantage to AAA in selling insurance.
Not much else of note for our area, the bills aren't very controversial right now, but they're coming…
Commerce and Labor
Another common sense bill by the Huffer (David Huff, my Lenexa
colleague in the House). David is famous for bill's that just
make sense.
HB 2658 would require that gift certificates purchased after
January 1, 2007 could not expire. Now, most national chains have
no expiration gift cards, but smaller companies will generally put a
year expiration, which is frustrating - the person who gave you the
certificate already paid the money, the company already coll ected the
money, so it's not fair to say "your money is not valid anymore".
This does create an accounting tweak for companies, but many states
have passed laws helping businesses by declaring gift certificates
older than 3 years or 5 years (depends on the state) are deemed
lost. Everyone on the committee liked the bill, but we need to
figure out a way to make it work, especially with the national chains
that sell uniform cards across the country.
We were supposed to hear HB 2372 about misclassifying 1099 employees to avoid paying W-2 income taxes. This is always a controversial issue. I don't know what happened behind the scenes but we cancelled the hearing. This committee always has a bit of drama because of the intensity of the issues - worker's compensation tends to bring out the nasty in people (on both sides)!
HB 2696 would establish a nominating and review committee for administrative law judges (ALJs) that handle worker's comp cases. They are (like most state-employed lawyers, judges, and legislators), underpaid and overworked. So, the bill would also increase the pay so we could attract more highly qualified judges. The folks doing those jobs now do it primarily because they enjoy it and see it as a public service, definitely not for the pay. Hmmm, sounds familiar!
Higher Education
We held hearings on HB 2593 (
bill,
explanation) which would enable the Regents universities to acquire
health insurance for students other than graduate assistants. GAs
are employees, so they already receive insurance benefits. This
sounds like a good idea to me - many graduate students are too old to
qualify for their parents' insurance, and when 10% of Kansans don't
have insurance at all, some students' parents don't have insurance to
begin with, so those students could be i nsured. Also, it adds a
large block of young, healthy kids to the Regents insurance pool,
bringing down costs. That's what I like to see!
Governmental Organizations and Elections
Boy, do we know how to beat a dead horse! Somehow this committee knows how to turn the simplest bill the longest, complicated hearing.
Hearings on:
HB 2676 - Shawnee Fire Chief Jeff Hudson testified on a bill to require HOAs to offer an alternative to wood shingles in HOA covenants. Most of you will remember this bill from last year. The hearing went very well, and the bill has been cleaned up since last time and I think it will move more smoothly through the Senate.
HB 2641 - Currently, recreation commissions can own property given to them (wills, etc.) and purchase personal property, but cannot purchase real property. The poor folks at McLouth just want to be able to build a community center, and they can't do it. Let's give the folks some local control!
Where's Waldo?
(Besides session and committees 9 am - 5 pm)
§ Visit by Jean Goodman and friends from Shawnee Mission NEA
§ Visit by Judy Tuckness and friends at the Lenexa Arts Council – they loan me beautiful artwork every year to display in my office!
§ Johnson County delegation lunch sponsored by the JoCo Leadership groups – Lenexa, Shawnee, Olathe, Overland Park
§ Go Red for Women Day at the Capitol for the American Heart Association
§ Kansas Dental Association luncheon
§ Met with Pittsburg State University to discuss their priorities
Resources
Johnson County Statehouse Hotline - Call Topeka for free! Dial 913.715.5000 and ask for your Representative or Senator. If you don't know, simply give them your address and they'll head you in the right direction!
Next Week's hearings: See any bills that
interest you?
House
LIVE!! House or Senate Chamber
LIVE!!
Paperless House Health and Human Services Committee (1:30-3:30
pm MTWR)
Please do not hesitate to contact me about these or any other issues of interest to you. I appreciate the opportunity to represent you in Topeka.
Rep. Stephanie Sharp
17th District, Kansas House
Serving Lenexa and Shawnee
www.stephaniesharp.com
Home: 913-894-1201
Topeka phone: 785-296-7654 (Note: this is a change from last year.)