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March 19, 2004
ssharp@ink.org
Friends:
There is a lot of good (subject to your definition) stuff in this week’s Sharp Record. Republican Education Plan, a little about taxes, abortion (welcome to an election year), and… a NEW CONTEST!!! This is a big one! Not impressed with lapel pins and magnets? Boy, do I have a deal for you!
You’ve heard of a fundraiser. You’ve heard of a “fun-raiser”. You’ve even heard of a “H-E-double-hockeysticks-raiser”. But have you heard of an “email-raiser”?
Allow me to paraphrase: “Give me your cynical, your disenfranchised, your mis- or uninformed, your email-able friends and neighbors.” Invite them to join the Sharp Record! The PRIZE structure is as follows:
First Prize: The individual who replies with the most “new” email addresses will receive the Grand Prize of a collectible 2004 Legislative coffee mug and one of my t-shirts.
You should submit as many Lenexa and Shawnee residents as possible. Don’t stop there – invite your friends in other parts of Johnson County. Now, if you have friends and relatives in other parts of the state who are frustrated about the lack of communication with government, send me their email address! “New” means email addresses of people who are not current subscribers to the Sharp Record. If a tie occurs, the individual with the most Lenexa and/or Shawnee residents’ email addresses will win.
Second Prize: A 2004 collectible Legislative coffee mug.
Third Prize: One of my t-shirts (I promise I’ll wash it – ha ha).
I’ll give you two weeks for this one. The contest will end on April 1, and the winners
will be announced in the April 2nd Sharp Record. Happy collecting!
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Personal Activities and Education:
- It has certainly been an up-and-down week. As if a rainy, overcast Monday wasn’t gloomy enough, add on a funeral for a role model. Hundreds joined to celebrate the life and legacy of former Lenexa Mayor Joan Bowman. It was a beautiful service of remembrance. Many of us joked that Heaven will be an even better place by the time we get there because Joan will have organized improvement campaigns!
- As you may know, the House Republican Leadership introduced their
education plan on Tuesday. It includes no statewide tax
increase. Bear with me as I try to explain the gist of
it. For the “official” Power Point, click
here: http://www.stephaniesharp.com/issues.htm
- Special Education Local Supplement: Currently, the federal government is supposed to pay 40% of special education funding. However, they only pay about 13%, forcing school districts to fund the rest of special ed costs from existing funds. The plan allows districts to reduce or eliminate their Homestead exemption to supplement this funding locally.
- Cost of Living Adjustment: Many of you are familiar
with a COLA. When applied to education funding, it looks like
this:
- The average cost of housing in the Shawnee Mission School District (SMSD) is higher than the state average. Seventeen districts across the state are in the same boat. The plan allows these districts to supplement their budget with local taxes to address the additional concerns of our increased cost of living (higher salaries and housing costs, etc.).
- Many of you are familiar with the Augenblick and Myers study. A&M recommended a COLA be added to our formula.
- Before I explain the other to parts of the plan, let’s talk
about weighting: Weighting is extra money that schools get
for certain subgroups of students with the assumption that it costs
more to educate certain students. The Republican Education Plan
adjusts two types of weighting.
- Increased At-Risk Weighting: The plan increases from 10 to 15% the weighting for At-Risk students. At-Risk is based on the number of free lunch students in your district. Granted, the money doesn’t have to be spent on these specific kids, but rather on programs targeted at at-risk students, regardless of whether they are free lunch or not… I’ve pontificated on this one in previous editions of the Record. SMSD gets a little bit of money for this, but not much. This one is targeted for Wichita and Topeka votes.
- Bilingual Weighting: The plan increases bilingual weighting from 20% to 24%. You can guess this will have quite an impact on Western Kansas. Again, we may get a tiny bit of money under this. This was put in there to get some Western KS votes on board.
Final Action
Tax bills: Thus, a lot of amendments. The only one that ended up being anything worth mentioning was HB 2544 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/2544.pdf.
Passed 91-32
- Sprint had a sales tax exemption for a service we call “customized software”. Last year, that exemption was removed in one of those late-night, bad-news deals that cost Sprint a pretty penny. We got that exemption reinstated!
- We had a big fight against a franchise tax increase that ended up passing onto the tax bill we discussed today.
- Unfortunately, we’ve done it to ourselves again. Put a little sugar (the customized software bill) in with the bitter pill (the franchise tax increase). We’ll see what happens in conference committee on this one!
Abortion bills:
Clinic Regulation bill
HB 2751 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/2751.pdf.
This bill increases regulations on abortion clinics only. I supported amendments to strengthen this language to cover other in-office medical procedures. Unfortunately, health concerns were not the top priority, or the true intent of this bill, but rather politics was in mind. Two amendments trying to expand these medical office protections to all Kansans failed.
PASSED 80 to 43. I voted NO.
“Unborn Victims of Violence” bill
HB 2552 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/2552.pdf.
The bill increases penalties for harming a pregnant woman. This is like the Laci Peterson case. Unfortunately, the wording of the Kansas bill would have affected every criminal statute that included the words “person” or “human being”(over 1,000), rather than just dealing with pregnant women. An amendment was offered to fix the wording. The amendment was accepted on a voice vote (it didn’t end up being controversial). This fixed the concerns I had with the bill. FAILED 36 to 87. I voted YES.
- I’m really looking forward to how the different groups pit this one! This is now a great bill that protects pregnant women, increases penalties for harming a fetus, but also protects our criminal statutes. You should have seen all the scurrying on this one! The folks who brought forth this bill with the hopes of cornering us in a postcard vote on abortion ended up voting against it – how are they planning to justify that one? (Yes, this is all very political, but sometimes, good policy gets a chance to win, and today it lost because of politics.)
WOOD SHINGLE BILL!!!!! Remember this from last year? We got this bill amended into SB 292 and it passed the House! This bill requires Home Owners’ Associations offer an alternative to wood (shake) shingles. This has become a serious fire safety and insurance issue because many insurance companies will no longer offer homeowner’s insurance for houses with wood shingles. The bill now goes to conference, and we will work to keep this amendment in the conference report.
Friday’s General Orders (Final Action Votes on Monday)
Underage drinking party w/parents knowledge bill: This bill increases penalties for underage drinkers. Currently, minors are suspended from driving for 30 days for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd offenses. The bill increases penalties to 90 days for the 2nd offense and one year for a 3rd offense. It also makes it unlawful for “knowingly permitting one’s property” to be used for invited minors to consume alcohol.
SB 197 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/197.pdf
Two bills on voting – “Help America Vote Act”, and a bill to help polling places become accessible to the elderly and/or disabled.
SB 479 and 166
http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/479.pdf
http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/166.pdf
Commerce and Labor
We heard a bill to specify the “date of accident” for Worker’s Compensation.
SB 441 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/441.pdf
We passed out of committee what many of you will remember from last year as the “Title Insurance bill”. This bill enables real estate agencies to sell title insurance and was a year in the making… There was a compromise forged between the realtors and the title insurance companies – YEAH!
SB 66 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/66.pdf
Health and Human Services
Passed:
A bill enabling KDHE to set up a birth defects registry.
SB 418 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/418.pdf
A bill regulating psychologists and assistants.
SB 452 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/452.pdf
Ethics and Elections
We passed a bill to parallel the Americans with Disabilities Act that will help disabled people vote.
SB 166 http://www.kslegislature.org/bills/2004/166.pdf
Resources
Johnson County Statehouse Hotline! Call Topeka for free – 913-715-5000 and ask to speak with your Representative or Senator.
Next week’s committee schedule:
Senate: http://www.kslegislature.org/cgi-bin/getfile.cgi/agstat/2004/sa0319.pdf
House: http://www.kslegislature.org/cgi-bin/getfile.cgi/agstat/2004/ha0319.pdf
LIVE! Paperless House Health and Human Services Committee (1:30 – 3:00 pm daily):
http://www.kslegislature.org/committeeminutes/03-04/house/hhealth/h_hhs.shtml
- See and hear the committee in action, read agendas and testimony for the day
- You see everything I do!
LIVE! House or Senate Chamber:
http://www.kslegislature.org/currenthappenings/index.html
Where’s Waldo (Rep. Sharp)? March 12 – March 19, 2004
(Besides session and committee meetings 9am – 5 pm) These are the events I attend to represent the 17th District.
- Meeting with Mike Smith of the Washington Center to discuss internships for my constituents.
- Dinners:
- Boeing
- Finney County
- Lunches:
- Johnson County delegation luncheon sponsored by KU-Edwards Campus and Mid-America Regional Council
- Receptions:
- KS Contractors Association
- KS Assn of Health Plans
Question of the Week!
Last Week’s Question: Judy Garland starred in two movies with "Kansas ties".....name the "other" one.
Answer and Winner: The Harvey Girls, was the “other” Kansas movie starring Judy Garland.
Paula Rose of Shawnee (and a Gold Star Volunteer!) was this week’s winner. Paula wins a Kansas Seal lapel pin and one of my refrigerator magnets.
NEW QUESTION: See the new contest above. “Question of the Week” will return on April 2nd.
Stephanie Sharp
17th District, KS House
Serving Lenexa and Shawnee