April 12, 2021
First Adjournment
Last week was primarily spent with the House and Senate committee leadership meeting to negotiate on the differences from the bills that passed each chamber. Once the conference committee report is agreed upon, the report then goes for a vote from the House and Senate, and, if passed by both chambers, the report then goes to the Governor for her signature or veto. There were many items that these conference committees discussed, including the budget for the state of Kansas.
In April, the Consensus Revenue Group will meet to adjust the projected revenues for the state of Kansas for the current and next fiscal year. There will be a reanalysis of these projections in November 2021.
The state of Kansas has experienced a rebounding economy even through the COVID-19 pandemic, with the state exceeding the revenue expectations each month, with the exception of May 2020, during the pandemic. The revenues for March 2021 were actually $52 million above the stated projections.
It is imperative that we pass much of the legislation that is still pending before we break for our first adjournment. This allows for Governor Kelly to consider each piece of legislation that has passed the Legislature. She will then decide to sign the legislation, let it become law without her signature, or veto it.
The Legislature will reconvene on May 3, which is commonly referred to as Veto-Session. This is when we will consider legislation that was vetoed by the Governor and, also, legislation that we still need to consider before we adjourn for Sine Die, the official end of the legislative session.
Budget Bill Reaches Compromise
The House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means met to discuss and deliberate on the state budget for fiscal years 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. The negotiators for each chamber are the chairmen, vice-chairs and ranking minority member. We did decide that there were some items that we need to discuss later, which is referred to as omnibus. One of those items were pay increases for state employees, including the Judicial Branch.
We did agree on increases to our nursing care facilities because of the pandemic, increase for the provider reimbursement rates for the Community Based Services Intellectual Developmental Disability waiver, reinstated the funding for the Excel in Career Technical Education Tuition Fund, and provided funding for our local health departments and for community-based primary care grants. The conference committee report passed both chambers on Friday.
There were numerous bills, now in the form of conference committee reports that were negotiated between the House and the Senate. We also debated two bills on the House floor and here are the details of those bills.
House Substitute for Senate Bill 91 will exempt any business that accepts a student in a work-based learning program from certain claims arising from a student’s negligence as a result of participating in the program at the business or work site. Also, except for incidents arising from gross negligence or willful misconduct, a student’s school district would be solely responsible for civil liberty for these claims. This bill passed the House, 123-0.
The other bill that we debated on Thursday was House Bill 2366. This bill would require prosecutors to disclose their intent to introduce testimony from a jailhouse witness and to forward related information to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. This bill also passed the House, 123-0.
The Legislature will be on break for approximately three weeks.
On April 20, we will be receiving revised estimates for our revenue projections. On April 27, the House Appropriations committee will address budgetary items that we have decided to discuss prior to Veto-Session. The Veto-Session begins when we return on May 3.
Contact Information
Anytime that one would like to participate and listen to the developments of committee hearings or discussion on the House floor, one can tune in by listening to the audio footage at www.kslegislature.org.
As always, if you have any concerns, feel free to contact me (785) 296-7672, follow on twitter at @waymaster4house, or email me at [email protected]. Please contact me regarding any issues and legislation that we are discussing during session.
It is a distinct honor to serve as your representative for the 109th Kansas House District and the state of Kansas. Please contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and questions. I always appreciate hearing from the residents of the 109th House District and others from the state of Kansas, as well.
Troy L. Waymaster, R-Bunker Hill, is the 109th Kansas House District state representative and chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
The 109th District includes Osborne, Russell, and Smith counties, and portions of Barton, Jewell, Lincoln and Rush counties.