Senate Highlights
The Kansas Senate finished a busy fourth week of session with committee meetings and bills coming forward.
The Senate held floor debate on Tuesday and passed out one piece of legislation. SB157 is a carryover from last year which would amend the Kansas Family Code, which governs temporary parenting plans, to presume when ordering a temporary parenting plan, that it is in the best interest of the child for fit, willing, and able parents to have temporary joint legal custody and share equal parenting time while working on a permanent agreement. The bill includes exceptions for equal time in cases where domestic abuse has occurred or is occurring assuming in those situations temporary equal custody may not be in the best interest of the child.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Senate Transportation Committee
The Secretary of Transportation Commissioner, Julie Lorenz, presented a report to the committee with an update of the department. Kansas has the 4th largest system in the nation with 142,046 miles of public roads and 24,833 bridges across the state. $603 million of freight is transported daily; there are 2 million plus registered drivers in the state with 2.4 million plus registered vehicles.
KDOT has six districts with 1,565 employees and employs 619 employees at the headquarters in Topeka. Senate District #36 spans four of these districts.
Traffic fatalities increased in 2019 with the fatality rate for rural roads being 2.47 as opposed to a rate of 0.85 on all other roads.
The entire report can be found at www.ksdot.org along with updates on road conditions and also includes a link www.safetravelusa.com with travel information for surrounding states.
Senate Utility Committee
The Senate Utilities Committee heard a full report on the Kansas Electric Rate Study from London Economics International, the firm chosen by the committee to complete an in-depth analysis of the causes of Kansans’ high electric bills. The firm completed Phase One of the rate study, focusing specifically on rate-making options and possible ways to improve the competitiveness of Kansas electricity.
Our state’s rates have made headlines in the last several months for being considerably higher than the regional average.
The LEI study found the primary reasons for these unusually high rates to include slowing consumer demands for electricity, investment by electric providers in complying to strict government standards related to the environment and increasing transmission costs.
The firm also provided several recommendations for how the state can assist in improvement of the competitiveness of electric rates including implementing a state energy plan, mandating integrated resource plans from utilities with a competitive procurement framework, allowing the KCC to explore the development of initial performance-based regulation (PBR) mechanisms, and establishing a framework allowing for the securitization of uneconomic assets.
A second phase of the study is slated to begin later this year to be performed by AECOM, a California-based company with a satellite office in Kansas City, Missouri.
Senate Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee
The Senate Ag and Natural Resources Committee will hear two controversial and competing bills next week related to the sale of raw milk. Presently, the state allows the sale of raw milk. However, there are two caveats: all raw milk must be sold on the premises of the farm where it is produced and dairy producers may only advertise their raw milk products by posting a sign on their farm premises stating raw milk, or raw milk products, can be purchased on that premises. Current statutes prohibit farmers and other dairy producers from advertising raw milk in any other way, including verbally telling potential customers about their products in any place except their farm.
The existing statute was challenged in November 2019 when two goat farmers, who sell raw goat’s milk, contended in the Shawnee County District Court that the strict advertisement laws violated their 1st and 14th Amendment rights.
In an unprecedented move, both the Kansas Attorney General, Derek Schmidt, and the Kansas Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Beam, conceded to the court, agreeing the statute was unnecessary and unenforceable. Secretary Beam then began urging the 2020 Legislature to amend the state’s raw milk statutes.
Two bills introduced and to watch in the next few weeks are:
SB 300 which would strike all language from current statutes that makes the sale of raw milk legal. In effect, this bill would require all milk sold throughout the State of Kansas to be pasteurized before it is sold to any consumer.
SB 308 which would legally allow the on-farm retail sale of raw milk products only if they conform with specified labeling standards outlined in the bill. These standards state the label of the raw milk product must include the following warning: “This product contains ungraded raw milk that is not pasteurized and, as a result, may contain organisms that cause food-borne illness, especially in infants, young children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weak immune systems.” The warning must be printed in uniform size and must be in the same size font as the largest font used on the label.
An identical warning must be printed on all advertisements used for the sale of raw milk products. However, the bill would allow raw milk producers to advertise their products in any way they desire, provided they include the required warning statement somewhere on the advertisement.
2020 Keep it Clean Kansas Calendar – Kansas Department of Health and Environment
This yearly calendar features the winning artwork of Kansas students grades K through 12 who entered the calendar contest. The Bureau of Waste Management has sponsored this contest since 2000 to encourage students, their families and other Kansans to respect and take care of our Kansas land, water and air. Shay Beier, a 5th grader at Linn Lutheran School and Heather Schemper, a ninth grader at Phillipsburg High School were both recognized as runners-up. Calendars are available at no cost at KDHE at 785-296-1600.
Visit www.kdheks.gov/waste or www.KansasGreenSchools.org for additional information about environmental projects and environmental education activities and resources.
Visitors from Senate District #36
As always, it is so nice to see visitors from home who either come to testify on bills or to attend functions with their organizations. The State Independent Telephone Association held their annual meeting and reception with Blue Valley Tele-Communications, Cunningham Telephone, Nex-Tech, Twin-Valley Telephone and Wilson Telephone visiting the Utilities committee during the day and with legislators in the evening. Rural leaders from economic development offices, County Treasurers and friends from home with the Travel Industry Association, members of Credit Unions across Kansas and Kansas Bankers Association representatives also visited with us this week for their annual events. Members of the Kansas State Fire Fighters Association held their annual event at the Historic Fire Station #2 on Van Buren across from the Capitol and the Kansas Pharmacists Association hosted their annual legislative dinner and visited the statehouse the next day with legislator meetings.
As always, I’ll keep you updated on the activities of the Senate while we continue through the last few weeks before turn-around. I always encourage you to stay informed of the issues under consideration by the Kansas Legislature. Committee schedules, bills, and other helpful information can be easily accessed through the legislature’s website at www.kslegislature.org. You are also able to ‘listen in live’ at this website. The House meets at 11:00AM and the Senate at 2:30PM. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns, and suggestions. An email is the best at this point in the session.
Thank you for the honor of serving you!
Senator Elaine Bowers
Kansas State Capitol Building
Room 223-E
300 SW 10th St.
Topeka, KS 66612
785 296-7389