Recently, I introduced House Bill 2503, which was part of Governor Kelly’s plan to increase state debt by $4.4 Billion by re-amortizing the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System (KPERS) retirement plan. Also in the bill was a $268.4 Million payment that would make the missed State payments to School and State retirement funds from 2017 and 2019. Our plan was to pass an amendment to strip the Governor’s re-amortization plan from the bill and instead continue down the fiscally responsible path of paying off current debt.
The amendment passed on a bipartisan vote of 125-0 with every Republican and Democrat voting against the Governor’s plan. Besides increasing the state’s pension debt by $4.4 billion, the Governor’s plan would have kicked the can down the road, delaying payoff of the state’s KPERS debt by another 10 years.
HB 2503, as amended, will fully pay the states deferred KPERS obligations, ultimately saving the state $209 million in interest. The bill has been sent to the Senate for consideration.
Sexual extortion was the subject of HB 2546 that I was honored to sponsor with Reps. Stephen Owens, Chris Croft, Renee Erickson, Megan Lynn, Paul Waggoner, and Kellie Warren which was approved by the House this week. In an Internet age, sexual extortion is on the rise. Perpetrators often use the Internet and social media to attempt to extort individuals in a sexual manner. This bill aims to protect Kansans from these types of predators and provide Kansans with proper recourse in situations where they may have been extorted.
This bill would create the crime of sexual extortion, which is defined as threatening to injure the property or reputation of a person, commit violence against a person, or distribute an image or video of a person that is of a sexual nature or depicts a person in a state of nudity. Additionally, it would place any individual convicted of sexual extortion on the Sex Offender Registry if the crime involved a minor. HB 2546 passed the House on a vote of 125-0. The bill has been sent to the Senate for consideration.
More exciting news is the passage of the first bill of many that implements the “Make Kansas Work” program proposed by House Republicans. This week the House overwhelmingly passed HB 2516: legislation enacting First-Time Homebuyers accounts on a bipartisan vote of 123-2. The bill encourages individuals to set aside funds for costs associated with the purchase or construction of a first home. Structured like 529 college savings accounts, contributions to the savings accounts are tax deductible. Communities can also establish the accounts to attract professionals to make the move to their community. During debate on the bill, the House added an amendment to have annual reports made to the Legislature on the implementation and usage of the tax credit provided for in the act. The House also overwhelmingly passed one of the House Republican proposals that establishes savings accounts that can assist individuals and their children and grandchildren in purchasing a first home in Kansas. The bill has been sent to the Senate for consideration.
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