By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The crowd was a bit smaller for the second of three monthly Legislative Coffee’s in downtown Hays Saturday, but that did not stop an engaged crowd from asking questions on a variety of local, state and national issues.
The event, organized by the Hays Chamber in the Schmidt Commons of the Hays Public Library, was again sponsored by the Hays Daily News and Midwest Energy.
After an introduction by Chamber president and CEO Sarah Wasinger and introductions and office updates by R.-Kan.; Kansas Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland; Kansas Rep. Ken Rahjes, R-Agra; Kansas Rep. Barb Wasinger, R-Hays; and Kansas Rep. Troy Waymaster, R-Russell, the panel took questions from the audience.
The first question, directly to Billinger, asked his position on Senate Bills 375, 369 and 379.
“All of them in which would work with enacting Kansas housing investor tax credits for investment and residential housing projects in underserved rural and urban communities to accommodate new employees and support business,” Wasinger asked.
“I will support them,” Billinger said. “We’re just trying to do anything, everything we can to increase the opportunity for housing across the state. I read an article over longer in the United States for 4 million homes short, across the United States. That's a lot of homes. So, it's not just Kansas, but particularly in rural Kansas.”
FAIRNESS AND WOMEN’S SPORTS
Rep. Wasinger fielded a question concerning the participation in women’s sports by transgendered individuals.
She said the bill had passed through its Senate committee and she expects its passage in the full Senate and been sent to the House.
“That'll have to be done this week,” Rep. Wasinger said. “We don't have a lot of time. So yes, I think, I think because of what we’ve seen in federal and NCAA problems, more people want to say, we need to let women compete against women.”
“I don't have any problem with how you want to how you want to dress who you want to be,” she continued, but …“there is no way that you can give anyone hormones to make them less equal in strength, and body mass as a woman.”
She pointed to a recent example of a transgendered individual that has garnered national attention, that was able to dominate in women’s competitive swimming, after only having a modicum of success performing alongside male athletes.
“Men have longer bones,” she said. “They have larger hearts and cardiovascular systems, we've got to make sure that we go back to what Title-9 was meant for, and that was to allow young women to play sports, get scholarships, and go on from there.”
She said she believes it will be passed this year.
“I'm crossing my fingers and I'm ready to work on it,” Rep. Wasinger said.
SALES TAX ON FOOD
A proposal gaining traction and attention is the removal of a sales tax on food, the latest on that measure was addressed to the panel.
Billinger said he advises caution as rising prices and inflation create uncertainty with revenues.
“I think, for instance, inflation, inflation is terrible,” he said. “I think this is the worst in the history of the United States.”
“We're very cautious on that because this inflation factor,” Billinger said later.
Rep. Wasinger also shared recent activity on the measure.
“The house Tax Committee just had a bill introduced for food sales tax, and it will be hearing it on Monday and probably passing it on Tuesday to send over to the Senate,” Rep. Wasinger said. “It is a more gradual reduction of food sales tax. And it's also tied to our state's rainy-day fund. So, if the Rainy Day Fund is gone, it won't go back, the food sales tax will go back up once we start paying it down, but it won't go down any lower until we get more money into the state coffers. So that's what we're trying.”
She said she believes that approach is the most “agreeable to everyone.”
Regardless of the status of the bills both Billinger and Rep. Wasinger said it is important to understand when addressing food bills, specificity is important.
“Are you talking about groceries?” Rep. Wasinger said. “Are you talking about the food that restaurants? When you start adding all of those elements on food it takes on a new meaning. So, we want to do groceries, we get the grocery sales tax.”
She said that for those living on the borders of Oklahoma and Missouri, the action would be especially impactful.
30 X 30
While over the last year much hay has been made about the 30 X 30 proposal suggested by President Joe Biden in an executive order that would look at setting aside 30 percent of U.S. land and water for conservation, Waymaster said the idea never yielded much fruit.
“This is a topic that came up April of last year,” Waymaster said. To “my knowledge there has not been anything introduced in regards to the 30 X 30 initiative. I think that has lost its sail when I guess that's been floated.”
An unrelated issue that was frequently – and incorrectly – associated with the 30 X 30 proposal, the Kansas Nebraska Heritage Area Partnership had also lost steam, he said.
“That was it was a separate issue,” Waymaster said. “But 30 X 30 was kind of encompassed in with that discussion and the Heritage Foundation, but I have not heard anything this year in regards to the initiative.”
“That's a federal issue,” Rahjes said. “And here's the deal. If you've been paying attention in what's going on in D.C., or what's not is going on in D.C., this isn't on their radar.”
“The National Heritage Area thing I think really did lose its steam because there was never a point of contact in Kansas,” he continued. “It was a lot of meetings, a lot of people worked up.”
He did, however, share he is against the proposal, but added it to the long list of ideas that come and go, as it was being fleshed out.
“That that's what makes our country great, is you can have ideas and, whether they're right or wrong in left field or right down the middle, but it's just like anybody can go to breakfast and get a napkin out and have an idea.”
But often those ideas he said will be “blown way out of proportion.”
“That's what happens a lot of these things,” Rahjes said. “So, just to let you know, that's kind of where we are. They didn't go anywhere here either.”
A third legislative coffee is planned for April.
CORRECTION: Rep. Wasinger had been previously identified as a State Senator. Wasinger is a State Representative. Hays Post apologizes for the error.