Local lawmakers facing redistricting, school finance, taxes.
Redistricting and the budget are two of the must-do items Kansas lawmakers face in this year's session. But taxes, school finance, Medicaid, gaming and state employees' retirement revisions are also top concerns.
Sen. Bob Marshall and Reps. Caryn Tyson and Bob Grant expect some shifting to occur in their districts as a result of redistricting, because Southeast Kansas has lost population.
"We've lost 22,776 people, which is (equivalent to) a district, so we're going to be doing a lot of shifting around and trying to put all the districts back together. It will be hard to do without basically collapsing one," said Grant, D-Cherokee.
Grant noted state revenues have been a "little above what we thought they would be.
"We're talking about redoing school finance," Grant said. "That's where you get into problems." This is because what may be good for one district could hurt another.
"It puts a legislator in a damned if you do, damned if you don't (position)," Grant said.
Tyson, R-Parker, who is on the redistricting committee, said the House speaker's goal is to have sectional maps combined by Jan. 20. Redistricting committee members have been broken up into subgroups with each subgroup working on their section of the state. She's involved in the Southeast Kansas portion.
"I'm not positive how it's going to come out," said Tyson, who needs to pick up 1,600 people. "... My general thought is it's going to try and move the district north. I want to stay in Bourbon County. It's an important group.
"That will be the tell as to how that works out. It's actually looking good for Southeast Kansas. It's not great, obviously; we lost population."
Tyson said she expects finances to be tighter in the next fiscal year. "I just don't see the economy turning around right now," she said. "The irony is we need jobs to turn it around and legislation to promote a business-friendly environment. We made some progress last year.
"I'm hoping we can make some more progress this year. I know KPERS (Kansas Public Employee Retirement System) is going to be a big issue for everyone."
Tyson and Marshall will conduct a meeting on the subject at 10 a.m. Jan. 28 at Fort Scott High School. "If anybody ever has any questions, they can always contact me," Tyson said. "I just want them to feel like the information is available for them."
Marshall, R-Fort Scott, anticipates that his district will change and speculates the Southeast Kansas region will lose a House member.
Marshall said he has to gain about 6,500 people and he expects to pick up some of Allen County and about 3,000 people. "You can be 5 percent short or 5 percent over. That would put me within the 5 percent," he said.
In addition to Marshall, redistricting impacts Southeast Kansas Republican Sens. Pat Apple, of Louisburg, Dwayne Umbarger of Thayer, and Jeff King, of Independence.
"All of them will change a little because most of us have to pick up population, except for Sen. Apple. He's actually a little bit over on his, so he can give up some. We have to have 71,000 people in our district on the new census that was done in 2010. ... It'll just make me have a bigger area ..." Marshall said.
Grant and Marshall will be working to try and get a casino in the region. Under Senate Bill 66, four Kansas regions were authorized for gaming -- Dodge City, Mulvane, Wyandotte County and Southeast Kansas. Casinos have already opened in Dodge City and Mulvane, but voters in Cherokee and Crawford County approved gaming in that area by a 2-1 margin, Marshall said.
He said he'll continue pitching his Senate Bill 241, which authorizes a casino with a minimum investment of $50 million, to get one in the area. "It's important to the whole state. We just opened a new casino in Mulvane and a new one (is due) in Wyandotte County in February. After February, the only region approved for a casino that won't have one is Southeast Kansas," Marshall said.
Dodge City has a casino that opened about two years ago. It was an estimated $80 million project and Marshall said it's done well.
Hopefully, Grant said, a casino in this region will create jobs and "bring in some revenue."
In 1992 -- Grant's first session -- issues on the table were the death penalty, abortion, school financing, sentencing guidelines and redistricting. "We had a couple of other pieces on top of that. They call that the session from hell. I think if this one lives up to expectations, this could be the sequel to the session from hell," Grant said.
"... I just hope this plate isn't so full it breaks and shatters and falls apart."
Gov. Sam Brownback's budget calls for spending a little less than $6.1 billion in general state revenues on government programs, compared to a little more than $6.1 billion under the current budget, the Associated Press reported.
The overall budget, including federal funds, would be $14.1 billion during the next fiscal year -- about 1.7 percent higher than the all-funds total of $13.9 billion in the current budget, AP reported.
In his annual State of the State address Wednesday, Brownback said his budget would leave cash reserves of $465 million at the end of June 2013. Kansas doesn't have a separate "rainy day" fund like other states do, and uses its reserves as a cushion for emergencies and bad economic times.
Marshall said he doesn't think the legislature, which began this session Jan. 9, will have to redo the existing year's budget. This has been done in recent years due to revenue loses. "We're in the fiscal 2012 budget right now and the revenues are OK for 2013... If revenues continue to stay positive, the 2013 budget will not be a problem," he said.
Marshall said Brownback has proposed removing a number of income tax exemptions and cutting the maximum rate from 6.5 percent to 4.9 percent with the lowest rate at 3 percent for single residents making $15,000 a year and those making $30,000 annually and filing jointly. Among other things, Brownback would also eliminate mortgage interest as a deduction.
The governor's ultimate goal, Marshall said, is to have zero percent income tax to give the Sunflower State a more business-friendly climate.
Elected in 2010, Brownback is limited to two, four-year terms and if he can "take a bite" out of income taxes for the next six or seven years, he could achieve his goal.
"My first thought is I don't think it would (pass), not because it's not a valid plan but because it's a change," Marshall said. "Everyone has to sit on it and think about it for a year or two, then we'll go through with it.
"But it might because the governor came in with a strong mandate and the House came in with a strong mandate to do the things the governor wants to do."
The more moderate Senate may be the stumbling block, Marshall noted.