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April 7, 2003

Legislature adjourns for 3½ week break; will return April 30

Legislators will return on April 30 for the “veto” session during which they will attempt to resolve the state’s budget problems. As of this moment, having rejected all but one of Governor Sebelius’ revenue proposals, they are left with an adopted budget that is about $230 million short of revenue. Representatives of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and the House Appropriations Committee will begin meeting on April 24.

In the next week, we expect to hear what the Republicans plan to propose now that they have rejected the Governor’s plan. They are keeping silent on any details right now but they really only have three choices:

1. Cut state programs to get the budget in balance,
2. Shift money around (like the Governor) to preserve flat levels of funding for state programs, or
3. Raise taxes to fully fund (or enhance) the budget.

Look for an announcement within seven to ten days.

KNEA lobbyist Mark Desetti reports on legislative victories

On due process for teachers

• We defeated HB 2059 which would have allowed school districts to void teacher contracts willy-nilly. No due process, no notice, no contract – just whoever the board of education didn’t particularly care for.
  
• We defeated HB 2060 which would have simply eliminated due process hearing officers and let the board that terminated a teacher sit in review of their own decision.
  
• HB 2153, the Frank Miller bill that would eliminate due process, professional negotiations, and QPA (to name just some of its provisions) never saw the light of day.
  
• Passed was SB 119, a bill that finally moves teachers at the Kansas State Schools for the Deaf and Blind under the same due process procedures as other public school teachers in Kansas and raises the cap on hearing officer compensation so we can attract more hearing officers.
  
  On teacher certification
  
  
• We helped stop HB 2229 that would have let anyone with a BA and 10 contact hours of orientation serve as a teacher.

On respect for employees

• Working with the other members of the Kansas Coalition for Workplace Safety, we stopped the gutting of workers compensation proposed in SB 181.
  
• We moved employee protection amendments into Senate Bill 7 to protect employees who will transfer to new technical college governing boards. This was no small feat – we were working to dramatically amend a bill proposed by legislators on behalf of the State Board of Regents. But our amendment guarantees that those employees who transfer over will keep the accrued leave, early retirement benefits, salary level and due process protections.
  
• We got HB 2179 – the repeal on the prohibition on school employees serving on the State Board of Education – through the full House and then through the Senate Education Committee. We defeated three attempts to amend it to keep the prohibition on school employees, while lifting it on state and community college employees. When it looked like this bill would fall victim to another amendment in the Senate, Senators took out the extra language and passed the bill clean.
  
• We successfully got KASB to the bargaining table and worked out a compromise on local control that gives school districts authority in more business decisions but keeps that authority out of personnel issues. The passage of SB 57 puts to rest an annual battle with KASB and helps us turn our attention to other issues.
  Said Desetti, “These were all victories for school employees and schools. We cannot ignore them in these times when the budget picture is so bleak.”

Capital outlay battle finally put to rest in both chambers

This week saw the battle move to bills to limit state aid for capital outlay. The House amended Representative Decker’s HB 2058 which would put a three-year moratorium on state aid into SB 250 and amended Representative Holland’s HB 2345 which would put the state aid moratorium on athletic facilities into SB 251.

On the House floor, SB 250 was defeated but later reconsidered and passed. Senate Bill 251 passed on the first try. The following day, when final action was to be taken, the House again defeated SB 250 and passed SB 251. Later in the day, on another motion to reconsider SB 250, it was soundly defeated. This meant that on SB 251 would move to the Senate.

Senate President Dave Kerr put the matter to rest when he declared SB 251, which originally dealt with voting procedures on the state finance council, to have been materially changed and referred it to the education committee.

Senate Bill 7 on its way to the Governor with employee protection amendment

This amendment was of particular concern for KNEA which lobbied hard to control the impact of this governance change on the earned rights and benefits of technical college employees.

In conference committee, there was a time when the amendment seemed to be in trouble but House members Tom Sloan, Deena Horst, and Sue Storm were joined by Senator Christine Downey in urging acceptance of the amendment.

While the conference committee report was adopted by the House, the Senate rejected it because of an amendment that granted the new boards capital outlay taxing authority. The conference committee then met again and stripped out the taxing amendment. All other amendments were left whole and the report was subsequently adopted by both chambers.

House committee stops attempt to gut workers compensation

The bill passed the Senate on a vote of 27—13.Voting against the bill were Sens. Barone, Downey, Feleciano, Gilstrap, Gooch, Goodwin, Haley, Hensley, Huelskamp, Oleen, Pugh, Steineger, and Tyson.

Over in the House Commerce Committee, a hearing was held on the bill after which the chairman declared that the bill would not be worked this session. That action puts the issue to rest for the 2003 session. Look for it to be back in 2004.

KNEA Legislative Contacts

Blake West, President
Mark Desetti, Director, Legislative and Political Advocacy
Terry Forsyth, Director, Political Action

The KNEA Lobby Team consists of elected leaders and staff. The Lobby Team welcomes member feedback on issues before the Legislature and on this site.