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March 16, 2007

This week’s links:

The future of KPERS… 

What are the details of the proposal on a different KPERS plan for future teachers and state employees?

Click here to read the KPERS issue brief on the plan.

Is this the future for technical education?

The Technical School and Vocational Education Commission has issued its final report. Part of that report is in House Bill 2556.

Click here to read the Commission’s report.

Want to be a legislative know-it-all?

Stop hoping someone forwards this to you!

Subscribe to Under the Dome, KNEA’s daily legislative report.

 

School issues:

Wild ruckus in House Ed as COLA bill debated

The committee worked itself up in their debate on SB 69. This bill would the bill would lower the maximum percentage of Local Option Budget (LOB) required in order for a school district to access the cost-of-living weighting or the declining enrollment weighting to 25 percent. Current law requires the district using these weightings to be at the maximum LOB or 30%, soon to be 31%.

Currently the COLA weighting is used by three districts – Shawnee Mission, Lawrence and Blue Valley. These districts would now need to move up to 31% LOB and hold an election to continue using the COLA.

An amendment by Representative Eber Phelps (D – Hays) would grandfather these districts in but require others to be at the maximum LOB. This amendment passed.

An amendment offered by Representative Marti Crow (D – Leavenworth ) would have changed the COLA requirements provide equalization aid and give the option only to schools that are designated as “underserved.” The COLA was passed as a way to increase teacher salaries so as to attract teachers to districts with a high cost of housing. The Crow amendment would use the money to attract teachers to hard-to-staff schools. The amendment failed.

During the second day of debate on the bill, an amendment was offered by Representative Deena Horst (R-Salina) to lower the amount of money a district could access from 5% to 2% over a three year period.

This highly controversial amendment passed on a 10-9 vote. While KNEA and most of the education lobby corps opposed the COLA when it was originally debated, we do not believe that it should be removed from those school districts that are using it. We have told legislators that we believe it is best not to monkey with the three-year school finance plan instead suggesting that they use this period to thoroughly study the entire school finance system.

Said KNEA lobbyist Mark Desetti, “The three-year plan gives the legislature breathing room – room in which to examine the system, analyze its benefits and deficiencies for all districts, and come to consensus on how to best meet the needs of every Kansas child regardless of ability, income or geography.”

The bill was passed out of the committee as amended. This amendment promises to cause much debate as it goes to the floor for consideration.

A request to reconsider their action the next day was denied by Chairman Aurand.  

The bill will be up for debate by the full House next week. Should be fun!

Salaries at Schools for Deaf, Blind

HB 2422, setting the salaries for teachers at the Kansas Schools for the Deaf and Blind to the Olathe teachers’ salary schedule awaits a final action vote in the full House. The bill has been proposed every year for four years by Rep. Arlen Siegfreid (R-Olathe) and, although it has never passed as is, the provision has been put into an appropriations bill. Siegfreid hopes this time the legislature will pass it and get it into law.

KNEA joined representatives of the schools in supporting the bill. KNEA lobbyist Mark Desetti asked legislators to pass the bill but also consider as a long-term solution treating teachers at these two institutions the same as all other public school teachers.

Desetti told the Committee, “This bill is a fix that would not be needed if teachers at those institutions were treated the same as their peers throughout Kansas. We believe that the Legislature should put the teachers at the Schools for the Deaf and Blind under the professional negotiations act. By doing so, you would give those teachers a say in their salaries, benefits, and working conditions and empower them to be a part of the solution.”

KNEA is now working with the Senate Ways and Means Committee to have the bill amended so that all certified or licensed non-classified personnel at these schools would be covered. This amendment had been requested by the superintendents of the schools and it is supported by KNEA. Ways and Means will work the bill on Monday.

Tax Issues:

Still chopping!

A constitutional amendment that, if passed, would allow the legislature to cap property tax valuations for all Kansans over age 65 regardless of wealth still awaits action on the Senate floor.

This amendment takes some real explaining. It is a constitutional amendment that allows the Legislature to cap valuations for seniors – it would not automatically enact those limitations. Of course, any voter voting YES is likely to expect the Legislature to enact those limits.

In addition the amendment allows the Legislature to limit the application of the cap. For example, the Legislature could say only low-income seniors get the break. But this decision would be made after voters passed the amendment expecting that they would get the break. Which senators do you think would sponsor a bill to limit this tax break to only low-income seniors after Kansans had passed the amendment?

If passed, SCR 1602 would dramatically reduce revenue from property tax collections. Local units of government that depend on property taxes – cities, counties, and schools – would be forced to either cut services or raise mill levies to stay even.

Like every so-called tax cut, this is really a tax shift. Seniors would pay less while those under 65 and businesses would pick up the slack.

At this moment SCR 1602 is sitting on the debate calendar of the full Senate.

KPERS Issues:

KPERS Select Committee Republicans vote to keep retired teachers in second class status

You can let the members of the House know how important this issue is. Click here to send an email message to your Representative and the members of the House Appropriations Committee. Be sure to personalize your message!

At a meeting of the House Select Committee on KPERS, the Republican members voted to block an amendment to a bill that would have restored retired teachers who return to work to professional status.

Last year the Legislature stripped retired teachers who return to work from the definition of professional employee thereby stripping them of employment rights including the salary and benefit guarantees of the collective bargaining agreement. This was done at the behest of the Kansas Association of School Boards which protested a statute to protect KPERS which requires the employer to pay the full actuarial rate into KPERS if a retired employee is hired.

Despite the fact that the law says the employer will make the KPERS contribution, the loophole in the law allows school boards to ignore salary agreements in the collective bargaining agreement thereby lowering the teacher’s salary and passing the KPERS contribution on to the employee. The loophole only applies to school districts. All other KPERS employers must make the contribution.

KNEA has been working to repeal the loophole and force school districts to honor the intent of the law. Last night in the House Select Committee on KPERS, Representatives Geraldine Flaharty (D-Wichita) and Harold Lane (D-Topeka) offered an amendment to put these retired professionals back into the definition of professional employee.

Voting with a show of hands, Democrats Flaharty, Lane, and Margaret Long (Kansas City) voted YES while Republicans Sharon Schwartz (Washington), Ty Masterson (Andover), Kevin Yoder (Overland Park), and Clark Shultz (Lindsborg) all voted NO . Committee Chair Richard Carlson (R-St. Mary’s) did not vote while Rep. Lana Gordon (R-Topeka) was absent.  

House Appropriations Sub-Committee on KPERS doesn’t recommend restoring retired workers to professional status; sends discussion to full committee

On Friday in the House Appropriations Sub-committee on KPERS, Rep. Bill Feuerborn (D-Garnett) asked the committee to recommend that retired teachers who return to work be put back into the definition of professional employee.

While Republicans on the Select KPERS Committee voted to reject this recommendation, the sub-committee suggested that it would be best to take up the proposal in the full House Appropriations Committee. This action puts it to the full committee but with no recommendation.

We’ll be watching for the discussion in the full Committee.

You can let the members of the House know how important this issue is. Click here to send an email message to your Representative and the members of the House Appropriations Committee. Be sure to personalize your message!

Two-tiered KPERS comes out of committees; identical in both chambers

The two-tiered KPERS system advanced to the floor of both chambers. The Senate has SB 362 passed unanimously by the Ways and Means Committee; the House has HB 2558 passed unanimously by the House Select Committee on KPERS. Both bills are identical.

Then gets passed by full Senate

In floor action the full Senate passed SB 362 on a 40-0 vote.

The bill moves the second tier KPERS benefit program for new employees hired on or after July 1, 2009 closer to reality. The fundamental differences are as follows:

• The employee contribution goes from 4% to 6%,
• There is less subsidization for early retirement,
• The monthly benefit is based on the final average salary of the five highest years (currently the three highest years),
• Vesting is in five years rather than 10,
• These beneficiaries would receive an annual 2% cost of living adjustment beginning at age 65.

The only change for current employees is that they also get 5 year vesting.

The twin sister bill in the House, HB 2558, is awaiting consideration by the full House.

If it passes the House without amendment, there will be no need for a conference committee and the proposal is certain to become law.

Click here to read the KPERS document comparing the two benefit plans.

Still waiting in the wings…

As for current retirees, there have been no hearings yet on proposals to grant a 3% ad hoc COLA to those already in retirement. We’ll keep watching.

Your bill tracker

Bills in limbo…

HB 2343, an early graduation incentive program for students going into the construction trades. It had a Senate hearing on Tuesday but so far has not come out of the committee.

Bills up for action next week…

SB 109 allows school districts to pay employees at the first regularly scheduled pay date even if that is before September. It gets a hearing in House Appropriations on Monday.

HB 2140, declaring English to be the official language of the state but allowing schools and other units of government to continue to serve the public in other languages, passed the House on February 21 and has moved out of the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee. It sits on the Senate floor awaiting debate next week.

HB 2185 which would allow Kansans who have left the state to return within five years and qualify for in-state tuition was amended in the Senate before being passed. It now awaits review by a House/Senate conference committee.

HB 2310, requiring schools to have policies on bullying and programs to implement those policies. The House took out the extensive survey requirements and added in a “character education” requirement. The Senate Education Committee took out the character education and put the surveys back in. It awaits action on the Senate floor

SB 22 and SB 23 were put together in one bill by the House Education Committee and now await final action on the House floor. SB 22 provides grants to universities expanding teacher prep programs while SB 23 consolidates a number of teacher scholarship programs into one mega-program.

SB 68 extends the non-proficient at-risk weighting that is set to sunset at the end of this school year. House Ed was supposed to hear this bill today but has delayed the hearing until next Tuesday.

HB 2014, extending the Technical and Vocational Education Commission passed the full house on a vote of 104-17 and moved over to the Senate. The Senate Education Committee passed the bill out and it now sits on the Senate debate calendar.

HB 2556 which establishes a Technical Education Authority – a kind of board of supervision – under the Kansas Board of Regents has passed the House Education Committee and will now go to the full House for consideration. It still languishes on the floor debate calendar.

SB 69 would have allowed districts to use the declining enrollment and cost of living local property taxes if they have an LOB of at least 25%. Current law requires the maximum LOB. The House Education Committee amended the bill to keep the requirement for having the maximum LOB but grandfathering districts who have already accessed it at 30%. They also amended the bill to gradually reduce the amount of money available under the COLA. This has set off a firestorm of controversy. A request to reconsider their action in committee was denied by Chairman Aurand.  

SB 129 is an adjustment in the school safety and security act to give districts and law enforcement more reasonable time limits and protect the rights of students. House Ed will work this bill on Wednesday.

SB 144 which extends the statewide 20 mill property tax levy for schools for another two years. This bill awaits a vote on the Senate floor.

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.