Greetings,

Legislative Update #8, February 19, 2009

Turnaround Time

The Kansas Legislature is near Turnaround.  Turnaround is the annual day or "benchmark" when bills must be passed out of their house of origin.  That is to say, for the bill to still be alive, it must have passed one chamber by Saturday.  But they are ahead of schedule!  The Senate finished and will not have General Orders Friday (no votes), February 20th.  It is just one deadline though, Exempt bills (blessed) and exempt committees are still routes to advance legislation.  Committees are to start meeting again on Tuesday, February 24th.

Got to be proud of the Senate for passing a Minimum Wage bill that puts Kansas on-par with other states by taking us to the federal level ($7.25) in January 2010.  The vote was 33-7, and who would have thought the Senate would take the lead.  Watch for the list and thank the Senators who supported this measure.  The Department of Labor says it effects some 17,000 to 20,000 Kansans who are paid below the Federal Minimum Wage, and maybe as little as $2.65 and hour.  It's on to the House!  We will need to start working House members now.  A good place to start is with your own House Rep and then House Commerce and Labor Committee members

The House passed an extremely damaging bill (HB 2175) that would un-do or repeal a law that was passed just a couple of years ago that strengthened laws for "misclassifying" employees as contractors, or sub-contractors.  The bill is not expected to be debated on Friday, but shockingly it did make it's way out of committtee.  The KS AFL-CIO opposes the bill because it also hurts the the building trade industry by creating an un-level playing field for those employers who play by the rules and pay taxes on employees but can't compete to land the jobs.  The legislation is exploitive and hurts the states coffers when we really need the money right now.

More on Trades...  The House has passed a Continued Education bill that will require those in the Electrical, Plumbing and Mechanical HVAC trades to incorporate atleast 3 hours of code in the continued education hours requirement.  The total number of continued education hours will not change.  It also clarifies 6 hours annually rather than the 12 hours every 2 years.  Reciprocity was also clarified in the bill.

The Work Comp bill, SB 258 is going to get a look-at in the coming weeks.  This is a bill that makes adjustment to the caps for such benefits based on inflation.  It would also be recalculated on an annual basis.  Kansas currently asks injured workers to survive on 1987 dollars.  Impossible!  Our state has simply not kept pace with the cost of living or wage growth.  The structure has been untouched for decades and Kansas has fallen to the bottom when compared to other states.  This is on the Senate side for now and we need the for you all to get busy contacting the Senators to let them know this is simple fix that doesn't cost the state anything, Zero.  In fact it could help get those unfortunate injured workers off public assistance.  House members should also be made aware of this plight.  Start with the House Commerce and Labor Committee there too.

Oh, and you probably heard by now, the State Workers will be paid and your tax returns will again be in motion to actually get to you.  After a stand-off earlier this week that made national news, the state did work out the cash-flow problem of simply transferring money to meet our obligations.  Best thing is, a budget bill got passed that spared the deeper cuts to Schools and state agencies for the 2009 Fiscal Year that is finishing up, and also they could now pay employees.  They had no time to plan for implementing deeper cuts for the remaining months.  Keeping state government running is important, because until we have to do with out, we have no idea how important public services are to each and every one of us.  Believe me, it would touch you in more ways than one if they shut down.