Greetings,

Legislative Update #17, May 8, 2009

Legislature Closes Out Session

The Kansas State Legislature closed down the 2009 Session and finished their work late Friday night,  Saturday morning technically.  The revenue generating bill that came out of the tax committee to close the budget hole passed reluctantly in the House 65-56-4.  You'll remember, the Budget was already passed and this brings them to a zero balanced budget.

In addition, the Unemployment bill (HB 2374) was brought to the House and after members were educated on the Senate changes to the bill, a motion was made to concur.  No conference committee was necessary and that was a good thing.  The vote was 111-8.  It is a sure sign of how bad things are right now because some major business groups backed off of this and took a neutral stance.  It codifies benefits for Part-Time workers, expands the benefits for those unemployed - but in training, and looks an an alternative base-period(most recent quarter) when the unemployed person does not qualify for benefits.  This is a good bill and was recommended by the Employment Security Advisory Council.  You may have heard of these funds as both federal stimulus dollars and funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Both are correct and this means federal dollars will flow to our Employment Security Trust Fund to help those out of work for years to come. 

No fire lit under this bunch, but they did complete their work in 90 days.  A false fire alarm earlier in the day did delay things briefly.  Adjournment!