• End of Session
• The FY 2011 Budget Debate
• New Transportation Plan will create 175,000 new jobs
• Statewide Clean Indoor Air Act signed into law
• Lexie's Law protects children from unsafe daycare providers
• State health insurance now covers Autism treatment for children
• New safety training requirements will protect social workers
• Sex offender registry laws strengthened
• New legislation will lie groundwork for rail service in Kansas
• Legislation will enable better tracking of domestic violence
• Stricter penalties will help deter driving under the influence
• Brown v. Board to be commemorated in new mural at Kansas Capitol

The Kansas Legislature has completed the 2010 Legislative Session.  As expected, it was a difficult year filled with complicated and controversial issues.  We spent many long hours and late nights on the House Floor (which sometimes blended into early mornings) in an attempt to work through these challenges.

The 2010 legislative session was dominated by budget crisis unprecedented in our state's history.  We were charged with the task of maintaining support for quality public education, meeting the needs of our most vulnerable citizens, and creating  jobs to get the state economy back on track.  There were simply no easy answers.  Ultimately, we had only a matrix of unpopular options from which we had to pick the least harmful.  However, after 89 days of sometimes-contentious debate, we managed to pass a responsible response, which included a budget that reflects the values and priorities of our state and a transportation plan that will get 175,000 Kansans back to work. 

The Budget Debate

This year, Kansas continued to suffer the trickle-down effects of a national economic recession.  Our revenues began to dip soon after the collapse of the sub-prime lending market in 2008.  Since then, the state budget has gone under the chopping block six times.  Despite our best efforts to adjust to the economic climate by reducing spending by over $1 billion in just 18 months, we were still over $500 million short by April 2010.  Two more years of declining revenue were projected, which is unprecedented in Kansas history.

A regular review and trimming of government programs and services is both healthy and necessary.  Not every appropriation remains an efficient use of taxpayer dollars over time.  However, over $1 billion in cuts go well past "trimming the fat."  By the sixth round, we began to impose serious, long-term damage to our state.

It took the entire session for a budget proposal to materialize in the House Appropriations Committee.  Unfortunately, that proposal demolished our most important investments and created more problems than it solved.  It would be wrong to inflict such a devastating level of harm to Kansas families and communities.  There are too many services and investments that would have cost much more to fix down the road than they cost to maintain in the current fiscal year.  We had to think past the political expediencies of FY 2011 and consider the long-term effects of our actions.

In the final days of the session, a bipartisan coalition came together to pass a responsible budget alternative.  That budget maintained critical investments that will both grow and preserve jobs, keeping Kansas on the road to economic recovery.  This was truly a bipartisan effort.  Both Republicans and Democrats were actively involved in the budget's development and passage.  It was overwhelmingly approved by a vote of 71-48, just four days after the House Republican Appropriations Committee's proposal was overwhelmingly rejected 45-74.

It is important to note that the bipartisan budget cut over $200 million beyond the Governor's recommendations (that is in addition to the previous $1 billion cut).  We only included what was absolutely necessary to keep communities safe, vulnerable citizens protected, and public education funding flat.  While the final product is not perfect, it was by far the best proposal that surfaced throughout the 90-day session.  Every Kansas community will benefit from the bipartisan work we accomplished in 2010. This is a fiscally responsible budget.

New Transportation Plan will create 175,000 new jobs

A key ingredient to the long-term economic stability of Kansas was the passage of a new comprehensive transportation plan.  I am exceptionally proud that a new plan passed with significant bipartisan support.  

The Transportation Works for Kansas Program (T-WORKS) provides the framework for the future of our state's infrastructure.  This program is a economic boon for our state with a focus on preservation, expansion, and modernization which provides assistance to cities and counties across our state.

T-WORKS is the third, 10-year transportation program enacted by the Kansas Legislature.  The Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) expired in 2009 and was preceded by the Comprehensive Highway Plan (CHP), which expired in 1989.  Both of these programs were enacted during economic downturns and each resulted in over 100,000 new jobs for Kansas workers.

T-WORKS will provide about $8.2 billion in construction over the next 10 years.  T-WORKS is smaller ($3 billion less than the last transportation plan)  and, I believe, appropriate for our times.  It funds proper maintenance of our highways, including much needed safety improvements, and funds transportation projects in economically strategic ways.   Most importantly, T-WORKS will create or sustain an estimated 60,000 construction jobs and 175,000 total jobs (including local suppliers, etc).

In an effort to engage local communities in the planning process, KDOT began surveying hundreds of local stakeholders with regard to their needs and suggestions in 2003.  Then, in 2006, KDOT set out to develop a 20-year Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) in an effort to ensure that the next program be as forward-looking and proactive as possible.  LRTP uncovered the need to make preservation a top priority.  Additionally, LRTP suggested that transportation investments should be linked to economic outcomes and business model changes.  This meant improvements in transit, rail and aviation service.  Finally, in 2008, KDOT assembled a 35-member task force, T-LINK, to craft a transportation proposal based on LRTP's recommendations.  Nearly all T-LINK recommendations are contained in the T-WORKS bill. 

More than 1,000 Kansans participated in the development of this program, and it could not have been enacted at a more appropriate time.   Kansas maintains more than 130,000 miles of local roads, 10,000 miles of highways, and 20,500 bridges. Looking ahead, the need for efficient mobilization will only increase. T-WORKS is critical in ensuring that Kansas can meet future demands of our population, solve long-term energy challenges, and emerge from the economic recession as quickly as possible.

Statewide clean indoor air act signed into law

After making significant headway in the advancement of a statewide smoking ban last session, Governor Mark Parkinson revived the debate in January and encouraged the Legislature to move forward with the initiative in 2010.  In his State of the State Address, Parkinson requested legislation that was not "full of loopholes" and that would satisfy the 75% of Kansans who want a "real public smoking ban." 

The Legislature met the Governor's challenge.  Effective July 1^st, the Kansas Indoor Clean Air Act will protect Kansans from harmful secondhand smoke by banning smoking in public places, any place of employment, including restaurants and bars, and access points of all buildings not exempted by the bill. Those buildings exempted include: private homes, outdoor areas with ventilation, gaming floors of lottery gaming facilities or racetrack gaming facilities, designated smoking rooms in hotels, and tobacco shops.

This is not perfect legislation and it is imperative we do more work on it next year by eliminating the exemption for state owned casinos and gaming facilities.  However, killing the bill because of these exemptions would have delayed the advancement of any clean indoor air law for years.  It was more important to press forward with the option of improving the legislation over time as we do with all statutes, rather than delay any movement at all for the indefinite future.

Tobacco-related diseases cost Kansas nearly $200 million annually in Medicaid costs and are the number one cause of preventable death.  Not only will a smoking ban protect innocent Kansans from harmful secondhand smoke, it will save our state millions of dollars at a time when we have no dollars to spare.  Health benefits aside, this is simply good public policy.

Lexie's Law protects children from unsafe daycare providers

Lexie Engelman was 13-months-old when she suffered fatal injuries at a home day care in 2004. Last year, 18-month-old Ava Patrick strangled to death on a fence at another day care facility.  In an attempt to ensure these tragedies never happen again, the Kansas House approved House Bill 2356, also known as Lexie's Law.

Under Lexie's Law, Kansas will gradually move all day care homes to a licensed status, carrying with it assurances of inspections.  The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) will formulate rules for supervising children and playground oversight. Currently his category of home day care is registered with KDHE, but state inspectors are only dispatched after receiving complaints.  As was the case for Lexie and Ava, complaints often come too late, after a preventable, unacceptable accident has occurred.

State health insurance now covers Autism treatment for children

In an effort to recognize the needs of Kansas children with autism and their families, the Kansas Legislature passed legislation which requires the state health insurance plan to cover services for the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) for any covered patients under the age of 19.  Kansas is the 18^th state to enact insurance reform for Autism coverage.  This is the first step in extending coverage to all Kansas families with group health care coverage.

According to research as many as 1 in 150 children will be diagnosed with ASD. This makes autism more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes, and AIDS combined.  In recent years treatments have been developed to make it possible for nearly half the children who are diagnosed early with autism to eliminate the need for special education. The states that have health insurance to cover these disorders are saving as much as $20,000 per year per child in special education costs, which adds up to more than $200,000 over a student's educational career. If children receive intervention treatment before the age of four, many of them go on to live productive lives comparable to those without a developmental disability. It is projected that nearly $3.2 million in social service costs per person can be saved over their lifetimes with effective early treatment.

Coverage will be subject to the same annual deductibles and coinsurance provisions as established for other physical illness benefits.  Additionally, the bill requires all individual or group health insurance policies (including the State Employee Health Plan) to cover the prescription of orally administered anti-cancer medications no less favorably than intravenously administered or injected cancer medications.

New safety training requirements will protect social workers

Social workers have enormously difficult and important jobs.  They work directly with our state's most troubled and disadvantaged citizens in an attempt to help them become productive members of society. This can sometimes put these workers in extremely dangerous situations. 

As such, the Legislature amended the continuing education requirements for baccalaureate, master, and specialist clinical social workers.  Applicants for first-time licensure renewal would be required to have completed, as part of their continuing education requirements, no less than six hours of social worker safety awareness training.

These new requirements were enacted in response to the murder of a Johnson County mental health worker, Terri Zenner.  In 2004, Terri made a regularly scheduled stop at the home of one of her clients with whom she was working to build life skills.  Although it was a routine visit, the unstable patient brutally murdered Terri and stabbed his own mother when she attempted to intervene.  After Terri's death, her husband, Matt Zenner, was told by investigators that Teri could have likely avoided the life-threatening situation if she had received some type of safety training.  In the six years since her murder, Matt has worked tirelessly to increase safety awareness training for social workers. 

There are over 6,000 social workers licensed in Kansas.  Every year, between 500 and 600 social work students graduate and enter the field.  It is critical that we arm these workers with skills they need to ensure the safety of both themselves and the Kansans they are serving.  This legislation puts our state on track to ensure that no other Kansas social worker will suffer Terri's fate.

Sex offender registry laws strengthened

To preserve and protect Kansas communities, the Kansas Legislature passed a new law requiring persons convicted of a sex crime to register as a sex offender for life.

Currently, the Kansas Offender Registration Act requires a person convicted of a sex crime to register for ten years.  The legislation amends the Kansas Offender Registration Act to require a person convicted of any attempt, conspiracy, or criminal solicitation of certain sex crimes to register for life.  The following sex crimes would require lifetime registration; the attempt, conspiracy, or criminal solicitation to commit aggravated trafficking, rape, aggravated indecent liberties with a child, aggravated criminal sodomy, promoting prostitution if the prostitute is less than 14 years of age, and sexual exploitation of a child.

New legislation will lie groundwork for rail service in Kansas

Fifty-five communities and their city councils have declared their public support for inner city passenger rail service.  Trains are 18% more efficient than airlines and 24% more efficient than driving. Energy efficiency reduces dependency on foreign oil, as well as a decrease in pollution. By allowing commuters to travel via railway, congestion on highways is also lessened, which would also lessen highway maintenance expenses.

In response the 2010 legislature passed the Passenger Rail Service Program Act. The rail service aims to connect the Amtrak service from Kansas City, to Lawrence, Topeka, Oklahoma City and then finally Fort Worth, Texas. This bill will help get the program rolling by allowing the Secretary of Transportation to begin initiating plans with Amtrak, local counties, other states involved with the line, and rail operators.

This Amtrak system should not require any immediate money from the state. Rail stations and railways are already standing and can be used for this project. Few upgrades will be needed for the Amtrak system, and the upgrades would cost significantly less than upgrades to smaller sections of highways. The bill will also enable the program to become eligible for the next round of federal funding.

The Kansas Department of Transportation has already started working on a feasibility study of a rail program. There will be further discussions with Amtrak in the near future to help move this project forward.  

Legislation will allow better tracking of domestic violence

In an effort to stomp out domestic violence in Kansas, the Legislature passed a measure to provide the justice system necessary tools to better track domestic violence cases. Currently, many crimes related to an abusive relationship (such as harassment, damage to property or disorderly conduct) aren't classified as domestic violence.  House Bill 2517 will allow judges to determine whether crimes are linked to domestic violence and then tag them accordingly onto legal documents.  This tag will connect any criminal act involving an intimate or domestic relationship.  It will enable better tracking of repeat offenders. This is especially important with domestic violence cases, as most offenders repeat their crimes. Additionally, the bill allows judges to require treatment for the offender. Ultimately, this legislation will help stop domestic violence before it escalates.

Stricter penalties will help deter driving under the influence

The Kansas House signed off on a bill this session that establishes stricter penalties for driving under the influence.  Senate Bill 368 will amend current law for third and fourth or subsequent DUI convictions.

Under this legislation, third-time DUI offenders must serve a term of 72 consecutive hours in jail before the offender is eligible to participate in a work release program (current law requires a term of 48 consecutive hours). For a fourth or subsequent DUI conviction, incarceration in jail would increase from 90 days to one year. The term of incarceration that must be served prior to work release would increase from 72 to 144 consecutive hours.

Senate Bill 368 was never intended to be a long-term solution to problems associated with Kansas DUI laws.  Ultimately, this bill is a "temporary compromise."  Most agree that our state's DUI laws are in dire need of reform.  The Kansas DUI Commission was created last year to study issues surrounding our DUI laws and to make recommendations for improvement.  Although we should do more to deter first-time offenses, this legislation is a feasible proposal until the DUI Commission submits its official recommendations in 2011. 

Brown v. Board to be commemorated in mural at Kansas Capitol

In an effort to honor one of the most local and historic Supreme Court cases in United States history, the Legislature will transform an empty wall in the Statehouse into a mural commemorating the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka court case.

The newly created Capital Preservation Committee will develop plans for the mural.  The 12-member committee is responsible for approving all artistic displays proposed for the capital and ensuring that they are historically accurate. The proposed Brown v. Board mural is to be the committee's first priority.

In May 1954, the United States Supreme Court issued the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by declaring that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities.  

In the Court's unanimous decision, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote,

"It is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education.  Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms."

Brown v. Board of Education initiated educational and social reform throughout the United States, paved the way for the modern Civil Rights Movement, and laid the foundation for international policies regarding human rights.  It is fitting that such an historic event in our nation's history be commemorated and forever remembered on the walls of our State Capitol.