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KANSAS SENATE BILLS for Year 2000:
Last Updated 02/22/2000
SB367 - Senator Harrington. Another attempt to ban partial birth abortions, repealing KSA1999 Supp.65-6721.
SB368 - Senator Emert. Mandates that school boards adopt a dress code that requires uniforms to be worn and specifies exceptions. Establishes an unfunded mandate that school districts are to provide uniforms to the economically disadvantaged who are unable to purchase or acquire uniforms. Does not define "economically disadvantaged." States that adoption of a dress code is not an abridgment of student’s free speech rights.
SB369 - Senator Harrington. Another attempt to revise the licensing
of young drivers. Allows cities/counties to adopt ordinances requiring
that license applicants over 15, under 16, who met training requirements,
submit their driver’s license application to the chief law enforcement
officer of the jurisdiction who shall comment on the necessity of issuing
the license to the DMV who will then make a decision to issue/not issue.
If issued, the driver will be restricted in when he/she can drive. The
bill goes on to describe conditions that apply and establishes when the
license can be yanked. Also changes the law applying to farm resident drivers
in the 14 to 16 age range.
Comment. The way it is written, DMV does not have to issue licenses
to drivers in the age ranges discussed. Didn’t stop to research if existing
law already gives DMV same latitude. Anything that places further restrictions
on licensing of young drivers brings forth much constituent comment, especially
from rural areas.
SB370 - SRS Transition Oversight Committee. Gives courts authority to
appoint guardian ad litem for any child not attending school as required
by KSA 72-977 or 72-1111.
Comment. The two citations deal with compulsory education requirements.
Needs to be looked at by someone intimately familiar with education law
vis-a-vis home schooling.
S.371 - Makes it easier for the Johnson County Park District to bamboozle the voters, bait and shift, by deleting the requirement that any proposition for the approval of bonds to acquire real estate must describe the real estate to be acquired and the location for any given park or playground site. If passed, all they would have to tell the public is the general purpose of the acquisition and the estimated amount thereof. See KSA 19-2874. Introduced by Senator Becker.
S.372 - Repeals KSA 75-5956, thereby deleting requirement that Sec. of Aging shall ensure that statewide long-term care service access is available in timely manner, and that eligibility for service starts upon date of application. Introduced by SRS Transition Oversight Committee.
S.373 - Repeals series of sections starting at KSA 25-4502 that provide for a presidential preference primary election. The rationale I have heard for this is to save $$$, but the message it sends is that we don’t want to give the electorate at large a chance to express their druthers. The PPPE may not be binding, but the perception is ...... Introduced by senators Oleen, Goodwin, and Hardenburger.
S.374 - Amends the laws dealing with property tax appeals (KSA 1999 Supp74-2433f and 79-1609.) Under current law, any party may appeal decisions made under the small claims portion of the tax appeal laws. The amendment limits appeals to any taxpayer for two of the three situations covered by the small claims provision. In 1609 it changes "any person" to "any taxpayer" and deletes the ability of a county or district appraiser from appealing a hearing officer’s ruling to the state board of tax appeals. Introduced by Senator Salisbury.
S375, Senator Jones. Creates staggered terms for the members of the Advisory Committee on African-American Affairs.
S376, Senator Harrington. Gives county commissioners the authority to abate property taxes levied on property destroyed by calamity. Great idea but bill has a caveat that limits its usefulness - the property has to be in a major disaster area as declared by the feds. A tornado that strikes two homes in a rural county will not show up on the fed’s radar screen, but is as much a loss to the occupant’s as is the entire county was flattened. Why get the feds involved at all in what is/should be a local issue? Should be amended to delete all the federal references.
S377, Special Committee on Assessment and Taxation. The payment of sales taxes by contractors and repairmen on tangible personal property they use in their work. Read it four times, still don't understand what the authors are trying to say.
S378, Special Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Revises definition of income in the law providing for refunds of sales tax paid upon food - adds more income sources to what is added up, probably to make it a more realistic representation of a person's status. Adds extra deduction for person who qualifies as head of household.
S379, Special Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Exempts disability income from the computation of income in defining eligibility for the homestead property tax refund.
S380, Legislative Educational Planning Commission. Revises Ethnic Minority Scholarship Program, established to retain talented minority students in state universities. Why is the state in the scholarship business? Have the scholarships had a quantifiable positive impact on retaining such students? What is the history of recouping payments when students drop out?
S381, Legislative Educational Planning Commission. Extensive (42 pages) of revisions to existing law governing the awarding of state professional service scholarships for osteopathy, optometry, nurses, teachers, dentists, national guard officers, and others. Establishes new Professional Service Scholarship Advisory Board appointed by regents. Why is the state in the scholarship business? Have the scholarships had a quantifiable positive impact on providing professional services in rural areas? What is the history of scholarship repayments when terms of scholarship not complied with?
S382, Special Committee on Judiciary. Uniform child-custody jurisdiction and enforcement act. 32 pages of new law and revisions of existing law. Needs some knowledge of existing laws to understand.
S383, Special Committee on Judiciary. Changes crime of identity theft from a misdemeanor to a severity level 7, person felony, and allows judge to consider degree of economic harm in departing from presumptive sentences. Identity theft is a growth industry, and devastating over a long period of time to the victim. Upping it to felony makes subsequent convictions mean more punishment and shifts prosecution to DAs, taking it out of municipal courts.
S384, Special Committee on Judiciary. Adds the crime of electronic harassment and indecent solicitation of child to the statutes.
S385, Special Committee on Judiciary. Enacts internet pharmacy consumer protections. Expands the scope and intrusiveness of state government by requiring internet pharmacies to jump through Kansas commerce and healing arts administrative hoops. Possible intents/impacts: hinder or prevent Kansas consumers from competitive shopping on the net, drive up prescription costs, restrict trade to existing instate pharmacies.
S386, Special Committee on Judiciary. Adds computer crime to the list of crimes for which DAs can issue subpoenas on their own authority for the purpose of conducting an inquisition when they have knowledge of an alleged crime.
S387, Legislative Budget Committee. Creates the Department of Public Safety which will assume responsibility for KBI, the highway patrol, emergency medical services, state fire marshall, and alcohol beverage control. It will be a cabinet post, appointed by governor, confirmed by Senate. On its face, expands government. Have not heard rationale, but probably will be something along the lines of consolidating administrative functions and providing coordinated approach for public safety. I have already heard strong opposition from the working level.
S388, Special Committee on Environment. Authorizes the establishment of "Water Banks" which are defined as private non-profit corporations that lease water from water rights that have been deposited in the bank. A water bank's charter has to be approved by the Chief Engineer. The apparent rationale is to conserve water resources. The bill expands the scope of government and places added duties on the Chief Engineer and Division of Water Resources.
S389, Legislative Coordinating Committee. Provides for a procedure to keep control of memorials on state house grounds.
S390, Legislative Post Audit Committee. Expands the universe of state employees who may opt out of KPERS by filing a declaration within 90 days of being appointed to an eligible position.
S391, Joint Committee on State Building Construction. Gives the Secretary of Administration the authority to interpret building codes and allow variances. Why is the state giving itself authority to bypass building codes imposed on all citizens? Opportunity for collusion?
S392, Senators Biggs, Clark, and Stephens. Another bill to cancel the 2000 presidential primary election.
S393, Legislative Post Audit Committee. Revises the wording of the Kansas governmental operations accountability law giving the legislative post audit committee authority to conduct audits of Kansas government agencies, and establishes due dates in the future for the next round of audits. Add the juvenile justice authority, the state board of regents, all public safety agencies, and the court system. Under the separation of powers doctrine, can the legislature conduct a performance audit of the courts?
S394, Senator Stephans. Requires liquor retailers to tag/identify containers of beer four gallons or greater in size and keep records to whom sold and gives the secretary of revenue carte blanche to write regulations. More regulations, more dictates on businessmen, more laws.
S395, Senator Tyson. Establishes that the basis for property valuations shall be the fair market value of property. It is a start towards bringing some sanity to the valuation system. In booming markets, people will still see increasing property taxes - will government allow property taxes to drop when real estate prices drop? Would have liked to see something more along the lines of California Proposition 13, but a bird in the hand.
S396, Senator Salmans. Deletes the requirement in existing law that shrinks tell clients in an up front disclosure that certain mental orders can have medical or biologic origins and that the client should consult with a physician. Don't shrinks trust MDs? Legislative micro-management? Is entire law needed in the first place?
S397, Senator Salmans. Modifies existing law such that a licensed professional counselor does not have to work under the direction of someone with a higher qualification as long as the person does not diagnose and treat mental illnesses.
S398, Senator Salmans. Establishes a license requirement for addiction counselors and sets up the bureaucracy to support the requirement. More government, more rules, more restrictions on who can be an addiction counselor. Interestingly, the author found it necessary to enumerate many different professions and occupations to which the act does not apply, including ministers.
S399, Senator Salmans. Establishes privacy privileges for clients of professionals regulated by the behavioral sciences regulatory board, then sets forth 13 loopholes, several based on duty-to-report requirements in other state/federal law. Good for privacy, but are all the loopholes necessary? Or do they, for all practical purposes, negate the privacy privilege?
S400, Senator Salmans. Mandates that all insurance and accident insurance policies cover shrinks and counselors. This is what drives up the cost of insurance
S401, Senator Salmans. Sets up procedures for issuing exempt and inactive licenses for volunteer counselors in disciplines subject to the behavioral sciences regulatory board. More government, more rules, more restrictions. Why not just say that someone who once held a license in good standing could provide volunteer services as a good Samaritan without jumping through any hoops? Why must government try to control everything anybody does? Its licenses and certifications don't mean anything, for government refuses to be held liable for the actions of those it does license/certify.
S402, Senator Salmans. In existing law, adds volunteer counselors at community mental health clinics to the definition of employee covered under the Kansas tort claims act.
S403, Committee on Ways and Means. 33-page appropriations bill amending budgets for FYs ending 6/30/00 and 6/30/01.
S404, Joint Committee on Administrative Rules and Regs. Repeals portion of traffic regulations that allows use of studded tires in snow or ice conditions. Good for highways, bad for safety.
S405, Senator Pugh. Repeals requirement that a petition to release lands from a water district has to have endorsement of water district board of directors. Lessens government control and ability to thwart rationale requests.
S406, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Gives small businesses an income tax credit for fees paid to the federal Small Business Administration as guarantee fee fro obtaining financing by the SBA.
S407, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Revises law that allows counties to tax intangible gross earnings by changing due dates and eliminating a reporting requirement. Changes apparently are made to bring law into conformance with other laws.
S408, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Revises laws dealing with confidentiality of income tax returns. Makes income tax returns of people applying for gambling licenses available to the state gaming agency and employees. Expands government intrusiveness. Investigation of licensee's background not sufficient cause requiring such breaching of confidentiallity. One exception leads to another leads to another.
S409, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Appears to be an effort to extend cigarette taxes and motor fuel taxes to sales on Indian reservations.
S410, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Deals with taxes and establishes something called a "managed audit agreement." The implications of this bill not obvious on a first read.
S411, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Revises law dealing with appeals of property taxes. States that appeals of single-family residence taxes must first be made with small claims division before they can be taken to the state board of tax appeals.
S412, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Expands the definition of the bank holding company act and creates a definition of the state banking code.
S413, Committee on Education. Revises how children attending kindergarten are accounted for in the state education funding formula.
S414, Committee on Education. Makes teaching of Spanish mandatory and makes standards of proficiency in Spanish mandatory for high school graduation
S415, Committee on Education. Makes community service a mandatory requirement for high school graduation. Is it any wonder why there are problems with the schools when they are saddled with so many PC requirements? You cannot dictate compassion. This requirement amounts to indentured servitude and is reminiscent of schemes popular with dictators of our era. The people who control the definition of what constitutes community service can control and further their own agenda and political beliefs. Will church related service be allowed? Want to take bets? AmeriCorp is an national example of a supposedly volunteer service that is in fact used to advance statist goals.
S416, Committee on Judiciary. Primary seat belt law. Nanny government looking after her defenseless, stupid children. Another incremental erosion of freedom.
S417, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Changes the date by which claims must be filed in respect to property taxes.
S418, Committee on Judiciary. Revises municipal court law, expanding to all crimes other than non-moving traffic violation the $7.00 assessment that goes to several special funds.
S419, Committee on Judiciary. In the sentencing laws, changes how juvenile adjudications are considered.
S420, Committee on Judiciary. Revises divorce law relating to interspousal torts.
S421, Committee on Judiciary. Revises civil law governing subpoena of records of a business not a party to an action by changing the start time of the required notification.
S422, Committee on Judiciary. Revises contract law relating to the interest that a claimant may be awarded in a judgment.
S423, Committee on Judiciary. Expands the imposition of a court cost for a $150 KBI lab fee to all cases in which labs services were performed - was just on drug cases
S424, Committee on Judiciary. Revises law regarding children witnesses in criminal cases.
S425, Committee on Judiciary. Removes an exception in existing civil law regarding the judgments of a foreign court.
S426, Committee on Transportation and Tourism. Provides for the permanent registration of utility trailers, deleting the current five-year limit.
S427, Committee on Transportation and Tourism. Provides for a 72-hour temporary registration of out-of-state trucks.
S428, Committee on Transportation and Tourism. Exempts motor vehicles owned by non-profits from property taxation if used for the purpose of participating in a coordinated transit district.
S429, Committee on Transportation and Tourism. Increases the severity of drunk driving sentences by removing sentencing discretion - whereas drivers licenses could be suspended up to a year, now it would read one year
S430, Senator Gilstrap. Changes liquor law relating to license applicant by lowering the township cutoff population from 11,000 to 2,000 for licensees not located in an incorporated cities
S431, Committee on Commerce. A consumer protection act to require telephone carriers to have on file explicit authorization for any supplemental service charges that may appear on a bill.
S432, Senator Vratil. Makes a criminal background check mandatory for new hires by a school district, with the results going to the state board of education who will in turn tell the school district whether or not the person is eligible for employment. Noble idea but erodes the supposed local control of the school board. Raises questions of due process for the person denied employment.
S433, Senator Vratil. Revises wording of law providing for suspension of kids with guns at school or school activities; gives school boards more flexibility on appointing people to conduct hearing. The wording change corrects language that could be read to say you couldn't carry a gun to school, but could have it at school.
S434, Senator Vratil. Messes around with the formula for low enrollment and correlation weighting for school finance. What is being done is not obvious to the casual observer. Break out the slide rule.
S435, Senator Vratil. Exempts school districts from any city/county tax placed on the act of platting real property.
S436, Committee on Ways and Means. Repeals KSA1999Supp39-7,154 dealing with support collection pass through.
S437, Committee on Ways and Means. Gives state retirees an additional benefit of $1.00 for each year of credited service up to a maximum of $50.00 as a health insurance cost supplement benefit. It does not sate the pay period. No fiscal statement yet to determine increased cost to taxpayers.
S438, Committee on Ways and Means. Adds SRS employees/contractors to list of persons subject to crime of unlawful sexual relations.
S439, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. A looonnnggg bill relating to the state banking board and state banking commissioner. Any banking experts out there?
S440, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Deletes requirement in insurance law that risk-based capital instructions be published by rules/regs. Does this remove any checks/balances on the publication of binding requirements?
S441, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Makes three deletions in health care insurance law: removes a sunset provision, deletes flexibility given to carriers to change benefit structure, and deletes requirement for a small-business toll-free help line. Why?
S442, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Requires appointment of actuaries who are members of recognized professional organizations to the insurance commissioner's staff, and apparently expands the universe of who get hit with the annual assessment to run the department.
S443, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Deletes words relating to accounting procedures in insurance law and deletes provision that insurance companies can invest in certain types of durable goods.
S444, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Revises laws relating to mortgage guaranty insurance companies.
S445, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Changes law regarding real estate appraisals in the uniform consumer credit code and consumer notification requirements.
S446, Committee on Judiciary. Invokes the Kansas administrative procedures act regarding findings, evaluations, and actions relating to the abuse, neglect or exploitation of adults.
S447, Committee on Judiciary. Deletes notification requirement when a subpoena for business records is issued, and places a cancellation requirement on person who called for subpoena if the record submitted obviate the need for the subpoena.
S448, Committee on Judiciary. Rewording of law establishing a $46 docket fee when a prosecuting witness or defendant is adjudged costs in an action. Apparently a technical rewording to simplify statute.
S449, Senator Salisbury. Prohibits legislators who first serves after 1/8/01 from becoming a member of KPERS. A calling, not a career.
S450, Senator Hensley and other Democrats. Increases base state aid to education $100 over next two years. Will more money help without concurrent reform of the entire system?
S451, Committee on Commerce. Repeals every three year external review of Performance Review Board, and report to legislature. Why get rid of an outside review that the board is doing what it should do?
S452, Committee on Agriculture. Gives farmers an income tax credit equal to the amount paid to the US Department of Agriculture as a guaranty fee pursuant to the obtaining of an operating loan guaranteed by the feds.
S453, Committee on Ways and Means. Revisions to the uniform interstate family support act. Makes it mandatory for a tribunal to order payment of costs and attorney fees if it determines that the hearing was requested primarily to delay the process. Makes evidence that a registered support order exists a presumption that the hearing was called to delay.
S454, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Extends life of law giving an income tax credit for R&D in the state.
S455, Committee on Commerce. Establishes a 1% late payment fee on telecommunication companies that fail to pay the Kansas universal service fund fee on time. More money for government. Legislature should be questioning the validity of the fund, not trying to increase its take.
S456, Senator Vidricksen. Extends the length of time a contractor can file a lien against property other than residential property to six months.
S457, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Revises banking law regarding inactive trust companies.
S458, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Gives applicants for an insurance license the right to a hearing should the license be denied.
S459, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Gives the state more reasons to deny an application for registration as a mortgage business, gives the state the authority to administratively require any person to file a written statement regarding any apparent violation of the act, receive $$$ in settlement of any investigation for the purpose of consumer education, and forces employers to delve into the criminal history of all employees. Expands the scope and power of government.
S460, Committee on Ways and Means. Gives the state treasurer the authority to designate any classified position as an unclassified position when such position becomes vacant.
S461, Committee on Judiciary. Revises child-in-need-of-care permanent guardian law by removing Secretary SRS from ability to conduct on-going oversight or intervention, but giving the same power to the courts.
S462, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Greatly expands the list of people and political committees to whom contributions cannot be given from January 1 to adjournment sin die by lobbyists, PACs, and other organizations. More restrictions on political speech.
S463, Committee on Elections and Local Government. If the office of Lt.Gov, secretary of state, attorney general or state treasurer occurs, gives the Governor the ability to appoint a person to fill the vacancy for the unexpired term until a successor is elected and qualified.
S464, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Requires all campaign contributions for statewide offices to be reported to the secretary of state by electronic means by the end of the next business day. Gives the secretary of state authority to adopt rules/regs to make it happen, including specifying what software/hardware must be used.
S465, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Says that vacancies in precinct committee positions shall be filled IAW political party constitution/bylaws. If the constitution/bylaws do not provide for filling such vacancies, then the vacancy shall be filled in same manner as originally chosen. This seems in conflict with 25-3801 which gives county chairmen the ability to fill vacancies.
S466, Senator Bond. Raises the state-wide sales tax from 4.9% to 5.2% and revises formulas on how the money is to be distributed.
S467, Committee on Commerce. Revises law governing telecommunication fees, eliminating revenue neutrality requirements for switched access rate rebalancing. Appears to perpetuate access charges and fees.
S468, Senator Hensley and rest of Democratic Senators. Creates a freedom of information office within SoS office, with power to investigate and make binding decisions on access to public documents. Makes individuals who withhold documents personally liable, with fines going into general fund earmarked to support of FIO office. More government, more regulations.
S469, Senator Corbin. Prohibits the sale of motor-vehicle fuel containing MBTE, an additive once OK'ed by EPA to reduce emission pollutants and now shown to be a ground-water pollutant, and, I believe, there are claims that the fumes have bad health effects on people fueling vehicles. A question that has to be answered - how does this prohibition square with EPA mandates under CAA.
S470, Committee on Judiciary. Revises criminal punishment law relating to off-grid sentences.
S471, Committee on Judiciary. Revises criminal punishment law, adding "committing crime while incarcerated" an aggravating factor.
S472, Committee on Judiciary. Revises criminal punishment law relating to serving time for misdemeanors.
S473, Committee on Judiciary. An apparent technical correction to a citation.
S474, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Gives counties and cities the authority to impose excise taxes upon development activity as a condition of development approval. Enlarges government and gives government another opportunity to enlarge its coffers. The "protections" contained within the bill will not restrain government from socking it to developers.
S475, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. Gives the Governor the authority to execute a compact with other states to create an Emergency Management Assistance Compact, and sets forth the compact's terms and conditions. "Be Prepared." May require additional planners but consistent with public health and safety duties of state government - nothing appears to be an assault on rights.
S476, Committee on Agriculture. Exempts from sales tax all sales of fruit and vegetables produced in Kansas and sold directly to individual consumers by the producer.
S477, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Same as S474.
S478, Committee on Transportation and Tourism. Changes the junkyard law, deleting the prohibition of a junkyard being within 1000 feet of a county or township road.
S479, Committee on Commerce. Adds a prerequisite requirement for licensing as a journeyman electrician or a residential electrician. Requires such person to present proof of four years of on-the-job training under a licensed journeyman electrician and forces counties and cities to adopt rules/regs implementing the requirement. A further restriction on the ability of a person to make a living. A further expansion of government. An unfunded mandate.
S480, Senator Stephens. Gives county commissions in counties with population 25,000, <100,000, the authority to require county attorneys to be full time employees, and not engage in private practice. If county does so, mandates that salary be 70% of salary paid to district judges.
S481, Committee on Ways and Means. Requires the Governmental Ethics Commission to submit biennial budget estimates.
S482, Committee on Judiciary. Makes many changes to the laws governing the execution of the state's parental power regarding children in need of care. Needs reading by someone familiar with such law. Appears to extend the power of the state.
S483, Committee on Judiciary. Adds titles to law relating to service of process in civil law.
S484, Committee on Judiciary. Redefines the term "intimate relationship" in the domestic battery law. Appears to be waffling the definition to permit wider interpretation.
S485, Committee on Judiciary. Concerns the nonprobate transfer on death.
S486, Senator Hensley and all Democratic senators. Creates a state debt reduction fund. If in May, actual general fund receipts exceed the original joint estimate of revenue by more than $50M, 50% of it has to be dumped into the debt reduction fund and used to retire state bonds.
S487, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. A technical correction regarding nomenclature in the law governing the treasurer's daily cash sheet.
S488, Committee on Judiciary. Provides guidance on use of the sentencing guidelines when conviction on one count of a multiple conviction is reversed on appeal.
S489, Committee on Judiciary. Prevents car manufacturers from owning new car dealerships or being involved in ownership other than in limited conditions for limited periods of time, such as helping a minority person acquire a dealership. This is an effort by independent dealers to prevent predatory actions on the part of car manufacturers, endangering the existence of the independent dealers. The GMs of the world were trying vertical integration, as is happening in agriculture.
S490, Committee on Judiciary. Messes around with the sentencing guidelines involving placement in community correctional services.
S491, Committee on Judiciary. Another revision to criminal sentencing laws. S492, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. Exempts employees of the state gaming agency from a long list of prohibited actions that apply to employees of the Kansas racing and gaming commission. Makes other changes to the law governing the operation and conduct of the commission.
S493, Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Oversight. More changes to the sentencing guidelines.
S494, Committee on Agriculture. An act to facilitate competitive livestock markets, prohibiting the manipulation of prices
S495, Committee on Agriculture. Would provide state income tax credits to "beginning farmers" and would create a Beginning Farmer Board which would have authority to certify beginning farmers and approve eligibility for tax credits. More government, more bureaucracy, more opportunity for skulldugery, more use of tax code for social engineering.
S496, Committee on Transportation and Tourism. Increases amount authorized for highway system enhancement program from $1.05B to $1.1B.
S497, Committee on Transportation and Tourism. More system enhancement. This leaves the $1.05B alone, but then gives Sec KDOT authority to approve contingent system enhancement projects in an amount not to exceed $100M if dollars available.
S498, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Gives legislature authority to modify or revoke by legislation special orders issued by the bank commissioner.
S499, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Gives city governments the right to initiate a judicial tax foreclosure sale after three years if the county does not initiate such action.
S500, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Makes the position of assistant director in the Kansas water office an unclassified position.
S501, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Enacts the Agricultural and Specialty Chemical Remediation Act which includes a remediation board, a remediation linked deposit loan program, and a remediation reimbursement program. The programs are funded by assessments on custom blenders, registered fertilizers, agricultural chemicals, pesticide dealers, and the storage capacity of public warehouses. The apparent purpose of the act is to provide financial help to those facing environmental cleanups, spreading the cost out amongst all who might have been contributors to contamination, and therefore individually responsible for total cleanup cost. It seems to be similar to method used in to assist dry clearners and owners of underground storage tanks clean up contamination. The entire program sunsets on 7/1/10.
S502, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Provides a property tax refund of up to 50% for operators of oil wells when average daily production is < 15 barrels and the price per barrel is <$16.00.
S503, Committee on Judiciary. Creates the Kansas uniform prudent investor act, describing what a trustee must consider, and actions that must be taken, to be considered prudent. Says it is a default rule, that a trust can alter actions and considerations as desired, and the trustee will not liable for having acted as specified in the trust.
S504, Committee on Judiciary. Appears to be a technical change to civil procedure law relating to judgments and costs.
S505, Committee on Judiciary. Makes many changes to what a county government may enact, all changes by KSA citation, requiring a lot of back and forth with the KSAs to find out exactly what has been done. By introduction, apparently prevents counties from opting out of crime restitution laws.
S506, Committee on Ways and Means. Creates the judicial branch nonjudicial salary initiative fund, the purpose of which is to provide annual salary adjustments to judicial branch employees. The fund is funded by an increase in docket fees and a reapportionment of docket fees - 21.28% of docket fees would go to the fund. Fund disbursements would be approved by the Chief Justice. Not specified are any criteria or guidance for how the fund is to be used other than it is not to be used for judicial salary increases. Would appear to take a portion of the salaries paid to employees of the judicial branch off-budget, and dependent upon increasing the number of court cases/tickets written. Should salaries be dependent upon more tickets? Proper incentive?
S507, Committee on Ways and Means. Establishes the Kansas Industries for the Blind contingency fund into which will go the proceeds of the sale of KIB, if/when sold or closed.. The purpose of the fund is to provide assistance to any non-profit which picks up the functions provided by KIB. The bill sets narrow constraints on the characteristics of the non-profit selected. The bill does not contain a sunset provision, either by date or action.
S508, Committee on Ways and Means. Adds violations to the list by which the board of emergency medical services can deny an emergency medical service attendant a license. Included are: any felony under state or federal law, convicted of violation of controlled substances act, and conviction of most crimes in KSA 34 or 35.
S509, Committee on Ways and Means. Changes EMT license from being on calendar basis to being one year as determined by the board.
S510, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Makes PC changes to wording (such as "himself" becomes "such person") plus makes extensive changes to licensing requirements. Any dentist out there who could evaluate pros/cons and tell what the evil is that requires changing the law?
S511, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Extends confidentiality to complaints received by the state board of pharmacy. Would not be able to disclose identity of subject of complaint or person who made the complaint. A public right to know versus individual privacy issue.
S512, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Changes the classification of two chemicals (ketamine and dronabinol) in the controlled substance law.
S513, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Defines and excludes braiding from the cosmetology laws. Now if we could get rid of all the cosmetology laws which are pure restraint of trade, requiring more "training" than that required by police officers and EMTs.
S514, Committee on Utilities. Gives the corporation commission another
consideration when deciding if a penalty should, in the language of the
existing law, be compromised. The new consideration is whether or not any
voluntary contribution is made for disbursement to a related project. This
appears to give official sanction to the black-mailing of companies for
"donations" to activists such as consumerists and environmentalists.
S515, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Technical changes
reflecting that it is now 2000 and the Secretary of State's address has
changed.
S516, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Clarifies the length of term of township officers appointed to fill vacancies.
S517, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Gives the Secretary of State authority to dispose of any remaining copies of the permanent journals of the House and Senate one year after publication.
S518, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Establishes special landowner hunt on your own land deer permits that are transferrable to any person. The landowner will be able to get two permits for each 80 acres.
S519, Senator Brownlee. Redefines short term school suspension to be 10 days instead of 5 days, and eliminates two sections specifying what suspensions can be given for.
S520, Committee on Commerce. Prohibits cities and counties from enacting minimum wage laws or entering into a contract requiring a minimum wage. Good start, ........ but allows any such law already enacted to stay in force until repealed, and allows the prohibition to be suspended as necessary to be able to accept federal government dollars with a minimum wage string attached.
S521, Committee on Commerce. Extends the sales tax exemption to the construction or remodeling of a building that will be leased for a period > five years to a company that is eligible for the tax exemption if it had built/remodeled the building itself.
S522, Committee on Transportation and Tourism. (Requested by Michael Byington, an advocate for the blind.) Creates the nine-member Pedestrian Safety Commission. Gives commission authority to oversee the planning, construction, and maintenance of all pedestrian walks and traffic intersections within all political jurisdictions and authority to order the reconfiguration or redesign of intersections where pedestrian safety is deemed to be too high a risk. Requires all cities and counties to present pedestrian safety plan within one year of creation of the commission. Establishes position of director of pedestrian safety in KDOT, which SecKDOT can fill with OK of commission. Increases size and intrusiveness of government. Unfunded state mandate. Erodes sovereignty of local governments. The last thing the state needs is more independent commissions building their power bases.
S523, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Prohibits medical insurance policies that cover maintenance drugs to limit reimbursement of the maintenance drug to a 90 day or fewer supply at one time. This is the kind of government meddling in private contracts that drives up the cost of medicine. It is entirely possible that the insurance companies have data that shows that providing greater amounts results in waste. There may well be maintenance drugs that have shelf life or storage conditions that dictate the disbursement of smaller quantities. Doctors may specify shorter period quantities to provide impetus for reevaluation.
S524, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Appears to delete requirement that cities have to use a bank within its borders for official funds.
S525, Senator Oleen. During legislative sessions, prohibits convening on Fridays unless a 2/3 vote is obtained, the purpose of the bill being to let legislators have Friday available to provide services for or meet with constituents. If they don't need Fridays, perhaps instead they should shorten the session. This is a step towards empire building.
S526, Committee on Judiciary. Amends asset seizure law to give National Guard authority to spend the assets it is already authorized to seize. Better to review the entire asset-seizure concept and greatly restrict the ability of any state agency to seize property.
S527, Committee on Judiciary. Establishes requirement that a 2/3 vote of the healing arts board is required to OK a license for someone convicted of a felony.
S528, Committee on Judiciary. Adds pharmacists to the definition of a practitioner in the chemical control act passed last year in the state's war on drugs.
S529, Committee on Judiciary. A 60-page revision to corporation law involving incorporation documents.
S530, Committee on Judiciary. Revises the administration of child support payments, establishing the Kansas payment center.
S531, Committee on Agriculture. Revises the Kansas Egg Law. Besides various changes to bureaucratic powers, including the addition of a requirement that a producer who sells graded eggs from his own flock must do so in conformance with the act.
S534, Committee on Agriculture. Revises livestock law, initiating the regulation of electronic livestock auctions, including those on the internet. Requires person to acquire an electronic auction license and meet bonding, health of animal, and fee collection requirements. Is this a foot in the door for regulation of the internet? Could be looked at as an extension of government, or just equal application of food safety laws.
S535, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Radically revises the organization of county extension programs, creating a seven-person extension council, ultimately elected at-large and responsible for development and approval of extension "educational" programs. The revision deletes the list of topics under the purview of extension, thereby giving extension carte blanche to get into whatever they want to get into. Gone is any reference to agriculture or home economics, or 4-H. Why do we have extension in the first place given today's society and economy? It has the potential to develop into a parallel education system without controls on what and how it instructs, a concern given the PC-aspects of what has appeared in Extension documents. Perhaps it is time not to reorganize but to kill off extension.
S536, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Adds definition of sail boat to boating safety laws, excluding from the definition sail boards.
S537, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Extends the regular season for hunting light geese in two management units until 4/10/00.
S538, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Codifies legislative intent that owners/operators of trails are subject to all applicable laws and property taxes as other property owners are subject to. Introduced as a private property protection measure for the land owners adjacent to trails, covering such items as fence maintenance, weed control, litter control, use of motorized vehicles, prohibition of hunting, people safety, etc. Requires trail developers to hold marketable title to land prior to development and to pay property taxes.
S539, Senators Salisbury and Barone. Imposes a civil penalty on telephone solicitors who call people who have registered with the Direct Marketing Association as not wanting to receive such calls. This comes under the category of "there ought to be a law" having received too many such calls, but it really is more government intrusion in the market place, an extension of the Guardian principle.
S540, Committee on Transportation and Tourism. Makes it easier for truck/tractor dealers to obtain temporary demonstration permits.
S541, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Adds "non-human institutional drug rooms" to the state's pharmacy act, covering accredited schools of veterinary medicine.
S542, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Makes extensive changes to cosmetology licenses and instructor permits. The cosmetology bureaucracy is a good place to start cutting the size of government.
S543, Senators Oleen, Vratil, and Biggs. Makes a native american tribal law enforcement agency or law enforcement officer a state law enforcement officer when requested to assist by a state, county, or city law enforcement agency or officer, with the same powers as same during the period of assistance. Can't this be covered with local mutual aid agreements? Could this be a stepping stone to giving tribal law enforcement officers off-reservation powers, or vice-versa?
S544, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Clarifies recall law to state that the county or district attorney's finding that a petition is sufficient does not constitute an evaluation of the legal sufficiency of the grounds stated in the recall petition.
S545, Senator Umbarger. Authorizes Nesosho county to impose a countywide sales tax for a new jail. Would have to be approved by voters.
S546, Committee on Judiciary. Revises law governing the placement and conveyance by sheriffs of certain offenders.
S547, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Requires state health benefits program to provide coverage for certain mental illnesses. Requires private medical insurance contracts that include mental health benefits to provide for such coverage under the same terms and conditions as coverage for other types of health care. Another government mandate to drive up the cost of health care.
S548, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Adds section to the insurance industry law relating to "large risks" as defined by rules/regs adopted by the insurance commissioner.
S549, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Extends extension of liability for public officers who place public funds in officially designated financial institutions.
S550, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Extends to doctors providing treatment the ability to place liens against a patient's personal injury damage awards.
S551, Committee on Agriculture. Makes changes to county home rule limitations. Sunsets as of 6/30/03 the limitations on municipal universities and out of district tuition. Primary change is to give counties the ability to adopt standards more stringent than those contained in various agricultural chemical laws and in the laws enacted last session for confined swine feeding facilities. Giving counties the ability to opt out of the out-of-district tuition gives them the opportunity to get control of an expenditure over which they now have no control. Being able to impose more stringent agricultural chemical laws gives counties the ability to shut down agriculture if they were so inclined. Certainly the ability to impose more stringent confined swine feeding laws will be used by some counties to shut down the mega-hog farms. Consider overriding principle to be to put government actions closest to the people.
S552, Senator Brownlee. Extends the power of home rule to boards of education, with a laundry list of exceptions. What is the purpose of this? What are the evils to be solved by this? What are the long-term implications/consequences?
S553, Committee on Judiciary. Increases the penalty for a second DUI conviction. The wording is confusing as to length of suspensions and restrictions. Whatever the length, the penalty includes impoundment of all vehicles, immobilization of all owned vehicles, or installation of ignition interlocks. Have to keep drunks off the road, and drunks have to bear responsibility of their actions, but what is the implication for other family members who may require a vehicle for work? Would a vehicle owned/registered by another family member also be covered?
S554, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Requires health care providers to submit annual reports to KDHE regarding patient level health service use data and gives KDHE and the health care data governing board the authority to specify rules/regs for the data submission. Bans release of any data identifying a patient. This says that data submitted will identify patients. Absent any overriding, critical, acute public health menace, government should not be in business of collecting data on how doctors are serving their patients. Puts another recording keeping requirement on the medical profession.
S555, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Increases the size of the health care data governing board. Why is there a board collecting this data in the first place?
S556, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Establishes the order of precedence of people who can specify the disposition of a decedent's remains. The specified order appears proper.
S557, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Provides for the operation of crematories, governed by laws/rules for the Kansas state board of mortuary arts.
S558, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Changes ethics law relating to legislators and state officers and employees regarding competitive bid contracts.
S559, Committee on Judiciary. Legalizes and blesses the electronic transfer of official records and documents, including the use of electronic signatures. Specifically excluded are wills, codicils or testamentary trusts, and the UCC, with exceptions. Needs a careful look by experienced attorney.
S560, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. A bill to allow the state to enter into discussions with other states to develop a "streamlined sales tax system for the 21st century." The idea is to simplify sales and use taxes and collect them on sales no matter where the sale is made, in state or out of state, direct or electronically. Read internet tax. If the dream came true, the states would create a national sales tax before the feds.
S561, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Raises the mandatory competitive bid threshold from $10K to $100K for counties wanting to build a building or bridge. Why change? Inflation may have made $10K too low, but is not $100K too high, increasing the opportunity for directing construction dollars to cronies and political supporters?
S562, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Requires confined swine feeding facilities greater than 1000 animal units to have a closure plan (currently those greater than 3,725 animal units have to have a closure plan) and the operator of a facility with greater than 1,000 au will have to show ownership of the land or present a financial security document to cover the cost of closure. As the cutoffs are lowered to put the squeeze on the mega-companies, the squeeze starts to be felt by the small farmer, the family farmer. Somebody with ag knowledge should look at this to determine impact on family farmer.
S563, All Democratic Senators. Appears to be an anti-Stovall bill - it requires that all contracts for the providing of professional services to the state be awarded IAW rules/regs adopted by the board of the Kansas Development Finance Authority upon the basis of competitive bids. The bill also extends its provisions to federal grant dollars.
S564, Committee on Agriculture. Adds letters of credit as an acceptable financial assurance document in the laws governing the storage of grain in public warehouses.
S565, Committee on Agriculture. Enacts the Kansas agricultural production contract fair practices act, a bill to set forth actions which constitute deceptive acts and practices. The bill gives a laundry list of such actions and specifies the dire consequences of being a bad guy.
S566, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. Revises the law governing the classification of cities with small populations and the actions that have to be taken by them upon reaching a given size.
S567, Committee on Ways and Means. Revises KPERS law, placing a three month moratorium on employer contributions into the group insurance reserve fund.
S568, A bipartisan group of Senators. Increases the nonresident deer permits from 5% to 10% of the total number of resident permits issued.
S569, Committee on Education. Revises election law relating to the state board of education, making the state board of education positions non-partisan.
S570, Committee on Education. Apparently increases the allowable LOB that a district can impose, but needs look by someone intimately familiar with school finance law.
S571, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Establishes a state fund to pay refunds to qualifying natural gas producers to resolve claims by natural gas pipelines in accordance with orders issued by the federal energy regulatory commission. Imposes a tax on the quantity of gas moved through pipelines and authorizes the issuing of state revenue bonds, the amount to be determined by the director of the Kansas development finance authority. Don’t know the history behind this or why the state is responsible to “resolve claims. New taxes and more bonds.
S572, Committee on Agriculture. Enacts the “Land Stewardship by Management and Control of Noxious Weeds Act.” All property can be inspected "at any reasonable time" for any reason. Bureaucrats may impose fines.
S573, Committee on Ways and Means. Fiddles with the pension vesting rights of unclassified employees of the board of regents.
S574, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Regulates “discount cards” that purport to offer discounts in health-related purchases from health care providers. Cards must prominently state that the discount is not insurance. The bill also says that such offers must not be deceptive. Violations are subject to a whole bunch of civil penalties, including triple damages - here come the trial lawyers. This looks like a solution looking for a problem.
S575, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Mandates that health and accident insurers pay claims within 45 days unless there are legitimate disputes. If not paid, then interest accrues at 1% per month. Bill gives insurance commissioner full power to write all necessary rules/regs. More government mandates in the health care business, more bureaucracy.
S576, All Democratic Senators. Appropriates $205,000 over three years for the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.
S577, Senator Hensley. Allows state employees to purchase KPERS coverage for periods of service in an international public service program sponsored or administered by a federal agency. As written, people could buy coverage for service in private entities. This opens a box that should stay shut - where would it end? KISS principle applies. KPERS coverage should be limited to Kansas state service, not every employment that has the slightest nexus to government.
S578, Committee on Judiciary. Allows chief district judges to contract for collection services for debts and restitutions ordered by the court. Is the judiciary set up to administer contracts?
S579, Committee on Judiciary. Revises arson law to create two types of arson, dwelling and non-dwelling. Sets dwelling arson as a level 5 person felony, and non-dwelling arson as a level 6 nonperson felony.
S580, Committee on Judiciary. Revises portion of drug laws setting forth aggravating factors that may be considered in departures from sentencing guidelines by adding the selling of drugs to a pregnant woman. Makes it a drug severity level 2 crime to sell drugs on a school bus or within 1000 feet of any park. The war continues. Let’s see, it is especially horrible to have a pregnant woman be sold drugs because what it might do to the fetus, but abortion is OK.
S581, Committee on Judiciary. Revises the law prohibiting sun screen devices/one-way glass on cars by making it OK on law enforcement vehicles.
S582, Committee on Judiciary. Undoes the surveyor bill of last session, removing the requirement for a second opinion on the work of surveyors filing plats. It created much consternation and disorder; there was loud and widespread call for its repeal.
S583, Committee on Judiciary. Clarifies the definition of “traffic offense” in juvenile law.
S584, Committee on Judiciary. Imposes a continuing education requirement on private investigators and gives AG authority to write necessary rules/regs. More bureaucracy.
S585, Senator Emert. Adds a limitation to who may take depositions by banning anyone who is under contract to provide preferential reporting services to any of the parties or the parties’ attorneys.
S586, Committee on Agriculture. Forces farm equipment manufacturers to pay dealers for expressed warranty work at a hourly charge which is the same or greater than the dealer’s hourly charge for non-warranty work. Wage and price controls don’t work.
S587, Committee on Agriculture. Changes anti-trust law, forcing the AG to be responsive to complaints. States that the courts can revoke the corporate charter of a business that does not cooperate with the AG’s investigation and impose $5,000/day penalties.
S588, Committee on Agriculture. Makes revisions to the law that requires farm equipment manufacturers to buy back equipment and repair parts when the franchise contract is canceled or discontinued. Changes percentages and assigns responsibilities for shipping and handling.
S589, Committee on Judiciary. Deletes all references to “restricted mail” in civil law governing worthless check.
S590, Committee on Agriculture. Prevents vertical integration in livestock industry.
S591, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. Provides for the issuance of temporary, restricted drivers licenses for purpose of employment, health care, and education to people whose licenses were revoked or suspended for failure to take breath test or DUI that occurred over six years prior to application. The restricted licenses could not be issued to people who killed or inflicted serious personal injury.
S592, Committee on Ways and Means. Authorizes issuing $22M in state bonds by the Kansas development finance authority for the purpose of acquiring, constructing, equipping, and repair of armories by the adjutant general.
S593, Committee on Ways and Means. Regulates naturopathic physicians, complete with licenses and fees. Increases the scope and size of government. Quality of care better served by a private group putting a UL stamp of approval on these people.
S594, Committee on Elections and Local Government. Provides for up to a $100 state income tax credit for individuals for contributions to political campaigns. Tax credits are in effect a subsidy, in this case, government is subsidizing campaigns. Is it a foot in the door to government finance of all campaigns?
S595, Senator Salisbury. Amends the stalking bill to include in the definition of “credible threat” a threat communicated by electronic means, which is defined to include telephones (of all kinds), computers, video recorders, fax machines, pagers, and computer networks.
S596, Senator Salisbury. Amends many laws governing the operation of regulatory boards to give them the power to initiate investigations upon their own motion or on a written complaint which contains the complainant’s name and address. Boards covered include: veterinary medicine, appraisers, dentists, pharmacists, medical practitioners, nurses, and optometrists.
S597, Senator Stephens. Creates the deer damage reimbursement fund, funded by allocating 50% of all non-resident deer permits. The fund will be used only to pay claims for agricultural damage as approved by the joint committee on special claims and legislative action. Also increases the number of non-resident permits to 20% of resident permits for a management unit. It appears that if WL&P won’t do anything about deer depredations, the legislature will. A user-pays situation.
S598, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Gives pharmacy board authority to establish rules/regs that allow a greater than two to one ratio of pharmacy technicians to pharmacists in the prescription area of a pharmacy, and requires pharmacy technicians to register with the board.
S599, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. A 30-page bill revising the law governing the licensure of physician assistants. Adds a long list of reasons a license can be refused, a long list of people to whom the law does not apply, and a long list of acts that demonstrate professional incompetency.
S600, Senator Brownlee. Another bill to dictate prompt payment to health care insurance companies. Also includes a one percent per month interest penalty on bills not paid within the specified times. Contains deadlines when a dispute is involved.
S601, Senator Huelskamp. Excludes a public livestock market from the definition of confined feeding facility.
S602, Senator Huelskamp. Requires a study be conducted and made public before any state agency acquires any real property. The purpose of the study is to identify the impact of the proposed use on adjoining property, including any new or more stringent restrictions or standards that adjoining property owners will have imposed on them and the cost of such requirements.
S603, Senator Stephens. Outlaws cockfighting and attending such events.
S604, Committee on Ways and Means. A one-page statement of K-12 education goals requiring secondary educational institutions to provide an education that will enable each student to meet Kansas college entrance standards. Requires tests of students to determine actual academic gain. Requires the “state education agency” to publish school report cards showing how well the school is doing against its own record and as compared to other schools in the state. Does this step on state school board authority? Does this ignore the portion of children who are not going to college?
S605, Committee on Ways and Means. Extends the exemption of sales taxes from materials and services purchased for the construction or repair of grain storage activities from 1/1/2000 to 1/1/2002.
S606, Senator Salisbury. Amends civil law relating to the garnishment of wages. If the garnishment is for enforcing a support order for any person, the plaintiff may recover attorney costs.
S607, Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations. Defines “Native American Indian tribe” and authorizes any public agency to enter into agreements with such a tribe for joint or cooperative actions. These agreements would be considered an interlocal agreement.
S608, Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations. Amends the club and drinking establishment act, allowing any Class B club located at an Indian casino to establish rules for temporary memberships.
S609, Senator Bleeker. Makes the false reporting of a child abuse/neglect situation a Class A nonperson misdemeanor.
S610, Senator Huelskamp. Provides due process for disagreements between landowners and oil and gas well drillers. Allows treble damages if driller goes on to land without following procedures set forth.
S611, Senator Huelskamp. Adds motorcycles to the list of vehicles eligible for military veteran license plates.
S612, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. Adds definition of “Bona fide third party fee” to the law governing mortgage businesses and loans, and exempts such people from the registration requirements.
S613, All Republican Senators. Establishes a two-year Kansas World War II Memorial Fund, funded by a Kansas income tax checkoff.
S614, Senator Goodwin. Prohibits the use of a city name in a business name unless the business is actually located in the city or the advertisement includes the complete address of the business. Another solution looking for a problem?
S615, Senator Bleeker. Specifies that the identity of the person making a child abuse report must be known to the agency. The identity shall be kept confidential. The report itself can be released to person subject to report and others. If the report is not substantiated, the parents of the alleged abused child shall be told the identity of the person making the report. A person making a non-substantiated report is not granted immunity under the whistle-blower portion of the law.
S616, 12 Democratic Senators. Forces the department of revenue to fund a given number of corporate income tax audits a year, at least equal in number to the average monthly number of corporate income tax audits for FY96 thru FY98. It has strange wording.
S617, All Democratic Senators. Creates an additional wage step above Step 15.
S618, Senator Salisbury. Gives the supreme court of Kansas full authority to assign as many or as few judges to a district as it sees fit and determine where the judges will hold forth. Could be viewed as further implementation of the division of the branches of government, then it could also be viewed as giving the court too much power.
S619, Committee on Financial Institutions and Insurance. A 31-page bill that makes many changes to the financial regulation of HMOs.
S620, Committee on Judiciary. Specifies that relevant written statements made under oath shall be admitted in hearings concerning juvenile offenders who have violated conditional release provisions.
S621, Committee on Judiciary. States that drug/alcohol tests will not be required of train crew members in a collision of a train with a motor vehicle at a rail-highway crossing.
S622, Committee on Judiciary. A 15-page change to juvenile criminal law relating to placement, offender registration, and several other topics.
S623, Committee on Ways and Means. Limits pay to chief executive officers of state educational institutions to the amount appropriated. Apparently prevents slipping them something under the table from other sources.
S624, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. Exempts special and unique tools and dies acquired after 12/31/00 for the purpose of manufacturing motor vehicles from all property taxes. Surprise, surprise - it was introduced at the request of a lobbyist who represents GM.
S625, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Requires KDHE to collect and compile specified information regarding the Equus Beds Aquifer and make annual reports to the legislature.
S626, Committee on Public Health and Welfare. Establishes yet another board, this time the Board of Social Work and sets forth its powers and duties. The board will be responsible for the licensing of social workers, setting of professional standards, the inspection of social workers, will have subpoena powers, may assess fees, etc.,etc.,etc.
S627, Committee on Judiciary. Says that a properly administered preliminary screening breath test of a person under 21 years of age shall be competent admissible evidence in any criminal action involving a violation of the possession by minor laws.
S628, Committee on Judiciary. Deletes several provisions of law defining criminal possession of a firearm and replaces them with a sentence that defines it as having been convicted of a felony in the past 10 years.
S629, Committee on Judiciary. Makes secret the amount of franchise tax paid by corporations to the secretary of state.
S630, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. In the infectious disease laws, deletes three definitions concerning hepatitis B and HIV and replaces it with one defining infectious disease and infectious disease tests.
S631, Committee on Judiciary. Requires the reporting of sexual abuse to residents of medical care and child care facilities to law enforcement when any of a whole list of people suspect that such has occurred.
S632, Committee on Judiciary. Places municipal courts and municipal judges under the general administrative authority of the supreme court.
S633, Committee on Ways and Means. 46-pages adding to and revising children in need of care law.
S634, Committee on Ways and Means. Gives authority to the pooled money investment board to make loans to the Kansas water office to cover federal fees and water charge increases not covered by funds in hand. The loans are to be paid off in five years using fee increases to consumers. Director of Budget has to approve the loan terms. Other than the approval, loans appear to be automatic upon application by the water office.
S635, Committee on Ways and Means. 16 pages amending laws relating to municipal accounting.
S636, Committee on Ways and Means. Bans permits for confined feed facilities, waste water treatment facilities, water supply systems, or any other facility that discharges sewage, directly or indirectly, within the Equus Bed regions of the state. A one-page bill that raises questions as to what the long-term impacts may be on economic activity in the affected area.
S637, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. Revises the law governing the Riley County law enforcement agency as regards appeals and hearing dealing with a suspension of an officer.
S638, Committee on Ways and Means. 34-page capital improvement project authorization bill for FY2001 for a wide variety of agencies and departments.
S639, Committee on Ways and Means. Another long FY2001 authorization bill.
S640, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. Gives the secretary of agriculture authority to publish rules/regs dealing with the inspection of weights and measures.
S641, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. Reduces the number of times that the notices of delinquent property tax returns has to be published from three to one.
S642, Committee on Federal and State Affairs. Imposes term limits on members of the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority.
S643, Committee on Ways and Means. Specifies which elections may be used to put sales tax increases before the voters in the Kansas and Missouri Metropolitan Culture District and bans any tax which would be used exclusively for sports or sports facilities.
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SCR1621 - Senator Emert. A constitutional amendment to add an 11th member to the state board of education, the 11th member to be appointed by the governor.
SCR1622 - Senators Jordan and Lawrence. A constitutional amendment to add an 11th member to the state board of education by creating 11 school board districts, all elected by the electors of each district. Comment. Guess the good senators do not like 5-5 votes. A little grid-lock is good for the system every once in a while.
SCR1623, Senator Lawrence. A Kansas constitutional amendment that would prevent a member of the legislature from holding office, or be employed by, the judicial or executive branches of state government.
SCR1624, Special Committee on Agriculture. Asks Congress to make available additional food aid packages to needy countries and to homeless shelters and those living below the poverty level in the U.S. Pure welfare and foreign aid, more federal spending with little or no trickle-down help to U.S. farmers. Sets up Law of Unintended Consequences.
SCR1625, Special Committee on Agriculture. Asks Congress to work with foreign countries to eliminate barriers and sanctions (genetically modified crops, hormone treated beef) blocking U.S. agricultural exports.
SCR1626, Special Committee on Agriculture. Asks Congress to remove President's ability to unilaterally impose trade sanctions on food and medicine.
SCR1627, Special Committee on Agriculture. Asks Congress to work with foreign nations to eliminate unlevel subsidies for agriculture products. This implies that the authors are in favor of subsidies. If people were really free-traders, they would be asking for the removal of all subsidies.
SCR1628, Special Committee on Agriculture. Asks the President to appoint a permanent agricultural ambassador in the U.S. trade representative's office. More government.
SCR1629, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. Proposes a constitutional amendment giving the legislature the power to exempt aircraft and watercraft from property taxation and impose taxes on them by some other basis. Don't like messing with the constitution, but....... why not add all vehicles to the exemption?
SCR1630, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Urges Kansas Water Office to pursue purchase of water supply storage capacity in Kanopolis Reservoir.
SCR1631, Committee on Assessment and Taxation. A proposal to amend the constitution to allow an additional 0.25% sales tax. The tax receipts would be divied up 25% to a soil and water fund, 25% to the state park and lakes fund, and 25% to a wildlife restoration fund. Increases taxation; increases government. Provides opportunity for environmental special interests to hijack the $$$ to further their goals.
SCR1632, Joint Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice Oversight. Urges the Governor and his Substance Abuse Prevention Council to set standards to evaluate the success of substance abuse programs. What a novel concept - find out if the money being poured into a program is doing any good! This concept is sorely lacking in many programs funded by government, programs which do not feel the pressure of market place competition. Everyone gets the good press and warm fuzzy feelings at the start, and then the program continues on momentum and the lobbying of recipients to ensure continued employment. The managers of more than one program reviewed took great care to document that all the program contract conditions were complied with to the nth degree, but nothing was done to determine if the program was having any affect. One program manager, when asked how her program was evaluated to see if the dollars did any good, said that they wanted to, but the cost of evaluation was greater than the dollars spent.
SCR1633, Committee on Agriculture. Urges Congress to pass a moratorium on agribusiness and agricultural mergers and acquisitions.
SCR1634, Senators Ranson, Donovan, Downey, Feleciano, Gooch, Harrington, and Lawrence. Recognizes the Korean War Memorial in Wichita as the Kansas Korean War Memorial. Wonder how many other Korean war memorials in the state would like to be in the running?
SCR1635, All 40 Senators. Asks Congress to propose a constitutional amendment that would restrict the ability of the courts to mandate any tax levy or increase upon any state or local government.
SCR1636, Health Care Reform Legislative Oversight Committee. A resolution in support. of the funding of the Kansas Memory Assessment Program and encourages study and research of issues related to Alzheimers's disease.
SCR1637, Senators Tyson, Biggs, Huelskamp, and Pugh. A request to amend the Kansas constitution to put term limits on state legislators: a lifetime total of six 2-year terms for representatives and a lifetime total of three 4-year terms for senators.
SCR1638, A bipartisan group of 31 Senators. Asks KDHE to place a moratorium on swine facilities located over sensitive groundwater areas until the secretary can be assured by scientific KSU research that the facilities do not pose a threat to the groundwater.
SCR1639, Senator Goodwin. Asks the legislature to recognize October 28 of each year as Legal Assistants Day.
SCR1640, Committee on Elections and Local Government. A proposed Kansas constitutional amendment to extend constitutional home rule to counties. Current cities granted it by the constitution, counties by KSA.
SCR1641, Committee on Commerce. Creates the Enhanced 911 Task Force to develop a strategy for funding and deploying wireless emergency telephone services with a report due during the first week of the 2001 legislative session.
SCR1642, Special Committee on Judiciary. A proposed constitutional amendment to eliminate the election of district judges and to establish a system by which the judicial branch evaluates the performance of judges “with citizen involvement.”
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HOUSE BILLS
HB2971, A bipartisan bunch of representatives. 13 pages establishing
a state housing corporation. You don’t have to read past the first section
to realize that socialism is alive and well in the Kansas legislature,
this time operating under the economic development smokescreen. I wonder
how many of the “conservative” reps who signed on to this understand that
it is another example of the government-knows-best mentality. More
government, more meddling in the market place, usurping actions which are
the rightful purview of private industry. Gives the new corporation wide-ranging
authorities based on the power of government, including writing rules/regs,
issuing bonds, acquiring property, invest funds, issue notes, trade securities,
make construction loans, collect fees, etc., etc., etc.