Rep. Wetta Newsletter 1/22/12

January 27, 2012

FROM THE STATEHOUSE - Vince Wetta Report

Vince Wetta, Representative, 80th District * 1204 N. Poplar * Wellington, KS 67152 * 620-326-5205 (home)

Sumner & Harper Counties

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Due to the cost of sending newsletters by mail, this e-mail will continue to be used to communicate with constituents. Please share this with friends and we will send this to anyone interested. My address and phone numbers may change. The e-mail address in Topeka is the same, vince.wetta@house.ks.gov.

From the Statehouse: Week 2
The second week of the legislative session is always a bit slow as committees are still getting “warmed up” and the Martin Luther King holiday trims a day off the week. Things will really get moving again on Monday, our first full week of committee work. Until then, I have provided some updates below on the major activities of Week 2.

Budget Update
Governor Brownback presented his $14.1 billion state budget proposal to the Legislature on January 12th. Although I have some concerns about his recommendations, after three consecutive years of making devastating cuts, it is a lot easier to find middle ground when there is a budget surplus than when facing a budget gap. Truthfully, I am more concerned about the Governor’s proposed tax plan. The stability of future budgets will be dramatically impacted by whatever tax reform is enacted during this session.

Here are some budget highlights:

Funding for Kansas schools stays flat. Gov. Brownback doesn’t make additional cuts, but he doesn’t make any effort to restore funding either. Keep in mind public schools have absorbed 8 rounds of cuts in the last two years, and just last May they were leveled with the largest single education cut in Kansas history.

New revenues generated from state-owned casinos goes to pay off bonds that financed portions of the Statehouse renovation project.

Cuts about $19 million to programs such as early childhood education. That’s down 32 percent from the nearly $58 million in this year’s budget.

Higher education fared well, meeting the most urgent priorities of the Kansas Board of Regents. These include a $5 million appropriation to the KU Cancer Center to help its effort in getting National Cancer Center Institute designation and funding that will promote career technical education opportunities at the high school level.

These are just the Governor’s recommendations - the Legislature may or may not adopt them. Now begins the legislative process. The House will work through the budget in the coming weeks, the Senate will do the same, and then we have to reconcile the two chambers’ budgets before sending it back to the Governor, who will then have an opportunity to issue line item vetoes. It is a long journey, and it is not uncommon for the budget to be one of the last votes of the legislative session. Stay tuned.

To access the Governor’s Budget Report in full, visit the Kansas Division of Budget’s Web site at http://budget.ks.gov.

Tax Update
More details emerged this week about Governor Brownback’s plan to phase out the Kansas income tax. I have been worried for some time that eliminating the income tax could shift the tax burden from our wealthiest citizens to those with the least means to pay. Since I first got involved with politics, I have said that we need to reduce property taxes. That is one of the main reasons I fought so hard for the casino. Now to raise property taxes in order to reduce income taxes is something I will have a hard time supporting.

The Governor’s tax plan makes permanent a temporary sales tax increase that is set to expire in the next couple of years. The Governor - and many Republican lawmakers - campaigned hard against that tax increase during the 2010 election. It seems hypocritical for them to now propose making it permanent, especially when our poorest citizens pay 32% of their incomes in sales tax while the rich only pay 7% of their income in sales tax. I will not vote to make this sales tax permanent. During the last campaign this was used to attack me for months. It is still early in the session, but I am struggling to find any sense of fairness or fiscal responsibility in this plan.

House Health and Human Services Committee receives briefing on human trafficking
On Tuesday, the House Health and Human Services Committee received a briefing on human trafficking. This issue has been receiving more attention after Kansas received poor grades last year from organizations who monitor human trafficking around the country.

Committee members heard from the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office as well as members of organizations that provide assistance to human trafficking victims. Presenters suggested that the current laws should be strengthened to include criminal penalties for "facilitators" of trafficking, i.e., those who do not engage in sexual activity with the victims or get any direct monetary benefit from a trafficking but nonetheless assist the trafficking.

Lawmakers were also encouraged to increase penalties for those who purchase prostitutes. This crime is currently classified as a class C misdemeanor, providing a punishment similar to littering violations. Proponents argued that increasing penalties for patronizing prostitutes would reduce demand for human traffickers..

A few recent cases of human trafficking in Sedgwick County were presented. Prosecutors explained the challenges in pursuing trafficking cases when the victims are uncooperative, and the difficult situation they face when having to punish the prostitute even when she is technically a victim. Presenters suggested that juvenile detention often presents the best chance to get victims out of the trafficking business for good, but that state laws should be balance to allow prosecutors greater ability to pursue the traffickers who are the real source of the crime.

Agriculture Committee

On Thursday, we heard testimony on a water bill and how the state of Kansas encourages waste of water by our so called “use it or lose it “policy. The essence of the bill is that, farmers and other water users who have water rights, have to use the water or face the possibility of losing their water right. As our state tries to conserve water, it makes no sense to make someone pump their water down the creek in order to keep a water right. This applies to “closed areas” of the state which have more water rights granted than they have water, mostly in the western part of the state. However, it can affect “open areas” like Sumner and Harper Counties also. We passed the bill out unanimously on Friday. There was an attempt to amend the bill but it failed in committee. This bill has a long way to go and there is some concern by the State Water Office. We will see how it goes.

Keep in Touch
It is a special honor to serve as your state representative. I value and need your input on the various issues facing state government. Please feel free to contact me with your comments and questions. My office address is 7^th Floor, DSOB, 915 S. Harrison, Topeka, KS 66612. You can reach me at (785) 296-7651 or call the legislative hotline at 1-800-432-3924 to leave a message for me. Additionally, you can e-mail me at vince.wetta@house.ks.gov. You can also follow the legislative session online at www.kslegislature.org.

Useful Numbers and Resources:
The following is a list of the numbers I receive the most requests for during the legislative session. You can find these as well as many others online at http://da.state.ks.us/phonebook. I hope you will find this information helpful.

Adjutant General: Department on Aging: Attorney General: