Friends,
It is an honor to serve you in the Kansas Senate. There are many elected officials out there that look at themselves as Kings. It is very clear to me that I am elected to be a"public servant” (definitely not a"public king”). It is my job to serve you so please never hesitate to contact me with your thoughts, concerns, questions or ideas. I have been doing my best to listen to you and get our state going in the right direction. I am sending you this newsletter and survey and asking for your input and assistance. Please provide your opinion by completing the enclosed survey and sending it back to me. It is important for me to know what you think about these issues. Due to the cutting of our own budgets for mailings, this will be my only letter that I will mail to you this year. However, if you provide your email address with the survey, I will send you my email newsletter several times during the session and other times during the year to keep you better informed of what is going on in state government. Technology is great and allows us to receive your comments and concerns easier and quicker, but phone calls and letters work well too. You can also keep up on my website at www.loveforkansas.com or follow our work on Facebook by"liking” our page (www.facebook.com/loveforkansas) and follow us on twitter (www.twitter.com/Garrett_Love). We have had a very eventful legislative session and wrapped it up on Sunday after agreeing to a budget compromise late Saturday night. Like past years in which the legislature has had to address redistricting, the Session extended beyond the usual days. While there is no excuse for the legislature not to get its work done in the allotted timeframe, we had many complex issues before us this year, including the budget, taxes, funding for our local schools, redistricting, KPERS and more. While not all of these issues could be solved in three short months, these were among the major issues decided in 2012:
Balancing the Budget. The Senate passed a balanced budget that reduces overall spending by $448.2 million. The budget is projected to leave the state with $463 million, which meets the 7.5% ending balance required by Kansas Statute. The Senate worked to achieve several priorities in this year’s budget, including protecting funding for early childhood programs; funding our transportation plan; increased funding for community services for the aging and disabled; and increased funding for our local K-12 schools.
Conserving our water. I was honored to take part in Governor Brownback’s water bill signings in Garden City earlier this session. Several water bills were passed this year that will give more freedom to those that use the water and also help conserve our water supply – which is extremely important to our region. In the past, our policies have encouraged farmers to use water they don’t always need from fear of losing the right or just because there is no incentive for saving water. This will change that.
Funding our Schools. The Senate fought this year to restore classroom dollars that had been cut out over the past few years from our local K-12 schools. The budget includes an additional $43.7 million for our schools this year, which is an increase of $60 per student on the base state aid. This budget is a good start toward restoring some of those lost dollars to help alleviate larger class sizes, increased fees and teacher layoffs.
Reducing our Taxes. I have said since I started campaigning that I feel our income tax rates are too high. We have the second highest rate in the region and that has been part of the reason we have seen stagnant private sector job growth over the last decade. It is very difficult for a declining private sector to support a strong public sector. We must get our economy going again. While the plan we passed was not perfect (I had actually preferred a compromise plan that did not pass the legislature), it will bring the top rate from 6.45% to 4.9% and the lower bracket down to 3%. It also exempts certain non-wage business income of LLCs, subchapter S corporations and sole proprietorships and increases the standard deduction for single head-of-household filers & married taxpayers to $9,000.
Stabilizing KPERS. KPERS has been one of the big issues that the legislature has had looming around the corner for years. It is one of the worst public funded pension plans in the country with a nearly $8 billion unfunded liability. This year, the legislature finalized its plan to stabilize KPERS. The plan will make no changes for current retirees or current public employees. The changes will apply only to new public employees in 2015. New employees will continue to have their retirement funds managed by KPERS in what is commonly referred to as a cash balance plan. Cash balance plans provide long-term stability for retirees while costing the state significantly less to manage. Under this plan, employees will contribute 6% to their retirement account and the employer will match that with a 4% contribution.
Monitoring changes to Medicaid. The Governor and his staff unveiled the KanCare model last year as a way to address increasing costs in our Medicaid system. The legislature will monitor the implementation of the Governor’s Medicaid reform plan and ensure that quality and cost-effective care is being provided to Kansans under the new KanCare system. The legislature along with the administration will work to examine cost-savings, delivery methods and overall effectiveness of the transition.
USPS says Kansas post offices to remain open. Though U.S. Postal Service operations are a federal issue that the Kansas Legislature does not address, it was encouraging to get word last week that the USPS will not close any additional Kansas post offices. The USPS had previously announced it would close or consolidate 134 of our local post offices in Kansas. Instead, they will achieve the necessary cost-savings by adjusting hours of operation. Saturday service and access to lobby post office boxes will remain intact. I applaud the USPS and our federal delegation for working to find the cost-savings necessary to keep our local offices open and available to Kansans, particularly those living in rural communities.
Thanks and have a good week!
Garrett
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