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Curious about what's in Hawver's Capitol Report? |
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Here are several recent articles that appeared in Hawver's Capitol Report: House GOP says it has votes for re-map The GOP caucus plans to start distributing the maps Friday (Dec. 7) to build support and iron out issues before the Dec. 20 and 21 meetings at which there’s a chance that the map can be approved, rendered into a bill and sent to the House for consideration. The map includes just 104 counties, because Wyandotte County Democrats haven’t figured out yet how they plan to remove one seat from the county, due to slipping population. Republicans, of course, have a suggestion if Democrats can’t come up with their own. Here are the likely two-incumbent districts that
the Republicans create: Depending on retirements, it looks like at least one two-incumbent district in Wyandotte County, but Republicans who say they have the votes to pass the map aren’t too choosy which Wyandotte Democrat leaves. The Senate is still working on its map, and may not have one ready for consideration by the mid-December meeting. In the Wichita area, where Republicans manage to carve out two new seats, they also tend to concentrate Democratic voters in Democrat-held districts, which Rep. Tom Klein, D-Wichita, likes. It’s a map that could be much worse for Wichita Democrats. Because the real winners of reapportionment are the incumbents who have to make the fewest number of new friends before their next election, we’ve arrayed the House members (minus the still-to-be-decided Wyandotte seats) in reverse-order...those who retain the smallest portion of their current districts in reapportionment–who have to make the most friends. The relative safety of incumbents, of course, doesn’t just depend on keeping an existing voter pool which has elected a candidate once. Rep. Bonnie Huy, R-Wichita, would retain just one-third of her voter base, but expand in to heavily conservative Republican territory where she’s likely to see no trouble. Rep. Ralph Tanner, R-Baldwin City, is keeping
just 36 percent of his voter base, but is hoping to move into the
Douglas County/Johnson County area eventually. It’s probably worthwhile to notice that two Topeka women who voted against Topeka-area reapportionment boss Rep. Doug Mays, R-Topeka, for Speaker last year are going to have to make a lot of new friends next election...Rep. Lana Gordon, R-Topeka, who retains 55 percent of her voter base and Rep. Cindy Hermes, R-Topeka, who keeps just 51 percent, and sees her district take a country flavor by being expanded to almost all of western Shawnee County and most of Wabaunsee County. Mays? He picks up more Republicans, taking some of the silk stocking Republicans from Gordon’s Clarion Woods. There are some amazing near-zero district changes being proposed in the Hutchinson area, with Reps. Janice Pauls, D-Hutchinson, and Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson (chairman of the House Reapportionment Committee), at about 100 percent of current constituents, and nearby Mary Kauffman, R-Hutchinson, at about 97 percent old friends. In the GOP map, Reps. Carol Edward Beggs, R-Salina,
Carl Holmes, R-Liberal, David Huff, R-Lenexa, and Lloyd Stone, R-Emporia,
all have revised districts that include only old friends, while
Rep. Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, who had a district with enough constituents
for three districts, only loses constituents, and doesn’t have
to meet any new ones. Capitol Rail column Ice bulldozer?–Well, it appears that when you pull one year’s sales tax transfer out of the comprehensive highway program, what do you get? A highway plan that is shortened by a year, which means that the really good banquets, with bulldozers and asphalt plants carved in ice, are one year closer. Big test coming–Yep, we’ve heard
the talk coming back from fund-raisers, the “brief remarks”
about why someone ought to be governor...but we’re guessing
the platitude honeymoon is about over. Jones futures?–OK, we’re always
on the lookout for a hot stock, and what with Shane Jones’
continuing fund-raising for a new Senate seat in Overland Park,
that isn’t really firmed up yet...we’re waiting for his
campaign finance filing on Jan. 10. Topeka’s with Harrah’s–A little surprised, of course, but it turns out that Topeka, or at least its Chamber of Commerce, is against slots-at-tracks because Harrah’s is just a short drive from town, and many Harrah’s employees come to Topeka because it’s down hill from Holton. Reason enough. Good decision–You’ll notice that the great tree-chopping-down festival at Gulag Statehouse took place when the wind chill was in the single digits, holding down the tree-hugging, even if nature lovers could have made it through the chain link fence that is going to adorn the Statehouse yard for at least the next 14 months... Collateral? Sure, sure–Railsters who remember using cars as collateral for loans are probably going to be a little disappointed that nobody got excited about letting Indian tribes title cars and issue license plates. Because, we think with a little work, and if someone forgot to do something with central filing, we could either use the same car for collateral over and over, or else nobody could ever finance a car titled on a reservation. Strategies swirl around non-classroom costs
Reason is that the higher-than-our-neighbors non-instructional spending is something that can be worked on at the local school district level, always a good thing for the Legislature, and that failure of districts to reduce that non-teacher spending can't splash back on the Legislature. It comes down to the post audit report identifying what some are calling a potential source of funds for K-12, and legislators urging districts to use it. The $115 million, by the way, amounts to more than the Legislature approved last year for K-12 funding enhancements–which was $73 million. Already, districts are using that non-instructional horsepower to compute their own ratios of instruction/non-instruction spending. And, districts will point out that Kansas K-12 students are generally doing very well academically, and there is no decisive way to determine that spending less on infrastructure and non-teaching activities doesn't have a positive effect on student performance. Theoretically, those non-instructional expenditures–including superintendents' salaries–may be a wedge that legislators can use to divide school administration and teachers. Whether that plays out won't be known for weeks, but it is worthwhile remembering that a similar "divide and conquer" strategy, used last session in attempts to beef up K-3 programs while doing nothing substantial for higher grades, didn't work. It's unlikely that legislators are going to be able to figure a way to pit school boards against teachers merely from the findings of the Post Audit report. Reducing non-instructional expenditures like building maintenance, librarians, social workers, front office staff, food service and transportation costs may be difficult for local school districts, depending on their geography and tradition. It's harder to take, say, salt out of the stew than fishing out a bay leaf. Making that distinction is going to be the public relations challenge for both school districts and the Legislature. Dropping the number of non-instructional staff may also be a way for the Legislature to encourage districts to join the state's health insurance program, presumably with some of the $115 million "non-instructional" money identified by Post Audit. Worth remembering: The $115 million identified by Post Audit couldn't be saved by districts for immediate use. Districts this summer and fall put together their budgets for the coming calendar year, and shuffling inside their budgets probably wouldn't be considered or be scheduled for consideration until next summer, after the Legislature has adjourned and made its budget decisions for the 2002-03 school year. Internet tax? Bright spot for revenues "Not new taxes" is the key phrase, because even after last week's consensus revenue estimate of tumbling receipts for the current fiscal year and only a minor increase in revenues in Fiscal Year 2003, conservative House members are unlikely to be willing to vote for new taxes. And the base of no-new-taxes House members is likely to be loosely joined, or at least aided and abetted, by Senate President Dave Kerr, R-Hutchinson, who maintains that raising taxes in a weak economy is exactly the wrong thing to do to bolster the state's economy. Such outfits as Amazon.com and WalMart.com, both of which have "nexus" or facilities in the state, now don't collect and remit state sales taxes on sales made to Kansans. And, while the Department of Revenue says it can't discuss individual taxpayers–probably a good thing–and that the outfits have separate corporate makeups, Edmonds figures that it wouldn't be too hard for Revenue to link WalMart and Amazon to their facilities in Kansas. If WalMart, whose stores dot the state, and Amazon, with a warehouse near Coffeyville, can be linked to their .com outlets, then state law requires them to collect sales tax on sales made to Kansans. Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer, who was instrumental through the Kansas Department of Commerce and Housing in getting Amazon to locate a warehouse in Kansas, says there is absolutely no "deal" to exempt Amazon from sales taxes in Kansas. "The law is the law," Sherrer said. Richard Cram, Revenue's spokesman, said he believes there are separate corporate charters for the two Internet sales groups, and it looks like the Assessment and Taxation committees are going to put Revenue to work linking Amazon.com with its warehouse and WalMart.com with its stores. Some legislators look for home defense There’s been talk coming into the Statehouse from legislators across the state that their constituents are unlikely to be satisfied with what amounts to very little in the way of talk coming out of the Statehouse about how to make Kansans feel somewhat more secure against terrorist attacks of any sort. In the two weeks since the attacks in New York and Washington and the downing of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania, there were 3 1/2 days of stepped-up security at the Statehouse and continuing restriction to one door of public access to major state office buildings. Not much there for residents of out-state counties. So far Kansas Attorney General Carla Stovall and at least one legislator–Rep. John Ballou, R-Gardner–have made noises about prosecuting gasoline price-gougers, but there's little else on tap. It is unlikely that such prosecutions are going to make anyone feel very secure about anything... Many would have expected some effort or some publicity about something that might smack of home defense or antiterrorist activities. Gov. Bill Graves at a press conference last week said that state agencies are reviewing their procedures manuals for emergencies, but because of a tight budget, he believes that most security actions will either be done by the federal government or financed through the federal government. State Sen. Sandy Praeger, R-Lawrence, said she’s interested in the state doing something more in the way of home defense. She’s short of suggesting a brigade of old guys in tin hats carrying buckets of sand around the reservoirs, but she says that she’d like something that is visible to the public. Similarly, Rep. Doug Mays, R-Topeka, wrote the governor last week suggesting a “status quo budget” and “enhancement...of emergency readiness and the defense of the state’s people and the infrastructure that serves them. “It would be naive to believe the federal government alone can or will shoulder the entire burden of homeland defense.” Mays, a former Kansas Securities Commissioner, said that he believes that an economic downturn led by layoffs in the aircraft industry in Wichita are a certainty, but warned that the speed with which the Kansas economy descends may be “breath-taking.” Mays also said that “the possibility of tax increases aimed at benefitting single segments of the workforce must be removed from the table,” a shot at higher spending on K-12 education, most of which winds up in salary increases for schoolteachers. Even a newcomer, Rep. Lee Tafanelli, R-Ozawkie, said he will pre-file a bill that would have a legislative committee examine the state’s emergency operations. “I think we have a lot of agencies out there which each have jobs to do in event of an attack, or any sort of disorder, but I am not sure that they all know how to work together, or what each other’s role is,” said Tafanelli. “I think it’s important that if something happens, everyone knows what to do,” he said. And, in a year in which the Legislative Coordinating
Council has spent a lot of time defining and redefining the role
of interim committees, some legislators have proposed that the mission
of some interims be shifted to examination of the state’s self-defense
posture, or at least its ability to monitor water quality, the safety
of utilities, and continued work on agricultural bio-security. Here are several recent Capitol
Rail columns that appeared Capitol Rail Column Milking it–OK, most Railsters
and city folk learned about production agriculture from Lassie and
Green Acres...where they milked the cows twice a day, morning and
evening, and called it good. But, remember Steve Irsik, the Democrat
who ran unsuccessfully in 2000 against Sen Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler?
He told the Ag Committee that he’s making nice change in the
milk industry by milking, or, rather, having milked on his behalf,
5,500 cows 2.4 times a day. Yes, 2.4 times a day. Mail scare–Apparently nobody
has gotten to U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Day’s Inn, Kan., to
tell him that he doesn’t have a Democratic opponent for reelection
next year, and probably has about enough money, barring some well-publicized
misdemeanor, to get reelected. Even scarier mail–Let’s see, U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan, the conservative senator who isn’t up for reelection for two years, is out there raising money for reelection from the same pool that Roberts is fishing in, and which conservative candidates for statewide office and the Kansas House are trying to raise gas money. Time’s running out–Railsters
are still waiting for the Northern Alliance (that’s the tribes
north of Harrah’s) to get their act together and agree to a
KC-area site near the Woodlands or NASCAR or something before the
Governor trucks off to the east. Looking for the number–Anyone else wonder what would happen if Congress and the president would stop screwing around with capital gains, investment tax credits, etc., to turn around the economy, and just exempt from taxes and stop withholding for everyone making less than about $35,000 a year? Those people know how to buy products. Looking for the dollars–Wonder whether everyone working off a grant to increase state spending on children’s programs would still be suited up if we were talking income tax surtax instead of sales or property tax through the local option budget? Capitol Rail Column Tree hugging--You might want to get your hugging out of the way for trees on the north side of the Statehouse this fall...they’re coming out as the underground parking garage goes in starting probably in November. Moving in...to stay?--Now, we’re
not sure whether Western Resources boss David Wittig got together
his friends who own pickups and moved his stuff out of Fort Westboro
and into the old Landon Mansion earlier this month or hired it done,
but now, it’s looking like he may have to take his stuff out
of boxes and put it around the house where it will be useful. Campaign futures?--OK, we are figuring
that if 3rd District GOP Chairman Shane Jones can talk his friends
out of money for a state Senate campaign in 2004, then he’s
probably going to have an inside track for whatever wealthy portion
of Leawood Republican Sen. John Vratil’s district gets carved
off for Jones to run in. OK, Sam--Now, if the pro-life Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas is convinced that embryos which could be used in fetal stem cell research are in fact “young humans” we need to have a serious talk about why they didn’t show up anywhere during the census. Seems that with a little judicious placement of petri dishes, Kansas could have gotten back to five U.S. Representatives... Learning curve--It’s
starting to look like the state may have to provide foster care
services for...no, not children in need of care, but for the businesses
that are bidding for contracts to take care of those foster children.
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What's
the buzz all about?