Contact: Peggy Mast 620-343-2465 The veto session so far this year has been rather uneventful with the exception of the attempts to override the Governor’s Veto on three separate bills. The first bill was the Women’s Health Protection Bill which dealt with the oversight of abortion clinics in the state by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. They are currently not inspected by any department in the state and there has been a flagrant lack of oversight of the physicians by the Board of Healing Arts. The vote failed by two. The second attempt was made to override the veto on a bill that would stop the ex-officio members of the water board from being able to vote on actions taken by the board. This again seemed like a common sense move. The annology given by Rep. Powell is that the action now being allowed would be like allowing lobbyist to make a motion on the House floor and then voting on the motion. The third attempt to override was made on a bill that would help to fund the State Treasurer’s office. The Governor has begun to charge rent to the State Treasurer and the Attorney General. It is a new twist, but makes it more difficult to fund those agencies.
It was truly an honor to be able to recognize the longstanding co-operative effort of the DAV, the American Legion, and the Kansas Commission of Veteran’s Affairs in serving the needs of Kansas veterans. The agreement has lasted for 60 years and it was my will and the will of the legislature to endorse the continued efforts of these groups in working together to serve the needs of our veterans for an additional 60 years. Lee Stolfus was here on the House Floor to celebrate with us.
As I write this, it is still undecided if we will have private prisons allowed in Kansas. The bill is still tied up in conference. We are also going to be voting on a Kansas Health Policy Authority that will have oversight over several agencies that work to provide Medicaid dollars for health care for the frail, elderly, Healthwave, and State Workman’s Compensation as well as Employees Health Insurance. The purpose of the Authority is to handle the funding more efficiently and to influence Kansans toward a healthy lifestyle. It looks like the gambling issue may be done for the year. There was a lot of talk earlier that it would be coming over from the Senate, but just recently, we have heard that it has been passed over and will not be dealt with this year.
Some interesting facts that recently came out regarding the Kansas Economy from 2003 to 2004: The non farm employment has grown 1.93% over the last year. Kansas Nonfarm Employment growth was 16th in the nation. Manufacturing employment increased by 1.75% or 3,000 jobs. 2004 meant 11,000 less unemployment claims and a 4.2% unemployment rate. Population growth was .39% which is almost at the bottom of the pile. And the Gross State Product is lagging the nation by .5% Kansas is still 8th in the nation for oil production. We have some good news and some bad news. I welcome your input on how to improve it. Back to Newsletters |