RYCKMAN RECAP, Ron Ryckman, 38th District Senator
The pace really picked up in a hurry during Week 4 of the Legislature, as we caucused every day after sessions and took on major issues during floor debate.
Foremost among those were bills to help further public trust in election results and address rising property tax concerns. SB 4 and SB 6 — both passed 29-10 — would do away with the current three-day grace period by requiring all mail-in ballots to be received by 7 p.m. Election Night and prohibit so-called “ranked choice voting” to ensure winning candidates are actually the top choice of voters. A third measure cleared by the House, HB 2020, would require driver’s license reports to identify non-citizens on the voter rolls. With regard to property taxes, the headline measure was Senate Concurrent Resolution 1603, adopted 28-11, seeking to cap valuation increases at 3 percent per year.
I’m kind of an Election Day, not “Election Season,” guy who thinks voters have a personal responsibility to exercise that privilege in a timely manner, so am good with the advanced counting cut-off, as well as both the “head-to-head” candidate selection process and efforts to assure only actual eligible voters decide our winners. I was one of five Republicans opposing the proffered constitutional amendment on appraisal limits, however, because I see it as presenting a false expectation that reductions will truly occur. I have touched on this before, but the concern is that lower bases will simply be offset by higher mill levies to generate the revenue needed to maintain essential services. Even worse, there could be a cost-shifting from residential to agricultural properties, as pointed out by the Farm Bureau in their testimony. Look for other options to be forthcoming.
That “thinking outside the box” was a common theme in several different areas this week when it came to the problem of keeping Kansas talent within the state. Dr. Ernie Minton, K-State Research and Extension, told our Ag Committee about the difficulty they have with so many graduates going elsewhere simply because there just aren’t the jobs available here to utilize their training and skills productively and remuneratively.
Completely separately, Justin Rorabaugh, Director of WSU’s “Shocker Studios,” promoted favorable action on a bill to provide tax incentives for the movie industry by lamenting to the Commerce Committee that — of his current 550 students — not even one will likely “stay home” after completing his or her film and digital media degree because of the lack of opportunities. Maybe the several hundred “JAG” (Jobs After Graduation) advocates visiting the Capitol were here for a reason.
That can definitely be said of all my hometown drug store owners I talked to on Kansas Pharmacy Day about the emerging problem of local closures brought about by big pharma, big retail, and big insurance companies who are pricing them out of the market through insistence on mail-order prescriptions. A number of constituents have called or emailed, too, worried that instead of driving a half mile to personally receive their needed medications from a familiar, trusted source with whom they have a long-established relationship, they face having to go an hour away or depend on the postal service. Being myself from a small community where we value highly the one provider we have, I can truly relate to that concern. There will be heard in House Insurance this Monday a telepharmacy bill, HB 2244, which — though not solving any of these issues as written — may at least become a vehicle for making helpful changes. Ah, the things “big city folks” take for granted.
One of those is safe, smooth roads, so for anyone who can attend on short notice there is a public meeting being hosted by KDOT this coming Tuesday, February 11, from 5:30-7 p.m. at the Kalvesta Methodist Church to talk about highway infrastructure upgrades along K-156. The $100 million pavement widening and bridge replacement project will cover a 19-mile stretch from four miles west to 15 miles east of Jetmore. Go to https://ike.ksdot.gov/k156-shoulder-widening for more information, or, if you live at the diagonally opposite corner of our District, come to my Town Hall Meeting at the Liberal Chamber Saturday, Feb. 15, from 10-11:30 a.m. for an open forum about what’s going on in Topeka. As always, thank you for the honor and privilege of being your “voice” there.
