Opinion

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

My husband, Peter, and I spend the winters in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The center of the town is a designated World Heritage Site, which means the facades of the buildings must remain as they were in the mid-1700s. The streets are made of round and sometimes slippery cobblestones. The doors are stout and covered with hundreds of coats of paint, and on the top of every building is a rooftop terrace where people can watch the fireworks that go off for no reason that anyone has ever been able to figure out. It is wonderful.

But there is another world, just outside our little town, where there are big-box stores and a couple of very large grocery stores with food courts and bakeries and all the brands we are used to buying in the United States.

Peter and I have never been there.

GUEST COLUMN, Dick Morris

So far, all of the laws designed to encourage people to buy electric vehicles have been voluntary – incentivizing the purchase of EVs through tax credits and such. Currently, California is about to pass a law banning the sale of gasoline powered cars starting in 2035. With at least a dozen states legally obliged to follow California’s fuel standards, the decision now pending before the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will essentially amount to a national ban on gas powered cars.

Consumers will have no choice.

RYCKMAN RECAP, Ron Ryckman, 38th District Senator

We’ll be coming back for a veto session at the end of the month, but for now Week 13 means we have concluded all regular business of the 2024 Legislature and formally adjourned.

The big news, unquestionably, is that the House and Senate finally agreed on a comprehensive tax cut package that should be able to survive a gubernatorial veto, though hopefully that doesn’t happen. That is because the vote in the House was unanimous (119-0) and in the Senate 24-9, with four likely “yays” among those not present. If enacted, HB 2036 will reduce to two the personal income brackets (5.15 percent and 5.55 percent); do away entirely with the tax on Social Security; increase the property tax threshold; raise the standard deductions; and zero out the state sales tax on food effective July 1. It was properly heralded by our Senate President as providing relief to everyone, including a “sigh” to those of us who have been battling the issue for most of the past three years.

GUEST COLUMN, Shannon Francis, 125th District Representative

Last week was long. The House didn’t adjourn until about 2:30 Saturday morning - after unanimously passing property, income, Social Security, and food sales tax relief.  Ending the night with this significant win for all Kansans with unanimous support in the House and bipartisan support in the Senate was inspirational for all of us. It’s truly incredible what can be accomplished when you have a great team of folks working together for the Kansans we serve back home.

Friday was the last day of the regular legislative session, also known as First Adjournment. All week, conference committees met and negotiated the details of certain legislation such as the state budget, tax relief, support for families wanting to adopt, national security protections from foreign adversaries like China, and many more important items.

The primary purpose of conference committees is to come to a compromise between House and Senate versions of a bill. The Conference Committee Report/final version of the bill must be approved by both the House and Senate before moving on to the Governor.