Committees completed bill hearings Wednesday morning and we spent the remainder of Wednesday and all of Thursday on the House floor debating and voting on bills. Here is a sampling:
The veterans’ preference bill I have been working on this year passed with flying colors. HB 2154 would extend veterans’ preference for hiring in the private sector.
Many homeowners’ associations (HOA) have restrictions limiting yard signs altogether, or limiting the number or when they can be posted. If you feel like fighting your neighbors, these restrictions technically contravene the First Amendment protecting freedom of speech. HB 2096 would remove this common frustration between homeowners, the candidates they support, and homeowners’ associations, by allowing signs to be placed within 45 days of an election. The bill does allow HOA to prohibit political signs on the common areas owned by the association. I voted for the bill.
In response to fly-by-night roofing contractors who flood a hail-damaged town, the legislature passed a law requiring roofing contractors be registered by the state. One unintended consequence required general contractors who do roofing work during their normal course of business to also register under this act. General contractors are licensed and registered under a number of other statutes and this registration is redundant. HB 2254 removes the requirement for general contractors to register as roofing contractors, so long as a roofing project is less than 50% of a project’s cost, door-to-door sales have not been conducted, and any subcontracted roofing company is a separate business entity.
HB 2228 would grant in-state status to active duty personnel, National Guard, military spouses, veterans, and dependents enrolled in Kansas colleges, regardless of their length of residency in the state. Students must also file a letter of intent to establish residency in Kansas. My vote was in full support.
“The Chad Taylor bill” (HB 2104) would allow that only in the case of death could a candidate’s name be removed from a ballot. The bill passed 69-54, I voted NO. This bill is written too rigidly. I understand the concern but there is a lot of variation between an inability to perform one’s duty and death. Bad things happen when it is least convenient and we need a little more flexibility to account for significant physical and emotional situations where a candidate may wish to be removed from the ballot.
Government tends to lag far behind in technology, but we were able to catch up a bit this week. Currently, if you post a fundraiser announcement on your Facebook page prior to Sine Die (the official end of the legislative session), and you are Facebook friends with a registered lobbyist – whether or not a lobbyist saw that announcement – you would face an ethics violation. HB 2183 would change the law to allow such a posting, while still prohibiting direct solicitation of a lobbyist during the legislative session.
Over the summer, the K-12 Study Commission met for hearings and deliberations on K-12 policy changes. A majority of the commission submitted recommendations to the legislature, one of which was a carefully negotiated compromise between school boards, superintendents and teachers unions on professional negotiations. Some on the committee disliked the recommendations and submitted a minority report, which was drafted into a bill and passed through the House Education Committee. On the House floor, however, a member of the House Education committee introduced an amendment to gut the minority report bill in favor of that supported by the majority – the labor/management compromise. On a close vote of 67-52, the “gut and go” amendment passed and HB 2326 passed the House and is headed for Senate consideration. In a year when education funding is a constant battle, this policy issue proved to be a watershed compromise that eventually 109 Representatives could support. I voted YES each time.
