SB 22 is a bill originated in the Kansas Senate by Senate President Susan Wagle (R, 7%) to redistribute taxes to high earning individuals and multinational corporations. It passed the Senate 26-14, with a few Republicans bucking their leadership, but not enough margin to override a veto (in the Senate they need 27 votes). This past week, it passed the House, by a wider margin, 76-43. The House needs 84 votes to override a veto. There's been a lot of ink spilled and web pages refreshed on this topic, so we thought we'd take a minute to lay out the politics of this bill.

The Kansas Legislature has hit its first significant deadline, and the consensus is that there has been little action on the most important issues confronting the state. Of course both chambers did pass a slew of non-controversial bills by last Thursday's Turnaround Day, but budget bills, the education finance lawsuit, and medicaid expansion all sit in committees that can still work on them.

The Kansas Legislature is only in session for about five months, give or take a late night extension for partisan arm-twisting. It has some definite deadlines as the year progresses, and we are coming up on one of the most important this week: Turnaround Day. This is the last date on which non-exempt bills may be considered in the chamber in which they were introduced. This year it is this Thursday, February 28.

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on Education by Ed Peterson, President of the Board of Directors of the MainStream Coalition, in opposition to HB 2288, a bill that would expand religious speech in public schools.

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on Health and Human Services in opposition to HB 2274, a bill that requires doctors to tell patients that the "abortion pill" is reversible, while medical fact indicates this may not be true.

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on Federal and State Affairs in support of HB 2067, adding video streaming to committee rooms.

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on Taxation in opposition to SB 22, a bill designed to give tax breaks to wealthy Kansans and multi-national corporations, rather than lower and middle class Kansans.

This is testimony delivered to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government, and the House Committee on Elections, supporting SB43 and HB 2092, which would allow for Election Day voter registration.

Kansas has made the national news again, just like in the days when we stopped teaching evolution in schools. This time it's for Rep. Randy Garber's (0%) personal crusade against LGBTQ Kansans, women who want to leave an abusive marriage, and internet privacy. But this isn't the news you need to be paying attention to.

This is testimony delivered to the House Committee on Education in opposition to HB 2233, a bill to require public schools fun teacher school supplies (a GREAT idea!) without appropriating any new money to do so (meaning other programs will suffer).