NFIB

This week's legislative report contains several updates on our most closely watched bills. The Legislature will be busy at work next week in preparation for meeting Saturday's Turn-Around deadline. Committees will be working bills Monday through Wednesday, followed by both chambers taking part in floor debate beginning Wednesday afternoon and concluding as late as Saturday evening. 

Decoupling
The Senate Taxation committee held a hearing Tuesday on the decoupling bill. Proponents of decoupling Kansas from the federal stimulus package included the Department of Revenue who noted the short-term fiscal note impact of the bonus depreciation provision. Opponents included NFIB, Americans for Prosperity and several chambers of commerce. The arguments against decoupling included turning Kansas into a state that doesn't encourage capital investment and the nightmare decoupling would create businesses as it relates to accounting and bookkeeping practices.

Healthcare
The House Insurance Committee held a hearing on HB 2822 Wednesday. NFIB was joined by TIBA, WIBA and the Kansas Chamber in supporting this bill. The hearing went well until the Department of Revenue testified in opposition to the bill noting that the fiscal note "could be as high as a billion dollars." This statement was absurd and blatantly false. The note assumed that any business could claim the business healthcare tax credit that we're proposing, when in fact the bill limits it to small businesses as defined under current law. Upon conclusion of the hearing, I confronted the Revenue spokesman and pointed out his absurd mistake. The department is generating a new fiscal note that should be ready in time for the committee to work the bill on Tuesday. If for some reason the committee doesn't have time to work the bill next week, then Speaker Neufeld will "bless" the bill so that it doesn't die in committee due to the Turn-Around deadline. This procedure would allow us to work the bill in committee the week after next.

In addition to the tax credits, the bill contains some language and allowance for mandate-lite plans.

Regulatory fairness
Great news on the regulatory fairness front. The House Commerce and Labor committee voted the bill out of committee without objection on Friday. Even more exciting was that the committee agreed to place the bill on the consent calendar where it will first appear on Monday. If a bill remains on the consent calendar for three consecutive days without objection, then it will advance directly to final action on the House floor. This means it would avoid any attempts to amend the bill by the committee of the whole. 

Current law requires state agencies to create an economic impact statement when proposing rules and regulations. The statements are then forwarded to the legislative Rules and Regulations Committee for review. House Bill 2827 grants the Rules and Regulations Committee the authority to then request an economic impact statement specific to "small employers" (50 employees or fewer). By crafting the legislation this way, we avoided a large fiscal note from the state agencies. I believe the various agencies assumed that the Rules and Regulations Committee would rarely request a small employer statement. What they don't know is that NFIB will constantly review proposed rules and regulations and will not hesitate in asking the chairperson of the committee to request a small employer economic impact statement. 

The Senate Commerce and Labor committee will hold a hearing on SB 579 (Regulatory Fairness) Tuesday. This is an exact copy of the House bill we passed out of committee on Friday. Sen. Julia Lynn introduced the bill for us, so I wanted to make sure she had the opportunity to advocate for it before the committee. It is my hope to send the Senate version down a similar path as the House one so that we can have a bill on the governor's desk well before the end of the regular session.

Derrick Sontag
NFIB/Kansas State Director
112 SW 6th Ave.
Suite 408
Topeka, KS 66603
785-354-9374 (office)
785-213-9769 (cell)
derrick.sontag@nfib.org