June 3, 2015
Observers and many Representatives were stunned when the
House of Representatives adopted House Sub for SB 112 with no debate with a vote
of 64 to 48. The three minute action left
some members wondering if there had been an intentional rush to avoid public
debate. The House Majority Leader indicated
that there were no lights on to indicate that members wanted to speak on the
proposal.
This is truly surprising because the House never debated a mega-budget or omnibus budget on the floor this year. While the Appropriations Committee did develop a budget position in committee and did adopt many of the included positions (including adopting most of the Governor's Budget Amendments) - the committee bill was never brought above the line for debate in the House. Instead, the Senate adopted a mega-budget bill (crafted by the Senate Ways and Means Committee) prior to the April break and every adjustment since then has been simply inserted into the conference committee, including all post-April items that normally would take shape as an omnibus bill.
Many legislators believe that this was “as good as the budget
would get” at this late date. The
conference committee has also created another option – Senate Sub for HB 2135
would cut an additional 5.7% from all agencies. While there are some conservatives who would
like a chance to vote for that proposal, it would create many problems if
passed. For one thing, our Medicaid
program (KanCare) is required to provide “maintenance of effort” according to
federal requirements or incur penalties, meaning equal and/or more services and
equal and/or expanded eligibility. A
5.7% cut would have to include provider reimbursement cuts and would reduce the
federal funds for the program. The cut
to K-12 Education would almost certainly draw the attention of the Kansas
Supreme Court.
Read the conference committee report and a full explanation
of the bill at
http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2015_16/measures/sb112/
Scroll below to the chart of “Bill History”. The bill copy and supplemental note at the
top of the page describe the bill as originally passed – and NOT the
mega-budget as agreed by the conference committee.