At each major stage of the legislative process for immigration reform this year, it's been the determined effort of a unified business lobby that has controlled the outcome of various legislative efforts to deal with immigration, and each time to a result in their favor.

Although the softening of immigration enforcement proposals happened earlier in Senate committee, the backtracking away from measures that were originally stringent didn't appear in the House until a floor amendment overhauled its reform package and brought the House bill much closer to the Senate’s position.

However, there is one notable difference from the Senate’s bill. The House-passed proposal would require all Kansas businesses to participate in the federal E-Verify immigration status-checking program beginning in 2011. [ Read more...]

"Evidence of harm..."

House to sex shops: clean up the acts

Legislators on the House Federal and State Affairs Committee lined up to endorse a bill that would extend state regulations to sex shops, adult video stores and exotic dance clubs. So-called "adult" businesses would be limited to certain locations and hours, prohibit entry to children under 18, preclude them from selling alcohol and set other conditions on their conduct. [ Read more...]

After major surgery on a Senate version

House passes sweeping health initiative

The Kansas House passed a health care package Tuesday that will give many Kansans greater insurance flexibility, extend coverage to some of the state's poorer residents, increase funding for cancer prevention by covering the cost of more screenings in rural health centers, and make added prenatal care available for poor women. One significant addition was an expansion of the Premium Assistance program enacted last year.

The House bill was a gentler, kinder, much more expensive version of a bill the Kansas Senate had passed last week. The Senate bill got a complete, and almost instant, makeover in the House, where the floor debate lasted less than three hours. That was time enough, however, for the bill’s contents to be changed dramatically and when the vote was taken, the measure passed by a 103-20 margin. The only side-effect? The $10 million price tag - and there's no money in the budget for it. [ Read more...]

© 2008 John Francis Borra for Kansas Liberty. All rights reserved.

Fear of "climate change" drives vetoes

Sebelius continues campaign against energy plants

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius remained in counter-offensive mode this week following her recent veto of the majority-backed response to the Holcomb coal plant controversy that has spotlighted concerns from climate change to economic growth to constitutional regulatory powers.

Last week Sebelius immediately followed her veto with an executive order establishing a new task force called the Kansas Energy and Environmental Policy Advisory Group. She explained that her as yet unnamed 25-member group “will explore opportunities in all sectors of our economy to accomplish the goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions; [sic] and, at the same time, continue to take advantage of the economic prosperity provided by job growth throughout Kansas.” The group will be linked to an organization dedicated to "helping states and the nation tackle climate change." [ Read more...]

Legislator end-runs Senate block

Patton bill: a unanimous verdict for stricter sentencing

Lawmakers often need creative tactics to keep favored bills in good position for action this late in the session.

Take, for example, Rep. Joe Patton, R-Topeka, who sponsored a bill to limit judges’ discretion in lowering the sentences of those convicted of violent sexual crimes. The measure that passed the House passed by a vote of 123-0, but when the Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed it this week, they tabled the bill. Only a super-majority vote could resurrect it. So Patton immediately swung into action with a backup plan. [ Read more..]

Bad luck for gambling interests?

Lawsuit seeks to halt casino construction

Allowing a casino developer to build near the Kansas Speedway and The Legends at Village West retail area in Wyandotte County would violate the state’s ban on public financing of casinos, according to charges in a lawsuit filed this week against four state agencies.

The Kansas Lottery, the Kansas Lottery Commission, the Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board and the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission are being sued in a civil action brought by four Kansas City residents opposed to taxpayer support for the state-owned gambling operations authorized by the Legislature and Gov. Sebelius last year. [ Read more...]

Out-spends the House

Senate votes a $13.4 billion budget for '09

The Kansas Senate passed its version of three major budget bills this week. The results hit above the House's proposed budget, but less than Gov. Sebelius had requested.

The total Senate budget for fiscal year 2009 would be $13.4 billion. That's $33 million more than the House’s recommendation and $147 million less than the governor’s. [ Read more...]

The Week on the Web

Game to go: The Sweet 16 is on the mind of America this weekend. Jayhawks assistant coach Kurtis Townsend is given the native-son-makes-good treatment by the Detroit Free Press. Townsend was an assistant at Michigan from 1998 until 2001. Meanwhile, the shrinking bloggers at Bracketography analyze the 'hawks up, down and all around.

Biodegrading! The Kansas Republican's blogger takes apart Sebelius' coal-plant play, including those involved in her "independent report." Says KR, "Before providing 'nonbiased' analysis, Eric Kane, a Senior Analyst at Innovest and chief author of the report, was a Project Manager for Earth Pledge, that among other wacko things, advocates for sustainable/edible/ biodegradable fashion."

You don't say. Steve Benen at Crooks and Liars says state GOP committees are in bad shape. Kansas, he says, is an example (especially for people who have never been to Kansas): "Even in some of the reddest states in the nation, Republicans have faced dispiriting news. As if Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ easy 2006 re-election victory wasn’t insult enough in heavily Republican Kansas, she won with a running mate who was more than a little familiar to the state GOP ­ Mark Parkinson, the former state Republican chairman, who switched parties to run as her lieutenant governor. Just four years earlier, Parkinson had exclaimed that 'any Republican who supports Kathleen Sebelius for governor is either insincere or uninformed.' Sebelius is now frequently mentioned as a prospective vice presidential nominee."

A Preview of the Coming Week

Only a couple of committee meetings are scheduled for next week so that the Legislature can devote its time to full floor debates and to small negotiating groups – called conference committees – that meet to hammer out differences between House and Senate versions of bills already passed by either chamber.  On Tuesday, April 1, the Legislative Post Audit Committee will review a new study to be published regarding state contracts for foster care and family preservation services.

Exclusive columns: On Monday, columnist Denis Boyles will kick off the week. Then, a day or so later, look for "Ruff around the edges" - a new column by L. Candy Ruff.