| UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE REFORM |
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Senate and House Commerce Committees Send their Bills to Conference Committee
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The legislature has been wrestling with the unemployment fund since the great recession of 2009. The recession was so deep and prolonged that the fund was totally depleted to the point that Kansas, like most other states, had to borrow from the Federal Government to pay unemployment benefits. Note in the graph that 2009 was the worst for paying out unemployment benefits and basically depleted the fund. As you can see, unemployment benefits have declined as the unemployment rate has dropped to 5.5%. Kansas has repaid all of its obligations to the Federal Government.
The goal now is to rebuild the fund to withstand the next recession which is inevitable to happen. The Senate proposes to rebuild the fund by 2018. There was discussion to rebuild more slowly through 2021, so as not to put a burden on employers finally coming out of the recession cycle. In addition, the Senate plan is to raise and lower the number of weeks unemployment benefits will be paid based on the prevailing unemployment rate.
The following is the Senate proposal.
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KU CANCER RESEARCH FUNDING RESTORED
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Through two separate amendments we were able to restore the cancer research funding for KU. The first amendment was passed in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. We identified excess funds in a Department of Insurance operating account. In the spirit of Pay Go Rules I presented an amendment to move money from this account to KU cancer research. The amendment passed and restored $2.5 million. The second amendment I presented on the Senate floor during final debate of the budget. Under Pay Go Rules the amendment repurposed $2.5 million in oil and gas severance taxes to KU for cancer research. This second amendment also passed and restored the entire $5 million to KU's cancer research budget.
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PAGES AND VISITORS TO THE CAPITOL DURING SPRING BREAK
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Pages and Visitors are Always Welcome
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Senator Melcher and I welcomed Ann and Sydney to page for us on Thursday. It is always a pleasure when students want to be a Page. They normally come with a friend, or meet someone else who is a Page, so they can have someone to pal around and help with tasks. It is a valuable learning experience for them.
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 The regulations being written to implement the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obama Care, are staggering. The 2,300 pages of original legislation has already grown to over 70,000 pages. Stacked together the new regulations are now over 7 feet tall. Senator Jerry Moran's photo tells it best. |
Capitol Office
Overland Park 8416 W. 115th Street Overland Park, KS 66210 913.345.9416
Paid for by "Jim Denning for Kansas Senate" Kathy Vance, Treasurer | |
