Long hours await us this week as we reach the February 26 deadline for all bills to come out of the house of origin. The Senate and House bills that have not received hearings and passage by the committee of the whole by that date in the respective chambers will be considered dead unless they are blessed by the leadership or are in exempt committees. There have been approximately 940 new bills and resolutions filed during the 2000 legislative session and several hundred bills remain on the calendar from the 1999 session which have received no action. With this being an election year, all bills still on the calendar at the end of this session will be considered dead. The past two weeks have seen many hours spent in hearings not only in full committee, but committees have been divided into subcommittees to hold as many hearings and move as many bills as possible. The Senate Judiciary Committee continues to have the greatest number of bills filed. We expect to spend full days on the Senate floor in debate and final action.

At the request of Donna Homan of Donna’s Designs, I filed a bill in an attempt to ban on what could be one of the largest fraudulent practices hitting our state in years. A practice which has become wide spread in Kansas allows national telemarketing companies to masquerade as a local business, by listing themselves as local city florists with local phone numbers. Consumers who call these local numbers with the presumption they are contacting local florists are actually call-remote forwarded to another state, mainly New Jersey. Fictitious phone listings have been a high-profile issue for many retail florists across the nation. When I called our Winfield and Wellington listing, after much inquiry, I found that I was talking with a woman in New Jersey working out of her home. I was pleased that this consumers’ protection bill received a hearing this week with Donna Homan and Valerie Bean of Wellington, testifying, as well as florists from Salina, Kansas City, and Pittsburg.

The Senate Tourism Committee, of which I am a member, appreciated the opportunity to learn more about the Kansas Humanities Council’s role in the facilitating and promoting of the statewide tour of Barn Again! Celebrating An American Icon. Joan Cales, of the Winfield Public Library, gave most informative testimony of the huge success of the program in the Cowley County area emphasizing the large number of volunteer persons involved. Ms. Sherry, Associate Director of the Humanities Council, spoke on the other successes of this unique national/state/local partnership project. The 1999 legislature appropriated funding which enabled the Kansas Humanities Council to cover the exhibition rental fee and all instate shipping costs, as well as funds for each community for programming support. The numbers attending this Smithsonian Institution exhibition in the eight participating communities were a great boost to Kansas tourism.

Jim Hays, Superintendent of the Kansas Veteran’s Home, was in the Capitol recently to brief the Senate Ways and Means Chairman, as well as the Governor’s staff, of the need for additional money to complete the renovation of the Kansas Veteran’s Home, as well as additional budget funding for the current fiscal year. Colonel "Stoney" Wages, Executive Director of the State Veterans Affairs Commission, and I accompanied Mr. Hays to these meetings and heard the compelling reasons given. Chairman Dave Kerr listened intently but also spoke of the seriousness of our budget shortfall. We were extremely pleased that Senator Kerr paved the way for the requested funding to be made available. Many are anxiously awaiting the May 1 opening.

The Senate Tax Committee approved and sent to the full Senate a proposal for Kansas to participate with other states for a collection system for "remote sales," which skirts - or purports to skirt - current federal Internet tax prohibition. This pilot program would include multi state compacts, a request for proposals for a multi state sales tax collection system, legislative oversight, and a pilot project that allows a third party to collect sales taxes on "phone, fax, mail or Internet" transactions and remit them to states on an equitable basis. Defining the difference between "remote" and "Internet" may be difficult. This step is just the beginning for the states to receive the sales tax due on the millions of dollars of shopping done on the Internet.

It was a pleasure to have the Dexter High School American History Class accompanied by Mr. Berkley spend time in the Capitol. The Senate warmly welcomed them as they were introduced by the Senate President. The class members were very enthusiastic as they watched government in action.

An enjoyable evening was spent with the Leadership Sumner County class as they spent two days touring the KBI laboratory and observing government in action in the Captiol.

I enjoyed being the lunch guest of several women from the United Methodist Church in Wellington this past week. They relayed several concerns to me on issues before the legislature this session. It is encouraging to see so many people getting involved and taking a stand on government issues