Capitol Comments
February, 26 2000
Many important issues were decided by the Senate as we finished our business by the approval of many bills on Friday. During the second half of this session, we will take up those bills which were sent over by the House.
PARENTS AND GUARDIANS OF THE DISABLED VOICE CONCERNS
Parents and guardians of the disabled from all over the state were in the Capitol last week to relay their frustrations to a House Appropriations Committee. Their story of trying to access the system through the present CDDO formula was most shocking and very troubling to the committee members. We heard the largest roadblock which parents encountered was by the very person who is in place to help - the CDDO. Testimony was presented which verified that a true conflict of interest exists and there is no right, fair, and best way for this present system to work for those people with disabilities. Testimony was presented by parents who were told to go through all the local dispute resolution process before making their plea at the state level. This was all locally done to no avail and then being only told by SRS "With our limited number of staff, there is little we can do in Topeka." The parents have no recourse other than to address the legislature. Opponents gave testimony which asked that the system not be changed because it would cause confusion for family members. The CDDO empire sitting in Topeka has no idea of the confusion and heartache our family members are experiencing at the local level with our flawed gatekeeper system.
The only real question which is before those people very concerned with the care of the disabled of our state is whether the State of Kansas needs to preserve an administrative process that - at the very least - permits self-interest to influence the services and support opportunities provided to its citizens with developmental disabilities.
If every person in our state could have heard the 4+ hours of testimony, there would be no one questioning the need for passage of the CDDO legislation brought forward by the Post Audit Committee.
DEER POPULATION CONTROL BILL PASSES
A bill to control the Kansas deer population made it to the Senate floor from the Senate Natural Resources committee. The original bill was endorsed by Wildlife and Parks as one proposal of their five year extensive plan to control the deer population in Kansas. A second bill failed to receive committee approval but was added as a floor amendment which would increase landowners permits to allow them to sell the permits to out-of-state hunters. We heard testimony that these hunters are in abundance and wanting to come to Kansas for the big trophy deer and are willing to pay from $1,500 to $7,500 to landowners for deer hunting purposes. I do not feel there would be any incentive for landowners to control their deer population with the money incentive awaiting them. I have no problem with landowners making money from deer hunters on their land, but the original bill was to try to control deer population rather than encourage it. The bill as passed by the Senate would reduce hunting land for residents and do very little to encourage hunters to reduce the doe population. Several in my district have already contacted me opposed to the amendment placed on the bill citing my same concerns.
CONTROVERSIAL TEACHER PAY PLAN PASSED
By a narrow margin, the Senate passed legislation which would pave the way for a merit pay system for public school teachers. Under the bill, teachers could receive an unspecified amount of additional salary, as determined by the school board, for work done beyond their normal responsibilities. The bill also contained a provision whereby teachers would lose some due process rights. Whether teachers could participate in the plan would be decided by the 304 school districts. Should all 34,000 teachers opt to join the new system, it could cost the state general fund budget approximately $14 million. The passage of this bill with the accompanying fiscal note does not indicate we have a budget crunch this session.
IN CONCLUSION
It was a pleasure to have Will Tatum and Caleb Jones, Burden and Rebecca Ann Murphy, Udall to act as pages for the Senate this past week. They represented my district well in their duties.
I encourage my constituents to watch the many bills as they make their way through the legislative process. Contact me with your concerns. I appreciate receiving opinions from those I am honored to represent.
I appreciate receiving all concerns and opinions on legislation which is being acted on this session. You can reach me via E-mail at ggoodwin@ink.org. Or Goodwin@senate.state.ks.us. My address is State Capitol, Room 403-N, Topeka, KS 66612, telephone (785) 296-7381 or l-800-432-3924. You can visit my web page at members.tripod.com/~Ggoodwin.
Copyright © January, 2001 by Jamiebro Web Publications. All rights reserved.