Approved KPERS bill has employee options

Written by Rep. Bob Brookens Tuesday, 27 March 2012 14:47

On Mon­day last week we grappled with the proposal for a new KPERS plan—the retirement program for Kansas’ new governmental workers set out in House substitute for SB 259.

The plan—if it clears both houses and is approved by the governor—will be called “Tier III” and deals with workers hired in and after 2014.

It does not impact those currently in KPERS in any way; it only deals with new hires. The proposal is a cash-balance plan, which means the state or local government will contribute 4 percent and the employee will contribute 6 percent to the fund, and the money goes into that employee’s account.

The contribution will earn a guaranteed 5 percent rate of return, with the possibility of bonus payments if certain...

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No-income-tax bill is a ‘fatally flawed’ initiative

Written by Rep. Bob Brookens Tuesday, 20 March 2012 14:08

The income-tax bill, House Substitute for SB 177, was heard Tuesday on the floor of the House. It would completely eliminate the income tax, and I still oppose that concept.

I imagine that we who oppose this bill will be accused of wanting to grow government, which is nonsense. It’s a tax bill chock full of bad tax policy, in my judgment. That’s why I voted no.

Numerous amendments modified the bill and truly made it less awful, but that’s kind of like putting lipstick on a pig. In my view, the underlying bill is fatally flawed, and no amount of lipstick can pretty it up. It passed 68-56.

Last week’s other biggie was the budget. The March budget measure, which we call the mega budget, is designed to do two things: first...

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Bill retains property-tax help for local government, includes a ‘poke’

Written by Rep. Bob Brookens Tuesday, 13 March 2012 15:14

HB 2609 is the new HB 2212 I wrote about two weeks ago. It came back as promised Friday, with both its moving parts.

The property-tax relief portion in the bill of $45 million to local governments (not schools) is very important to all Kansans, and that part passed.

The bill in its final form also had that part forcing local governments to lower their mill levies to match the previous year’s budget, then raise to the mill levy needed to do business. This “poke-in-the-eye” to local governments is unnecessary in the 70th District, but likely is a harmless exercise in futility and paperwork.

Our local leaders consistently talk openly and often about the moving parts and interaction of mill levies and budgets. We initially had that...

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‘Gotcha’ politics is no way to run a legislature

Written by Rep. Bob Brookens Tuesday, 06 March 2012 15:54

When we reconvened after turnaround on Wednesday, we reconsidered HB 2212 that I wrote about last week.

We were asked to vote the bill down so those who thought the bill contained the original part and the amendment would have the opportunity to vote on that; we had the assurance the bill would return soon with both parts.

Using “gotcha” politics is truly no way to run the legislature, so I voted to kill the bill on the faith that it would return for another vote. I will continue to push for property-tax relief.

Some more of the significant bills passed in the House before turnaround were:

• The House modified a tuition grant program in HB2435, hoping to boost technical education enrollment; at the same time the Senate modified...

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