While waiting on budget, legislators urge federal action
By MIKE CORN
It's been a busy year for Kansas legislators -- if you count the crush of electronic mail being received and the number of resolutions that are being proposed.
Otherwise, there's not a lot of activity going on in the Statehouse.
Rep. Eber Phelps, D-Hays, joined with Rep. Ed Trimmer, D-Winfield, and others to introduce resolution urging support for "an exemption from air emissions requirements for cattle producers and prairie maintenance."
The resolution deals with Environmental Protection Agency involvement in the burning of the Flint Hills each spring, a practice that is designed to aid grass production. Smoke from the burning, however, is considered a pollutant and causes smog alerts when it drifts over the Kansas City metropolitan area.
It was just one of several resolutions introduced last week by both the House and Senate.
A second House resolution urges federal legislation to regulate the loud volume of television commercials. The House in December passed a measure, the CALM Act -- Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation.
Two other measures were introduced on the Senate side of the Capitol -- one urging Congress to fund construction of the National Bio- and Agro-defense Facility in Manhattan and advance the sale of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. The second voices opposition to the EPA regulating greenhouse gases by way of rule making, rather than letting Congress pass legislation.
How much weight the resolutions carry is uncertain, but Phelps said it likely gets used by individual members of the Kansas congressional delegation.
"It's almost like a petition," he said. "You can look at it from that standpoint."
The resolutions, Phelps said, generally vary in importance, and this year are something of a sign of a Legislature waiting to spring into action.
There aren't many committee meetings under way, he said, and items such as the budget are pending.
Ironically, Phelps said, the House Tax Committee rejected the idea of a 1-percent sales tax before it had a budget bill to consider. Still, the committee agreed to forward it to the entire House rather than kill it outright.
By sending it to the House, the measure now must have 70 votes to bring it to a vote. Only 60 votes would have been needed to pass the measure and send it on to the Senate.
"Why are we even working on a tax bill when you don't know what you'll need the money for?" Phelps asked.
Rep. Dan Johnson, R-Hays, said the House lacks the desire to pass a tax increase.
"I just don't see how, at this time, any tax increase is going to pass the House," he said.
What is attracting interest is the 10-percent cut on Medicare that was implemented by Gov. Mark Parkinson before legislators returned to Topeka. But, Phelps said, by saving $22 million, the state is losing $77 million in federal revenue.
They aren't alone in seeing cuts.
"We've gone from cutting to bare bones to we're breaking bones," Phelps said he was told.
Despite the cuts, Phelps said there's not a huge influx of people at the session, or at events he and other legislators appear at.
At Saturday's Eggs and Issues, he said, "it didn't seem to me like there was a large contingent of one group or another. Just the usual attendees."
E-mail now is the preferred push, and Phelps said he's got about 4,000 of them to wade through, most dealing with Medicare cuts.
But only a small number are from his district.
"It takes so much time," he said of the crush of electronic mail. "You can sit here for half an hour until you find someone from your district."