The House was expected to debate a new tax plan today that had been put together in a conference committee last night. After convening this morning, the full House recessed until 1:00 to allow the tax conference committee to meet yet again to make some tweaks to said bill (SB 30). Those tweaks were agreed to and the report was set to go but when the House returned, it seems that a decision had been made to pull it yet again. It was perhaps clear that there were not enough votes to pass it and so it was unceremoniously set aside.

The House did, however, take up Sub for HB 2410, the school finance bill. It was rumored that there were more than 80 amendments prepared for the debate so we settled in for a long night.

Here’s a run-down of amendments:

  • An Aurand amendment to remove the Autism ABA therapy mandate was adopted. (KNEA supported),
  • A Trimmer amendment to strip out the local enrichment budget, transfer the money budgeted for that to a fund for schools losing money with the end of the block grants, and reinstate the cost of living levy was adopted. (KNEA supported),
  • A Trimmer amendment to change the name of the local foundation budget (LFB) back to the local option budget (LOB) was adopted. (KNEA supported)
  • A Trimmer amendment to strike the 10% at-risk floor and put the savings on the base ($2/student) failed. (KNEA did not support striking the 10% floor),
  • A Trimmer amendment to count all-day K enrollment for funding purposes in the current year for the first year of the new law was adopted (KNEA supported),
  • A Trimmer amendment to increase the funding in the bill to provide for $200 million new dollars per year for three years failed (KNEA supported),
  • A Highland amendment to put in a number of very bad policy pieces including high deductible health care plans for school employees, grading schools, merit pay, and more failed (KNEA opposed),
  • A Trevor Jacobs amendment on “bathroom privacy” – mandating use of bathrooms in schools according to the gender on one’s birth certificate – was ruled not germane and so was not voted on (KNEA opposed the amendment),
  • A Sutton amendment to end funding for out-of-state children (most of these are employee’s children, children whose parents work in Kansas, or children whose families own property that spans both sides of the border) failed (KNEA opposed the amendment),
  • A Clark amendment to stabilize funding in school districts impacted by military deployments and transfers was adopted (KNEA supported),
  • A Stogsdill amendment to restore due process for Kansas teachers was ruled non-germane and so was not voted on (KNEA supported the amendment),
  • A Whitmer amendment to have firearms safety training in schools based on the NRA “Eddie Eagle” program was ruled non-germane and so was not voted on (KNEA has never testified on this issue), and
  • An Ousley amendment to phase out the corporate tuition tax credit program failed (KNEA supported the amendment).

At this point Rep. Campbell was called upon to close on the bill. Apparently a lot of amendments were either duplicates or were pulled because the Rules Committee was strictly ruling any amendment that was policy alone as non-germane. According to the rules, there must be two points of nexus between the bill and an amendment. In the case of the three ruled non-germane, they were education policy only and did not touch on the second part of the bill, school finance.

While we are disappointed in the failure to get due process attached to the bill, the Rules Committee did interpret the rules correctly and applied their rulings fairly.

The bill was advanced to final action on a vote of 81 to 40. There will be a final action vote tomorrow morning.