Welcome to the seventh edition of Ronnie’s Report – a weekly update for the 2008 Legislative Session. I will hit the highlights of the Legislature and point out issues that may affect us in District 24.

Town Hall Meeting next weekend
Our next “Town Hall” Meeting will be at Lucky Brewgrille , 5401 Johnson Drive in Mission on this Saturday, March 15, from 8:30 to 9:30 AM. We will provide complimentary coffee and pastries. Come be a part of the discussion.

District 24 Legislative Survey
You are still welcome to participate in my legislative survey. For more info, see the last paragraph of this newsletter.

Annexation bill
HB 2747 is also known as the Overland Park annexation bill has been blessed and re-referred. The term “blessed” means a bill has been granted exemption from the deadlines that normally affect legislation at the turnaround deadline. A blessed bill can continue to have life in its house of origin. From a technical perspective, a bill gets blessed when it is referred to an exempt committee.

In this case, leadership first withdrew HB 2747 from Elections and Governmental Organization (EGO) and referred it to an exempt committee, and then re-referred it to EGO. This action comes in the aftermath of the Johnson County Commission’s ruling on the 15+ square mile tract under question.

If you missed the news, the Commission sub-divided the tract into 5 parcels and granted approval for annexation of three of them to Overland Park , who subsequently voted unanimously to move forward on the 8.5 square mile annexation. As I have said, this issue is not dead in the legislature. I will keep you posted.

Four More Pages
I was pleased this week to have at my side four delightful young ladies from Crestview Elementary and Antioch Middle Schools . We talked, I taught, they learned and asked lots of questions. Thanks for the wonderful time Deidra Lutz, Goldia Kiteck, Natalie Yancey and Samantha Yancey. We had a great lunch at the Pizza buffet and they took in the historic Capitol tour and the tour to the top of the Dome. … I also enjoyed getting acquainted with their Moms, Kathryn Lutz and Jean Sunega.

Speaking to Roeland Park City Council

Last Monday night I appeared before the City Council of Roeland Park to give a briefing and answer questions on several bills that had potential consequences for their city, such as the bill to ban collection and inspection fees for rental properties, the proposed performance measurement commission and application to the city, the cyber-bullying bill and the approval of cities collecting convenience fees from citizens using credit cards to pay city fees.

Tour BNSF

Because the railroads are such a significant part of our state-wide transportation issues, Transportation Committee Chair Hayzlett arranged a tour of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe overhaul base near downtown Topeka . I was not alone in my fascination of all they do.

They utilize 6,500 track locomotives in addition to hundreds of switch engines. Each year, they overhaul 388 of these units at this base. Amazingly, they work non-stop for 7 shifts (about 2 ½ days) to completely overhaul a unit. Track locomotive engines have 16 cylinders, switch engines, only 12. The diameter of the cylinders is a couple inches larger than a basketball. How about efficiency; it only takes one gallon of diesel fuel to haul a ton of freight 450 miles.

Each year, BNSF transports:

Enough grain to supply 900 million people a year’s supply of bread;
Enough lumber to build over 500,000 homes;
Enough asphalt to lay a single-lane road four times around the equator;
Enough coiled sheet steel to lay the unrolled coils end to end 12 times between New York City and Seattle , WA .

Because it involves our committee, in the days ahead you will hear me talk more about the BNSF intermodal hub, a $1.7 Billion facility that will bring 13,000 new jobs to SW Johnson County and Gardner. Over the next 20 years, the facility will inject a projected $233 million into the State and local public coffers in Kansas .

Immigration Bills

The last several days, I have received questions and comments regarding immigration. Up until now, there has not been any significant action in any committees, but I know of at least five immigration bills in the House and Senate. Recently, the House Federal and State Affairs Committee heard four immigration bills including HB 2921, HB 2370, HB 2680, and HB 2836. In the Senate, SB 458 has had a hearing in the Federal and State Affairs Committee.

Unless a person is on one of the committees, it is hard to get a feel for how the bills are progressing. The process of hearing from the proponents and opponents is very enlightening. I will keep you posted regarding these bills as they move forward.

HB 2543 is in the House Committee for Taxation and recently had a hearing. Proponents presented their proposed language changes which would provide that newly constructed buildings intended for residential purposes, whether single family or multi-families of four units or less and would be treated as inventory of the builder and exempt from taxation until occupied for residential purposes.

The net effect of the change in assessment and taxation of “builders’ inventory” would result in the builder only paying property tax upon the real estate on which residence was built. Tax would be imposed immediately upon the occupancy of the residence and tax paid over the pro rated portion of the year remaining after occupancy. It seems this bill would give relief to the home builders, but also result in placing the properties on the tax rolls sooner than they are now, and therefore several cities favor the changes as well.

Final Action

Campaign Finance Reform

On the last day before turnaround, we passed four bills having to do with Campaign Finance Reform. All four of the bills came through our Elections and Governmental Organization committee and did not have any controversy in Committee.

HB 2308 would clarify the circumstances under which a candidate is permitted to use contribution funds for membership dues or donations paid to a community service or civic organization.

The bill would clarify two things: 1) that only membership dues related to a candidate’s campaign are permitted to be paid from contribution funds. 2) Clarify that donations are permitted to be paid from contribution funds only if the candidate receives no goods or services unrelated to a candidate’s campaign as a result of the payment of such dues or donations.

HB 2408 would amend existing law related to campaign finance to require that a political action committee or a party committee provide more detailed information on certain expenditures than currently required.

The requirements would apply to expenditures for an in-kind contribution to a candidate in an aggregate amount of $300 or more, and; for an aggregate expenditure of $300 or more made without the consent or cooperation of the candidate, and which expressly advocates the nomination, election or defeat of that candidate.

The bill would require those committees to report the name and address of the candidate; the amount, date, and purpose of each expenditure; and the specific service or product provided.

HB 2697 would amend existing law related to campaign finance to require that mandated reports of contributions by an individual of more than $150 include the type of industry in which the individual works. This would be in addition to the current requirement to report the name and occupation of those contributors.

SB 196 would require that the treasurer for a candidate for a state or local office file a campaign contribution report listing information for each person who has made one or more contributions totaling $300 or more during the period that begins 11 days before a primary or general election and ending just before the Wednesday preceding the date of the election. The report must be made on or before the close of business on the Thursday preceding the election.

I received relatively significant contact from residents in District 24 who were concerned that these bills would threaten free speech rights. We did encounter a couple challenges on the floor of the House with attempted amendments, but the bills were all passed without contention – almost unanimously. Some of these bills are very technical. If you want to know more, please let me know and I can call you to discuss them.

Substitute for HB 2018 has been called the most taxpayer friendly bill to come out of the House this year. It would rename the State Board of Tax Appeals (BOTA) the State Court of Tax Appeals (COTA) which would be construed to be an administrative law court within the executive branch of government. There would be a transfer of all jurisdiction, rights, powers, duties, and functions of BOTA to COTA.

There are parts of this bill that are very technical, if you are interested, let me know.

HB 2520 would clarify that condominium developers, as opposed to owners of previously built units, would be responsible for property taxes owed on “convertible land” that is to be utilized to develop future units.

HB 2750 would amend the existing law as it applies to certain real and personal property leased and used for research and development at a postsecondary educational institution.

This bill would:

1. Provide an exemption for real and personal property that is owned by postsecondary educational institutions or by the Board of Regents on behalf of the postsecondary educational institutions.

2. Provide an exemption when the postsecondary educational institution’s property is leased by a for-profit company and is actually and regularly used exclusively for research and development purposes.

3. Require that any rental income received by the postsecondary educational institution would be used exclusively for educational or scientific purposes.

Concur with Senate

Energy Bill update This week, the House concurred with the Senate Passing House Substitute SB 327 passing with 75 votes, and sent the bill to the Governor.

HB 2071 originally came to the house floor and resulted in some uneasiness in naming a Highway the “War on Terror Highway .” A motion failed that suggested alternate names since the American Legion was the originator of the legislation.

The Senate amended the bill to change the proposed designation of K-156 from the War On Terrorism Veterans Memorial Highway and give new names to two segments of K-156 near Garden City: the Operation Iraqi Freedom Veterans Memorial Highway and the Operation Enduring Freedom Veterans Memorial Highway. Everyone in the House seemed pleased and we concurred with the Senate.

Other District 24 news

Antioch Middle School Neurotechnology problem solvers
Two teams from Antioch Middle School qualified for the state Future Problem Solvers (FPS) Competition to be held in Hutchinson , Kan. , April 14. Teams completed a solution booklet using the 6-step FPS problem solving process on the topic of Neurotechnology. The teams are: Katie Huddleston, Kate DeJarnette, Elizabeth Nickolett, and Elaine Steve; and Hana Jaafar, Jeremy Muller, Nick Porter, and Eva Roebuck.

Shawnee Mission North High School good news
Valerie Alexander, senior, has been awarded a $13,500 renewable scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. Katie Carlson has been awarded the BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) Friends of M.C.A.D. Minneapolis College of Art And Design ($6000 renewable) scholarship.

Top 10 in State competition
Congratulations to the SM North DECA team that competed at the DECA State Career Development Conference on Sunday and Monday. There were many great performances for North. Daniela Iliescu finished 10th in one of her role-plays. Rhiannon Mendez finished 6th in one of her role plays and 9th overall in Retail Merchandising. Liz Schmitt finished 9th in one of her role plays and an impressive 4th on her comprehensive test for Hotel and Lodging Management. Katie Sutton finished 4th and 5th in her two role plays and 8th overall in Automotive Services. Rhett Henry finished 8th in testing and 6th and 8th in his two role plays for a 7th place overall finish in Business Services.

The big winner for North was senior Heather Becker. Heather finished 10th in testing and 2nd and 5th in her two role plays. She finished 4th overall in her Food Marketing series and qualified to compete in the National DECA Conference in Atlanta , Georgia in April.

Congratulations to Heather and all of the North DECA members for a fantastic showing at State.

North had the second strongest showing of all the Shawnee Mission schools.

District 24 Legislative Survey
You are still welcome to participate in my legislative survey regarding issues coming this session. I have posted several questions in an on-line survey that you may take through my website.

If you have a few minutes, please go to: www.ronniemetsker.com and look for the button on the left that says “Constituent Survey.” I have lived in District 24 for over 50 years, and truly believe it is not what I think, but what you think that matters. This is the essence of representation. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing from you.

Please feel free to forward this e-mail to others you know in our District.