Legislative Update #1 - January 13, 2023
The legislative session began Monday with the swearing in of statewide office holders and newly elected House members. Most of the anticipation for the week was focused on Wednesday when the Governor would deliver her fifth State of the State Address as well as Thursday when the Director of Budget would reveal the Governor’s Recommended Budget. The Governor’s State of the State ended up being delayed due to the Governor contracting COVID; however, she later test negative several times thankfully.
The Kansas Board of Regents’ request for FY24 was nearly $254M in new spending largely focused on new programs in high-demand fields, need-based aid to help grow accessibility to institutions of higher education as well as addressing deferred maintenance as well as a system-wide inflationary adjustment. You can find a complete list of KBOR’s request here.
In the Governor’s Recommended Budget, she proposed $107M in new funding that focuses on keeping tuition increases low, retaining students and attracting new students. There is $8.7M set aside for student retention, $24M for need-based aid, $21M to address inflation, $5M for IT infrastructure, $20M for deferred maintenance, $10M for demolition of buildings, a 5% pay increase for state workers (only the State-funded portion of positions not including tuition and RU funded positions). For a complete list of what is in the Governor’s Recommended Budget go here. The month of January will be spent on budget sub-committees hearing requests from individual agencies including WSU. Next week will be spent on committees having introductory meetings and some informational hearings.
Legislative Update #2 - February 17, 2023
The week primarily focused on budget testimony in both chambers. In the House Higher Education Committee, President Muma was the first university CEO to testify and focused on need-based aid to maintain accessibility and affordability of higher education; WSU’s enrollment strategy and applied learning that help generate a talent pipeline for industry and the new health sciences center that in addition to meeting health care workforce needs will help generate economic prosperity as health care is one of this state’s largest employers. In addition, the President focused broadly on supporting the Governor’s recommended budget. In the Senate, there was a different structure for testifying where all the CEOs testified on Thursday. In the next couple of weeks, these sub-committees will make their recommendations to the full Appropriations and Ways and Means Committees.
There were a couple of bill hearings related to higher education. SB 102 focuses on establishing residency criteria for technical colleges. Currently out-of-state students can achieve residency immediately upon entering Kansas. This bill would require non-resident students to wait six months to achieve residency. The bill was heard in Senate Education, and it was contentious with community colleges in support and technical colleges and KBOR speaking against. Even with a proposed compromise, the committee appeared to not have the votes for the bill and did not work it.
Another bill HB 2314 would prohibit the social media platform TikTok from being used on State-issued devices. Currently, most State devices are covered by Governor Kelly’s recent executive order; however, there are a couple of agencies (including universities) that are not covered. This bill would not only extend to those but would make the ban permanent. The House voted to pass the bill with a vote of 109-12 on Thursday, and it will now go the Senate.
SB 91 enacts the Kansas film and digital media production development act and establishes an income tax credit to incentivize the filming of movies and series in Kansas. There are similar tax credits in most states, and there was testimony in committee that shows Kansas has lost significant business by not having something similar. WSU testified in favor of this bill as we are poised to help address their workforce needs. The bill passed out of Senate Commerce Committee and will be worked on the floor next week.
Next week will be busy with committees rushing to get bills out of committee in order to meet the Wednesday turnaround date when non-exempt bills need to be out of their chamber of origin or they die for the year.
Legislative Update #3 - February 24, 2023
It was a busy week in the Legislature with committees rushing to complete their work Monday and Tuesday in order to move bills on the floor during turnaround week. This is critical due to the fact that at the end of turnaround week, bills that are not out of their chamber of origin are considered “dead” for the rest of session unless they’re in an exempt committee such as appropriations or ways and means committees and some others. Bills that passed out of committee that are of interest to higher education are below.
SB 91 - Enacting the Kansas film and digital media production development act; establishing an income tax credit and sales tax exemption program to be administered by the secretary of commerce for the purpose of developing film, video or digital production in Kansas. A component of this bill incentivizes digital media education, and it passed out of the Senate on Friday.
SB 94 - Discontinuing state property tax levies for the Kansas educational building fund and the state institutions building fund and providing for financing therefor from the state general fund. This bill essentially switches out property tax funds that go towards renovation and repair of higher ed facilities with state general fund support. KBOR testified against this bill due to concern about the long-term stability the state general fund compared to property tax. SB 94 was bundled into SB 138 this week, but it was not worked.
HB 2234 - Increasing and changing the measure of the cost threshold when state construction projects require a negotiating committee and the selection of professional services from a list of qualified firms. This bill benefits higher education by taking into consideration inflationary increases in price that trigger a State reporting and review process that causes delays in the project. The bill passed out of the House this week and is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate next Thursday.
HB 2238 - Creating the fairness in women's sports act to require that female student athletic teams only include members who are biologically female. Passed out of the House this week. Has not yet been scheduled a hearing in the Senate. This bill was also passed last session but vetoed by Governor Kelly, and the Legislature failed to override the veto.
HB 2290 - Authorizing the affiliation of northwest Kansas technical college and north central Kansas technical college with Fort Hays state university. This is structured similarly to the affiliation between WSU and WSU Tech. It passed out of the House this week and will now go the Senate where it has not yet been scheduled a hearing.
SB 203 - Enacting the Kansas campus restoration act to address deferred maintenance at state educational institutions, establishing the Kansas campus restoration fund in the state treasury and authorizing certain transfers from the state general fund to such fund. This bill allocated over $300M to a new fund focused on deferred maintenance for higher ed facilities with a 1:1 match of non-state funds. The bill had a hearing, but it was never voted out of committee. Since it is in Ways and Means, it is exempt from the turnaround rule.
HB 2314 - Prohibiting the use of the social media platform TikTok on state-owned devices and on any state network. Passed out of the House with a large and bi-partisan majority and is headed to the Senate where it has not been scheduled for a vote.
Budget – The Senate Ways and Means Sub-Committee for Higher Education adopted most of the Governor’s budget while reserving some things to be reviewed at omnibus such as need-based aid and the health sciences center as well as many other university-specific projects. The House and Senate are adjourned until next Wednesday when they will begin considering bills that have been passed over to them from the other chamber.