BY SEAN WARDWELL and MATTHEW CLARK
GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
The Kansas Legislature has reached the halfway point in the 2010 session. The bills listed below have been passed by the house or senate, and are awating consideration by their counterparts.
House Bills:
HB2206
Issue: Partial-birth abortion
Meaning: Re-defines partial-birth abortions, what constitutes the viability of a fetus and changes reporting requirements for doctors who perform late-term abortion. Doctors who perform abortions must report the specific medical diagnosis and condition constituting a sunstantial and irreversible imparement of a major bodily function, and include a sworn statement by the doctor and refering doctor that there is no legal or financial relationship between them. Furthermore, the gestinational age of the fetus must be reported. The bill would allow the husband, parents or guardians of the woman having a late-term abortion, if under 18, to file a civil action against a doctor perfrorming the procedure.
HB 2222
Issue: Fee surcharges
Meaning: The bill would authorize any state department, agency, commission or authority which is obligated by state law to collect any license, fee, charge, tax or other assessment to impose a surcharge not to exceed 5.0 percent of the assessment in order to enhance the efficiency of collecting the monies. Similarly, the bill authorizes these agencies to establish a discount up to 5.0 percent of the assessment in order to enhance the efficiency of collecting the monies.
HB 2275
Issue: Drug testing for those who reveive public assistance
Meaning: The bill would require the Kansas Health Policy Authority to establish a program of random drug screening for all public assistance recipients on or before January 1, 2010. All applicants for public assistance as a condition for eligibility and all persons receiving public assistance as a condition of continued receipt of the assistance would be required to participate in the program.
HB 2320
Issue: Budget reserve funds
Meaning: The bill would establish the Budget Stabilization Reserve Fund in the state treasury. Any expenditures from the fund must be appropriated by the Legislature. The Reserve Fund would retain its own interest earnings. If the balance in the Reserve Fund equaled the ending balance in the State General Fund, no additional monies would be transferred. For FY 2010 and beyond, the Legislature may transfer monies back from the Reserve Fund to the State General Fund only in the event that General Fund revenues are less than the prior year, up to the amount of the difference.
HB 2360
Issue: Budget request timing
Meaning: The bill would amend current law relating to the state’s budget process, requiring state agencies to file budget requests with the Division of the Budget on September 15 of each year, beginning in 2010.
HB 2442
Issue: Streamlining government
Meaning: The bill would create the Kansas Streamlining Government Act and establish the Kansas Streamlining Government Commission. The Commission would provide an independent review of state executive branch agencies. The Commission would be composed of six members appointed by legislative leadership and one by the Governor.
HB 2468
Issue: Sex offender registery
Meaning: The bill would increase the time a conviced sex offender would have to register with the state from 10 years, to10 years to life.
HB 2473
Issue: Card surcharges
Meaning: Currently, a seller is prohibited from imposing a surcharge on a card holder who uses a credit card in lieu of a cash payment. Under HB 2473, a seller would also be prohibited from imposing a surcharge on a card holder who uses a debit card in lieu of a cash payment.
HB 2482
Issue: Driver licenses
Meaning: Current law requires the Division of Vehicles of the Department of Revenue to include specific items with a mailed notice of expiration at least 30 days prior to the expiration of a person’s license. These items are: an eyesight examination form; a driver’s examination form; a Kansas driver’s manual; written information explaining the person’s right to make an anatomical gift; written information describing and relating to the organ donation registry program; and a notice for driver’s license renewal. HB 2482 would require the Division to mail only the notice of expiration at least 30 days prior to the expiration of the person’s license and provide notice that the additional information is available on the agency’s website. The bill would also allow any person who is residing with and is a dependent of a person on active duty in the armed forces of the United States, who is stationed outside the State of Kansas, to renew the license without examination at any time prior to the end of the sixth month following discharge or within 90 days after reestablishing residence within the state, whichever time is sooner.
Senate Bills:
Name: SB 351
Issue: an act relating to crimes and punishment; prohibiting text messaging while operating a motor vehicle.
Meaning: the law makes it illegal to text message while driving on Kansas roadways. The first conviction is a traffic offense, while the second and subsequent offenses are treated as class B misdemeanors. If bodily harm comes due to texting while driving, the potential penalty is relative to a class A misdemeanor.
Name: SB 414
Issue: an act concerning the health care stabilization fund
Meaning: amends a previous bill to state that the fund is for the purpose of paying damages for personal injury or death arising out of the rendering of or failure to render professional services by a health care provider and establishes a Board of Governors to oversee the fund — which is kept in trust in the state treasury.
Name: SB 425
Issue: an act concerning motor vehicle fuels; relating to blending of fuels.
Meaning: states that any motor vehicle fuel for sale shall contain additives is sufficient concentrations such that after the addition of ethanol, the final product meets or exceeds the lowest additive concentrations as required by the EPA.
Name: SB 455
Issue: an act concerning the civil confinement of sexually violent predators.
Meaning: allows for written notice giving to the Attorney General and the multidisciplinary team 90 days prior to the release of a person that has been convicted of a sexually violent offense. In addition, the bill also states that a witness not testifying as an expert will be limited to opinions and inferences as the judge finds rationally based on the perception of the witness.
Name: SB 533
Issue: an act concerning crimes and criminal procedure; providing for electronic citations, complaints and notices to appear.
Meaning: Allows for the use of an electronic citation system to create a paper citation. Essentially, a citation can be generated from a computer and used as a paper citation by law enforcement.
Senate Bills rejected by the Senate floor prior to Turnaround:
Name: SB 375
Issue: an act concerning the abolition of the death penalty.
Meaning: The bill would repeal the Kansas death penalty — enacted since 1994 — for anyone convicted of a capital crime after July 1, 2010. It would replace the death penalty sentence with life without parole. The 10 already on death row would have still faced the death penalty under the provision.
Name: SB 456
Issue: an act concerning consumer protection; creating the Kansas robo-call privacy act.
Meaning: The bill would prohibit robo-calling from telemarketers and create a so-called "no-call" list for Kansans to place their numbers on. The act would not apply messages from nonprofit tax-exempt charitable organizations sent solely for the purpose soliciting voluntary donations as well as messages from school districts to parents or those that have a business relationship, such as an employee receiving a work schedule.
