Marijuana? Redistricting? Vetoes? Here are issues Kansas lawmakers could decide soon
Kansas lawmakers last week approved a budget, funded K-12 schools and sent Gov. Laura Kelly bills phasing out the food sales tax and legalizing sports betting.
They also overrode Kelly’s veto of a bill expanding work requirements for food stamp recipients but failed to override her vetoes of a bill banning transgender athletes from girls sports and another establishing a “parents bill of rights.”
The House finished work and adjourned late Thursday, followed by the Senate early Friday morning.
Traditionally the conclusion of the Legislature’s annual veto session marks the end of the bulk of their legislative work, but this year they’re not done.
In an unusual move, lawmakers are scheduled to return to Topeka on Monday, May 23, for a second veto session..
Here are the issues still in play:
More potential vetoes
House and Senate GOP leaders said they anticipate needing to address more Kelly vetoes when they return.
If Kelly vetoes these bills, lawmakers would need a two-thirds majority to override — that’s 84 votes in the House and 27 in the Senate.
Mask mandates: Overnight Thursday, lawmakers passed a bill that would ban any Kansas governmental entity from requiring masks in response to infectious disease or public health concerns.
The bill also prevents the secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment from using law enforcement to enforce quarantine orders.
Kelly has not said where she stands on the bill but is not likely to support it, as she has consistently opposed removing power from state and local health officials and, at the beginning of the pandemic, instituted a statewide mask order.
The Kansas House and Senate each passed the bill short of a veto-proof majority. The Senate would need four additional votes to override a veto, and the House would need 21.
Education: Lawmakers passed a budget for K-12 public schools Thursday but included measures unpopular among Democrats and public education advocates.
The bill, approved with 75 votes in the House and 24 in the Senate, includes a provision requiring Kansas school districts to allow out-of-district students to enroll, if the schools have room for them.
Kelly has not said whether she supports the bill.
KanCare contracts: Kelly must act by the end of this week on a bill that would bar her administration from starting to renegotiate contracts with Kansas’ Medicaid providers until Jan. 1 — after the 2022 election.
GOP lawmakers have said the bill would ensure whoever wins the election in November — Kelly or her likely opponent, Attorney General Derek Schmidt — would be the one issuing a request for proposals and conduct the full search process for contractors.
The bill, however, could result in a one-year extension of existing contracts, which Kansas’ Medicaid director, Sarah Fertig, warned could harm the state’s ability to hold private insurance companies accountable.
Kelly has dismissed the bill as a political game. The House, however, passed it with the exact number of votes needed to override a veto, and the Senate was just one vote short of that threshold.
New legislation
Medical marijuana: The House and Senate convened a conference committee Thursday to work on a bill legalizing marijuana for medical use in Kansas.
The House passed a version last year but it stalled out in the Senate.
House and Senate negotiators did not finish work on the bill before the chambers adjourned last week, but they could continue their efforts in May.
Kansas is one of 13 states that does not have a legal cannabis program
Sen. Rob Olson, an Olathe Republican and chair of the Senate Federal and State Affairs committee, said he believed the Legislature was getting closer to approving the policy.
“You’ll see it in full effect in the next few years,” he guessed. “I don’t know if it’ll be this year.”
988: The U.S. 988 suicide prevention hotline is set to go live this summer. Kansas has approved funding for the state’s piece of the program. But legislation establishing its administration passed in the House Thursday night but did not get a vote in the Senate.
Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said he planned to take it up in May.
Redistricting maps
Last Monday, a Wyandotte County judge tossed new congressional maps drawn by GOP lawmakers, saying they unconstitutionally diluted the vote of minority and Democratic Kansans.
The map split Wyandotte County along Interstate 70 and combined Lawrence with central and western Kansas.
Judge Bill Klapper ordered the Legislature to redraw the maps, but Schmidt promptly appealed the decision to the Kansas Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court scheduled oral arguments for May 16 but left open the possibility that they could dismiss the appeal. The court asked Schmidt to submit a brief explaining why they should take the case.
The court is also scheduled to hear arguments on state legislative maps the same day.
If the congressional or legislative maps are struck down, the Legislature may need to redraw them according to a court order before the campaign filing deadline of June 1.
