Scholarship alert! If you know of a 2009 High School Senior who is graduating from an accredited public or private high school in Kansas, and meets the following requirements:
3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale, has a significant amount of volunteer community service or public service activities, and will enroll no later than fall 2009 in a full time undergraduate course of study at a Kansas Regents’ University or Washburn University.
Individuals who meet these requirements may be eligible for The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics $1,000 scholarship. For more information you should go to your school counselor or www.sms.scholarshipamerica.org/senatordolepublicservice.
The application deadline is March 9, 2009.
Thanks to those that chose to write or call me on the various topics of interest. I received a record number of inquiries and comments. I would like to provide some clarification as to the recent report that there would be some difficulty in the State to meet payroll and pay tax refunds..
Unfortunately the Legislature does not have control over paychecks as this is handled by the Department of Administration and the Executive Branch. These people also control the timing of when the checks are distributed.
The Governor has control over this and has been given full authority by the Legislature to address any cash shortfalls. The Governor may make her own adjustments (order budget cuts) in payment of expenses during the year, including payroll and tax refunds, or she can sign the appropriations bill we passed recently which will guarantee sufficient cash balances this year and release the payment of payroll.
The tax refund issue is not new, if the Department of Revenue does not have sufficient cash to pay the refunds, they simply hold disbursement. Remember some years you get your refund right away and other years it takes a little longer? Well guess what, the delay could be from a flood of returns with normal staffing delays or the fact the State did not have adequate resources to pay.
As you know the Governor did sign the appropriations bill, SB 23 on Tuesday the 17th. So I expect this is all old news. By law (KSA 75-3725(a)) the state cannot borrow any money that is not secured, in this case we have to guarantee we will have adequate cash flow to pay back the money by June 30th the end of this fiscal year. (FY 09). With the agency budget cuts required by SB 23 we all expect the cash balance to be sufficient to meet this obligation.
The Governor had requested that the State Finance Council (SFC) issue another, or third Certificate of Indebtedness in the amount of $225 million, for a total of $775 million in the current fiscal year. By previous SFC action, (June 27th, 08) $300 million was issued for the beginning of the current fiscal year and another Certificate of $250 million was issued on Dec. 16, 09.
With the issuances of all three Certificates combined, the total would have been $750 million, which would be the single largest issued amount of Certificates of Indebtedness in Kansas History. We set the last record earlier in 2009. Remember these are short term notes that must be repaid by June 30th, 2009, approximately 4 months from now. Source: Kansas Legislative Research www.kslegislature.org/klrd.
As we all know the request for the additional Certificates was not authorized by the State finance Council. When that happened the news was that certain members of the Legislature were holding the state employees pay hostage. That was not the case.
By being prudent and not going further into debt we hope the message gets out that we are seriously short of cash and we do not expect our financial picture to change soon. In our budget committees serious discussions as where and what to cut are taking place.
Secretary of Commerce David Kerr expressed it best when he asked us what were the level of cuts we wanted and what level of services do we want to reduce or do without? It will be painful and we should all expect the reductions to have serious impact on existing and future programs.
Saturday Feb. 21st is turn-around, the period where the House and Senate action must be completed on the original bills and we exchange them with each other for the second round of debates and action on each others legislation. Then as you recall when action in the separate chambers is completed the legislation goes to the Governor for signing into law.
Thus ends this civics lesson.
The federal stimulus package has created quite a stir and one would wonder what portion of the Kansas money allotment will find its way into the 75th District? According to various reports the Governor, Secretary of the Budget, and Secretary of Commerce will decide where to best spend the money in our State.
Projects that have been approved and are “shovel ready” will get priority funding we are told. This is as good a criteria as I can imagine as long as it will produce an economic boost, maintain or add jobs, and is something that we need. I am sure each municipality and county in the state will have a deserving project ready to go!
I consider it a honor and privilege to serve as your Representative in Topeka and I want to know what you think. Please contact me here at State Capitol Topeka, Kansas 66612, 1-785-298-7655 or 1115 Rim Rock Road El Dorado, 67042. Thanks, John.
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