The Net #1
Kansas Legislative Network News
January 16, 2009
Tom Thompson
Legislative Coordinator
Sierra Club Kansas Chapter
5001 Rock Creek Lane, Mission, KS 66205
Phone: 913-236-9161; cell: 913-687-2405;
email: tomnthompson@sbcglobal.net

Top Story: Holcomb Reborn?

The above heading is funny but it isn’t funny. It is the same heading I used for the KLN #1 last year. I knew I was entering the Twilight Zone when I drove into Topeka. As I crossed 6th and Kansas Ave. just north of the Capitol Building I saw a guy dressed as the Statue of Liberty advertising on one corner and Fred Phelps and his crew protesting on the other. I was then reminded of the fantasy world I was entering.

On Wednesday, the House Republican Leadership held a press conference and presented their agenda. As a reporter left the conference, he showed me the list. Sure enough, there was the item to build a power plant in Holcomb, Kansas.

There are a number of ideas about how this will play out. One is that a bill concerning the permitting of Holcomb will come up early in order to beat any new regulations that might arise because of a new Presidency. The other is that a number of pieces of somewhat green legislation will be passed in the House, sent to the Senate and combined with something allowing Holcomb to be permitted. There are other possibilities. One can only guess at this point.

The Capitol is being remodeled big time this year. More legislators have been moved to the Docking Building just west of the Capitol. Most House Committees also meet there. Senate Committees are mostly in the Capitol. The First Floor of the Capitol Rotunda is closed as well as most of the south side on all floors. There will be no large events, nor will groups be allowed to set up buffets for the legislators in the Capitol Building this year. On the first couple days of the session this week, there were no names on the doors of legislators and no reliable directories. As of today, the legislative web site directory has not been updated either. Hopefully that will change soon. Paper signs began to pop up Wednesday but legislators are still being moved around.

Part of the chaos has to do with the fact that we just had new elections where both the House and Senate were elected. I t should be noted that every two years coinciding with when the House is reelected, all bills from the previous year are dead. New bills are written which can include old ones with new numbers. Also with new elections you have shifts in seniority and leadership resulting in everyone moving to new offices. Incumbents keep their old phone numbers so if you have a directory from last year you can still look up incumbent phone numbers.

To add to the shifting, Rep. Dale Swenson from Wichita changed parties last week. As a result of that Republicans lost an office space and Democrats gained one. Rep. Swenson got a new office and secretary. This also shifted the balance of power on committees giving Democrats a couple more seats on certain committees. Rep. Swenson opposed the Holcomb bill last year. This year the new Democratic leader in the House, Rep. Paul Davis, supports the Governor’s position opposing Holcomb. This means that Holcomb supporters can no longer claim that it has the support of leaders in both parties.

Another item that is uncertain is the legislative calendar. Rules say the legislature meets for 12 weeks and a tentative calendar is set. However, as last year, this schedule is expected to be shortened by at least a week. One can go on line and download the tentative schedule by clicking on “2009 Legislative Deadline.” Most of the deadlines will reportedly be about a week sooner than shown on this schedule.

To shorten things further, it is expected that the legislature will have what are called pro forma days on most Fridays. This essentially means that committees won’t meet and except for a ceremonial striking of the gavel, won’t go into session. Legislators in all likelihood will head home Thursday night.

That being said, the House Utilities Committee will be busy with at least 35 bills being lined up for hearings in the next few weeks. These will need to have hearings and passed by the House before turn around day on about February  21st (bills passed in the House go to the Senate and vice versa).  Chairman Holmes told me he expects to hear about 8 bills a week. It looks like most of them have to do with energy. The Senate Utilities will primarily work on telecom bills until then.

Hearings of interest next week are in the House Utilities Committee as follows:

Tuesday
HB 2012 establishes a deadline for the court of appeals to decide appeals from administrative orders of the KCC
HB 2014 allows KETA (Kansas Electric Transmission Authority) to establish fees
HB 2017 establishes a deadline for decisions by the state corporation commission

Wednesday
HB 2013 establishes renewable portfolio standards for public utilities

Thursday
HB 2015 establishes energy efficiency standards for certain owned and leased property, equipment and vehicles by the state
HB 2016 Establishes limits for mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide from newly constructed coal fired power plants.

We will be supporting 2013. Other bills are being discussed. These bills can be downloaded by going to http://www.kslegislature.org/legsrv-legisportal/index.do and filling in the box with the bill number where it says’,Full text of Bills.”

Tom

Tom Thompson
Legislative Chair
Sierra Club Kansas Chapter