Legislative Update From State Rep Susan Concannon Monday Oct 24 at Kettle in downtown Beloit

Representative Susan Concannon Updates Local Citizens

By Terry Bailey

Kansas State Representative Susan Concannon spent time Monday evening, October 24^th, at the Kettle in Beloit updating local citizens on the upcoming legislative session as well as fielding questions from the audience. The meeting was very well attended with a standing room crowd of over 70 constituents present.

Concannon has served four years in the Kansas House of Representatives and is running unopposed for a third term.

The gathering was sponsored by Leadership Mitchell County. Stephanie Simmons quickly reviewed the city government question on the November 8^th ballot. Currently the city’s governing body is composed of an 8 member city council made up of 2 representative from each of 4 wards. There is a City Administrator hired by the City Council. A mayor serves and is elected by the electorate at large. There is a proposal on the ballot to change the makeup of the City government. The proposal is to change the number of councilors to six with 3 of them elected from 2 wards. An independent mayor would be elected at large. A City Manager would be hired by the Council and the department heads would report to the Manager.

Simmons then introduced Representative Concannon who began with a review of what a typical day in Topeka looked like. She says she goes in early to review the bills that will be discussed later in the day. At eight o’clock a.m. she takes part in the Republican Party caucus where the leadership reviews the bills and the party’s stance on each of them. There are 125 representatives in the house with 97 of them being Republican.

After the caucus Concannon attends one or more of her committee meetings. At 10:30 she returns to her office to check on messages and mail. At 11:00 she must be on the House floor as it is called to order at that time. After a lunch break she attends her afternoon committee meetings. At 3:00 she returns to her office to wrap up business for about two hours. Often times she attends receptions or dinners in the late afternoon or evenings.

As she began speaking about the issues facing the upcoming Legislative session. She said, “We have our work cut out for us.” Concannon was referring to the efforts of the moderate legislators to withstand the ultra-conservative supporters of the Brownback administration.

Education makes up 63% of the state budget. K-12 spending is 50% and higher education makes up the other 13%. This is why so much attention is given to education funding. Revenue income is composed of property tax, income tax, and sales tax. According to Concannon there were some challenges to match spending with tax receipts in the past but generally things seemed to work out. Since Governor Brownback’s tax reform plan took effect in 2012 the gap between tax receipts and expenditures grows farther and farther apart. Since Brownback became governor over 5,000 jobs have be cut from the State payroll.

Concannon went on to discuss the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group which is charged with estimating the amount of revenue the State will collect each month. Over the past two or three years this group has consistently overestimated the monthly tax revenues. Since the beginning of this fiscal year this group has missed the mark by 70 million dollars. She said the legislature will begin the session with a deficit of 450 million dollars.

Concannon said, “The legislature has played every shell game possible to keep the state afloat. We simply have no more ways to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. Even if Brownback’s tax policy was rescinded that would not raise enough money to balance the budget. Most likely a sales tax increase will be the only reasonable solution.” She talked about the cap being removed from how much money can be moved into the transportation fund and then Brownback borrowing money from that fund.

She finished up answering a question about the Supreme Court judge retention question. She said, “It is a power grab by Brownback and his supporters. The Supreme Court has rendered decisions that stymied many of Brownback’s attempts to gain even more control that he currently has. If he can nominate five justices, his ultraconservative influence will continue many years into the future.”

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Beloit, KS 67420, USA