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| KBIA Legislation Information |
| Legislative Update |
Feb 4th - Feb 4th
2006 KBIA Policy Positions
06policypositions.pdf
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Feb 4th - Feb 4th
For regular session updates, see our Members' Only section. If you need log in information, email us at chris@kansasbuilders.org.
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Feb 4th - Jan 11th
2006 Legislative Session
Report 1 – January 17, 2006
Hi! Seems like we were just here.....The first week of the Session was quiet in terms of hearings. It was a short week, with swearings in and the State of the State message on Monday. By Wednesday, many legislators were headed home. By Thursday, they had left the Capitol for the holiday weekend. Offices are much rearranged, with many senators being moved into the newly renovated east wing. The west wing has been emptied, and most of the representatives who were officed there are now officed in the Docking State Office Building. I doubt they’ll be spending much time there and will use their laptops on the floor more, choosing to go back to their offices between committee meetings less frequently.
Of interest to us in hearings last week was some discussion in House Environment, with Representative Tom Sloan (R-Lawrence) apparently talking off the top of his head about energy and saying he thinks all home sellers should be required to disclose all the energy usage in the home at the time of sale. In follow-up discussion, he told us he didn't intend to introduce a bill, but apparently someone else liked his idea, because a bill was introduced in House Environment this afternoon.
Another notable hearing last week was a briefing for House and Senate Agriculture and Natural Resource committees on water issues, as prioritized by the Water Authority. There will be water issues related to purchase of water rights and conservation easements. The potential purchase of the Circle K Ranch by the State of Kansas is also again under discussion.
There will be dam safety reform legislation introduced. Several eminent domain bills have been introduced, including the two reform measures whose primary sponsors are Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt (R-Independence) and Senate Judiciary Ranking Minority Member Greta Goodwin (D-Winfield). There is a bill and a constitutional amendment (Kansas doesn’t currently have a constitutional provision similar to the federal one in this regard). The state chamber had been neutral on this, but has now taken a position in opposition to reform.
We also anticipate legislation from the same group of commercial subs who last year supported SB 33, the prompt pay bill, which will extend the prompt pay requirements for commercial projects to public projects and will address the retainage issue.
We will be posting a weekly schedule, bill status and report on the KBIA website at http://www.kansasbuilders.org. Those should be up by tomorrow afternoon for the first week. The report can be accessed through the legislation tab, members only section, with the username: builder and password: home. Also, you’ll note that there’s a separate members’ only section, and that is where you’ll find the roster of members. At this time it includes name and address, but we’ll be adding phone numbers by the end of the month. Georgia will also be posting the KBIA 2006 Legislative Policies on the web site.
The KBIA Legislative Day and Annual Meeting are coming up in two weeks, on January 31, 2006! We will have the same schedule as last year, starting the annual meeting at 10:00 here at the KBIA offices in the lower level conference room. This will be followed by lunch with our speaker, Senate President Steve Morris. After lunch, members will be free to meet with their legislators until our reception in the KBIA office, 2nd floor, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m.
On our web site are current lists of legislators and their contact information.
Sean Miller, Georgia Conrad and I are all registered lobbyists for KBIA this Session and will be covering hearings of concern to home builders. Don’t hesitate to contact the office or me on my cell if you have questions.
Have a great week!
Chris Wilson
KBIA Executive Director
Office: 785/232-2131
New Cell #: 785/844-0274
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Nov 30th - Jan 1st
Ty Masterson will be replacing Todd Novascone in the legislature.
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