Day 101 comes... and goes
On Thursday, May 25, the legislature officially went over the 100 days budgeted for the 2017 session. Today (Tuesday), we are back in the Capitol in hopes of wrapping up business this week. Due to cutting our expenditures with staff and legislative pay (on a voluntary basis), we do have enough money to go some additional days without actually going over budget.
With a tax plan and budget left on the calendar, along with several other important issues, our work is far from complete. On the 101st day, the House spent less than an hour on the floor working bills, resolutions, and conference committee reports. We recessed until 4:00 for the purpose of reading in bills and making announcements – procedural formalities that have no action, debate, or voting… and therefore very little attendance.
Some legislators state that the $88.66 per day salary we receive is meager compensation, but if you divide it by the number of hours on the chamber floor, it looks a lot different as an hourly wage! Of course, our time on the floor is certainly not the only time we are working. If we actually clocked-in every moment we were working on state business, there would certainly be some legislators making less than minimum wage during their time in Topeka.
According to article 2 section 8 of the Kansas Constitution, the legislative session is limited to 90 days, but that is just during even-numbered years and is subject to extension with a two-thirds majority vote by each house. There is no constitutional or statutory limit to the number of session days for odd-numbered years. Tradition has generally been 90 days for each annual session. The average session length since 1969 has been about 92 days, with a 94 day average session during the odd-numbered years. There have only been 7 sessions, including this year, in that same time span that have continued for 100 days or more. But three of those have come in the last six years, and this session currently ranks fourth longest – only a day away from tying for the third spot.
So the question becomes, if we’ve budgeted for 100 days… where does the money come from to pay for excess? In addition to legislative salaries, there are numerous chamber and office staff that must work when we are in session. While some legislators have turned in paperwork to decline their pay, there is still an expense to the state and the taxpayers of Kansas estimated around $40,000 per day. By cutting off some expenses back on day 90, we have been able to reserve some funding for some additional days, and there are also small unencumbered balances in other legislative accounts that can be used to pay expenses. But that won't last long.
|
After hours of debate on the chamber floor, the House of Representatives passed their version of the school finance bill on Wednesday. This does not mean it is finished, however. Getting the bill out of committee was the first step, and passing it out of the chamber was the second step. It now goes to the Senate for consideration. I would speculate that House bill will be debated in the Senate – most likely with a few amendments – and then passed by the Senate. If it has amendments, it must come back to the House to either concur or non-concur with those changes. Typically, the chamber will non-concur and appoint a conference committee to discuss the changes. The conference committee consists of the education finance committee leadership from each house – chair, vice-chair, and ranking minority. Sometimes there are no points to negotiate and the bill comes back to the house of origin with recommendation to concur. Other times, amendments are negotiated during the conference committee, to which both chambers must then concur before the final bill is sent to the governor
