The week started off with jabs between Republican leadership in the legislature and the Governor over Medicaid Expansion and medical marijuana. Expanding Medicaid to cover more individuals has been a contentious and ongoing issues for several session, and this year is no different. With the recent election of more conservatives to the legislature, one of the Kelly administration’s chief political goals likely became impossible to achieve or at the very least very difficult to imagine. However, that did not stop the Governor from including funding for Medicaid Expansion in her budget and on Monday she announced a plan to pay for it by legalizing marijuana. The Governor noted that many states surrounding Kansas have already expanded Medicaid, legalized some portion of marijuana or both. This quickly triggered a reaction by Republicans who reminded the Governor that voters had a chance to send legislators to Topeka to expand Medicaid and chose not to. Practically speaking it is unlikely that any legislation that does either of these things will advance out of committee with conservatives controlling both Senate and House committees, but this is likely a preview of the Governor’s re-election campaign.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom in the Capitol though. As the month of January came to a close, the legislature received another month’s worth of revenue data. For the month of January, tax revenues for the State exceeded estimates by over $90M. Included in that is the fact that January revenue in 2021 was $71M more than January 2020 prior to the pandemic’s impact on the economy which could be a sign of economic rebounding.

A piece of legislation receiving attention is the SB 32 legislation which would allow school districts to pay for dual/concurrent enrollment. This legislation was proposed by Kansas Board of Regents and is supported by the Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB). USD 259 testified in support of the legislation last week noting that many students who would want to engage in dual/concurrent enrollment are unable to attend due to costs, and this legislation would help reduce or remove that barrier. The legislation was recommended by the Senate Education Committee as favorably for passage. It is unclear when the full Senate will take up the legislation.

The Senate Education Committee began amending the SB 43 legislation today. This legislation would create the KS Promise Scholarship which is a “last dollar in” scholarship that would allocate state funds to students who qualify and go to a two-year program or not for profit university to pay for the first two years of college. The two amendments that are the most relevant are 1) does establish income thresholds for families using this scholarship and 2) adds early childhood development as an approved field of study. The general understanding is that the income thresholds are just beyond what pell eligible students would be covered under, which would capture the students that fall in the gap of not qualifying for pell but still not going to college due to costs.

The HB 2101 bill has also received a hearing this session. This bill would reauthorize the University Engineering Initiative Act (UEIA) for another ten years. The original authorization focused on providing universities resources to grow the number of engineering graduates at KU, KSU and WSU. Industry, chambers of commerce, and contractors as well as higher education all testified in support on Tuesday. Private colleges testified neutral asking that the act be expanded to private institutions. There was also discussion by the Department of Commerce and members of the committee to focus on not only growing the number of graduates but also retaining them in the state. HB 2101 will likely be worked in the next couple of weeks.

The SB 22 tax legislation is being discussed again this session. This is the income tax legislation that has been greatly contested since the beginning of the session out of fear that it could lead to similar impacts caused by the 2012 tax law changes. A number of changes were made to the bill to reduce the fiscal note, but it will still be a sizeable reduction to revenue and could have an impact on the budget development. The bill will likely be worked on the Senate floor next week.

The biggest agenda item for higher education next week will be budget hearings in both the Senate and the House with WSU testifying first in the Senate Sub-Committee for Higher Education on Monday and then in-House Higher Education Budget on Wednesday. The Senate Ways and Means Committee will receive recommendations and act on them Wednesday.