UPDATE

ADVOCACY IN BRIEF

MELISSA NESS – CONNECTIONS UNLIMITED, INC.

Friday February 17th, 2012

Next Week the Kansas legislative session reaches its mid-point or what is fondly referred to as “turn around.” All bills that have been introduced or presented this session must have passed both Houses or otherwise will be lost for the session. Of course there are exceptions to the rule. Any bill that is in or has been referred to an exempt committee will survive the deadline. Most prominently, anything that is in the budget committees of either house, whether it is a budget bill or other survives “turnaround”. In any event, at this midpoint we will have a clearer picture of the issues that will stay on our agenda for the remainder of the session. The legislature takes a break after mostly floor action next week, will leave on Friday and return on February 29th for the remainder of the session. At the mid-point, I will produce a comprehensive summary of bills and issues and the outlook for the remainder of the session.

This Past Week at the Statehouse
The Budget~
The budget was still center stage as budget subcommittees continued their work and reports to the full committee. Most recently completed was the social services budget committee hearings on Thursday night where there was a disappointing showing of the committee members during public testimony. This led to concerns by some attendees and conferees that it was going to be difficult for the committee to work on recommendations without having heard the legislative staff briefings and public testimony. Deliberations on the social services budget continues on Monday afternoon which discussions and decisions on the expenditures of Children’s Initiative Funds, child welfare services, services for the disability community and a host of other program and service needs will take place. Advocates are concerned that the improvement in the financial status of the state has made little difference in how public policy makers are approaching allocation decisions. Their basic concern is that social service safety net programs cannot continue to absorb reductions that impact their ability to serve their target population and reach necessary outcomes. The state is not facing the same level of financial crisis as during the 2011 session.

Bill Activity
HB 2537 – Children in need of care, access to records by house committee on children and families. Current law provides that the following committees are authorized to access confidential child in need of care records when carrying out official committee functions in a closed or executive meeting: The House Committee on Judiciary; The Senate Committee on Judiciary;The House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice;The House Committee on Appropriations;The Senate Committee on Ways and Means;The Legislative Post Audit Committee; andAll joint committees on children’s and families’ issues HB 2537 would add the House Committee on Children and Families to the list of legislative committees that are permitted access to such records. This bill passed out of the Children’s Issues Committee Wednesday and was passed by the full House on Thursday. The push by the committee was that if these other committees have access to records it is legitimate that their committee have access to them also. Generally, we believe that too many committees have access to confidential child in need of care records and the more they are accessible the risk of misuse or breaking confidentiality increases. The bill now goes on to the Senate.

HB2137 This bill would establish the Protective Parent Reform Act which would amend existing statutes governing custody and visitation orders concerning children under the jurisdiction of the court as children in need of care or custody and visitation orders relating to domestic relations disputes. This bill surfaces frequently with different iterations. The proponents of the bill were primarily family members of two families who had, had difficulty related to visitation and limitations placed on them by the court. According to the proponents this bill would provide added protection for those families wanting visitation with a child by a non-custodial parent. Opponents included The Kansas Chapter of Child Advocacy Centers and Kansas National Social Workers Association as well as SRS and the Office of Judicial Administration offered concerns about mixing the bill intent. The bill also changes the current statute so that it has a negative impact on the delivery of forensic services, and qualifications of some professionals in the bill were unclear and of course the fiscal note. The chair believes a compromise could be struck with this bill but at this point time is running out and this bill is not subject to the turn around deadline.

Next Week-A majority of morning committees will meet Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with both houses on the floor in the afternoon. Thursday and Friday will see floor action all day in preparation for the long weekend. If you would like to listen to the debate next week go to www.kansas.gov click on legislative and then there is a chose for listen live.

Editorial of the Week: Wichita Eagle: Restore Kids’ Funding http://www.kansas.com/2012/02/17/2219619/restore-kids-funding.html

Budget Review and Hearing: This week the House General Government Budget will begin hearings on the FY 2012 budget. The Judicial Branch is scheduled for Wednesday, February 1st at 1:30 p.m. The CASA Legislative Committee will be meeting Monday at 3:30 p.m. to finalize testimony that will reflect asking the legislature to make up the anticipated loss of funding KCA will receive due to Federal Cuts.

January 29, 2012

After Monday, no individual may introduce a bill through the end of the session. This is the first major deadline of the 2012 legislative session. With the end of January this week, the legislature is now beginning to look closely at the budget and will start hearings on a variety of subjects and requests for more dollars next week. In addition to keeping with your key public policy and practice issues areas of Sustaining Funding, Increasing Visibility and Education the Legislators and the Public, this update provides a look back at January and what is ahead next week.

Child Abuse and Neglect
Two bills were introduced this week regarding failure to report abuse in instances of suspected child abuse and failure to report the death or disappearance of a child. Expanding the list of mandatory or mandated reporters is the focus of HB 25333 and disappearance HB 2534. Both were developed by the Speaker of the House, Mike O’Neal. A thorough review of these bills is necessary in order to fully understand the broad implications of the bill. They have not been scheduled for hearing as of yet. Go to www.ks.gov and enter the bill number for a copy.

Bill Activity Highlights
SB 279 is legislation aimed at extending the application and penalties of the crime of unlawful sexual relations by the adding the employee of any SRS contractor, when the behaviors is directed toward a person 16 years of age or older. The intent is to ensure that a person in position of authority to the youths is covered by this bill. The committee amended the bill to clarify that the individual is either a patient in an institution or in the custody of the secretary of SRS. It applies would now apply to the offender who is a person living, working or regularly volunteering in a family foster home licensed by KDHE. It is expected to pass the Senate and Is on General Orders this week. (Floor debate) The bill can be found at http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/measures/documents/sb279_01_0000.pdf

Adoption Amendments to be Heard
HB 2482 will be heard on Tuesday and is aimed at modifications to the adoption and relinquishment act. Relating specifically to parental rights. According to a memo received by Kansas Children’s Service League several Kansas Adoption Professionals developed legislation in response to two Ks. Court of Appeal Cases. One change would require the father to make an “actual tender” versus the “offer” of support to a birth mother. Another change addresses allowing the birth parent to present evidence to the court that their relinquishment was not given freely. Yet another change allows a relinquishing birth mother to retain her parental rights if a non-relinquishing birth father prevails in a contested adoption. The Children’s Alliance advocacy committee reviewed the memo and KCSL will be testifying in support on behalf of KCSL. Click here for the full bill:

http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2011_12/measures/bills/house/?bill_number=2482&originating_chamber

KanCare and the Medicaid Waiver~
Another deadline this week is for any organization bidding on delivering managed health care services. All submissions must be in for the program proposal by January 31st. The cost proposals for those bids are due on February the 22nd. After the first deadline, bidders become a matter of public record. Although there strong assumptions on who the bidders will be, the state has given no specific indication from whom they expect to receive bids.

Also this week, the state submitted their request for a waiver to implement the new Medicaid managed care approach in the state. According to the Governor’s press release “In the first track, the State will work with CMS to implement the State’s integrated care system model, KanCare, by 2013. In the second, separate track, the State seeks to begin discussions with CMS to implement a future global waiver to maximize flexibility in administering an outcomes-based program. A copy of the concept paper is available online at:

http://www.kdheks.gov/hcf/medicaid_reform_forum/download/Kansas_1115_Waiver_Concept_Paper.pdf

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) is accepting comments on the concept paper over the next month. Comments can be submitted electronically by emailing KanCare@kdheks.gov

Food Stamps
I am including this topic because it is the “hot button” item of the week and it is bound to affect the families that need support in order to move toward reintegration. The recent change in policy by SRS in the “fair distribution” of food stamps has resulted in over 2006 children being removed from eligibility. SRS says they are attempting to equalize benefits for children of undocumented immigrants with those children who are confirmed U.S. citizens. Advocates say this runs afoul with the Governor’s goal of reducing childhood poverty. U.S. Department of Agriculture policy allows undocumented immigrants to apply for food stamps on behalf of their minor children if they were born in the U.S. The Department gives the states flexibility on how to calculate household income. The way Kansas is now figuring household income eliminates many families with children, previously receiving food stamps. Only Kansas and 3 other states follow this approach. In the end the guidelines and approach may be legal but not good public policy. On Monday, January 30th, officials from the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services will be presenting this change before the House Appropriations Committee.

Executive Reorganization Orders
In addition to other big-ticket items we are waiting to see the proposed Executive Reorganization Orders (ERO) that will reconfigure the Departments of Aging, SRS and KDHE. According to Shawn Sullivan, Secretary of the Department of Aging who spoke before the Social Services Budget Committee, the Governor is proposing three agencies two of which will manage Medicaid issues. The Department of Aging will combined with the Department of Behavioral Health Services and SRS will become the department of children and families. Some of the oversight on managed care will be under this new department. They will work with KDHE to develop the budget including the new management of KanCare that he indicated would have three components: Services, Medical Care and Mental Health/Behavioral Health Care. Committee members expressed concern about how rapid the changes were going to be and whether not there will be adequate plans in place that will help consumers navigate the systems appropriately. He stated that the ERO’s would likely to be available this week but that did not materialize. I will keep you posted.

Blue Ribbon Commission on Courts A representative of the commission will provide an overview of the Blue Ribbon Commission’s report this week before the legislature. The following links will take you to the site for a copy of the draft.
The BRC Report: http://www.kscourts.org/BRC-Report
The WCLS Report: http://www.kscourts.org/Weighted-Caseload-Study

Cuts Proposed
Proposed cuts to the Family Preservation Program and to Foster Care have prompted advocates and the Children’s Alliance to move forward in asking SRS and the legislature to restore any additional reduction in funding that supports services for youth in state custody and programming that keeps families together. SRS is proposing serving 160 families less in the Family Preservation Programs citing the reduction of Children’s Initiative Funds as creating the gap. In Foster care, reinstating funding so that it reflects the appropriate contracted rate, ensuring funding for projected caseloads is included in the budget and not shifting money from the service provider portion for adoption subsidies but identifying a different funding stream will be a part of the work in educating SRS and the legislature about the implications of losing further funding ground. Budget review will begin the week of February 6th on these items.

Please share this and other newsletters with your colleagues. For specific questions and comments about our current agenda please contact me. You should also review other updates and newsletters from similar sources on related matters. This ensures a broad look at legislative activity.

ADVOCACY INBRIEF #3

MELISSA NESS – CONNECTIONS UNLIMITED, INC.

Tax is the Major Issue on Center Stage

January 16th, 2012

The Legislature is not in session today in honor of the holiday for Martin Luther King. They return Tuesday with a full agenda.

Legislative Deadlines can be found at the legislative website here for the House and click here for the Senate. These are the anticipated deadlines for bill introductions and days the legislature is in session. A notable deadline is February the 24th called “turn around” when all bills have to pass the house of origin except those bills labeled “exempt” because of the particular committee they are in. These deadlines do not apply to exempt bills and many of the bills we follow will likely be exempt.

Commentary and Conversations

This week it was taxes that took the lead. The Senate Tax Policy Group sparked a range of reaction from “it looks like a good process with great participants” to “maybe this is about circumventing the Governor.” Senator Morris convened this group of legislative and citizen members encouraging them to take a close look at the tax proposals on the table and to keep in mind what is good for the Kansas business climate and what taxes ignite the most concern for Kansas taxpayers. They will make recommendations to the tax committees.

At the same time Administration officials promoted the Governors tax proposals before legislative committees. The most prominent theme in the Governor’s design is a cap on spending reflected in his proposal to reduce and eventually eliminate individual income tax. All growth above 2% in the state, according to the Governor’s plan will be dedicated to eliminating personal and corporate income tax.

Impact and likely opposition could be from human services organizations in response to the elimination of charitable contributions equaling $100.92M in savings to the state. The state would not just save revenue but with this policy could precipitate a drop in contributions on which local non-profits heavily rely. For the full list of proposed and their respective impact Click here. For more background information on these proposals visit www.khi.org

Highlights of the upcoming week `

Health Care and Human Services- Lt. Governor Colyer will be providing another update on Medicaid Reorganization. Senate Judiciary will introduce and discuss bills on SB 292 unlawful sexual relations; foster parents and foster children and The Government Efficiency Committee will hear from SRS on their Budge Process Re-engineering (BPR). Finally, Corrections and Juvenile Justice will meet for a briefing on human trafficking and to review a report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation on the Topeka Juvenile Justice Authority Detention Facilities. For specific dates and time go the website and click on either calendar for the Senate or House.

Note: A legislative townhall meeting with six legislators is scheduled for the Topeka/Shawnee County Public Library on Tuesday, January 17th. Click here for details.