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K-State Today

February 28, 2017

Legislative Update

Submitted by Sue Peterson

Last week both the House and Senate spent three days debating bills on the floor of the two chambers. Both houses are in not in session this week. They will return to the State Capitol on Monday, March 6. The bills affecting higher education and Kansas State University can be found on the Governmental Relations website.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee had a hearing on Feb. 20 on HB 2109. This legislation allows Kansas State University to sell three tracks of land: a small part of Marlatt Park on the east side of Seth Child Road; a small triangular piece of land in the University Research Park; and the site the Pure Bred Beef Unit currently occupies on campus. The committee recommended the bill be passed and be placed on the consent calendar. The final vote will likely be sometime during the week of March 6.

On Feb. 22, Kansas State University President Richard Myers testified before the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee Committee on the governor's budget recommendations for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. The testimony is online.

The week of Feb. 13 both the Kansas House of Representatives and the Kansas Senate passed and sent to the governor a comprehensive tax bill. The Legislature has to pass a FY17, FY18, FY19 budget and write a new school finance formula. It was an important step to provide adequate revenue to make the funding decisions. The bill was subsequently vetoed by the governor. The House did override the veto, however the veto was sustained in the Senate. This leaves the budget for FY17 still up in the air as committees continue to work on the FY18 and FY19 budgets.

Please see the weekly updates every Tuesday in K-State Today through the Final Adjournment of the 2017 Kansas Legislature. In addition, the Office of Governmental Relations will host Kansas Legislative Review Sessions March 17 and March 31 in Hale Library's Hemisphere Room; and April 14 and April 28 in 21 Bluemont Hall. These sessions are open to the public and feel free to bring a brownbag lunch.