Wednesday, July 6, 2016
V
V
New laws
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
Bills signed by Governor
Sam Brownback during the
2016 legislative session went
into effect on Friday. Below
are summaries of several new
laws that are now in effect:
✦✦First-time marijuana offenses are now subject to
reduced sentencing times.
The maximum sentence
for first-time marijuana
possession is cut in half
from up to one year in jail
to six months.
✦✦Anyone under the age of
18 is banned from using
tanning beds.
✦✦Public employees working
for municipalities or the
state are able to conceal
and carry guns on the job.
✦✦It is now illegal to use a
drone to stalk or harass
people. The definition of
harassment in the state’s
Protection from Stalking
Act has been changed to
include “flying a drone
over or near any dwelling,
occupied vehicle or other
place where one may reasonably expect to be safe
from uninvited intrusion or
surveillance.”
✦✦“Revenge porn” is now
outlawed. Anyone who
posts nude photos or videos online of another person without their consent
will now face criminal
prosecution.
✦✦Religious-based campus
groups at public universities can now restrict their
membership to people who
share their beliefs.
Significant changes to
Temporary Assistance to
Needy Families (TANF) took
effect Friday as well. The
TANF lifetime limit is reduced
from 36 months to 24 months.
The average TANF consumer
uses 16 months of cash assistance over his or her lifetime.
Individuals may be eligible for
a 12 month hardship extension of benefits based on specific exemptions.
As of May 2016, 5,409
families, 3,108 adults and
9,426 children were receiving
cash assistance. The average
monthly benefit to families
was $262.24. Food assistance
is provided to 116,158 families
with an average monthly benefit of $253.16.
Other measures from
Hope Act 2.0 that began on
July 1 include:
✦✦Verifying the identity of all
cash, food and child care
assistance adults in the assistance household. Previously, policy only required
verification of the adult
applying for the entire
household.
✦✦Requiring applicants and
recipients of cash and child
care assistance to cooperate with any fraud investigations.
✦✦Monitoring excessive benefit card replacements, including referrals to DCF’s
Anti-fraud Unit.
✦✦Lottery winnings in excess
of $5,000 will require t