2017 LEGISLATIVE WRAP UP
The Kansas legislature completed its work, June 10, 2017. This session was the second longest in the history of the state-113 days. Traditionally, sessions are limited to 90 days. The combination of 43 new legislators, new leadership in both chambers, and large issues of school finance, budget shortfalls, and taxes drove debates into June.
In addition to the normal Republican and Democrat partisan politics, the philosophical differences between conservative Republicans and moderate Republicans in the House and Senate, many of whom were newly elected, made consensus building difficult. The political tension reached a high point on June 6 when the Governor vetoed the tax plan and the legislature quickly voted to override the veto.
With the passage of the budget, tax, and school finance pieces, the work of the legislature is essentially done. However, if the Governor vetoes the budget or school finance bills, the legislature must return to work. If the Governor vetoes the gun bill which exempts public hospitals and mental health centers from concealed carry laws, the legislature may seek to override the veto during sine die, the traditional ceremonial close of the session. In short, the session will not be over until sine die, June 26, 2017. Some are already speculating that a special session will be called if the Supreme Court does not approve of the new school finance formula.
K-12 INSURANCE As part of their budget, the legislature included a provision calling upon the Kansas Department of Administration to continue to study the consolidation of K-12 employee health insurance into a single statewide pool. The proviso merely directs the Department to continue study and does not create or force the creation of state pool. The KAIA Governmental Affairs Committee voted to oppose this measure. As part of that opposition, we activated our membership to contact their legislators and tell them to oppose the mandatory pool. The many calls, emails and personal outreach of KAIA members to legislators played an instrumental role in slowing down consideration of this policy. However, with this budget proviso in place, we expect the legislature will continue to consider this policy into next session. Finally, and fortunately, the legislature never formally considered this session another concept to force schools to consolidate their property and casualty coverage into a statewide pool.
SELF STORAGE INSURANCE Senate Bill 14, which allows for self-storage facility employees to sell property insurance to customers, was signed into law this session. As introduced, the bill would have allowed non-licensed self storage employees to sell property insurance for the contents of the storage units. The KAIA testified in opposition to the measure in both the Senate and House Insurance Committees. We argued that this additional new insurance product would be duplicative for most applicants, as their renters or homeowners insurance likely covered the contents. Additionally, and most importantly, the KAIA fought on the principle that anyone selling an insurance product should be licensed and abide by the requirements of licensure. In spite of our opposition, the bill passed the full Senate and the House Insurance Committee. However, with the leadership of Rep. Dan Hawkins( R-Wichita) and the efforts of our members, we were successful in amending the bill on the House floor with a requirement that anyone selling this product apply for and maintain a limited lines licensure. Ultimately, the Senate agreed to the
10 KANSAS INSURANCE AGENT & BROKER | May- June 2017 |