Thank you for your dedicated service on behalf of our community!  Please carefully consider the Lawrence City Commission’s 2017 legislative priorities set forth below. 

City and University Relationships

The City will collaborate with and support both the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University on their legislative issues and agendas.

Support for Home Rule and Local Control

Locally elected officials are in the best position to make decisions for Kansas cities and are accountable to voters for those decisions.  The City of Lawrence strongly supports the Home Rule Authority of Kansas Cities granted to municipalities under Article 12, Section 5 by the Kansas Constitution.  Cities and other municipalities have seen local control eroded by the Legislature in measures imposing a tax lid on cities, changing annexation laws, changing conceal carry laws, and moving local elections, to name just a few. 

State Support for State Services: Avoid Shifting State Responsibilities to Local Taxpayers

As the 2017 Legislature works to correct the effects of the 2012 tax cuts, we strongly urge the Kansas Legislature to avoid shifting the State’s responsibility to adequately fund State services to local taxpayers.  Reductions in key State funded services ranging from mental health and children’s services to State support for infrastructure programs will have a crippling effect on cities.  Failing to adequately fund critical services only shifts the burden to local taxpayers. 

Greater Transparency in Legislative Process

The City of Lawrence urges the Legislature to increase transparency in the legislative process.  Tax and budget proposals should have adequate public hearings and public notice.  Recent sessions have seen the Legislature wait until the eleventh hour to finalize budgets and work bills in the wee hours of the morning – making the legislative process inaccessible to your constituents.

Local Taxing & Spending Decisions Should be made by Local Officials

The Lawrence City Commission urges the Legislature to remove the tax lid imposed on municipalities.  Local elected officials should determine the appropriate spending and taxing policies of their community. The tax lid measures adopted during the 2015 legislative session and the revisions adopted during the 2016 session present unworkable constraints for local governments.  A repeal of these tax limits would return budgetary authority to where it should be – local units of government.

Transportation – Safety and Infrastructure Improvements & Connecting Links Program

The City of Lawrence supports restoring KDOT funding. The City of Lawrence opposes any transfer of the T-WORKS funds to balance the State’s General Fund. State highway funds should be used for highway improvements only.  The City-County Highway Fund is essential to maintaining local roads and should be fully funded. The City also supports increasing the amount of State funding which supports maintenance of State highways within city limits.  The City of Lawrence encourages increased funding for the connecting links program. 

Identification of Funding for west leg of K-10 expansion

The City applauds KDOT for the completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway (SLT) in 2016 and encourages the State to fund the four-lane expansion of the west leg of K-10.  Now that the four-lane, eastern leg of K-10 has been opened, traffic on the western leg of K-10 between I-70 and Iowa Street has increased. Funding to expand the lanes and improve the safety of at-grade intersections should be identified.

Rail Service & Intercity Transit

This City of Lawrence supports existing and enhanced passenger and freight rail service in Kansas.  We support efforts to expand Amtrak service in the state via the Northern Flyer route.  The State should also support maintenance of passenger train routes and should explore light rail development in the Kansas City metropolitan area.  The City encourages state involvement to help neighboring cities and counties use public transit to reduce traffic congestion on state highways.

Property & Sales Tax Exemptions

The City of Lawrence believes the existing property tax base should be protected and encourages the Legislature to resist any expansion of exemptions from taxation.  The City supports the existing definition of machinery and equipment and the exemption should not be expanded.  The Legislature should review existing exemptions in order to determine whether they are still appropriate and needed.  The City of Lawrence supports current law that exempts local government and public construction projects from sales tax.   

Gender and Marriage Equality

The City of Lawrence supports marriage equality in Kansas and opposes any legislation that fails to recognize marriages between two people of the same sex. We also strongly encourage the State to amend the Kansas Act Against Discrimination to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Alcohol and Liquor Tax Funds Are Critical

The City of Lawrence opposes any efforts to divert the distribution of local alcohol taxes to the State. One-third of the alcohol tax revenues are allocated to the City’s General Fund, one-third to the Special Recreation Fund and one-third goes in the City’s Special Alcohol Fund. Resources in the City’s general fund provide support for a number of city services, while monies deposited in the City’s Recreation Fund provides resources for a number of park and recreation activities. Many local not-for-profit agencies rely on the funds from the City’s Special Alcohol Fund for their programs.

Unfunded Mandates

The City of Lawrence opposes unfunded mandates that take limited local tax dollars to support priorities and needs of state and federal governments.   If the Legislature is going to impose new requirements on municipalities, it should provide adequate funding to the municipalities to comply with those requirements. 

Biosciences and Technology Business Center

We urge the Kansas Legislature and our local delegation to continue providing support and funding for biosciences and technology development, including support for the BTBC.  

KPERS and KP & F Funding

The City’s ability to hire and retain qualified public employees is dependent upon an attractive and well balanced benefit package including the KPERS (and KP & F) retirement programs.  Any modifications to the KPERS and KP & F programs should not negatively impact public organizations’ ability to recruit qualified professionals to public service.   The State of Kansas must honor its statutory and contractual obligations to ensure that KPERS has sufficient funds to pay the required benefits to the public employees who are participating in the plan.

Sales Tax Fairness

Small businesses are the lifeblood of local communities.  The City of Lawrence strongly supports Congressional action to collect mandatory sales taxes on all goods – purchased locally or through the Internet. The Kansas Legislature should urge Congressional action on this key portion of tax fairness.   As the Legislature begins to tackle the State’s significant budget shortfalls, it should remember that sales taxes are regressive and place a disproportionate share of the tax burden on the poor, low income, and fixed income elderly citizens of the State. Increases in the state’s sales tax should be avoided.

Annexation

Cities must also protect their authority in regards to annexation of property. Cities must have authority to plan for population growth, economic growth, and for infrastructure expansion.  The ability of cities to grow is inherent to the ultimate success of annexation powers as they are currently established in state statute.  The City of Lawrence opposes further statutory changes that would limit the authority of cities to grow through annexation.

State Funding for K-12 and Higher Education

The Lawrence City Commission urges the Kansas Legislature to provide robust funding for the education of future Kansans – from our K-12 schools to our higher education institutions, particularly including the University of Kansas.  Lawrence and the State of Kansas benefits from a strong education system and we urge the Legislature to include education funding among its top priorities and to engage with local communities on legislation regarding local school financing.  Lawrence Public Schools have received no new funding since July 1, 2015, during the two-year, block-grant funding formula.  Enrollment growth and increased cost of living have led to reductions in teaching positions, programs, and deficit spending that are rapidly depleting cash reserves the school district relies on for cash flow and emergencies.  The City urges changes to the school finance formula that meet constitutional requirements for equity and adequacy.

Extending Period of Exemption for Handgun Ban in City Buildings

Under the Kansas Personal and Family Protection Act, Lawrence sought an exemption from the law to delay the carrying of concealed firearms in city facilities.  The City’s exemption expires January 1, 2018, at which time the City must install costly “adequate security measures” in each city building that the city wants to prohibit the carrying of concealed weapons.  Cities should be allowed to determine whether the carrying of concealed firearms are permitted in city facilities, and what security measures are appropriate.  We request the law be amended to return these decisions to local governing bodies.  In the alternative, we request the exemption period be extended an additional ten years.   

Liability for Health Care Expenses

K.S.A. 22-4612 was interpreted by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2015 to mean that a law enforcement agency is liable to a health care provider for health care services rendered to an indigent person if the decision to seek medical care is made while the person is in the agency’s custody. This means that any injuries a person suffers before being taken into custody by City officers or injuries otherwise wholly unrelated to the reason for arrest would be the financial responsibility of taxpayers. These costs can escalate quickly. The City urges an amendment to this state statute so that the cost of such health care expenses is not assessed to the local taxpayers.

Renewable Energy & Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Legislation

The City supports public and private incentives to encourage investment in renewable energy sources.  The City supports the goal of having a 20% renewable portfolio for regulated utilities by 2020.  We encourage the State to work with cities to pursue manufacturing facilities for wind, biomass, solar and other energy related industries in Kansas.  The City also supports legislation introduced in the 2015 session – HB 2350, and the 2016 session – HB 2649, that would allow for the assessment of clean and energy efficient improvements to properties, to be assessed on a parcel’s property taxes over a period of years.  Twenty-four states have adopted such PACE legislation.  The proposed bill would allow for the creation of local programs that would have no impact on the State budget while increasing energy efficiency statewide.

Mental Health Issues & Expansion of Medicaid

State funding for community based mental health services must be restored and expanded across the State in order to provide for a mental health system that is stretched beyond its ability to provide the right care at the right time in the right place for Kansas citizens.  Since 2008, state funding for mental health services has been severely cut. The state’s Mental Health Reform grant is designed to help community mental health centers fulfill their mission as the state’s mental health “safety net.” However, legislators have slashed that grant by 50% since 2008. The City of Lawrence supports the Kansas Legislature committing to investments to close gaps in the continuum of care and restore the over $15 million in grant funding that has been cut from Community Mental Health Centers across the State of Kansas.  Expansion of Medicaid would also provide coverage for those who have a mental illness so they can access needed mental health treatment in their communities. The City of Lawrence is in support of Medicaid expansion and restoration of the 2016 cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates which have negatively affected our local hospital and treatment providers.

Funding for the Arts

The City of Lawrence supports restoration of State funding for the arts.  Funding arts initiatives is another form of economic development for the State and municipalities.  Research shows the arts industry provides jobs, generates economic activity, produces tax revenue, and enhances a community’s quality of life.

Children’s Initiative Fund

The City of Lawrence opposes reductions in the Children’s Initiative Fund and opposes transfers from the Children’s Fund to the State General Fund.  The Children’s Initiative Fund which receives proceeds from a national settlement with tobacco companies, funds programs that benefit children.  SB463 was introduced in the 2016 session that would have eliminated this fund and redirected these settlement funds to the Kansas general fund.  An editorial which appeared in the April 24, 2016 edition of the Lawrence Journal World, called this a “Desperate Step”.  The City agrees with this assessment and urges the legislature to protect this fund from further cuts.