Kyle Hoffman

By Kyle Hoffman, State Representative of the 116th District — On Friday February 27, we reached the halfway point of the regular session for 2015 and sent to the Senate for consideration 71 House bills. This week we will begin working on the 79 Senate bills that were sent to the House by the Senate, as well as any House bill that is still in Appropriations, Taxation, or Federal & State Committees, all other House bills are considered dead and will not be worked.

Over the next month, Appropriations and Taxation Committees will start finalizing the budget and any changes in taxes and send them to the full House for consideration.

Please remember bills and other helpful information can be easily accessed through the legislature’s website at www.kslegislature.com.

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Budget and tax policies

This last week, the budget committee I chaired finished our last budget for this year; I will report our committee report to the Appropriations Committee on Thursday.  We are getting close to having all the Budget Committees finish their reporting; giving us initial budget figures for all the 99 agency budgets in FY2016 and FY2017.  We will then finalize it and send it to the full House for consideration.

In the meantime, the Taxation Committee has been looking at all the tax bills that have been introduced, most will not make it out of committee, but I do believe that some will be forwarded to the full House.

One change I hope is seriously considered is the income tax pass through exemption.  In 2012, we passed sweeping tax changes that lowered the income tax burden on all taxpayers in Kansas.  Kansas now has some of the lowest income tax rates of all the surrounding states.  I supported it then and will continue to support lower taxes, but with any major policy change unintended consequences or loop holes can occur and should be corrected.

I believe that one loop hole which is occurring is a large percentage of entities that are qualifying for the tax exemption on pass-through income, are sheltering wages and passive income along with working capital income, this was not the intent of the exemption.  The legislative intent was to provide an incentive for small businesses to grow jobs and expand their businesses by giving a tax exemption on “non-wage income”, also known as working capital, not wages and passive income.

In order to make the tax policy fair, I believe we should close this loop hole this session and make it effective January 1, 2015.  As long as we have an income tax and we tax wages, our tax policy should include taxing ALL WAGES, I believe we can do this and still incentive small business growth in Kansas.

Budget and Tax policy will take up most of our time the rest of the session.  Along with budget cuts, there will most likely be other changes offered to help with the shortfall we are dealing with right now, but this one tax policy modification will go a long way to make structural changes to make our tax policy fairer and stabilize the budget in the long term.

Tax receipts to date

This week, we received the month of February tax receipts and the good news; they came in $22 million over estimates.  However, for the eight month period ending February 27th, total tax collections for FY15 remain down $79 million from the prior year period.

The biggest outlier remains in personal income tax collections. These are down $114 million or 7.4% compared to FY14.  That’s to be expected in the short range and I am glad that more money is staying in the hands of Kansans, my concern is that because of the loop hole mentioned above, some that probably should be paying are not.

The above graph, (or click on larger version here) will help you visualize our tax receipts for the eight months of FY15 compared to FY14.

Regional Water Supply meetings

During the month of March, 26 public meetings will be conducted across the state to begin the goal setting process of developing water supply goals for each region. All regional stakeholders are encouraged to attend and provide input to help identify the region’s water supply priorities.

According to the Governor’s Water Vision Team, the most resounding message Kansas citizens shared last year during the vision tour was the need for regional water supply goals, instead of statewide water supply goals. Below is a list of some of the closest meetings to District 116:

Tuesday, March 3

• Equus-Walnut, Winfield – 7 p.m., Southwestern College Campus, Wroten Hall, 100 College Street

Monday, March 9

• Equus-Walnut, Hutchinson – 7 p.m., Justice Theater, Shears Technology Center, Hutchinson Community College, Plum & 14th Street

Tuesday, March 10

• Great Bend Prairie, Larned, KS – 7 p.m., J A Haas Building, 400 E. 18th Street

Tuesday, March 24

• Equus-Walnut, Wichita, KS – 7 p.m., City Council Chambers, 455 N. Main

Monday, March 30

• Red Hills, Medicine Lodge –7 p.m., Jr./Sr. High School Gym, 400 W El Dorado Ave

The teams will present the proposed draft regional water supply goals to the Kansas Water Authority (KWA) in May 2015. The KWA will help with further development of the regional goals with final goals to be approved in August 2015.

For more information on all the upcoming public meetings, water supply information about each region or read the final version of the Long-Term Vision for the Future of Water Supply in Kansas, visit www.kwo.org.

Pages needed for the session.

Would your Jr/Sr. High student like to be a page for a day at the Capitol? Please call, so we can work out a date that works for you. Along with paging on the House floor, they will get a guided tour of the beautifully restored Capitol and their picture with the Governor; please contact Dave, my office assistant at 785-296-7643 if you are interested.

Visitors to the Capitol.  Since my last newsletter, I have had a good number of visitors come and visit with me in Topeka, thank you for taking the time to come; I enjoyed our visits and your input. If you are coming to Topeka, I look forward to seeing you; if you are attending a conference or reception, I would ask that you let my office know, so that I can make every effort to attend.

I’m also always happy to arrange a time to meet with you individually, but even if you are unable to come to Topeka, please contact me anytime; I’m always interested in hearing your thoughts on what you’re hearing around the district.  It’s very helpful for me when I have reliable feedback.

As always, I welcome your comments as I work through this session.  I want to thank you for this opportunity and I consider representing you a great honor.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your neighbors in District 116.

In Service,
Kyle Hoffman, 116th District.

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