Press Release                                            

For Immediate Release                                                           
January 2, 2008

Contact:

Rep. Virgil Peck, Jr.
620/879-2334

VIRGIL'S VIEW
From The Capitol



Upcoming 2008 Legislative Session

It’s apparent the start of the 2008 legislative session is rapidly approaching, as evidenced by the significant increase in legislative communications (e-mails, letters and phone calls).

Most of the communication is regarding topics many of us knew would be brought up this year. One such idea is to change the age a child is required to start school. Currently Kansas children are required to enter into their formal education at age seven. A Senator is proposing reducing the age to six. Her argument is that most children start school younger than six, at age five. Therefore, reducing the age requirement would conform the law to what most Kansans already believe it to be.

There are also those who will be pushing the Legislature to fund all-day kindergarten in public schools. Currently the Legislature provides funding for half-day kindergarten and leaves it up to each local school board to decide whether they want to tax their local citizens to pay for all-day kindergarten.

With K-12 education already scheduled to receive almost $180 million of new money in fiscal year 2009, there probably won’t be great support in the Capitol for mandating all-day kindergarten. The $180 million will complete the four year increase of nearly $890 million previously approved for K-12 education by the Legislature.

Some Legislators and Government Officials are saying 2008 is the year to plan for the next Comprehensive Transportation Program (CTP). The first CTP was approved in 1989 and another was approved in 1999. Most of us agree that the Kansas Highway System was certainly in need of repairs and improvements in 1989, and over the past 19 years there have been many repairs and improvements made; for that we are all grateful.  However, since the bill for the 1989 CTP has not yet been paid in full and the 1999 CTP is not scheduled to be paid in full until 2024, some Legislators are saying we should pay down the debt for a couple years before we saddle Kansas taxpayers with more debt. I’m interested to hear what you think.

One hot potato topic the Legislature has avoided for many years, that some are saying we should address in 2008, is the pay Legislators receive. Legislator’s taxable income for 2007 was about $14,500. That amount ranks Kansas at number 43 and as adjusted for inflation means a Kansas Legislator in 2007 received 45% less compensation than did a Kansas Legislator in 1975. All of us, no matter what our occupation, would like to receive a higher salary. However, this is not a big issue to me – I knew what the pay was before running for the Legislature. Any thoughts?

There are a couple moral/social issues that I’m being told will be presented for discussion this year. One has to do with passing a law that would disallow the creation of a Domestic Partnership Registry. The city of Lawrence decided to establish a Domestic Partnership Registry in 2007 that provides homosexuals with the same rights and privileges as a marriage between a man and a woman. As we all know Kansas voters in 2005 passed a constitutional amendment, by a 70% to 30% vote, to only recognize marriage as being between one man and one woman, and not recognize any other civil unions.

The other moral issue deals with abortion after 21 weeks (5 months) of gestation. At 22 weeks of gestation an unborn baby is capable of surviving outside the womb. Although Kansas already has a law that disallows such abortions, there is an exception for when the life or mental health of the mother is in danger. The mental health exemption has been grossly abused by those in the abortion industry, and they have been skirting other requirements in the law that deal with abortion reporting. There is a bill being drafted that will eliminate the mental health exemption and put in place very tough penalties for those who do not follow very specific reporting guidelines. 

According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment there were 105,503 abortions reported during 1998-2006. Of those 105,503 abortions 4,801 were preformed after the 21^st week of the pregnancy.

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Virgil Peck, Jr.

620-879-2334