What a difference three days can make

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What a difference three days can make.

Guantanamo is to be closed. The Iraq conflict is to end. Bush administration executive orders are to be reversed. Torture is ended.

And those are just the beginning.

I can’t think of a similar three-day period during my lifetime, and it just goes to show that it really does matter whom we elect President of the United States. If by historic we mean that which will be written up in the history books of the future, then this has been a truly historic week.

It makes the work of the State Legislature seem small by comparison, but that doesn’t mean that no matters of historic proportions were bruted in Topeka this week.

We have our own lobbyist reform bill in SB 2; a bill to institute disclosures by professional fund raisers in SB 6; a proposed requirement that all interrogations of persons suspected of felony violations be videotaped in SB 17; adjustments to the rules about campaign finance disclosure in SB 43 (state board of education) and SB 57 (electronic filing of reports); and three bills about the act of voting in SB 42 (state board of education), SB 55 (uniformed and overseas voters), and SB 56 (security of advanced ballots).

These last five bills affect the very foundation of our political life in proposing changes to the way campaigns are conducted and votes are cast, but just as important are “technical” bills like SB 3, a suggestion that a seventh member should be added to the Senate Confirmation Oversight Committee in order to give it a more bipartisan makeup. The Confirmation Oversight Committee is responsible for examining persons appointed to positions that must be confirmed by the Legislature before they can serve the Governor in her capacity as chief executive officer of the state. Currently the committee consists of five Republicans and one Democrat. Adding a seventh member would result in five Republicans and two Democrats, more reflective of the actual makeup of the Legislature.

More likely to affect people’s day-to-day life is SB 24, Senator Faust-Goudeau’s effort to divorce insurance premiums from people’s credit score. I’ll bet you didn’t know that if you have a low credit score, you can be charged a higher premium. This seems inherently unfair to me. Premiums should be based on the risk involved. For example, a person with a low credit score is no more likely than any other person with a similar driving record to have an automobile accident. What the insurance companies are trying to do, of course, is make sure their premiums get paid. Increasing the premium, however, is more likely to make sure the insured cannot afford to pay it, than to increase the likelihood of a claim being made against the insurance policy.

We have another concealed carry law this year. SB 19 would allow prosecutors and assistant prosecutors to carry a concealed weapon into a courthouse if they had fulfilled the requirements to have a concealed carry permit in the first place. The law also would apply to the attorney general and any assistant attorneys general he should designate.

What is already shaping up as the issue on which we get the most phone calls is the suggestion that the cigarette tax should be increased by 75 cents. Evidently, one of the cigarette companies is calling people, asking if they are smokers, telling them about the increase, then forwarding the call to the appropriate legislator for the smoker to express their opposition to the increase. Senator Faust-Goudeau has received more than ten of these calls already.

Then there is SB 4, which allows the Turnpike Authority to set different tolls based on the average speed of drivers on toll roads, such special tolls to be based on the added breakdown caused by speeding vehicles and the increased emissions from them. In other words, if it takes you only two hours to get from Wichita to Topeka on the Kansas Turnpike, you will pay a higher toll than if it took you two hours and ten minutes to cover the same distance. I haven’t decided how I feel about this bill. On the one hand, I believe that excessive speed is not a good thing. On the other, do I really want the state to go this way about addressing the problem or do I think this is an invasion of the privacy of the drivers?

Just as likely to stir up emotion, however, is SB 59, which increases the fine for not wearing a seat belt from $30 to $60 and extends the requirement to any occupant, whether front or back, and no matter what age. I can just see the libertarians exercising their index fingers to punch out those phone numbers – and flexing their hands before sitting down at the computer keyboard, too.

There are two bills, SB 64 and 65, concerning water rights and eminent domain, and several (SB 7, 9, 20, 21, 22, and 39) on different aspects of school finance. There are sure to be many more before the session is over. In fact, the session has barely begun. So far, only 64 bills have been introduced in the Senate. The final tally is likely to be 300. The really important bills – those involving the budget – are not likely to be introduced until the last minute, and they will be amended heavily in committee before coming to the floor of the Senate. And, don’t forget, the same process is going forward in the House of Representatives, as well, where already 49 bills have been introduced.

But the jockeying has begun, as Senators and Representatives sound one another out in the halls, lining up supporters, marking down opponents, doing their best to do their best for their constituents, knowing that they have only a few weeks – so few days – to make a difference.
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