Buhler – Posting public notices on Internet could save city, county $80,000 annually

Editor’s note: Sen. Mark Buhler, R-Lawrence, was appointed to fill out the remaining two years of the term of former Sen. Sandy Praeger, R-Lawrence. Buhler’s journal-style column will be published online throughout the 2003 session of the Legislature.

Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2003

Elections and Local Government heard Senate Bill 53 that would allow cities, counties and school districts to post their public notices on Web sites instead of publishing them in the newspaper.

This represents about a $3 million savings to cities, counties and schools throughout the state and they contend many people do not read them and the Internet’s coverage for longer period of time could, in fact, be as good or better.

The media (newspapers) have another view. They believe the easy access to newspapers and the very small cost to acquire a newspaper along with the historic precedent clearly dictates we not do this.

It would mean close to $80,000 annually to Douglas County and the City of Lawrence combined. Stay tuned.

Senate Financial Institutions & Insurance tax committee: Hearings on Senate Bill 85 that would make investments (personal property) in wind energy taxable.

There are several issues regarding this bill. One is the fairness issue of wind energy being tax exempt. Many of the companies have offered a in-lieu-of payment to counties in the range of $300,000-$400,000 annually. That roughly represents 10 percent of what would be paid if the investment were fully assessed. The second issue has to do with the aesthetics of the wind energy turbines. The opponents are generally near or in the Flint Hills and believe the aesthetics are detrimental to the pristine view of the area.

Other areas generally in the west and northwest part of the state argue the economic development aspect is positive. This

type structure allows uninterrupted grazing of their land, generating energy that is clean.

This emerging energy source has potential in Kansas as well as other central states and many believe discontinuing the tax-exempt status would ruin any potential it holds for the future.

Wednesday Feb. 5, 2003

Senate Bill 30 was passed today and will go to the conference committee with the House Bill 2026. It upholds the Graves cuts in November of $48,000,000 to local governments. It does not repay $94 million to the Highway Fund and it transfers $35 million from other funds. It does fund Indigent Defense Services, SRS funds, Aging, Corrections and Education.

A mixed bag of cuts and spending … No fun to make! We’re 800,000 million from home and have to start somewhere. It is interesting how people vote. Sometimes the merits don’t matter. It’s because it funds too much or too little, or it cuts too much or too little, go figure. The joint conference committee will meet Monday; it’s not law yet.

Thursday Feb. 6, 2003

It seems a classic city-county war was before our committee.

The city of Topeka recently passed building code enforcement authority upon the three-mile area around the city of Topeka without even talking to the county.

The county could usurp the city’s move by implementing a building code. That’s right, Shawnee County does not have a building code!

So what does that have to do with the Kansas Legislature? The bill heard today, Senate Bill 79, would reduce the required (20 percent) number of signatures needed to create a protest petition to 5 percent. The protest petition would then create the basis for an election on this matter.

By the way — the voters would only be in the three-mile area around Topeka. I thought I retired from city and county issues. Hardly.

Friday, Feb. 7, 2003

Very short meeting, but Ways and Means and Commerce committees met after the Senate full session.

The bills are building, they’ll stop soon and we’ll have to get ’em all worked. There are 378 bills in the works! That’s a lot of ideas for people to ponder.