Immigrant tuition

A proposal to repeal a tuition break for certain immigrants may not get out of the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead.

The measure would repeal a 2004 law that allows some illegal immigrants to pay the less expensive resident tuition rate if they attended a Kansas high school for at least three years and graduated or earned a general educational development certificate in Kansas. Also, they must be seeking legal immigration status.

House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, said even if the committee doesn’t approve it, the measure’s author, Rep. Becky Hutchins, R-Holton, could attach it to another bill as an amendment.

“Becky Hutchins is a very determined person. She’s not running again and she’s got a few loose ends she wants to tie up, I think. That’s what we lame ducks do,” Mays said.

Voluntary consolidation

A bill that would allow voluntary local government consolidation has the support of Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton.

Kansas has 3,887 local government units, the fifth highest in the nation, according to federal figures.

“Eventually we are going to have to face the fact that we have too many units of government in this state. We have got too many school districts, we’ve got too many counties, we’ve got too many fire districts, we’ve got too many townships,” Morris said.

Board retreat

The often-divided State Board of Education will go on a brief retreat today for “group think” sessions and to hear a report from a committee of school superintendents.

The retreat will be from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the board’s meeting room at the State Department of Education in Topeka. It is an open forum except for a scheduled closed-door session to discuss performance goals for Commissioner Bob Corkins, whose hiring in October without an education background caused a firestorm of controversy.

Crack pipe measure

House Democrats have unveiled several bills under the heading of “Partnership for Safe Neighborhoods.”

Included in the proposals is a measure by Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, that would prohibit the sale of little glass flower vases sometimes found in convenience stores.

Davis said the tube-shaped vases are sometimes used as drug paraphernalia, specifically crack pipes.

Workers comp

Secretary of Labor Jim Garner urged lawmakers to disregard a proposed bill that he said would reduce benefits to injured workers. Garner said workers compensation benefit levels in Kansas rank 45th in the nation, while premium costs to employers are 44th.

“Bottom line there is no crisis or escalation of premium costs in Kansas,” Garner said.

Things to watch:

10:30 a.m. Tuesday: Kansas University law professor Steve McAllister to testify on legislation dealing with restrictions of demonstrations at funerals before Senate Federal and State Affairs, Room 231-North in Capitol.