Kansas House Speaker O’Neal retires as legislature ends

? Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal is retiring from office.

Kansas House Speaker Mike O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, announced his retirement from the legislature on June 1, 2012.

O’Neal, a Hutchinson Republican, announced his retirement Friday as legislators gathered for the legislature’s formal end. He was first elected in 1984.

The House and Senate adjourned the regular session May 20.

This year’s regular session produced changes in Kansas tax policies and the pension program for state workers.

But the Legislature failed to carry out one of the year’s major tasks — drawing new boundaries for districts of the Kansas House and Senate, the State Board of Education and the four congressional districts.

The job of drawing new maps is now in the hands of a three-judge federal panel in Kansas City, Kan., which concluded on Wednesday.