Latest news with #Awerkamp
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Kansas lawmakers 'put lipstick on a pig,' governor says of new welfare law
A new state law that reorganizes existing law without changing policy was criticized by the governor as she declined to sign it. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly announced March 31 that she allowed House Bill 2027 to become law without her signature. It reorganizes state statutes on public assistance, including eligibility requirements for cash aid, food assistance, child care subsidies and medical benefits. "The HOPE Act was wrong then, and it remains wrong now," Kelly said in a statement. "Legislators are only trying to put lipstick on a pig, and I refuse to associate myself with the HOPE Act. "Now, more than ever, the Legislature should look for ways to support working Kansas families rather than further shredding the safety net that gives Kansans a bridge back to self-sufficiency." The HOPE Act was passed by the 2015 Legislature and signed by then-Gov. Sam Brownback. It codified welfare reforms made by the Brownback administration intended to move families off public assistance and into the workforce. Brownback said at the time that often government "poverty programs fail the poor." He said the reforms would break "cycles of dependency." Kelly, who at the time was a senator from Topeka, voted against the 2015 bill. Now a decade later, in her statement on the 2025 reorganization, Kelly described it as "the so-called HOPE Act" that "severely restricting Kansans' ability to access social service programs like SNAP food assistance, TANF cash assistance, and childcare assistance." A memo from legislative staff said the reorganization in HB 2027 covers language related to the following: Temporary Assistance for Needy Family, or TANF. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, also known as food stamps. The child care subsidy program. Fraud investigations. Requirements related to drug screening and convictions. KanCare, the state Medicaid program. The 24-page bill passed the Republican-led House and Senate with supermajority support divided largely along party lines, but received relatively little debate in the Legislature. Rep. Francis Awerkamp, R-St. Marys, explained Feb. 11 on the House floor why he had introduced the bill in the welfare reform committee, which he chairs. "Our current statute is a little bit of a mess, and it's hard to follow; it's hard to read through and understand," Awerkamp said. He said he asked legislative staff to take on a "summer project of reorganizing that statute in a way which they thought would make the most sense." That effort culminated in HB 2027, which Awerkamp said makes no policy changes. Awerkamp praised past policy changes as ensuring the programs "help people in their time of need, and also help them out of the welfare state." "Though it doesn't change any policy, there's a lot of policy in here that I've disagreed with," said Rep. Jarrod Ousley, D-Merriam and the top Democrat on the welfare reform committee. "A lot of it I would like to see repealed." Rep. Ford Carr, D-Wichita, attempted to amend the bill to change some of the policy. His amendment was intended to ensure no one is denied food assistance solely due to a prior felony drug conviction. The Republican-led rules committee deemed the amendment was not germane. While Carr argued that it should have been germane because the subject of the bill was welfare reform, Rep. Susan Humphries, R-Wichita, said the subject was actually "reorganization." House Democrats also used a different proposed amendment as an opportunity to debate Medicaid expansion. In the Senate, floor debate on the bill lasted about three minutes. Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@ Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas governor says lawmakers put lipstick on a pig with welfare law
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Kansas corn, sorghum farmers and ethanol refiners want $5 million tax break to aid E15 sales
Rep. Ken Rahjes, an Agra Republican and chairman of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, asked House colleagues to embrace a $5 million annual income tax incentive to increase availability of E15 made with corn and sorghum byproducts. In a House committee hearing on the bill, soybean and biodiesel interests asked for a comparable five-year tax incentive. (Kansas Reflector screen capture from Legislature's YouTube channel) TOPEKA — A coalition of agriculture and energy companies requested the Kansas House approve a $5 million annual state tax credit to incentivize reluctant gas station operators to expand distribution of E15 fuel made with homegrown corn or sorghum. Consumers commonly purchase E10 — a fuel with 10% ethanol — for use in cars and trucks, but champions of the income tax break for alternative fuel retailers said it could lead to better prices paid to sorghum and corn farmers, benefit consumers by expanding availability of lower-cost, higher-blends of fuel and provide trickle-down economic gains across the rural economy. Rep. Ken Rahjes, an Agra Republican with the Phillipsburg ethanol plant in his district, asked the House Taxation Committee to consider the 'fiscally responsible' state income tax incentive of 5 cents on every gallon of E15 sold by retailers in 2026 to 2031. The initiative could convince fuel station owners to make infrastructure investments in underground tanks and other equipment necessary to market E15, he said. 'Renewable fuel production has a long history in this state and now it is time to move forward and increase access to E15 to our citizens and those traveling through our great state,' Rahjes said. Only 150 of 2,000 fueling stations in Kansas — about 7% statewide — offer products containing 15% ethanol and 85% unleaded gasoline. For more than a decade, E15 has been approved for use in U.S. vehicles manufactured in 2001 or after. St. Marys Rep. Francis Awerkamp, a Republican on the tax committee, asked why the Legislature should target an income tax break for fuel station operators rather than enact tax policy useful to a wide range of Kansas businesses. 'There's a lot of businesses in Kansas … that can make a claim that they're good for Kansas,' Awerkamp said. 'How do we explain carving out a very, very specific industry and giving them essentially a subsidy for their capital investment?' Steve Seabrook, an executive at POET Ethanol Products in Wichita, indirectly responded to Awerkamp's skepticism. He said Kansas needed the state income tax incentive to catch up with Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa and other states that embraced the strategy in a bid to jumpstart E15 sales. 'We've had a hard time getting it rolling,' Seabrook said. 'The main reason you put an incentive out here is to get market development and consumer choice out in front of everybody.' He said POET marketed 2 billion gallons of ethanol annually from 34 refineries, including POET's 27 plants. POET also purchased 7% of the U.S. corn crop each year and was tied to 22% of the nation's ethanol production. During the House committee hearing Monday on House Bill 2012, soybean growers and biodiesel manufacturers stepped up to request consideration of a companion bill that would expand the concept to create a $5 million income tax credit to bolster production and sales of biodiesel in Kansas. That tax break would apply to sales of 10% or higher blends of biodiesel. 'The same way ethanol is to gasoline markets, biodiesel and renewable diesel are to the diesel markets,' said Kaleb Little of the Kansas Soybean Association. 'Our economy is powered by the diesel engine.' Under both pieces of legislation, unused state income tax credits could be carried forward by alternative-fuel retailers for up to five taxable years. The credit wouldn't be refundable. Both bills would cap the annual tax credit for their respective industries at $5 million per tax year. The incentive would apparently be allocated by the Kansas Department of Revenue to qualified retailers on a first-come, first-served basis. Josh Roe, CEO of the Kansas Corn Growers Association, said that in the past five years an average of 33% of corn produced in Kansas was used in ethanol production. He said Kansas consumers bought nearly 1.1 billion gallons of gasoline annually. A 1% increase in the percentage of ethanol in the fuel blend would lead to consumption of 16 million additional gallons of ethanol drawn from 5.7 million bushels of corn or sorghum, he said. 'While it's not possible to accurately estimate how that could impact corn prices across the state,' Roe said, 'additional demand for our Kansas grown commodities is vital to farmer prosperity, especially in this time of depressed prices and agricultural incomes.' Corn farmer Brett Grauerholz, operating in Republic County in northcentral Kansas, said existing ethanol production was responsible for a $1 per bushel increase in current levels of corn prices. The proposed bill would add to farmers' bottom line, he said. 'With even a small increase in the current markets of say only 25 cents a bushel, a producer that grows 100,000 bushels of corn could see a $25,000 market premium,' he said.
