A full house was in attendance at the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce Saturday morning for a legislative coffee that included visits from four Barton County legislators. Sen. Mary Jo Taylor, Rep. Tory Arnberger, Rep. Alicia Straub and Rep. Troy Waymaster were there to share updates and answer questions about progress in several committees so far this session. 

Great Bend Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Megan Barfield welcomed elected officials and guests, and turned the forum over to facilitator Richard Shank from Hutchinson Regional Healthcare Systems. 

He offered each legislator five minutes to provide updates before opening the floor to visitor questions. 

Taylor started out by providing information about an agricultural bill she worked on concerning sale of raw milk. 

Straub was second. Straub was appointed last year to fill the seat of recently deceased Greg Lewis, Stafford, who stepped down due to health concerns. Prior to that, she served four years as a Barton County Commissioner. As a member of the Agriculture and Natural Resources committee, she worked on a bill requiring labeling of “fake meat” items available to the public. While her background is in retail and apparel marketing, her experience in meat judging while in school came in handy as she worked through the bill, she said. 

Arnberger is in her fourth year as a legislator. She shared a flow chart with attendees that describes how a bill becomes a law. As the Deputy Majority Whip, she has been working with the General Governmental Budget and the Human Health Services committees this session, attending hearings on Medicaid expansion, teen suicide, sports betting, medical marijuana, and recently helped to pass a bill concerning Polka and Square Dancing. 

Waymaster is the senior legislator in Barton County, serving eight years so far. He is the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. The majority of his work is analyzing all state budgets to come up with the annual general budget. His committee will wrap up its work mid to late next week. 

He has also been working on the legislative task force for the State’s new transportation plan. Last week, ground breaking occurred on two major projects, one in Russell and one in Liberal, that were among the 25 projects that were unfinished with T-works since 2016 when the state faced severe budget problems. 

“Those projects that are not completed will carry over into the new transportation plan that we’re drafting for the state of Kansas, so it’s great to see that we’re going to be honoring a promise that we made 10 years ago with T-works,” he said.

Waymaster called 2019 a “stellar year financially for the state.” 

“We ended with an ending balance of $1.1 billion, and an ending surplus,” he said. 

The ending balance also included $230 million that was earmarked for the state general fund to go to the Kansas Department of Transportation, which will be the funding mechanism for the new transportation plan.

If nothing changes, Waymaster anticipates ending 2021 with an ending balance of approximately $600 million. While there are discussions happening around the Capital concerning tax reduction policy, there’s a lot that needs to be restructured for the state budget, he said. A few examples included the state keeping $30,000 from the asbestos fee fund for the state general fund. Also, the Economic Development Initiatives fund, worth $17 million, has also been retained to the state general fund. Now, it’s time to make sure those dollars are spent the way they were intended because that is what the citizens of the State of Kansas wanted those dollars for, he said. 

Questions from the floor mostly concerned Medicaid expansion. Of concern are the thousands of Kansans who have no health-care coverage, especially now with concerns over the spread of COVID-19. Attendees were also concerned about what would be done to limit fraud if expansion is allowed. The amount of assistance that critical access hospitals would receive compared to those in more highly populated areas was also of interest.  

Removing the requirement for collaborative agreements between doctors and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses is one consideration being debated to help expand access to health care in Kansas that may do more to improve access to health care in rural Kansas, Arnberger said. 

But Medicaid expansion wasn’t the sole concern of forum attendees. Questions about what is being done to create markets for industrial hemp in the state were also asked.  

Waymaster serves on the advisory committee for industrial hemp. This year, an ag marketing group was formed within the Department of Agriculture, but Gov. Laura Kelly had proposed transferring it to the Department of Commerce.

“Industrial and commercial hemp is still a new product,” Waymaster said. “We need to keep those ag marketers to help out the industry. We do have a limited number of processors and distributors, not as much as we’d like so we can have the farmers take that product to market, but leaving those ag marketers in the Department of Ag will benefit all the ag community, as opposed to moving them to the Department of Commerce.” 

Straub agreed. 

“I think the state has also been a little bit greedy when it comes to the industrial hemp program or the commercial hemp program. I think we really just need to get out of the way, and I’m afraid if we don’t we’re going to miss the boat,” she said. Consensus of some growers from Kansas, as well as Colorado, she said, is there is too much red tape in Kansas and there is no market. 

Taylor added private firms who are working on markets and production need to be given room to do their job. 

Barfield reminded the gathering that the Great Bend Farm and Ranch and Hemp expo is coming to the Expo April 8-10. There will be consultants and a master grower on hand to host hemp seminars and forums all three days.