Climate and energy

Here’s a quick summary, for those who read the last live blogging episode and (1) started banging their head against a wall, and/or (2) couldn’t tell what was going on.

Basically, this past Saturday night the legislature melted down. Here’s more or less how it happened.

There are two major bills now left in play – the budget, and a new “economic development package” bill, HB 2412. The latter contains the language from the vetoed SB 148 (the second coal bill that the House failed to override) as well as the trailer bill, HB 2802.

The House and Senate were at odds over the budget already. The Senate has earmarks in there that the House doesn’t like. The House rejected the Senate offer and the conference committee went back to the table (again).

While the two sides were negotiating that evening, House Leader Melvin Neufeld adjourned the House. The Senate, however, had expected to work into the night.

When the Senate found out the House had gone, they were not pleased. Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt adjourned the Senate – and did not set a time for them to reconvene. That is significant. (The Senate has been pretty done with their work for a while. It’s the House that has had some issues in tying things up, and the Senate was just waiting around on them.) Quotable, from the Topeka Capital-Journal:

“The House has unexpectedly left the building,” Schmidt said. “That makes it somewhat difficult to make progress on the remaining issues.”

“It came as a complete surprise, and I think stunned everybody,” (Minority Leader Anthony) Hensley said. “I believe the situation we’re in right now is a disgrace of the process of a bicameral Legislature. We’re now in this quandary of not knowing exactly where we’re going or what we’re going to be able to accomplish.”

So, what will happen? Can the Senate indeed give up in disgust and not return? Can the House keep dragging out the debate indefinitely? We’ll see.

But the budget is just one of the issues facing legislators. As this budget battled raged through Saturday, the process of putting together HB 2412 ratcheted the tensions between the two chambers even higher.

This new bill made its appearance in a taxation committee meeting earlier that day. More or less, it bundles the coal plants with several other existing bills that all target economic development.

These other bills have been worked on hard all session, by many parties (who can’t have been too excited to see the coal bill be reborn into their midst). The package includes bonds for the BNSF intermodal hub in Gardner, Kansas (Johnson County), tax breaks for Hill’s Pet Nutrition (Shawnee County) and possibly other unidentified companies, and the IMPACT program (statewide, but apparently means a great deal to Wichita). It also contained the vetoed coal bill SB 148, and the coal bill trailer, HB 2802.

As of Saturday night, no one had actually yet seen all the provisions of this huge economic development bill in print together.

What was the strategy? The legislative delegations of Johnson, Shawnee, and Sedgewick counties all contain significant blocks that voted against the coal plants.

The economic development bill (which quickly got itself dubbed a “Hail Mary” – you know, like the last minute touchdown pass) is an effort to sway these votes.

What was the reaction from some of the legislators? Um, some were not happy. Quoted in the Eagle, Rep. Judy Morrison from Shawnee County said: “It’s one of the worst bills I’ve ever seen. What they’re trying to do is force everyone to vote for it. It’s blackmail.” (Morrison had voted to sustain the Governor’s override of the coal plants.)

Legislators on both sides of the coal issue shared a dislike for the new mega bill. As quoted in the Hutchison News, Rep. Deena Horst (Salina), who had previously supported the coal plants, said “she didn’t favor piling several major development policies into a single bill. “I don’t intend to support this.’”

What did the Governor say? That she would (a) probably veto the bill, and (b) that it’s most likely unconstitutional anyway. According to the Kansas constitution, allocation bills are limited to one topic.

As Representative Tom Holland observed on the floor of the House yesterday, this bill contains issues of energy, administrative law, tax breaks, bonds, etc. – too much in one package. Attorneys from the Governor’s Office agree.

What will happen Monday in the House? No idea! Couldn’t even begin to guess! But tune in to the live blogging and see.

— Maril Hazlett, www.climateandenergy.org