Rep. Ed Bideau collapsed in the chair proffered late Friday afternoon, weariness evident on his brow. NEGOTIATIONS began in earnest “just this week,” Bideau said, clearly frustrated by the lack of progress. AS FOR a tax plan, Bideau wasn’t optimistic. EDUCATION concerns include the current hoopla against implementing Common Core teaching standards. SCHOOLS in smaller districts are losing ground to those in the city, Bideau said, citing a recent bill that allows districts that have experienced “exceptional growth” to use their wealth to build ancillary facilities and programs.
“It’s been a long, frustrating week,” he said. Bideau stopped by the Register on his way home to Chanute as day 91 of the Legislature wrapped up for the Memorial Day weekend.
In his second stint as a state representative of the 9th District, Bideau was able to give some perspective as to why the politics of today are so embattled. Bideau previously served from 1985 to 1988.
The biggest difference in legislatures of today is that taxes are figured first, followed by the programs necessary to run the state, instead of vice versa.
“We go back and forth, which should go first, the budget or the taxes,” Bideau said.
Legislators have made it particularly hard on themselves by having a Pay-Go legislature where any additional expense must be offset by a reduction elsewhere. Both the House and Senate have adopted the measure that can only be overruled by a two-thirds majority of both houses.
Compromise is also in short supply, Bideau said, because of the nature of how laws are currently passed.
“Today, the budget comes to us as one big, omnibus deal,” he said. “You vote yes or no. There’s no discussing different elements of the package.”
Time was, separate issues and their needs were debated. Education, law enforcement, social services, and transportation — each had their separate budgets to be worked out and then recommended to a house.
Today, legislators not serving on those specific subcommittees have little knowledge of their final makeup, Bideau said. And once the House or Senate passes a bill, it’s out of the hands of individual legislators.
“When the House and Senate pass a bill, it then goes to a conference committee of six people. They decide on which version to accept. It then goes back to the floor for a vote. There’s no chance to amend the legislation at that point,” Bideau said.
“We were never close to getting the session wrapped up in 80 days,” he said, a wish stated early in the session by House and Senate leaders. The state funds a 90-day session. Each additional day is estimated to cost taxpayers $45,000.
Bideau serves on three committees, judiciary, health and human services and Vision 20-20.
Although it was their responsibility, members of the health and human services never seriously addressed expanding Medicaid services, Bideau said. “It was never put up for discussion,” by the committee chair, David Crum, a Republican from Augusta.
“All year I expected this to be discussed. Nothing,” Bideau said.
Bideau is in favor of making the program more inclusive, and ticked off four reasons:
o The 9th District has a high level of poverty and Medicaid is health insurance for the poor;
o Both executives for the hospitals in Bideau’s district, Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center and Allen County Hospital, have said their hospitals will face substantial hits to their bottom lines if the program is not expanded;
o Kansas will pass up additional money if it denies the expanded program, and
o The Affordable Care Act is the “rule of the land. I don’t see it being repealed. We just have to deal with it.”
Bideau said the issue is “technically in the hands of the governor,” who has the final say over whether Kansas will broaden the insurance program to cover more of its poor.
The biggest objection is if “the feds break the deal,” on funding the expanding program, Bideau said. “It’s been done before,” he said, citing special education and programs for the gifted, both programs mandated by the federal government but left to states to fund.
“A budget has to pass by June 30,” he said. “A tax plan doesn’t.”
If that happens, the current 6.3 percent statewide sales tax will sunset back to 5.7 percent, and the governor’s plan to reduce and eventually eliminate the state income tax will suffer a setback.
Bideau pulled out paper after paper from his briefcase detailing various tax cut scenarios. The Senate’s most recent proposal was to keep the statewide sales tax at 6.3 percent and reduce the state sales tax on groceries to 4.95.
That made their package “more palliative,” Bideau said, but he still voted against it.
The majority of the House is holding out for a maximum of a 6 percent sales tax, which over the next five years would raise $857 million.
Bideau said he thinks most of his constituents prefer keeping the sales tax at 6.3 percent, “if it means keeping our schools open and our roads up to snuff. But I’d like to hear from others.”
Of course lowering any tax means cuts elsewhere. In legislative lingo they are referred to as “itemized haircuts,” which eliminate tax deductions for home mortgages, heads of household, and a laundry list families and homeowners have depended on to get a break.
“My dad once made me get a burr haircut,” Bideau said. “I hated it,” he said of the drastic measure.
Despite this late stage in the game, legislators are still considering appeals, Bideau said, commenting on a letter from the Department of Corrections that said any budget cuts to the department would compromise public safety.
Bideau said he recently received 25-30 letters about expanding Medicaid.
“A letter is best compared to an email,” he said when vying for a lawmaker’s attention.
“Opponents are still trying to cut the funds off,” Bideau. His wife, Margaret, a third-grade teacher in Chanute, spoke on the House floor in support of Common Core.
Bideau’s biggest concern is the current effort to sway legislators to vote for a budget that de-funds the new curriculum for schools.
Sue Boldra, representative from Hays and a retired teacher, helped craft the Common Core standards for the state.
Bideau is frustrated with outside interests influencing legislators. “They’re not listening to our own people,” he said.
As for the lawsuit against the state for adequately funding its schools, the state has appealed the court’s decision. The appeal will likely be decided by fall, he said.
“Most lawyers predict the state will lose,” Bideau said. The unknown is whether the court will give a fixed dollar amount as to what adequate funding is or just tell the legislature “to go fix it,” he said.
And if the Legislature rebukes the court’s decision altogether?
“That’s unplowed ground,” he said.
“This is an un-equalizer in education,” Bideau said. “Legislators will vote their constituencies, which is not good for us smaller districts.”
As for guns on college campuses, Bideau said he was disappointed school leaders didn’t make a greater fuss when the Legislature approved concealed carry on school grounds.
Recourse for administrators is for them to look at the cost of compliance and to demand either a review of the law or funding to accommodate the new law. The law doesn’t take effect for four years.
Bideau’s concern is people’s understanding of what concealed carry is. “It’s not a certification to be a security guard,” he said. “A gun should be used only if a life is in immediate danger.”
Bideau is a gun enthusiast and understands people’s sentiments about gun ownership.
“It’s a very strong issue. People see gun ownership as a symbol of independence from the government.”
Bideau: Bloodied, but not beaten
