Wichita Eagle, March 28, 2012 – If the Kansas Legislature would do its constitutional duty and suitably fund K-12 education, it wouldn’t need to worry about the courts holding it accountable.

But some lawmakers, particularly House leaders, seem more interested in punishing public schools than in properly funding them.

The House tried to advance a constitutional amendment declaring that courts or the executive branch couldn’t direct the Legislature to appropriate money. It was in response to a 2005 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that the state wasn’t equitably and adequately funding schools. And it was in anticipation of the pending trial of a lawsuit filed after the Legislature reneged on its funding agreement and cut per-pupil base funding back to 1999 levels.

The measure received the necessary majority on the first vote Tuesday. But on the final vote Wednesday, it fell just short of the two-thirds requirement.

Perhaps lawmakers realized that instead of trying to amend the Kansas Constitution, they should focus on trying to restore education funding.

That’s what a Senate bill attempts to do. It would increase funding by $74 per pupil each of the next two years. It passed 31-9, reflecting bipartisan support and both moderate and conservative GOP backing.

The House has yet to pass a school-finance plan. What has made it to the floor so far has been legislation aimed at making life even tougher for school districts.

One plan pushed by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Marc Rhoades, R-Newton, would have withheld $29 million from schools for the current year. It reflected the misguided notion of House Speaker Mike O’Neal, R-Hutchinson, that school districts should be forced to spend down their cash reserves.

To their credit, House lawmakers voted 116-1 to restore the funding.

On Monday the House also voted down a plan backed by House Education Committee Chairman Clay Aurand, R-Belleville, that would have created a new tax break to attract students to private or parochial schools. Though more education opportunities can be good, many lawmakers questioned how the state could afford to create a voucher program for private schools when it isn’t suitably funding public schools.

“Is it our duty to use tax dollars and tax policy to send Kansas money to private schools?” asked Rep. Bob Brookens, R-Marion. “Kansas was built on, and Kansas will live or die on, its public education.”

Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, tried Monday to replace the House voucher bill with the Senate funding plan.

“I have a scholarship program for every child that enters public schools,” Ward said. “I’m going to call it ‘state aid.’”

His amendment failed 50-70.

Yet lawmakers whine when the state gets sued.

Lawrence Journal World, March 29, 2012— An effort to remove the management of care for those with developmental disabilities from Gov. Sam Brownback’s Medicaid privatization plan was thwarted in the House on Thursday.

The dustup occurred when legislators considered House Bill 2789, which would have set up a legislative committee to oversee Brownback’s move to contract with private insurance companies to handle the state’s $2.9 billion Medicaid program. Under Brownback’s plan, the program, which covers health care for the poor, elderly and disabled, would be called KanCare.

State Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, tried to amend the bill to remove those with developmental disabilities from KanCare and maintain their current network of assistance.

Ward was acting on behalf of parents and advocates of those with developmental disabilities who have pleaded with Brownback to leave them alone, saying that the needs of those with developmental disabilities don’t fit the managed care system provided by insurance companies.

But Brownback has rejected those pleas and promised that services will improve under KanCare and cost less.

A bi-partisan group of legislators, however, said they were skeptical of those claims and supported Ward’s amendment.

“My constituents have been begging for this,” said state Rep. Ron Worley, R-Lenexa. “They are not simply concerned, they are scared to death.”

State Rep. Ed Trimmer, D-Winfield, said the parents of children with developmental disabilities fear having to fight insurance companies over assistance for their sons and daughters.

Brownback administration officials were on the floor of the House busily talking with legislators.

State Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, and chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said if the care of developmentally disabled Kansans wasn’t turned over to KanCare, state funds may not be available and services would have to be cut. She was joined by state Reps. Marc Rhoades, R-Newton, who is chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and David Crum, R-Augusta, chair of the House Social Services Budget Committee.

Crum made the motion to send the entire bill back to committee, which caused Ward to leap up in protest. “Keep your big boy pants,” he urged House members. “Today’s the day.” But the motion to send the bill back to committee was approved 69-54. Only Republicans voted for the motion.

Jim Ward has appeared multiple time on the KPTS interview call-in show during this session.
Click to watch the broadcasts:

March 4, 2012

February 12, 2012

February 5, 2012

Saturday 2/11/12

• Rep. Ward will be participating in a legislative forum with Jean Schodorf, Steve Brunk and Pete DeGraaf before the Sedgwick County Association of Counties – City Arts 334 No. Mead at 9:00 a.m.

 
• Rep. Ward will be attending a Chili Feed at Machinist Hall in Wichita, Kansas

Sunday 2/12/12
• Rep. Ward will be appearing on Ask Your Legislator.  KPTS Channel 8 beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Link to National Public Radio story on Rep. Ward’s bill to have independent oversight of Medicaid Privatization.

In a continuing effort to ensure that any overhaul of the Kansas Medicaid system is implemented safely and deliberately, Rep. Jim Ward has introduced the KanCare Accountability Act. The KanCare Accountability Act – House Bill 2573 – provides independent oversight and transparency over the implementation and impact of Governor Brownback’s managed care plan.

“The KanCare Accountability Act ensures that promises made are promises kept,” said Ward. “Over 350,000 Kansans depend on Medicaid for health care and Gov. Brownback’s overhaul of the current system is moving alarmingly fast. It would be a mistake for the Legislature to push children, the disabled, and elderly Kansans into a privatized system without offering some assurance that their health care needs will continue to be met.

Ward’s proposal requires an annual, independent audit and evaluation of KanCare contractors (insurance companies hired to provide Medicaid). It ensures that these contractors make no changes in eligibility that will deny people of essential health care. The bill will also ensure that no benefits are cut or eliminated to ensure that all health care treatments that are available now under the current system will remain available. Furthermore, the bill ensures that the amount paid to doctors, hospitals and other providers for services will not be cut. The bill also allows for feedback from providers and beneficiaries as to quality of care they receive or provide under the new system.

“Gov. Brownback has pledged that his KanCare plan will not cut benefits, that it will not cut Kansans eligible and that it will not reduce the amount paid to doctors and hospitals. But there is too much at stake to accept his promise at face value. We must hold the insurance companies accountable,” said Ward.

Under House Bill 2573, the Kansas Health Institute would serve as the independent auditor, contracted through the Legislative Coordinating Council. This is an appropriate vendor for this service in the first years of KanCare implementation, as the organization offers the expertise of former Kansas Budget Director Duane Goossen and former Kansas Medicaid Director Scott Brunner. Most of data will be available through Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the Kansas Department of Aging and Commissioner of Insurance. KHI will collaborate with these agencies to develop a shared database that will guarantee accountability.

“Over $2.8 billion tax dollars are used to purchase health care services under Medicaid,” said Ward. “If we are going to turn this business over to private insurance companies, we must protect the taxpayers money.”

Rep. Jim Ward will be discussing the Governor’s property increase and his risky changes to the public education funding formula on the KPTS Channel 8 program “Ask Your Legislator.

The program will air on February 5th from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. Viewers will have the opportunity to call in and ask questions.

State Rep. Jim Ward  introduced legislation this week that will exempt the most vulnerable Kansans from efforts to privatize state Medicaid services. Ward’s proposal, House Bill 2457, would keep the developmentally disabled waiver population as part of KanCare’s managed care for medical purposes, but their long-term care non-medical services would be carved out of the program and continue on a “fee for service” model (caretakers, residential care, etc.).

“The Brownback Administration appears to be on the fast track to the privatization of Medicaid,” said Ward. “Regardless of what happens with the Governor’s plan, it is important that any reform efforts are deliberate and implemented safely. We must ensure that critical services for our most vulnerable citizens are not jeopardized.”

Under the KanCare initiative announced last fall by Gov. Brownback, the state’s Medicaid services would be contracted to private companies.  The developmentally disabled waiver population would be included in the managed care system to address both  their medical care as well as their long-tern care expenses. Families and advocates for those with developmental disabilities have expressed concerns that such a move could lead to cuts in in-home health services. There are also currently 4,800 Kansas adults and children on the developmentally disabled waiting list.  The administration is unclear as to how this backlog will be addressed under the KanCare contracts.

The general Medicaid population typically only requires medical attention a few times a year. Those with severe developmental disabilities, however, require much more frequent contact with providers of non-medical services.  Given the needs of this population, it is imperative that they have case managers who are familiar with the community in which they reside, who are aware of the services available locally, and who arrange for those services be provided according to their needs. It is unlikely that an out-of-state, for-profit company would be capable of providing the same level of care currently provided by the state through the CDDOs.

“Our state has an obligation to provide the best quality of life possible for those with severe developmental disabilities,” said Ward.  “My proposal maintains a system that even Gov. Brownback has acknowledged is successful in meeting these critical needs.”

Story posted on Kansas.com questions the costs of Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax propsal. Projections now show the plan, which decreases individual income tax rates while axing many deductions and credits, would cost nearly $90.million in the 2013 fiscal year. That seems to challenge the notion Brownback embedded in his State of the State address a week ago that it would not cost much, if anything, and would fully fund the 2012 budget.

The new figures also spoil Brownback’s insistence that his budget would lead to a 7.5 percent surplus next year.

Read more at Kansas.com.

House Minority Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, along with other democrats offered an alternative to Gov. Sam Brownback’s school finance reform plan Tuesday. Speaking in front of a few hundred K-5 students at Topeka’s Lowman Hill Elementary School, Democratic leaders outlined a three-year plan that would hand $180 million back to schools in the next three years, rather than overhaul the school funding formula, as Brownback has proposed.

Link to Capital Journal report on the Governor’s State of the State Democratic response.