Self-Serve Beer
The Senate Federal and State Affairs committee held a hearing on a bill which would allow for the self-service of beer in Kansas. Current law already permits machines which dispense wine directly to the adult consumer. This type of self-service beer dispenser lies at the center of the Brew Bank concept which recently won Topeka’s first ever Top Tank competition. In their testimony, representatives of Brew Bank explained how the machine works and the many features which are built in to prevent minors from gaining access to alcohol and over-indulgence by adults. Vince Frye, President of Downtown Topeka, Inc., attested to the excitement this new concept is causing in the Capitol City and how it marks another step along Topeka’s road to renaissance. The Topeka Chamber noted that this is the sort of modernization to the state’s liquor laws which is necessary to enable Kansas communities to become more appealing to the young mobile workforce they are all trying to attract. On Monday, the bill was passed out of committee and is now headed to the floor of the Senate. A companion bill has been introduced in the House and will come on for hearing next Wednesday, where the Brew Band will get back together for an encore performance.
Waiting on The School Funding Report
Last week, the Chairman of the House K-12 Education Budget Committee, Shawnee County’s own Fred Patton, indicated he plans to hold-off working on the major part of the school budget until after his committee has received and had time to digest a highly anticipated study by a Texas researcher. Her report is due this Thursday. Until then, Patton’s committee will deal with other parts of the school budget, such as special education. This essentially means K-12 funding will be addressed under its own appropriations bill before the rest of the state’s spending is finalized.
In an interesting plot development, a group of state university students has petitioned the Kansas Supreme Court to be a part of the school finance case. They contend the court has given no consideration to the impact that ever-increasing spending on K-12 education will have on the state’s ability to fund higher education. The students contend that over the last ten years, Kansas college students have faced skyrocketing tuition, shorter academic terms, and shrinking faculties.
House Committee Approves Review of Economic Development Programs
The House Taxation Committee approved last week a bill that requires public disclosure of certain economic incentives data by the Department of Commerce. The same committee later passed another bill which calls for periodic review for certain tax credits, economic development incentives, and sales tax exemptions. The reviews would provide a description of each incentive and an estimate of their economic impact. The Topeka Chamber’s Small Business Council has been working with Shawnee County legislators Jim Gartner and Brenda Dietrich to find a way to make the tax code more encouraging for small businesses. A first step in refining the long list of tax credits in the current code is to gather data about them and assess each programs’ efficacy. So, the Topeka Chamber submitted testimony in favor of the latter bill which had been introduced by Rep. Gartner.
Internet Sales Tax
The House Taxation Committee also passed out the Kansas Main Street Parity Act, which requires internet retailers to pay sales tax in Kansas if they have at least $50,000 per year in Kansas internet sales. Bricks-and-mortar retailers sought the legislation because internet retailers who do not pay Kansas sales tax have a pricing advantage of between 6.5% and 10%, depending on where their Kansas purchaser is at. If passed, the new law would become effective January 1, 2019 and is estimated to raise between $70 million and $130 million in new revenue. The bill could be affected by a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision on Internet sales tax, but the chair of the Tax Committee is open to tweaking the measure if necessary in response to the Court’s ruling.