“We were told to come up with a plan that makes KPERS sustainable and what little we’ve suggested doesn’t make it sustainable. It will cost more than our current law, not reduce the unfunded liability.”

The above statement by Senator Laura Kelly sums up the recommendation of the KPERS Study Commission which was stacked with anti-public employee ideologues. Kelly and other dissenting members of the Commission will file a minority report pointing out that the Commission chose to ignore the problem of the unfunded liability in favor of stripping public employees of a stable retirement system.

The Commission’s decision was not unexpected. After all, when the group was stacked with “financial planners” who stand to benefit personally by the elimination of KPERS as it is today, what choice did they have?

Here’s what the Commission voted to do:

No new KPERS member will have a defined benefit retirement system. These new employees will pay 6% of salary into a 401k program (the kind of retirement system that collapsed by 40% or more in 2008). The state will contribute 0.5% as a “match.” For each year worked they will increase the match another 0.5% for 10 years. So by one’s 11^thyear of employment, the state will be contributing 5% of salary. This total contribution of 11% after 10 years is significantly less than the 14% contributed every year to the Regent’s system employees.

For non-vested KPERS active members (all of you with less than 5 years of experience), they are stripping you of the benefit you have been paying into for those years. You will get the same 401k plan as new employees.

For current active KPERS members who are already vested in the system (five years of experience or more), there is no change except that with the move to put all non-vested members and new members in a defined contribution system, funding of the current defined benefit system will decline making it difficult to meet long term obligations. In other words, the further one is from retirement, the more likely it is that there will not be enough funding to meet your earned benefit. If you trust the legislature which has rarely met their KPERS obligation to change their behavior in the future, then you won’t worry. If you believe the legislature will continue to underfund their obligation, then you should worry.

Then, in a transparent attempt to make themselves look responsible, the Commission voted unanimously to eliminate the super-funded golden parachute retirement system that the legislature gave itself years ago. But not for current legislators – for future legislators.

Legislators like Senator Jeff King, who made the motion to strip teachers and other public employees of a fair retirement system in favor of a woefully underfunded savings account, will see their own golden parachute KPERS plan protected.

We will be calling for your help on actions to take after the holidays as the legislature prepares to return to Topeka. Watch you inbox and www.knea.org for more information. To keep abreast on the latest KPERS issues, visit www.keepingthekansaspromise.com.

“What’s happened in Topeka over the last few years has not been good for Kansas,” said the event’s moderator, Mark Desetti, a lobbyist for the Kansas National Education Association. “Too many people are suffering … in the current climate of ‘no government is good government.’”

Desetti claimed that 65 disabled or elderly Kansans died in the past year while on waiting lists for government services for which they were eligible.

He said that is unacceptable given that the state has granted $10 billion in tax cuts over the past decade.

Several lawmakers were there to echo the public’s concerns:

Rep. Nile Dillmore, D-Wichita, accused Brownback of governing through “little secret groups,” mostly from out of state, to develop the tax and social service policies he’s expected to push when the Legislature convenes in January. “That’s the people that Brownback and his administration are listening to,” Dillmore said. “They’re not listening to me and they’re not listening to you.”

Dillmore said he doesn’t think the governor’s priorities represent Kansas values.

“I’ve lived in this state all my life and I know these people and I know that they don’t look around and say, ‘You know, I’m really worried mostly about my pocketbook’ when people are dying,” Dillmore said. “They look around and they try to find ways to help.”

Two statewide coalitions representing a broad cross-section of Kansans are sponsoring Town Hall Meetings across the state in November, including on Thursday, November 29 in Wichita. The Big Tent Coalition is an association of organizations and individual advocates who believe in enhancing choices for Kansans with disabilities, seniors and those with mental illness. Kansans for Quality Communities is a coalition of organisations representing education, health care, people with disabilities, and state workers working to keep Kansas communities strong and healthy.

Both coalitions represent Kansans who believe that the quality of our communities is at risk of being lowered if our state budget is

cut any further than it already has been. These groups are urging legislators to value the quality services in our state and develop the budget accordingly—for both FY 2013 and FY 2014.

As our state moves into an uncertain future, we ask:

• How can we strengthen, and improve upon, our community’s quality resources for Kansans with disabilities of all ages? This includes but is not limited to developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health challenges, the frail elderly, traumatic brain injuries and children with severe emotional disturbances.
• How can we strengthen, and improve upon, our community’s investment in quality public education?
• How can we best protect, and improve upon, our community’s investment in both a quality public workforce and quality infrastructure?

Wichita / Hutchinson Labor Federation Vice-President William Rogers of IBEW local 661 gave a moving speech this weekend at a rally for jobs. It is presented here in it’s entirety.

We are here today because Kansans want to go to work! 

I know Governor Brownback is a career politician and knows little of real work.  Gov. Brownback may think job creation is finding one more job for Mike O’Neals wife, But we need him to get on board with real long term job creation for mainstream Kansans.

One of the quickest ways to create good jobs is by investing in our infrastructure.  We need to be rebuilding our highways, bridges, airports, and schools.  For every dollar invested in rebuilding Kansas–$1.50 in economic growth is created. 

Every Kansas business will see benefits from these investments for years to come. 

We need a Governor who support infrastructure spending, instead of one who takes credit jobs created by programs he opposed. These will be benefits to every Kansan and every Kansas businesses that cannot be shipped overseas.

Investing in infrastructure not only creates jobs, it increases the productivity of businesses small, medium, and large.  At the most basic level, infrastructure investments make it possible for firms to rely on well maintained roads to move their goods, on an electric grid that is always on to run their factories, and water mains that provide a steady stream of clean water to supply their restaurants.  Businesses also rely upon properly functioning schools to educate the workforce of the future.

We need less rhetoric and more action from the Gov.

Gov. Brownback: cutting pensions for hardworking Kansans does not create jobs!

Gov. Brownback: restricting voting rights for the poor and elderly does not create jobs!

Gov. Brownback: Interfering the family lives of Kansans does not create jobs!

Gov. Brownback:  Cutting back on Headstart does not create jobs

Gov. Brownback: Shifting the tax burden to local governments is not a job creation plan!

Governor Brownback should pay heed to Proverbs 14:23  “Hard work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty.”

MAKE JOBS, NOT TALK!

We need practical, no nonsense solutions to job creation.  It is up to the Democratic Party to be the source of these practical solutions!

We Kansans in the construction trades are proud of our work ethic.  We take pride in being at the gang box ready to go to work at every morning at starting time.

It is starting time for job creation in Kansas! This upcoming legislative session we need you here today to stand with us.  I challenge the Democratic party to join us as we fight for good jobs for Kansans!

Meet us at the gang box….we are ready to go to work!

At 6 AM on Friday morning the Kansas Legislature adjourned after an all-night, marathon wrap-up to close out the 2011 session.

Both houses worked through the night to pass a budget for 2012 that was more focused on indiscriminately cutting critical services for Kansans than it was on making good decisions for the good of the State. Schools, public employees, seniors and Kansans with developmental disabilities were all targeted by the Governor and Republicans who passed this budget without a single Democratic vote.

The defining moment of the 2011 session was captured by the Lawrence Journal-World, as Governor Brownback stood before House Republicans and urged them to reject calls for bipartisanship and to force through the budget with only Republican votes.

Working Kansas are under attack in the Legislature. Spread the word!

For bringing his Washington style of partisan politics to Kansas, Gov. Brownback deserves his very own “Mission Accomplished” banner.

But for extreme Republicans, there was at least one item on their agenda they never did accomplish this session: Paycheck Deception is still just a bad Republican idea, not a bad law, and your call and visits throughout the session are the reason.

HB 2130 is a direct attack on our fundamental right to participate in the political process – and we will have to fight it off again next year – but for the moment, you should savor this.

Tell your friends that we need their help fighting for hard-working Kansans in Topeka!

Working Kansans should have the same opportunities as anybody else to participate in our Democracy, especially when they are being attacked by extreme Republican legislators determined to give every advantage to corporations and big businesses.

We will almost certainly be fighting this battle again next year, and you can be sure that anti-worker Republicans like Rep. Anthony Brown and Sen. Susan Wagle will come up with even more Wisconsin-style attacks. But if you work as hard as you have this year, we can stop them.

Thank you for standing up for working Kansans,
KS AFL-CIO & the Wichita / Hutchinson Labor Federation

By a slim majority the Senate passed the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund bill before it could be used by Rep. Anthony Brown as a Trojan Horse for the most brazen anti-worker bill to move through the Kansas Legislature in years.

Rep. Brown and Sen. Susan Wagle were counting down the days until the end of the 2011 session when they could force this poison pill down the throats of Senators who wanted to see businesses begin to repay the depleted UI Trust Fund, but 22 Senators stopped them.

From Wisconsin to Ohio, Indiana and Florida, Republicans have been pushing this same brand of hateful anti-worker legislation, and we are hours away from stopping one of the worst bills here in Kansas. Don’t let up now, when you’ve done so much to fight HB 2130 so far.

A motion to reconsider could come today, so before any more games are played, call these Senators to thank them for standing up to the Extremists in the Republican Party and preserving your basic rights:

• Sen. Jeff Longbine Phone: 785-296-7384 Email: JeffLongbinesenateksgov
• Sen. Bob Marshall Phone: 785-296-7370 Email: BobMarshallsenateksgov
• Sen. Roger Reitz Phone: 785-296-7360 Email: RogerReitzsenateksgov
• Sen. Vicki Schmidt Phone: 785-296-7374 Email: VickiSchmidtsenateksgov
• Sen. Ruth Teichmann Phone: 785-296-7394 Email: RuthTeichmansenateksgov
• Sen. Terri Huntington Phone: 785-296-7369 Email: TerrieHuntingtonsenateksgov

Thank these Senators for standing up for you and your brothers and sisters who join and contribute to unions our of their own free will because unions fight for working Kansans and they hold those who hurt working Kansans accountable.

HB 2130 is a direct attack on our fundamental right to participate in the political process.

Working Kansans should have the same opportunities as anybody else to participate in our Democracy, especially when they are being attacked by extreme Republican legislators determined to give every advantage to corporations and big businesses.

Call these Senators and thank them for their vote. Thank them for preventing HB 2130 from becoming law.

In solidarity,

KS AFL-CIO and the Wichita / Hutchinson Labor Federation

Kansas businesses will now have the ability to misclassify workers as independent contractors without the fear of automatic penalties holding them back.

Tell Governor Brownback to Veto HB 2135 and stand up for Working Families.

House Bill 2135 removes automatic penalties for first-time misclassification offenders. The bill gives Sec. of Labor Karin Brownlee a wide range of options for how and why to let businesses slide when she investigates misclassification complaints.

Republicans have created an uneven playing field for Kansas businesses. Those who break the rules can now be given a free pass, and only face penalties if they somehow miss the loopholes written into the law for their benefit.

Email the Governor and tell him that employers don’t need any help cheating the system!

There are thousands of Kansans looking for work today, and one effect of HB 2135 will be that it will make hiring undocumented workers even easier than it already is.

Businesses that play by the rules, put Kansans to work and pay their share of unemployment and payroll taxes deserve better than to watch competitors benefit from an influx of undocumented workers this bill will encourage.

Tell the Governor that he should crack down on employers breaking the law.

Thank you for fighting for Working Families,
Kansas AFL-CIO and the Wichita / Hutchinson Labor Federation

Gov. Sam Brownback praised last month the cooperation and compromise of labor and business groups that led to the state’s new workers’ compensation law, which the Legislature passed unanimously. “This is the way to do it,” he said at the bill-signing ceremony in Wichita. But instead of learning from that success, some GOP lawmakers are still intent on passing a bill that would prohibit union members from using payroll deductions to make voluntary donations to political action committees. Even worse, they are willing to block an important unemployment bill to try to make it happen. The anti-union bill is a gratuitous political move that could poison future efforts for unions, business groups and lawmakers to work together for the common good.

For Immediate Release: May 3, 2011
Contact: Bruce Tunnell, 316-393-6235

New misclassification rules an attack on legitimate businesses that play by the rules

The Kansas AFL-CIO said today that the Legislature has made hiring undocumented workers easier than ever. Kansas businesses will now have the ability to misclassify workers as independent contractors without the fear of automatic penalties holding them back, clearing the way for an influx of undocumented workers into the Kansas labor market.

Led by Republicans, the Legislature passed House Bill 2135, legislation that removes penalties for first-time misclassification offenders. The bill gives Sec. of Labor Karin Brownlee a wide range of options for how and why to let businesses slide when she investigates misclassification complaints.

Republicans have created an uneven playing field for Kansas businesses. Those who break the rules can now be given a free pass, and only face penalties if they somehow miss the loopholes written into the law for their benefit. Meanwhile, businesses who do play by the rules – who pay for their share of unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation and state and federal taxers – deserve an explanation from Republican leaders in the Legislature.

Why did Republicans give the Sec. Brownlee the ability to waive penalties against law-breaking businesses when they are investigated for misclassification?

At a time when they know thousands of Kansans are searching for jobs, why did Republicans reduce penalties on businesses that hire undocumented workers?

This is just the latest attack on working Kansans – and in this case legitimate businesses who play by the rules – during this year’s Legislative session.

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• 46,000 jobs were lost in one year, the largest year-to-year loss in over 60 years.
• The annual unemployment rate in 2009 reached 6.7 percent, the highest rate in over 30 years. At one point, 122,000 Kansans were unemployed.
• Median hourly wages declined, extending a 30-year pattern of relatively flat or stagnant wages for most workers in spite of continued productivity increases. Adjusted for inflation, median wage workers were only earning 5.8 percent more an hour in 2009 than in 1979. In contrast, very high wage workers earned 27 percent more an hour in 2009 compared to 1979.

This report underlines the need for Kansas policy makers to focus on policies that create jobs and economic opportunity:

In the past, Kansas policymakers have recognized the importance of increasing human capital. Improving access to quality early education, promoting family saving for post-secondary education, starting a business or encouraging home ownership are just a few examples of Kansas public policy that helps increase economic opportunity. Those were the right priorities then, and the right priorities now.