A Manhattan legislator has an update on proposed Medicaid expansion in the state of Kansas.
Rep. Sydney Carlin of the 66th legislative district spoke about the bill’s progress in the Kansas House.
“The bill will not be coming to the floor,” she said. “The committee chair decided not to bring it to the floor for a vote.”
Carlin says that all legislators from the Manhattan area outside of herself voted against an amendment in favor of Medicaid expansion. She says she is very disappointed by that.
“All of our local legislators (from Manhattan) voted against the amendment,” Carlin said. “I’m very unhappy about that.”
The only way to get the proposed bill to the floor of the Kansas House is a floor vote with 71 votes necessary to get it out of committee without committee approval. However, due to the opposition in the House to the bill, it looks unlikely that Medicaid expansion will be passed during this legislative session.
Out of 50 states in the union, Kansas is just one of 10 states that has not expanded Medicaid since the inception of the federal Affordable Care Act in 2010.
Carlin also spoke about the status of the state budget, which is expected to be balanced for the fifth straight year.
Carlin says she is happy the budget achieved its goals and that the state does not have to borrow money like they had to do in the past under former governor Sam Brownback.
“We have extra money this year available,” Carlin said. “We also have our rainy day fund that we set up three years ago and we met our 7.5% ending balance requirement.”
Carlin says a lot of the budget this year is paying off the state’s debts, which includes paying off BIR bonds which says will benefit K-State.
“This is a good thing for K-State,” she said. “I believe we’re paying off $2.2 million because of cuts the school had to make.”
Carlin also spoke about her vote on a resolution in support of keeping AM Radio in cars.
In the last year, several automakers from Volkswagen to Tesla decided to remove AM radio from their vehicles. Kansas state representative Sydney Carlin voted in favor of the resolution and explained her reason for supporting it.
“I always say that when you’re driving down the highway and there is a tornado coming, you need that information from local radio stations,” she said.
The resolution passed in the Kansas House and while it does not stop the decision by automakers to go through with this decision, it does show the legislature’s support towards local radio stations like KMAN.
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