(Syndicated to Kansas newspapers March 21, 2016)
The talk is getting a little louder, in this week before first adjournment of the Legislature on Thursday or Friday, that there might just be a special session of the Legislature this June.
Yes, after the month off for Spring Break, the so-called “veto session” of the Legislature is scheduled to start April 27 and if lawmakers hold it to the presumptive 90-day rule (it took 113 days last year), legislators could be free for fund-raising and campaigning by May 18, or maybe a little sooner.
But lawmakers are already wondering whether they can assemble and pass a new school finance law that will satisfy the Kansas Supreme Court’s February ruling that the state is unconstitutionally and unequally distributing funds to local school districts for their Local Option Budgets and capital outlay funds. So far, no bill has been passed that would meet that ruling and prevent the high court from shutting down schools July 1 if its equalization order isn’t met.