House Status:
Senate Status:
Senate Status:
Minutes for HB2577 - Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources
Short Title
Emergency responders and creating the Kansas right-to-know fee fund.
Minutes Content for Wed, Mar 14, 2018
Chairperson Kerschen opened the hearing on HB2577.
Tamera Lawrence with the Revisor of Statutes Office explained the bill.
Randy Stookey spoke in support of the bill. He testified that his organization, because it is heavily regulated, pays multiple fees to various agencies to cover the costs involved in the administration of those regulations. He fully supports those fees being being used specifically for the purpose of administering the programs for which they are assessed Any other use of these funds, he believes, would be a misappropriation of the fees.(Attachment 1)
Mandy Roe testified in support of the bill. She believes that fee dollars generated for specific programs should be spent on meeting those programs needs and not for other activities. The Kansas Right to Know fee fund, established in the bill, would preserve the integrity of their fee dollars.(Attachment 2 )
Kimberly Steves testified in support of the bill. She believes that the Right to Know program is important because it impacts every resident in the state. It has the potential to save lives each time there is an incident or accident at a facility. With a dedicated fee fund proposed by this bill, funds will be available to add an additional staff person and expand their role in outreach and education to both the facilities reporting hazardous chemicals and the the end-users of the data.(Attachment 3)
Thomas Palace presented neutral testimony on the bill. He explained that the Community-Right-to Know provisions help increase the public's knowledge and access to information on chemicals at individual facilities, their uses, and releases into the environment. He was surprised to learn that fees collected from this program went into the General Fund and that of the approximately $300,000 collected, only $86,000 was received by the agency.(Attachment 4)
After some discussion between committee members and conferees, Chairperson Kerschen closed the hearing on HB2577.
