By Scott Elpers

With an ambitious agenda set by Gov. Sam Brownback, area legislators expect at busy session when they return to Topeka on Jan. 9.

Among the major issues facing legislators this session will be redistricting. Once every 10 years, the state must redesign the legislative districts to adjust to the population report from the previous census. The last census was taken in 2010.

Sen. Dick Kelsey (R-Goddard) expects to lose 12,000 people to realignment in District 26, which includes Garden Plain, Goddard and Cheney.

“A lot of time will be spent talking about it because everybody wants to protect their own district and keep their favorable voters,” Kelsey said. “Most of the districts in the state are short. They don’t have enough people, so they have to readjust the lines in such a way that people like me that have too many give them to the people that don’t have enough.”

“The problem is that the people who don’t have enough are way out west or way in the southeast,” he added. “They’re not close enough to this area to benefit.”

Rep. Dan Kerschen (R-Garden Plain) expects District 93, which also includes Garden Plain, Goddard and Cheney, to be affected by redistricting.

“In Sedgwick County all of our numbers are high, so we could downsize,” Kerschen said. “Sedgwick County representation will probably gain because of the population numbers here. There will be some new lines drawn but I don’t think it’s going to be very radical.”

Rep. Pete DeGraaf (R-Mulvane), who’s 81st District includes Clearwater, doesn’t expect realigning the districts to affect his area much.

“I do not think it will have an impact on the 81st District,” he said. “It will shift some of the boundaries more than likely between Haysville and Derby.” He also expects a change in boundaries near McConnell AFB and a precinct pulled out of Sedgwick County and divided up in different directions.

“We are likely to see some redrawing of the lines. I’m not convinced that the 81st is going to change much,” he added.

All three legislators expect to tackle other popular issues like taxes, school finance and funding for KPERS.

“I’m sure revamping the tax plans or at least looking at it is going to be a major issue for us,” DeGraaf said. “(Gov. Sam Brownback) also challenged us to come up with a number of solutions to school funding issues. We still have major economic issues and job issues we need to deal with as a state.”

“We have to fix KPERS. It’s basically underfunded.” Kelsey added. “I’m right in the thick of a lot of these issues.” Kelsey also serves in the redistricting committee, tax committee and a separate special tax committee outside of the legislature.

Kerschen said the KPERS Commission has meet throughout the summer and fall to come up with a recommendation for funding, but legislators will have to look at the fine print before voting. The same will go for the school finance plan and the tax plan what will likely be proposed by Gov. Brownback at the State of the State Address on Jan. 11.

“The governor’s new tax plan and school finance reform are the two biggest hurdles,” Kerschen said. “The problem with the school finance and the tax plan is that we don’t know all the details yet. We have preliminary numbers but we don’t know how everything is going to fall into place.”

With a busy session full of difficult decisions ahead of legislators, Kerschen expects this session to be a challenge.

“Even with all of the budget cuts we had to do last time, the aggressive schedule to try and change all of this in the next 90 days will be difficult,” he said. “It needs to be done but it needs to be done right. That’s the most important part. I’m not going to vote for anything that’s not good for the whole state.”