TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 5A
Critics want broadband regulations
The Associated Press
TOPEKA - A bill exempting broadband from state regulation threatens competition among providers of both high-speed Internet and local telephone service, critics said yesterday.
SBC Communications Inc., principal backer of the bill now before the House Utilities Committee, contends that deregulation would encourage investment in Kansas. But SBC's competitors and some state officials say it could eventually could give SBC a monopoly over digital subscriber lines, or DSL.
SBC is the state's only provider of DSL service, through a network it has built. High-speed Internet service — known generally as broadband — can also be delivered through cable, satellite and wireless systems.
The House committee heard from proponents of the measure last week and began taking testimony Monday from opponents, including the Kansas Corporation Commission.
"This is the not-so-subtle Trojan horse that allows SBC to get out from under KCC oversight," John Ivanuska, a Birch Telecom vice president, said after the hearing.
The bill would prevent the KCC from setting rates that SBC can charge other providers for access to its network. It would also prevent SBC from imposing more stringent access requirements than those mandated by the Federal Communications Commission.
SBC argues its broadband service should not face such regulation because the state does not regulate cable, satellite or wireless service.
Birch Telecom and other competitors contend the bill would leave customers with fewer choices, driving up prices.
Severe drought hits northern Kansas
The Associated Press
WICHITA — Severe drought continues to grip northwest Kansas, making it the hardest-hit area in the state, a newly released drought report shows.
While southwest Kansas was the first part of the state to come into the drought, northwest Kansas — part of the Upper Republican River basin — has had more severe conditions through last year, said Tom Lowe, an environmental scientist with the
Kansas Water Office.
The Kansas Water Office's latest report provides a midwinter update on conditions for the state. It also lists the extreme northeast corner of Kansas, located in the Missouri River Basin, as the only other area of the state remaining in a severe drought.
The report also noted the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center, in its latest seasonal drought outlook for the period that runs through
April, indicated improvement in drought conditions for the state.
But Lowe pointed out that was just a generalization that the El Niño weather phenomena typically brings more rain to the Kansas than normal. That has not happened yet this winter, he said.
"It is too early to raise a huge red flag—winter is our dry season and we are having a dry winter," he said. "Where I would start being concerned is if we move into spring and this doesn't start turning around."
Kansas officials: Bush plan would hurt state's budget
The Associated Press
TOPEKA—President Bush's economic stimulus plan would make Kansas' budget crisis worse, according to state officials and a report by a Washington, D.C., policy foundation.
Because the state's tax collection system is built on the federal tax code, Bush's proposal to eliminate taxes on stock dividends would cost Kansas an estimated $51 million, according to a memo to the Senate Assessment and Taxation Committee from Richard Cram, director of policy and research for the Department of Revenue.
Other features of the president's plan would cost Kansas an estimated $2 million, bringing the total loss in revenue to $53 million.
"In the kind of situation we're in, I don't think we can afford to give up $50 million." House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, told The Topeka Capital-Journal.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan
research foundation in Washington, has calculated that the Bush plan would cost states $4 billion during the next fiscal year.
Kansas already faces a projected shortfall is $750 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius proposed spending $313 million that otherwise would be set aside as emergency funds, divert $165 million in highway funds and local governments would lose $86 million in state aid to cover the shortfall.
While spending on public schools and higher education wouldn't be cut, other budgets would be reduced.
If state revenues, which to date are $22 million below estimates, continue to come in short of projections and the Bush stimulus plan is approved, Kansas would be facing a projected deficit, even if Sebelius' proposals were enacted.
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Steve Morris said of the president's
plan: "My first thought when I read about the plan was how it was going to hammer us."
Though the Bush stimulus plan faces opposition in Congress, state officials are considering legislation partially decoupling Kansas from the federal tax code if Congress approves the plan.
However, Senate President Dave Kerr, R-Hutchinson, said he is concerned that decoupling would create additional paperwork for the Revenue Department and for taxpayers.
"That's the last thing we want to do," he said. "Decoupling seems like kind of an extreme response."
In acknowledging that decoupling the state would result in additional "administrative hassles," Revenue Secretary Joan Wagnon said, "How we should respond is not at all clear yet."
Though it may be too soon to decide whether to decouple from the proposed federal tax changes. Mays said it isn't too early to start collecting information